When it started to hurt for UNC graduate Shalane Flanagan on Friday in the women's 10,000 meters at the Bird's Nest -- when she needed something extra to push her toward the bronze medal she eventually won -- she started thinking about some of her favorite running trails in North Carolina.

There's the American Tobacco Trail that winds its way through several counties in the Triangle. There's the trail in Chapel Hill that threads through the neighborhoods near Gimghoul Castle.

The Bird's Nest in Beijing faded away.

"I went to my happy place," Flanagan said. "When I started to hurt, I pretended it wasn't this huge stage with all these people watching. I visualized some of my training in North Carolina -- running among the trees. It helped."

When she emerged from that happy place, Flanagan had an American flag draped over her tiny body, a personal-best time and a surprising bronze medal.

Her closing kick came well behind the two leaders, but it was still awesome to watch. By the count of Flanagan's personal coach, she passed five runners in the final 1,600 meters. She was a 5-foot-5, 104-pound blond dynamo revving through the field in the last four laps.

The race was confusing to watch, and even to run, because the field got so spread out.

Like a NASCAR race, the best runners were lapping others left and right at the end. Unlike a NASCAR race, it wasn't easy to tell who was in front.

When she finished the race, Flanagan herself wasn't sure whether she was in third or fourth place. She held up three quizzical fingers and looked around before receiving confirmation.

"I had no idea what place was what," Flanagan said. "I thought maybe I was third but didn't want to celebrate too soon, because I also thought maybe I was fourth."

Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba kicked her way past Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse on the last of the race's 25 laps around the track to win the gold medal in 29:54.66. Abeylegesse won silver.

Both those runners were more than 20 seconds ahead of Flanagan and the rest of the 32-woman field. Flanagan broke her own American record with a time of 30:22.22.

Flanagan was able to compete after fighting off serious stomach problems from earlier in the week that had her and her coach worried that she wouldn't be able to participate. "I actually thought about not letting her run," said her coach, John Cook. "But I think she would have killed me."

After about six hours of intense gastrointestinal distress 72 hours before the race, Flanagan got a little better. And then a little more. In the meantime, she rested -- something that the former NCAA champion is not usually prone to do, according to her husband Steve Edwards.

Edwards, a former middle-distance runner at UNC, said the rest may have helped Flanagan more than the sickness harmed her.

"So good for her for eating the poisonous food, I guess," Edwards laughed. "It all worked out in the end."

Flanagan became only the second American woman to medal in this event at the Games. Lynn Jennings also won bronze in 1992.

Flanagan, 27, said she still tentatively plans to compete in the 5K in these Olympics as well, although she is considered a longer shot in that race for a medal because of the field's extreme depth. The heats for that event begin Tuesday.

Expect Flanagan to visualize North Carolina again.

Flanagan and Edwards currently live in Pittsboro. "We'd like to live in that neighborhood near Gimghoul Castle where we run, though," Edwards said. "Maybe we just got one step closer today."

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