Hansons-Brooks trio takes on Freihofer's Run for Women

ALBANY — Anne-Marie Blaney, Jessie Cardin and Olivia Pratt, teammates competing for the first time Saturday in the 45th Freihofer’s Run for Women, had an interesting practice run along the 5-kilometer course on Friday.

The trio from the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project, a running team based in Rochester Hills, Mich., heard their share of comments.

“We just had somebody call us 'Charlie’s Angels,' somebody tried to sell us Tasers, then we were just like 'super hot,'” Blaney, from Ocala, Fla., recalled. “We were running on the trails, laughing about it, whatever. We did the course tour. We ran along the sidewalk, like along the course. Everybody was like super chatty.”

It should be a more serious atmosphere at 9 a.m. Saturday, when Blaney, Cardin and Pratt start their first race since participating together April 17 in the Boston Marathon. 

Blaney, a Central Florida graduate who set a personal best of 2 hours, 31 minutes and 32 seconds at Boston, had a much more pleasant experience in that race than Pratt, who fought her way through late struggles to finish in 2:38:41, and Cardin, who passed out at about the 23rd mile and was taken to the hospital.

They return to take on the much shorter Freifhofer’s Run for Women.

“I’m excited to race,” Pratt, 29, a Madison, Wis., native who ran at Butler, said. “For all three of us, the last race we did was the Boston Marathon, so we’re really coming down in distance. It’s definitely going to be painful in a different way than what we got used to training for the marathon. I’ve never been to Albany before, but from what I’ve seen so far, it seems like a great place to have a race. We had a great time on our run earlier today, though it was pretty hot. It’s exciting to do a race for women.”

While Blaney, 29, and Pratt have...