There's only one sight Paige Higgins yearns to see when she travels abroad for the first time next month.

The finish line.

"With no one in front of me," she confidently adds through a sparkling smile.

Higgins, a member of the Flagstaff-based McMillanElite running team, will represent the United States in the World Marathon Championships Aug. 23 in Berlin, Germany.

It's a quantum leap for a former high school art teacher who once viewed snowplows as her primary competition. Higgins, 27, traded lesson plans for race plans a year ago, moving from Denver to Flagstaff to pursue a blossoming Olympic dream.

The payoff has been nothing short of staggering.

"The World Championships is the stepping stone to the Olympics," said Greg McMillan, Higgins' coach. "For Paige, this is a very big first step toward realizing that Olympic dream."

If Higgins' performances since she moved to Flagstaff are any indication, her Olympic dream could very well become a reality.

Since the move, Higgins finished 10th at the United States Track and Field 20k Championships. She finished eighth overall and was the third American to cross the finish line at the 2008 Chicago Marathon in 2:33:06, and this year, she took 13th at the USATF Half-Marathon Championships in Houston.

Before her move to Flagstaff, Higgins' dream of reaching the Olympics resembled more of a sleepwalk.

The former University of Kansas standout juggled her running schedule around a full-time teaching job at Mullen High School in Denver. She would train before dawn, report to the classroom, nap on her lunch break and run again after school.

"Come wintertime, I'd have to get up at 3 a.m. to beat the plows out," she quipped. "It's a good hard-worker story but it was just terrible. It was really the demise of every single spring season I've had."

It didn't take long for Higgins' body to rebel against the arduous routine. She tore a hamstring in the 2006 Chicago Marathon and also suffered from several bouts of anemia. When sickness cost her a spot in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, Higgins realized it was time to make a dramatic change.

She discovered McMillanElite on the Internet and took a recruiting trip to Flagstaff. Higgins said she decided to relocate to northern Arizona on the shuttle back to the airport.

"I just knew there was so much in me if I was just given the opportunity," she said. "You have a finite amount of time where you body can give 100 percent and reach its maximum potential. And to give it anything less than 100 percent, I can't do it."

Higgins has had ample opportunities to maximize her training — and inspiration — since moving to Flagstaff. She deems her new home "the most welcoming community I've ever been a part of."

The area's aesthetic beauty is something Higgins' creative mind cherishes. Although she doesn't consider herself a landscape artist, Higgins admitted she draws inspiration from Flagstaff's serene setting.

"When I'm out running, I'm just enjoying Flagstaff," she said. "It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life.

"I really enjoy Waterline (in the San Francisco Peaks)," she added. "Once you hit about 9 or 10 miles, you get into an aspen forest. It's purest blues and greens you've ever seen. You forget that you're ascending … (the scenery) just takes your breath away."

Higgins' recent selection to the U.S. contingent has allowed her to discover another favorite route south of town. McMillan mapped out a course along Lake Mary Road as a primer for next month's World Championships. Higgins ran the route and later returned for further exploration in her car.

"I was on the bike taking pictures of her," McMillan said. "She saw them later and said 'Gosh, I've got to go drive that because it's really beautiful.'"

Higgins insists she won't allow herself to be mesmerized by one of the world's most stoic cities. She's scheduled to arrive in Berlin three weeks before her event, and she has no room for sightseeing while focusing on the biggest race of her life.

"I'm saving my star-struck eyes for after the race," Higgins said. "When I get there, the blinders are on for sure."

And, if all goes as planned, she'll be sporting the Stars and Stripes again on an even bigger stage in 2012.

"We've got a few years," she said. "And I need a few years to compete with the best and expect to be on that team, because it's no easy task. It's far enough away to be inspired but not be too anxious about it. I'm not losing sleep over it."

Apparently, the only influences powerful enough to provoke that hardship are the snowplows of Denver.

Rory Faust can be reached at 556-2257 or rfaust@azdailysun.com