Running News Daily

Sarah Sellers focus is now to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics after Boston

Sarah Sellers who came out of nowhere to finish second at the Boston Marathon, is turning her attention to trying to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Sellers, an Ogden (Utah) High School and Weber State graduate, initially wanted to hit the 'A' standard Olympic qualifying time of 2 hours, 37 minutes earlier this month in Boston.

As soon as she saw the weather — wet, windy and miserable — she abandoned that goal, but still hit the 'B' standard with her time of 2:44:04 (the 'B' standard is 2:45:00).  

"I still don't feel like it's quite a reality yet, but I'm really excited because it's definitely very motivating to try really hard and to train smart, because there's a lot of really good marathoners in the U.S.," she said.

Sellers, a nurse anesthetist at Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, qualified for the Olympic trials, which will be held Feb. 29, 2020.

"I don't know what my potential is there, but I think I'm definitely motivated to do everything I can to do the best I can at the trials," she said. Sellers is taking it easy for a while to help her body recover from the marathon. She will try to incorporate things like strength training and biking, but doesn't anticipate running a race for awhile as she recovers.