Olympic Trials

This morning the Olympic Trials for the U.S. Marathon team were held. There was a lot of drama throughout the race. And the heat (and early humidity) certainly played a huge factor for all the competitors.

For the vast majority of the men's race, Frank Panning was leading the effort, pushing the pace fast enough that, if it were kept, would guarantee the top two finishers would make the team. Around Mile 22 or 23, the other two who were right on his heels - Conner Mantz and Clayton Young (both training partners) - made their move. Gradually they pulled away from him and Panning faded. Around Mile 25, Panning was passed by Elkanah Kibet. As we were watching TV with Mantz and Young on the straightaway for the finish line, in the background we could see Kibet being passed by Leonard Korir (who had made a huge push from 5th place less than half a mile before). In the end, Young won (2:09:05), Mantz 2nd (2:09:06), and Korir 3rd with an Olympic-qualifying time of 2:09:57. Despite having an OQ, Korir will have to wait possibly as late as May to find out if he's secured a spot on the team.

In the women's race, once Fiona O'Keefe took the lead in the large pack of runners, she never slipped. It was an amazing outing, as it was her debut marathon, and she won it with an Olympic Trials record time of 2:22:10. Helluva trifecta for her on a single race. Coming in just behind her in 2nd place is the American Record holder, Emily Sisson, with 2:22:42. While it was looking like Betsy Saina would be coming in 3rd, she dropped out with a couple of miles left in surprising fashion -- she just slowed as she pulled off to the grassy median, and slowly laid down on the grass. There were a couple of other people who had been vying for 3rd. Ultimately it went to Dakotah Lindwurm with 2:25:31. Congrats to all three - they also made the Olympic team. Sara Hall was in the hunt for quite a while, but during the last couple of miles she gradually faded, finally finishing in 5th with 2:26:06, just behind Jessica McClain with 2:25:46.

It should be really interesting and exciting to see the two races in Paris. August is usually very hot in France, so the conditions may be comparable to today's in Orlando, possibly worse. Eliud Kipchoge is competing directly against Kelvin Kiptum, who just surpassed Kipchoge's record during the Chicago Marathon this past October. It'd break if they were able to push each other enough so that at least one of them actually broke the mythically impossible 2-hour barrier. But Paris has lots of elevation changes, and that certainly did in Kipchoge last year in Boston, so defending his two consecutive golds might not be in the cards. We'll see in August!

And between both those races, I get to run the course with 20,023 other people running the Marathon Pour Tous. This should be an exciting and exhausting couple of days!