Forums >Racing>Olympic Marathon Trials
Looking forward to seeing what Walmsley does as well.
Luckily, I live within 3 hours of the trials and plan on going to watch!
We have two women from Knoxville, TN that made the trials, one in my training group, the other I paced our local marathon with.
Gina Rouse - 40 y/o (I think), mother of 3 girls who are stoked for their mom. She's awesome, works her butt off, and it will be a blast watching her run the trials. I think her PR is 2:38ish at Chicago this year. She's had a solid training cycle and been able to do a few runs on the course in ATL. Hoping for a great day for her!
Katie Taylor - 29 y/o, also a mother of a little girl. She's quickly gone from a 2:57ish PR to 2:43 at Chicago. I think she still has a lot of room before she hits her ceiling. It'll be interesting to see what she can do!
Should have a decent crowd cheering for these two as you can make it to/from ATL in a day trip from Knoxville.
One college buddy is running, but I haven't talked with him since college, which was a 10+ years ago.
Tyler Underwood - he lives in CA now and qualified with a 2:18x at CIM. His first marathon was 4+ hours, so I'd say he's made some progress. Honestly, I'm not even sure if he is healthy or racing, but he qualified.
Road Mile: 5:19 (2017), 5k: 17:09 (2021), 10k: 35:54 (2021), HM: 1:21:55 (2020), M: 2:53:18 (2021)
Are we there, yet?
EDIT: JMac I mean....they could do what gymnastics and figure skating does and just pick their favorites who they think will do the best. Cut out the trials all together and save everyone the time, money and effort of putting the race on. It isn't as if there has ever been a marathon trial go different than what was expected, right? Just pick the fast runners we expect to win, mail them to the tallest mountain with a track and 14 mile long stretch of road, and call it good.
EDIT:
JMac I mean....they could do what gymnastics and figure skating does and just pick their favorites who they think will do the best. Cut out the trials all together and save everyone the time, money and effort of putting the race on. It isn't as if there has ever been a marathon trial go different than what was expected, right? Just pick the fast runners we expect to win, mail them to the tallest mountain with a track and 14 mile long stretch of road, and call it good.
On that issue, this article I found on the RRCA site might be of interest.
The First Olympic Trials Marathon
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
3 months til Masters
Name them so we can all cheer them on!
I have two teammates running in the women's race so I'm heading down with 10-12 teammates to yell loud and frequently. Should be really fun to see both races unfold.
2023 Goals
Marathon Sub 2:37 (CIM) 2:41:18
10k Sub 35:00 (Victory 10k 34:19)
5k Sub 16:00 (Hot Dash 5k in March (16:48), Brian Kraft in May (16:20), Twilight 5000 in July and August (16:20/16:25 Both heat index 102-103F)
Sub 1:16 Half Marathon City of Lakes Half Marathon 1:15:47)
Sub 56:30 in 10 mile (Twin Cities 10 mile, Canceled due to weather, 56:35 as a workout)
2024 Goals
Sub 2:37 Marathon
Sub 1:15 Half
Sub 34 10k
Sub 16 5k
Stotan Disciple
That was on a different run, but yeah, I'd say it's finally out of reach. He took it from Hudson and it finishes *at Hudson's house* which has to sting. He has to look at it every day.
Haha love that one of our own has a 4th place rank on the segment. Repping for us mere mortals.
My predictions
Emily Sissons
Molly Huddle + 1.5 mins
Roberta Groaner +2 mins
Emma Bates +2 mins
Sarah Hall+ 2 mins
Des linden +3 mins (DNF)
Stephanie Bruce +3 mins
Kellyn Taylor +4 mins Sally Kipyego +4 mins
Jordan Hasay +4 mins Tuliamuk +4 mins Laura Thweatt +5 mins
AMY Cragg (DNF)
GR\JD Dead Last for tie (some people are there for the feels 90%) and that's OK its the journey that matters.
They're much more precious feelings than winning it's the training and process that's valuable.
The self discipline it took to qualify, all those exhaustive efforts while holding down a job, a career, children, family.
Everyone wins just from the spiritual and personal growth that resulted from the journey.
Thinking should be done first, before training begins.
Bold.
Mother of Cats
I've got a good feeling about Stephanie Bruce in 2 weeks. I may be totally wrong, but just noting it here for the record.
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
Haha love that one of our own has a 4th place rank on the segment. Repping for us mere mortals. My predictions Emily Sissons Molly Huddle
Molly Huddle
He (Dan Kelley) used to live right in that neighborhood, but he's since moved to Newton (I think). He and #7 and #9 are the are the only ones of the top 12 I don't know personally.
I like these two predictions.
Runners run
Amanda Macuiba and Kate DeProsperis 😀
For many years, the US equestrian showjumping team was picked subjectively. One guy managed it, he picked who he liked, and then we went to the Olympics and did very well.
Then there were lawsuits in the 90s, from those who had been unfairly omitted from the team, in their opinion.
We swapped to a completely objective format, with a selection trials. And we started sucking at the Olympics.
So now, we do a combination format - it's objective criteria to get added to a list of those under consideration, and then the final members of the team are picked subjectively by a guy (albeit a different gut from who was doing the selection before). It seems to be working well.
****
There's also the UK way of selecting the marathon team, which was just to look at the top marathon performances from a set timespan, and pick those. It had the unintended consequence of putting a lot of strain on marathoners by making them race too frequently in order to ensure they had the best time.
The USA Olympic trials team selection process has been under fire for years.
Having a single race or meet and requiring top 3 placement to go is a little brutal. What if the current world leader makes a false start in a prelim? How about the fastest person at a distance getting food poisoning the day before the finals? There are many circumstances that can eliminate the actual best competitors from advancing to the Olympics.
And then you have the conundrum of having to peak at both the trials and the Olympics.
I think a selection process based on the season's performances, including the trials, would be a better method. But that can be problematic, too. Suppose someone has a 20 second PR in the 5k and is in the top 3 at the Trials, but a person who has run the fastest times all season gets 7th. Do you negate the person with the big PR and bump them down in favor of the consistently faster person?
No good answer here.
60-64 age group - University of Oregon alumni - Irreverent and Annoying
The USA Olympic trials team selection process has been under fire for years. Having a single race or meet and requiring top 3 placement to go is a little brutal. What if the current world leader makes a false start in a prelim? How about the fastest person at a distance getting food poisoning the day before the finals? There are many circumstances that can eliminate the actual best competitors from advancing to the Olympics. And then you have the conundrum of having to peak at both the trials and the Olympics. I think a selection process based on the season's performances, including the trials, would be a better method. But that can be problematic, too. Suppose someone has a 20 second PR in the 5k and is in the top 3 at the Trials, but a person who has run the fastest times all season gets 7th. Do you negate the person with the big PR and bump them down in favor of the consistently faster person? No good answer here.
What if the world leader false starts at the Olympics? You gotta show you can perform on the day.
It's the Olympics, this is to determine the best competitor in the world, it's supposed to be hard.
Know thyself.
I suspect the current system is partially driven by marketing. There's more drama in a one or done race, then add in the occasional situation where a top 3 finisher also needs an Olympic qualifying time.
Mmmm Bop
What if the world leader false starts at the Olympics? You gotta show you can perform on the day. It's the Olympics, this is to determine the best competitor in the world, it's supposed to be hard.
People false start at the marathon? Wow.
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
Can't remember which marathon it was, but yes, it has happened. There was no attempt to recall the field and restart the race, nor was there any DQ.
I was talking more about the track races for false starts. But anyone who's competed in a multiday meet knows that you don't risk anything in the prelims and semis, just do enough to advance. The finals in the sprints can see some false starts by the best runners. I like the old rule where the first one is assigned to "the field" and any subsequent false start is a DQ for an individual.
But my point is that the "do or die" elimination method of the US Olympic trials could use a little restructuring to take account of fluke results. I suppose the need for a Oly qualifying mark takes care of some of those fluke results.