Happy Runners Qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials - runnersworld.com
Ryan Young
Runners hoping to make it to the Olympic Marathon Trials have a time they have to hit: faster than 2:19 for men and 2:45 for women. And the Cal International Marathon (CIM) has always been a good place to do so. The net-downhill, point-to-point course to the state capitol in Sacramento produces legions of fast times each year.
On December 8, hundreds of men and women lined up to try again. And while it was a good day for winners Jane Kibbii for the woman and Elisha Barno for the men, dozens of others had the race of their lives: Race officials say 27 men and 63 women qualified for the Trials for the first time, although results are still unofficial as of December 9. The finish line camera captured the emotion of the moments, especially for the women. Forward to the 12-minute mark of the embedded video and see for yourself:
The 2020 Trials will be on February 29, 2020, in Atlanta. The field will be huge: Before yesterday’s marathon, 220 men and 424 women had already qualified. After yesterday, it just got bigger—by 90 runners. For those happy folks who made it? They get the joy of running another marathon, in just 12 weeks.
Here are some of the faces of newly appointed Olympic Marathon Trial qualifiers, as captured after the Cal International Marathon on Sunday.
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Patrick Smyth — 2:13:48
Age: 33
Current hometown: Sante Fe, New Mexico
Smyth took third overall, clocking an average pace of 5:06 per mile. This was his personal best.
Andy Williams — 2:17:49
Age: 32
Current hometown: Middlebury, Indiana
Williams’s previous PR was 2:22:54 at the Chicago Marathon. “I’m a middle school physical education teacher, so I can’t wait to go back and tell my students about this experience. Hopefully it will be an inspiration to them and all of their hard work.”
Kati Snyder — 2:42:37
Age: 36
Current hometown: Chicago
“I ran my personal best, but I had a really horrible training cycle. Really under-trained. I’ve been working for this for years, so I guess that’s how it paid off."
Kristin Johansen — 2:42:38
Age: 33
Current hometown: Santa Fe, New Mexico
“I had to balance work and running. I’m a water engineer, and I would run to the construction site and run around our water treatment plant, and lots of long runs in the high desert so it made me strong.”
Peyton Thomas — 2:42:57
Age: 24
Current hometown: Wilmington, North Carolina
“This was my first marathon. I didn’t do much more than my half marathon training—a few more hills and longer runs. I was trying to prepare mentally, mostly.”
Kayla Lampe — 2:41:55
Age: 26
Current hometown: Philadelphia
“My last marathon was in L.A. I ran 2:45:19, so I knew I wanted to try to get the OTQ because I was so close.”
Rachel Mitchell — 2:44:20
Age: 28
Current hometown: Flagstaff, Arizona
“I was injured in the summer, and my coach suggested we shoot for CIM because I needed the qualifier. I had two months of training in Flagstaff while I was in grad school, and I got it.”
Duriel Hardy — 2:18:21
Age: 31
Current hometown: Philadelphia
“I started my training in June. I had a stress fracture in the spring so I was coming back from that. I started aqua jogging and progressed to running on the ground for the last five months or so."
Jeannette Mathieu — 2:44:43
Age: 29
Current hometown: San Francisco
“I ran a lot of long tempos, about 15-20 seconds faster than marathon pace. And I did a long run each week, and got my mileage up, about 60-70 miles a week for a few months.”
Swarnjit Boyal — 2:17:47
Age: 24
Current hometown: San Luis Obispo, California
“I was mostly just going by my coach’s plan of waking up early and getting those miles in, being consistent, making sacrifices and getting rest.”
Anne Marie Everhart — 2:44:07
Age: 36
Current hometown: Philadelphia
“About three months of hard training with three workouts a week. Long runs—about 5 20-plus mile long runs, tempos up to 10 miles at my goal marathon pace (6:15-6:17 min/mi), one track workout per week.”
JJ Santana — 2:17:27
Age: 32
Current hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
This was Santana’s debut marathon. “I run a lot of halfs, so I’m grateful to make it to Atlanta. I picked up a coach within the last five months and it’s done wonders. Big leaps of progress. I’m just blown away, so happy.”
Christine Ramsey — 2:41:11
Age: 37
Current hometown: Philadelphia
“I had been working with my coach and running groups. I stuck with a training program, and some 5:45 a.m. workouts all through the summer. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it’s easier when you have a group of people to do it with and keep each other motivated. This was a really fun process. I’ve been doing marathons for 15 years, but the lsat four to six months has been the most fun. I hdd a group we were all doing our long runs together.”
Stephanie Pezzullo — 2:28:12
Age: 37
Current hometown: Ocala, Florida
This was Pezzulo's 4th marathon, and she finished in the top 10 and had previously OTQ'd. "I had already qualified a few times this past few years but I wanted to come in today to get experience. I train alone, just me and my dog. I really wanted to see what I could do, and take some chances."
Sarah Lorge ButlerSarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005.
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