Men’s Olympic Trials Marathon Preview: So Many Fast Runners, So Few Olympic Berths
As in most every race, the Olympic Trials Marathon in New York City on November 3 will have a short list of favorites to win, or finish among the top three, the required result to earn a spot on the Olympic Team.

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By Don Allison
Posted Saturday, 6 October, 2007

For a variety of reasons, this year there are more runners than ever who feel they have reason to be included on that list. Whether it is a strong marathon background, recovery from injury, sizzling track speed, or impetuous youth, many feel they have a legitimate chance to earn the right to represent the U.S. in the Olympic Marathon in Beijing next year. Thus, sizing up the field for the 2008 men’s Olympic Trials is a difficult task. Nonetheless, in this article we will take a shot at it.

Past marathon results are not always a foolproof indicator of future success, but provide a good starting point. That being the case, the two guys that have broken 2:09 in the past year would have to rank among the leading contenders. Abdi Abdirahman produced a 2:08:56 at last year’s Chicago Marathon, and this past April young Ryan Hall turned in a stunning 2:08:24, in London—in his marathon debut, no less. Add to that list Meb Keflezighi, whose personal best of 2:09:53 is not far behind that pair. Perhaps even more important, Keflezighi owns an Olympic medal, having captured the silver in Athens in 2004. Certainly no one else in the field can make that claim, and the confidence engendered by winning an Olympic medal cannot be measured in clock times.

Abdirahman is a two-time Olympian in the 10-km, so speed and experience are on his side. In addition, he ran a superb half marathon in May in New York City (on some of the same roads on which the trials marathon will be run), clocking 1:01 and finishing second behind the legendary Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie. Hall is short on marathon experience but long on talent and potential. The former Stanford star shocked the running world at the Houston Half Marathon in January with a sizzling American Record of 59:43 and followed that up with his spectacular marathon debut in London. Those results earned him instant respect and moved him to the head of the U.S. marathon class. By most accounts, this trio would have to rank as those most likely to make the Olympic team, if all goes according to form.

Of course, races such as the Olympic Trials do not always go according to form. If any of the three favorites falter or are not in peak form for the marathon trials on November 3, a number of other runners will be ready to stake a claim to one of the three coveted Olympic berths. Leading that group would have to be Brian Sell, the top runner on the Michigan-based Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team. Sell led the 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon for several miles before fading late in the race to finish 13th. Many labeled Sell, then an unknown name in the elite marathon community, as just another marathoner who started too quickly and inevitably faded. Since that race however, Sell has more than established his credentials as a bona fide contender, with a fourth place finish in Boston in 2006 and sixth in Chicago later in the year, clocking 2:10:55 and 2:10:47, respectively. Sell may not have the raw speed of Abdirahman, Keflezighi, or Hall, but his marathon smarts, toughness and consistency may more than make up for it, especially on the challenging Central Park course, described by most as a strength runner’s route.

Let’s not forget about the two men, along with Keflezighi, who can bank on a successful Olympic Trials Marathon experience. Alan Culpepper and Dan Browne survived the crucible of the Olympic Trials Marathon in 2004, very much a checkmark on the positive side of the ledger. A look back at trials history shows that those that have made the Olympic team previously rate an excellent chance to do so again. The knock against these two is that they might be “past their primes,” but both have been in good form recently. Culpepper won the highly competitive U.S. cross country championships earlier this year and Browne has bounced back from injury to post some excellent road race times in recent weeks, including a victory in the New Haven 20 Km in early September.

Winning races is all about running fast, right? The marathon requires large amounts of endurance and perseverance, but raw speed is also a nice talent to possess in a highly competitive race such as the Olympic Trials. There are more than a few contenders who boast serious speed, and Dathan Ritzenhein is one of those runners. The former Colorado Buffalo has run 27:35 for 10 km on the track and 1:01:23 for the half marathon. He was unable to translate that speed into success in his first marathon in New York in 2006 (he finished 11th in 2:14:01), but he very well could do so in his second effort in the Big Apple.

A runner can qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon without actually running a marathon, but rather by running a fast 5-km (13:40) or 10-km (28:40). One who has done that is the iconoclastic Anthony Famiglietti. A 2004 Olympian (in the 3,000-meter steeplechase), “Fam” as he is known to his fans, captured the U.S. 8 Km Championship, held earlier this year in Central Park. Hey, if you can beat ‘em for one lap in the Park, who is to say you can’t do it for five? Living and training in New York City, Famiglietti knows the Central Park route as well or better than anyone in the field. With personal bests of 3:55 in the mile and 27:37 at 10 km, his track credentials are impeccable. He has never run a marathon, and as of this writing, he had not committed to running in the trials marathon, but if he does, he will have to be reckoned with.

Perhaps the ultimate wild card in the trials will be Khalid Khannouchi. His claim to fame? Oh, nothing big, just a personal best of 2:05:42, at the time a World Record in the marathon (since lowered to 2:04:55 By Kenya’s Paul Tergat). Yes, that record was set several years and several injuries ago, but anyone who dismisses Khannouchi does so at considerable risk. His 2:07:06 at the 2006 London Marathon leads the list of qualifying times. If he can come anywhere near that time in New York, he will waltz onto the Olympic team.

So far we have not found a category for Peter Gilmore, perhaps the most overlooked contender in the field. In recent years at Boston and New York, the big names in American distance running are trotted out as favorites, many touted as the next big thing, and more often than not, when the dust has settled there is Peter Gilmore among the top finishers, more than once listed as the top American. True, his personal best of 2:12:45 is not going to scare anyone, but don’t be surprised if Gilmore is right there late in the race, mixing it up with those “faster” runners and challenging for a spot on the Olympic team. If you are a fan of the yeoman, hard-working, non-glamorous marathoner, Gilmore provides a good rooting interest.

In addition to those we have mentioned, there will be roughly 150 other runners in the race, many harboring hopes and dreams that just maybe, if fortune shines upon them, they will pull the upset of upsets and claim a spot on the Olympic team. Others, those that had to run a lifetime best just to achieve the qualifying standard of better than 2:22, will take their places on the starting line, proud to be counted among the truly elite marathoners in the U.S.

So, which three from this outstanding group will lay claim to the coveted Olympic berths? It is impossible to say for sure, of course, given the fragile nature of the event and the depth of the field. In 1976, Kenny Moore was looking forward to making his third Olympic Marathon team, especially as the trials were to be held in Eugene, where he lived and trained for so many years at the University of Oregon. But Moore was so weakened by a virus he contracted a week before the race that he barely had the strength to ceremonially fire the starting gun before retreating to bed. Such is the nature of the one-day, win-or-go-home Olympic selection process. Fraught with danger and full of excitement, the marathon trials is a race like no other.

Related info:
Olympic Trials Course Preview

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