Thweatt “on top of world” after her sixth-place finish

With her business in London having successfully concluded Sunday, Laura Thweatt will be spending the rest of this week taking in the sights of the British capital with her family while hoping she gets to return in August.

The former University of Colorado runner who lives in Superior, where she coaches the Monarch High School cross country team, was the top American in Sunday’s London Marathon, finishing sixth.

Her time of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 38 seconds was celebrated by the local running community because of how fast it was for a woman in only her second marathon. Thweatt also was the top American in her first marathon, finishing seventh in the 2015 New York City Marathon.

Thweatt, 28, now has a chance to be named to the U.S. team in the London world championships marathon this summer, and she seemingly has put herself squarely in the mix for the 2020 Olympics.

“I’m definitely on top of the world,” said Thweatt, who runs for the Boulder Track Club under coach Lee Troop. “I knew going into it that if everything came together and I really let myself go for it, I could run between 2:24 and 2:25. I knew that’s what I was capable of running, but it’s a marathon. That’s a lot of time for mistakes to be made or for something to happen, so you’re always a little hesitant going into the race.”

Thweatt’s accomplishment is even more remarkable given that she was hampered by what Troop calls a “major injury.” She has battled inflammation of bones in her pelvis for the past year, which flared up after a 15K race in Florida last month.

Troop said she went to London having put in 90 to 95 percent of the workload she would have carried if fully healthy.

Three American women rank ahead of Thweatt in the selection criteria for the world championships marathon, but if one of them declines, Thweatt will get to take their place. One potential runner to replace is Desiree Linden. Troop said Linden’s agent told him she intends to decline her spot.

Running at the world championships in August would be another step for Thweatt, who left CU feeling she hadn’t reached her potential and nearly quit the sport.

“The goal is 2020,” said Thweatt, a Durango native. “I’m just fortunate that I’ve had two very positive marathon experiences, because that’s not always going to be the case. I’m not going to sit here and go, ‘Oh, yeah, the marathon, I totally have it figured out.’ … But to have two under my belt that were successful is definitely encouraging moving forward.”