Colorado Springs resident and elite runner Tera Moody has pulled out of Saturday's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, according to a Runner's World report and the USA Track and Field website.

In August, Moody placed 17th and was the top American finisher in the marathon at the World Track and Field Championships in Daegu, Korea. But she injured her hamstring at the San Antonio Half Marathon on Nov. 13, and lost key weeks of training.

She finished fifth in the 2008 Marathon Trials and had improved her time to 2 hours, 30 minutes. She likely would have needed a big effort and an improved personal-best time to qualify for the Olympics, but it was an attainable goal.

Moody, 30, had focused on the 2012 trials for years and battled through some serious setbacks along the way. She had bunion surgery in February when doctors told her that she "may never run the same again."

List of Olympic Marathon Trials runners here

But she stormed back at the World Championships and felt good about her final push to the trials.

She spoke to PikesPeakSports.us in early September. At the time, the future was bright: "My main goal is to make the Olympic team and I feel pretty good about my chances," she said. "It's going to be extremely competitive this year. But I feel like I have a lot of room for improvement especially after coming off such a long break. If I can stay healthy and get some more miles on my legs between now and January I think that will put me in a good position."