Corte Madera's Lloyd Healthy For Dipsea This Time

Corte Madera’s 16-year-old Olivia Jace Lloyd considers herself a daredevil. Perhaps that explains her participation in the 100th edition of the Dipsea Race last June.

Running 7.5 miles was nothing new to Lloyd, a member of the Marin Academy cross country team. In fact, she’d run Marin’s most famous race four times previously, earning “Invitational” status along the way.

But last year was different. Lloyd had spent the better part of four months battling what belatedly became diagnosed as a serious case of bacterial pneumonia, and only days before the event had been medically cleared to participate even though, by her own admission, she was not nearly prepared to do so.

“It was a race I really loved doing. I didn’t want to miss it,” the Marin Academy junior recalled. “Come race day, I felt pretty good. I had my number and I wasn’t going to let this stop me from doing it.

“I had to. It was a personal challenge for me. I knew I was recovering, so I didn’t push myself as hard as I usually do.”

Lloyd, who has lived in Corte Madera for all but four years of her life and attended Henry C. Hall Middle School, learned something earlier than most: Running the Dipsea is contagious.

“You can’t just run the Dipsea once. You have to keep coming back,” she explained. “I love it. It’s not just a race. It’s kinda this whole culture. Everybody sticks with it.”

Alas, Lloyd was not invited back this year. Because she placed 537th last year, she did not receive the “Invitational” status afforded just the top 450 finishers.

So she, like many others, wrote a letter to the race organizers, explaining how much she loved the race and how her illness had set her back in 2010. Heck, she’d run a similar time at age 12, so it was clear she wasn’t herself that day.

And in the meantime, she had been the No. 2 runner on Marin Academy's State Meet participant in the fall, so clearly she belonged on the same trail as Marin's top runners.

Lo and behold, her dream came true: She got invited back as an “Invitational” runner.

Sunday, in the 101th Dipsea, Lloyd is out to prove they didn’t make a mistake.

“Previously I haven’t really run it training for any specific goal. It was just for the fun of it,” she said. “This year, I’ve been thinking more about it.

“I want to finish in the top 200. Realistically, I think I can do that. I’m hoping for the top 100, but my time would have to increase drastically. My fastest time is (1 hour, 15 minutes). If I can take five minutes off that, that would be great.”

That kind of time would stamp Lloyd, who hopes to be Marin Academy's No. 1 cross-country runner next fall following 's graduation, as an elite-level distance racer. But she believes her best sport is soccer.

Lloyd not only plays at Marin Academy, but also has earned a spot on the prestigious Marin FC U16 Blue team, and hopes to vault from there into a Division III college program in the fall of 2012.

Before high school, Lloyd’s primary sport was equestrian. She competed as a hunter/jumper for Chestnut Hill in Petaluma.

“It would be beautiful,” she said of the thought of riding a horse over the Dipsea trail.

But she’s since taken to competing on her own two feet. And when she’s not running a trail on or around Mt. Tamalpais, she often can be found before school on the treadmill at the Bay Club or following the Marin Memorial Day Race course through Kentfield and around College of Marin.

“When I was 11, I was getting fitted for new running shoes,” Lloyd recalled of her Dipsea roots. “(The salesman) said, ‘You look like you’d be a good runner; you should run the Dipsea.’

“I was surprised by it. I applied to the lottery and got in, but a bunch of people said I shouldn’t do it. It’s hard race. That just prompted me to do it. I’m a daredevil.”

And this week, she’s on top of her game. What a difference a year makes.