Shalane Flanagan has options, lots of them.
It's been two weeks since Flanagan became the first U.S. woman in 40 years to win the New York City Marathon, and Flanagan is beginning to think about what is next.
She could retire at 36 as one of the most accomplished distance runners in U.S. history, having made four Olympics teams, won an Olympic silver medal and 18 U.S. championships in addition to the NYC title.
She could start a family. Already co-author of a cookbook that landed on the New York Times Best Seller's list, with another cookbook on the way, she could turn to publishing.
Or Flanagan could continue training and competing with the Portland-based, Nike-sponsored Bowerman Track Club and take aim at the Boston Marathon, a race that she grew up following as a child in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
She even could make a run at a fifth Olympic team and another medal.
"It's important to me from here on out to spend time on the things that are really important to me, that give me a reason to get up in the morning," Flanagan says.
Running and training has filled that niche for most of her adult life.
And maybe she isn't quite ready to close the door on some unfinished business in, say, Boston.
She came across seventh in the 2014 Boston Marathon, a race Rita Jeptoo won. Jeptoo tested positive later that year for the banned drug EPO, and was stripped of the Boston title.
Flanagan was ninth in Boston in 2015, and missed the race this year because of lower back fracture.
"Boston has my heart," she says. "It would be really hard to pass that up. I'm still formulating those plans and weighing it with my family."
There is lots to weigh. Being a marathoner isn't just about the racing. Training for a major marathon is a lifestyle, and a necessarily self-centered one.
Training is punishing and time consuming, and at least some of it takes place at high elevation.
"The time away from home and family is getting harder," she says. "It's so important for me to weigh what races I'll run if I continue, with what is weighing on me to stop. There is the chance to start a family. I'm open to all sorts of families - foster care, adopting, or my own."
Flanagan and her husband, Steve Edwards, fostered two teenage girls during the last school year. She enjoyed the experience.
Whatever decision Flanagan makes is fine with Bowerman Track Club coach Jerry Schumacher.
"She could have a few more years of doing this," Schumacher says. "She is really at her best now, and that's exciting. Do I think she could run an American record? Absolutely. Could she win Boston? Absolutely? Could she continue to perform at a high level and make a fifth Olympic team? Absolutely.
"Does she want to? She has to think about where she is in life and decide. If she wants to continue, there are some exciting moments ahead. If she's done, what a great way to end it."
The victory in New York in 2 hours, 26 minutes, 53 seconds, and the way she bore down to close with the three-mile sprint that dusted three-time champion Mary Keitany and Mamitu Daska, was vintage Flanagan.
So was the expletive she emoted at the finish line.
Flanagan says winning that race meant more than any in her career.
"This had been so long in the making, and I'd been working at it so diligently," she says. "I feel I put more effort into this than any other achievement. I don't think I was born a marathoner No one is. It's definitely been a work in progress."
She didn't beat a lightweight field either.
"Mary Keitany is one of the best marathoner of the last decade," Flanagan says. "She was the alpha runner that day."
But not the winner.
Schumacher says he is proud not only of the victory, but the way Flanagan went about it. No shortcuts, just hard, disciplined training, guts and determination.
"She has had some other cracks at winning a major, and they didn't happen," he says. "But honestly, in fairness to her, the outcomes of some of the other ones aren't really legitimate."
For instance, there is the 2014 race in Boston. If Jeptoo hadn't been there, and hadn't broken the race open, who knows what would have happened? As it was, Flanagan finished less than three minutes out of second.
"If she is in it with three miles to go, I like her chances," Schumacher says. "She's a pit bull. That moment was stolen, not only from Shalane, but from the other athletes in the field."
It's beginning to look, though, like there are other moments and more races in Flanagan's future.
Perhaps, retirement can wait.
"My heart is leaning toward ticking one more thing off," she says. "Or, a few more things."
-- Ken Goe