ST. LOUIS, MO (4/3/04) -- A riverboat gambler wound up singing the St. Louis blues, while a "regular mom" prevailed at the U.S. Olympic Women's Marathon Team Trials on this spring-green and cloudless day.

Blame it on the sun -- or the wish to catch lightning in a jar -- for Blake Russell's decision to bolt to a minute-plus early lead. Russell, whose previous marathon-best was a 2:30:41, reached the halfway point in 1:11:58, far ahead of immense pre-race favorite Deena (Drossin) Kastor.

Crazy? Not necessarily. Russell, 28, of Acton, Mass., knew recent history.

In the 1996 Trials, 61st-seed Jenny Spangler won. In 2000 pathologist Chris Clark, who trained on a treadmill in her Alaska home, blazed to a 7:07 PR on a hot day to win by two minutes-plus. Clark was seeded just 22nd.

The Women's Trials, set this year in the Gateway City to celebrate the centennial of the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon, have a history of surprise champs coming out of the blue.

Or blues.

Russell's rush put Kastor -- whose U.S.-record 2:21:16 was the fastest Trials-qualifying time by seven minutes -- between a rock and a hard place. The 31-year-old Mammoth Lakes, Calif. resident, viewed as a shoo-in winner, had a stone get stuck in her shoe tread. She stopped twice, at around 12 miles, trying to pry it out, breaking fingernails both times.

"My plan, to cruise with the pack doing 5:30 miles, went out the window when Brooke started dropping five-minute miles," Kastor said.

With the rock gone, Kastor rolled. When she reeled in Russell at 17 miles, spectators' speculation turned toward who'd claim second and third, earning the final two berths in this summer's Games in Athens.

But Kastor's die wasn't quite that cast.

Colleen De Reuck, who describes herself as "just a regular mom," may be that. But the former South African cleans up doing more than housekeeping, if her earning spots in the last three Olympics are any clue.

De Reuck, 10 days shy of turning 40, had few illusions. "The only way anyone will beat Deena," she joked before the race, "is if a dog bites her." When Russell took off, then Kastor chased her, De Reuck hung back.

"They were going too fast for me," said the veteran. "My goal was to make the top three. I wanted to stay at a 5:40-mile pace."

The sun climbed, warming temperatures from near-freezing to almost 60 degrees. Dogwoods opened blossoms in Forest Park, where the pack spread out on a criterion course that let viewers move point to point, cheering leaders, mid-packers and even tail-enders often.

Who made this year's Trials? Of the 149 women who met the 2:48 qualifying standard, 138 (or 92.6 percent) had college degrees. The national average for same is 24 percent.

Twenty-three of those 149 listed "athlete" as their profession. Fifteen were teachers/professors, 10 parents, nine students, eight coaches. Also taking time from their careers were four attorneys, three research specialists, three scientists, two pathologists and two editors.

St. Louis's Gateway Arch is a symbol of more than where East meets West. It's a span of yearning: silver in its reach for frontiers, yet cold steel in its grounding.

The Trials would be portal to Athens for few of these high achievers. But it was more than dreams they were chasing. The name of the race sponsor, Michelob Ultra, was emblazoned on the press truck driving just ahead of the race leaders.

They were chasing a beer truck too.

Russell's early rush began catching up with her. Then De Reuck did. The surprise came when Kastor started struggling.

"I ran out of fuel around 22 miles. It was something nutritional," said Kastor.

No dog bit her; she should have taken more bites of food.

Regular-mom De Reuck, running her regular pace, passed Kastor near the crest of Forest Park's one steep hill, just past mile 24. "The way Colleen sprinted by me, I looked back to see who else might be coming," Kastor said.

Not Russell. The riverboat gambler, flowing so long like the Mississippi, stopped due to an aching hamstring, briefly.

Jen Rhines, 29, of Ardmore, Pa., seeded 30th with a marathon PR of 2:41:16, slipped by Russell and supplanted her as the 2004 darkhorse special.

After winning in a Trials-record 2:28:25, De Reuck put a pack of reporters on hold to cell-phone her daughter, Tasmin, 9.

"How did you do, Mom?"

"I won!" she cried.

"Plan A was to win. Plan B was to make the team," said Kastor, who held on for second in 2:29:38, the slowest of her four marathons. "I achieved Plan B."

"Deena had a bad day," De Reuck said. "She still IS our hope at Athens."

As for her? "I am thrilled and thankful to make this team," said De Reuck, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000. "America is my country now. This is a dream come true.

"Athens will be hilly, hot and humid," said the winner. "Other girls may be faster. But a marathon is a long way and you never know what will happen.

"I will run my race, like I did today, and we'll see."

Rhines, flowing rapidly, nabbed the final Olympic berth. Her 2:29:57 was a whopping 11:19 PR.

Russell settled for fourth in 2:30:32, that close to -- and far from -- a spot in Athens.

Magdalena Lewy Boulet, fifth in 2:30:50, didn't feel much better. Fed this quote by two-time-losing Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, "I'm too big to cry," Boulet replied, "I am not."

Achievers? Lori Stich Zimmerman -- a nouveau-Texan who was Michigan's top finisher in the '00 Trials -- ran a five-minutes better than her qualifying time to finish 15th in 2:38:44. The native of tiny Stanwood had a red-shirted rooting section including friends from Michigan (where she grew up), Wisconsin (where Stich graduated from Ripon College with five majors), Georgia (where she went to law school) and Texas (where she works as a lawyer now).

"She smiled the whole race," one observer said.

Also smiling afterward, albeit with some discomfort, were Michiganians Monica Hostetler (26th in 2:42:20) and Seana Larson (30th in a two-minute PR 2:44:02).

Michigan's Sarah Plaxton finished 96th, one spot higher than her seeding. Carly Graytock (upset stomach) and Anne Flynn (not recovered from a cold) ran past the midway point, then dropped out.