Running News Daily

2024 Valencia Marathon Elite Fields Announced: Sisay Lemma, Kenenisa Bekele and Amane Beriso Headline

Race organizers for the Valencia Marathon have announced the elite fields for the 2024 edition of the race on Dec. 1.

The field is headlined by 2024 Boston Marathon champion Sisay Lemma returning from injury after withdrawing from the Paris Olympics. He will be challenged by his compatriot and all-time great Kenenisa Bekele, who finished second in April’s London Marathon and 39th at the Paris Olympics at 42 years old.

Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe, who boasts a half marathon personal best of 58:05, and Daniel Mateiko, who has also run 58:17 for the half, are the most intriguing debutants.

On the women’s side, 2023 World champion Amane Beriso headlines the field with her 2:14:58 personal best from the 2022 Valencia Marathon, which puts her at No. 6 on the all-time list. Her fellow countrywomen Megertu Alemu (2:16:34) and Hiwot Gebrekidan (2:17:59) are the only two other women under 2:18.

American Sara Hall will be running her fourth marathon of the year. Biya Simbassa, who has a personal best of 2:10:34 and was 11th at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February, is heading to Spain for his third career marathon.

Here’s a list of the notable men who are running…

Men’s Elite Field

 Kenenisa Bekele – 2:01:41

 Sisay Lemma – 2:01:48

 Birhanu Legese – 2:02:48

 Deresa Geleta – 2:03:27

 Guye Adola – 2:03:46

 Gashau Ayale – 2:04:53

 Tadesse Abraham – 2:05:01

 Alphonce Simbu – 2:05:39

 Sondre Moen – 2:05:48

 Samwel Fitwi – 2:06:27

 Andamlak Belihu – 2:06:40

 Maru Teferi – 2:06:43

 Shokhrukh Davlyatov – 2:07:02

 Richard Ringer – 2:07:05

 Zerei Kbrom – 2:07:10

 Iliass Aouani – 2:07:16

 Samuel Barata – 2:07:35

 Héctor Garibay – 2:07:44

 Ibrahim Chakir – 2:07:48

 Mohamed El Talhaoui – 2:08:03

 Peiyou Feng – 2:08:07

 Dani Mateo – 2:08:22

 Lahsene Bouchikhi – 2:08:36

 Abderrazak Charik – 2:08:37

 Andy Buchanan – 2:08:58

 Weldu Negash Gebretsadik – 2:09:14

 Therence Bizoza – 2:09:18

 Yohan Durand – 2:09:21

 Mohamed Chaaboud – 2:09:21

 Simon Boch – 2:09:25

 Yimer Getahun – 2:09:27

 Bukayawe Malede – 2:09:28

 Emmanuel Roudolff – 2:09:34

 Yohanes Chiappinelli – 2:09:46

 Stephen Scullion – 2:09:49

 Paulo Paula – 2:09:50

 Peter Herzog – 2:10:06

 Bart van Nunen – 2:10:16

 Felicien Muhitira – 2:10:17

 Dieter Kersten – 2:10:22

 Arkadiusz Gardielewski – 2:10:31

 Bjorn Koreman – 2:10:32

 Abbabiya Simbassa – 2:10:34

 Hicham Sigueni – 2:10:37

 Johannes Motschmann – 2:10:39

 Patricio Castillo – 2:10:40

 Jorge Blanco Alvarez – 2:10:49

 Archie Casteel – 2:10:49

 Yongzheng Huang – 2:10:49

 Jakoub Labquira – 2:10:50

 Alejandro Jiménez – 2:10:54

 Juan Luis Barrios – 2:10:55

 Thijs Nijhuis – 2:10:57

 Iraitz Arrospide – 2:10:59

 Christian Zamora – 2:11:02

 Nicolás Cuestas – 2:11:03

 Edward Cheserek – 2:11:07

 Kamil Jastrzebski – 2:11:09

 Necho Tayachew – 2:11:21

 Richard Douma – 2:11:21

 Linus Rosdahl – 2:11:30

 Mohamed El Ghazouany – 2:11:48

 Thomas do Canto – 2:11:51

 Hesiquio Flores – 2:11:57

 Ahmed Elhassouni – 2:12:12

 René Cunéaz – 2:12:48

 Mario Bauernfeind – 2:12:49

 Patrik Wageli – 2:12:58

 Jason Pointeau – 2:13:00

 Adam Lipschitz – 2:13:01

 Joris Keppens – 2:13:18

 Alexis Godefroy – 2:13:32

 Pierre Denays – 2:13:34

 Sebastian Sawe – Debut

 Daniel Mateiko – Debut

 Matthew Kimeli – Debut

 Dillon Maggard – Debut

Here’s a list of the notable women who are running…

 Amane Beriso – 2:14:58

 Megertu Alemu – 2:16:34

 Hiwot Gebrekidan – 2:17:59

 Tiruye Mesfin – 2:18:47

 Stella Chesang – 2:20:23

 Sara Hall – 2:20:32

 Majida Maayouf – 2:21:27

 Evaline Chirchir – 2:22:11

 Chimdesa Kumsa – 2:22:13

 Isobel Batt-Doyle – 2:23:27

 Malindi Elmore – 2:23:30

 Sofia Assefa – 2:23:33

 Fionnuala McCormack – 2:23:58

 Jessica Stenson – 2:24:01

 Gerda Steyn – 2:24:03

 Laura Hottenrott – 2:24:32

 Camilla Richardsson – 2:24:38

 Kaoutar Boulaid – 2:25:03

 Clara Evans – 2:25:04

 Fatima Azzaharaa Ouhaddou – 2:25:30

 Laura Luengo – 2:25:35

 Susana Santos – 2:25:35

 Moira Stewartova – 2:25:36

 Marie Perrier – 2:26:19

 Tereza Hrochová – 2:26:38

 Zhanna Mamazhanova – 2:26:42

 Aleksandra Brzezinska – 2:27:20

 Solange Jesus – 2:27:30

 Paola Bonilla – 2:27:38

 Nora Szabo – 2:28:25

 Jane Bareikis – 2:29:00

 Becky Briggs – 2:29:06

 Alice Wright – 2:29:08

 Roberta Groner – 2:29:09

 Molly Gravill – 2:29:45

 Monika Jackiewicz – 2:29:51

Event organizers announced the race will move forward as scheduled despite severe flooding and more than 200 deaths in the Valencia province. In a statement, organizers announced fundraising plans to aid the city and those affected by the recent storms and flooding.

(11/19/2024) Views: 69 ⚡AMP
by Chris Chavez

Andrew Bowman wins Detroit Free Press Marathon men's race; then greets his triumphant wife

Andrew Bowman said it was all part of the master plan.

The 30-year-old from Ferndale held up his end of the deal when he captured the men’s title with a time of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 47 seconds in Sunday’s 47th Detroit Free Press Marathon presented by MSU Federal Credit Union.

And just 25 minutes later, he was waiting at the finish line with a big hug and embrace of his wife, Sydney Devore-Bowman, who captured the women’s title with a 26.2-mile clocking of 2:42:46.

Both had previously won marathons at Pittsburgh, Sydney in 2018 and Andrew on May 5 of this year, but this was a first time to celebrate together in their burgeoning long-distance running careers.

Good weather, but unwelcome wind at the end

“The motivation with Pitt is where she had won it,” said Andrew, a running coach and personal trainer. “That’s where her marathon career took off and she’s the one that got me into marathon running. And she was like, ‘This could be a shared moment for us.’ And I’m so grateful for that. It’s another moment to share in this thing that we’re passionate about — all the highs and the lows. And it’s just a good reminder, we have this common interest, but even coming into this with all the nerves, we just kept looking at each other and we’re like, ‘Even if we don’t pull it off, I still love you and I’m still grateful to be on this journey with you and to enjoy this moment.’ ”

The race was run under nearly ideal conditions, low 40s at the start and winds up to 11 mph on the international course that crossed both the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The route also featured Detroit neighborhoods, including Woodbridge and Indian Village, passing through the Eastern Market and along the Dequindre Cut before ending at Campus Martius.

“The wind was a factor,” Bowman said. “It got a little bit breezy, especially coming towards the finish. Especially when that starts to happen and you are at the end of your rope. It’s that much more difficult to stay motivated to keep pushing.”

Bowman, a 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier with a personal best 2:15:54, pulled away from South Haven’s William Cadwell (2:21:06) and Lansing’s Zacchaeus Widner (2:21:22) over the final 6.2 miles of the race, but it wasn’t easy.

Bowman, posting an average pace of 5:24 per mile, felt like he was cruising during the early portions of the race, but it got much harder later on.

Impressing their Ferndale friends

“I kept telling myself, ‘Keep it easy, keep it easy.’ By my 10K it’s like 5:02 or 5:03 (minutes per mile) and it feels terrific and fairly easy, but then I started doing 5:13, there was a 5:20 in there,” Bowman said. “You just feel like a snail and all you can think about is, ‘Oh, goodness, I hope nobody is coming up behind me.’ All you’re trying to do is smile at the people, keep yourself in it, stay excited. And it’s the toughest spot ever because it’s you against that voice that keeps saying, ‘You’re not going to make it, you’re not going to make it. You’re in a bonk, you’re going to start walking.’ And, so if you can overcome that … I think that’s the biggest feeling of relief right now. I saw the banner for 26 (miles), I knew where I was, I made turn, ‘Just get there. You’ve got this.’ ”

Just getting the finish line proved to be challenge.

“You’re depleted by that point to have the will to be able to keep going forward," Bowman said. "It’s extraordinarily difficult no matter how many times I do this. Whether it was Pitt, Ottawa, the (Olympic) Trials, you’ve got to stay in it. Couldn’t be more grateful and adjusting my body to be able to do this.”

Bowman hails from the small farm town of Marlette, where he led his high school cross-country team to a runner-up finish in the Division 3 state meet. He went on to run for coach Paul Rice at Oakland University.

Following his wife’s win, Andrew was looking forward to celebrating the victories later on in the day with their Ferndale friends.

“We have a running group that we with meet with every Thursday. And so, to do this in front of them — and like I have athletes that I coach here — to show them what’s possible ... it means a lot. I’m just happy to be in this position to be able to show them like, 'Here’s what you can do if you really like stay consistent and just love what you do.’ It’s my second win in the marathon and to do it here is special, too.”

For the first time, the Detroit Free Press Marathon included an Elite field, featuring more than 80 top runners from Michigan, Canada and North America. Winners of the men's and women's division each win $3,000; the handcycle winner takes home $600.

The record for male runners was set by Greg Meyer, who needed just 2:13:07 to cover the 26.2-mile course in 1980. Doug Kurtis holds the record for Detroit marathon victories with six (1987-92), with Christopher Chipsiya (2018-19), Zachary Ornelas (2013, 2015) and Ryan Corby (2021-22) also claiming repeat titles.

(10/21/2024) Views: 188 ⚡AMP
by Brad Emons

TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon elite field announced for 2024

We are just 10 days away from Canada’s largest race weekend: the 2024 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Since 2015, this event has also served as the annual Canadian Marathon Championships. This year’s race will feature everything from former champions and national record holders to rising stars looking to make their mark on the 42.2 km distance.

Here’s your cheat sheet for the men’s and women’s elite fields in Toronto.

Canadian men’s field

Andrew Alexander (Toronto): The 25-year-old former NCAA standout won the 2023 Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon in 62:44. He is coached by Matt Hughes, the Canadian record holder in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, and former Canadian marathoner Dave Reid. Alexander is aiming for a sub-2:10 finish at his hometown marathon.

Thomas Broatch (Vancouver): The reigning Canadian marathon champion. He was the first Canadian across the line last year in his marathon debut (2:16:25). Four months later, Broatch took another shot at the distance, lowering his personal best by more than four minutes at the 2024 Houston Marathon (2:11:54).

Justin Kent (Surrey, B.C.): This will be Kent’s first time competing at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He ran his PB of 2:13:07 at the 2023 Prague Marathon, earning him a spot on Team Canada’s men’s marathon team for the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

Maxime Leboeuf (Gatineau, Que.): Leboeuf finished third at the 2022 Montreal Marathon in 2:24:25. He’s a former graduate of Queen’s University XC program and an avid cross-country skier.

Kieran McDonald (Halifax): McDonald will be making his marathon debut in Toronto. He ran his half-marathon best of 65:45 at the 2024 Houston Half Marathon in January.

Alex Neuffer (Stratford, P.E.I.): Neuffer ran his PB of 2:21:34 at the 2022 Boston Marathon, finishing as one of the top Canadians. He’s a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University’s XC program and a training partner of Kieran McDonald (see above). 

Thomas Nobbs (Vancouver): The 25-year-old will be running his second-career marathon in Toronto. He made his debut in Philadelphia last fall, running 2:19:13. Nobbs finished just off the podium at the 2024 Canadian 10K Championships, in 29:31. He also finished second at the Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Winnipeg in June.

Sergio Ráez Villanueva (Mississauga, Ont.): Ráez Villanueva has competed at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon for the last two years. He set his best of 2:18:04 here in 2022 (his marathon debut). Ráez Villanueva is self-coached and also coaches youth athletes in his hometown of Mississauga.

Tristan Woodfine (Cobden, Ont.): Coached by former Canadian Olympic marathoner Reid Coolsaet. Woodfine won the half marathon here in 2022. He has the fastest time among Canadian men in the field, with a PB of 2:10:39 from Houston earlier this year.

International men’s field

Elvis Cheboi (Kenya): Cheboi ran his personal best of 2:09:20 to win the 2023 Toronto Waterfront Marathon. (Reigning champion)

Mulugeta Uma (Ethiopia): Uma ran 2:05:33 to win the 2024 Paris Marathon in April. He has the fastest personal best in the men’s field.

Abdi Fufa (Ethiopia): Fufa finished just off the podium at the 2024 Dubai Marathon in January (2:06:23). He ran his PB of 2:05:57 at the Siena Marathon in 2021 (where he was second). The 29-year-old is looking for his first marathon win.

Hailu Zewdu (Ethiopia): The 29-year-old ran his PB of 2:06:31 at the Dubai Marathon in 2020. He has not broken 2:09:00 in his six marathons since.

Gizealew Ayana (Ethiopia): Ayana is the youngest elite athlete in the field–he’s only 21. He ran his PB of 2:07:15 to win the 2023 Paris Marathon in his debut at the distance.

Domenic Ngeno (Kenya): The 26-year-old is the fastest Kenyan marathoner in the Toronto field. He won the 2024 L.A. Marathon in March in 2:11:01. Ngeno’s PB of 2:07:26 was from a podium finish at the 2023 Eindhoven Marathon in the Netherlands.

Noah Kipkemboi (Kenya): A veteran of the marathon distance. The 31-year-old has competed at more than 10 marathons in his career. He podiumed at the Enschede Marathon earlier this year, with a time of 2:09:06. 

Brian Kipsang (Kenya): Kipsang arrives in Toronto fresh off a personal best at the 2024 Milan Marathon in March, where he placed second in 2:07:56. The 30-year-old has finished in the top five at three of his last four races. 

Abe Gashahun (Ethiopia): Gashahun has the fastest half-marathon personal best in the field of 59:46. He’s had success at shorter distances and cross country, but it hasn’t yet translated to the marathon. The 26-year-old ran 2:08:51 earlier this year in Saudi Arabia.

Sydney Gidabuday (U.S.A.): Former member of Adidas Tinman Elite Track Club in Colorado. Gidabuday made his marathon debut on Canadian soil at the 2023 Ottawa Marathon, where he finished ninth. His PB of 2:14:34 was run at the hilly NYC Marathon in 2023.

Yusuf Nadir (U.S.A.): Personal best of 2:15:27 from the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn. He finished 25th at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February.

Aidan Reed (U.S.A.): Also made his marathon debut at the 2023 Ottawa Marathon–2:20:23. Reed ran collegiately at Southern Utah University, following in the footsteps of Canadian marathon record holder Cam Levins.

Canadian women’s field

Kate Bazeley (St. John’s, N.L.): The 40-year-old ran her PB of 2:36:35 in Toronto in 2019. Earlier this year, Bazeley represented Team Canada at the World XC Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

Anne-Marie Comeau (Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que.): The 2018 Canadian (winter) Olympian ran her marathon best of 2:34:51 in Toronto last year, crossing the line as the second Canadian woman.

Asia Dwyer (Toronto): Dwyer ran her personal best of 2:42:45 at the 2023 Toronto Waterfront Marathon last fall. She told Canadian Running in an interview for the November/December 2024 issue of the print magazine that she is looking to smash her previous best.

Rachel Hannah (Port Elgin, Ont.): Hannah was the top Canadian finisher at the 2024 Ottawa Marathon in May. She won a bronze medal for Canada at the 2015 Pan-American Games in Toronto. She ran her personal best of 2:32:09 was at the 2016 Houston Marathon.

Liza Howard (Toronto): Howard told Canadian Running in an interview that her goal is to reach the podium and run a personal best. Howard ran her current personal best of 2:35:29 at the 2022 Chicago Marathon. She has unofficially broken the Canadian women’s 50K record, twice, in her marathon build for this race.

Erin Mawhinney (Hamilton): The 28-year-old runner will be making her marathon debut in Toronto. She is coached by two-time Canadian Olympian Reid Coolsaet. She broke the tape at the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon last year, running a PB of 1:13:50.

Melissa Paauwe (Calgary). Paauwe is carrying the pride of Calgary into Toronto. She ran her PB of 2:41:12 at the 2023 Chicago marathon, and finished as the top Canadian.

Leslie Sexton (Markham, Ont.): Sexton returns to Toronto to run her hometown marathon. She said she will be trying to qualify for Worlds in Tokyo next year. She set her PB of 2:28:14 at the 2024 Houston Marathon this year, but missed the Olympic standard by two minutes.

Natasha Wodak: (Vancouver) started her marathon career here in 2013 but has not returned until this year; has never won the championship. Her PB of 2:23:12 from the 2022 Berlin Marathon stands as the current Canadian record.

International women’s field

Waganesh Mekasha (Ethiopia): Has a personal best of 2:22:45  from the 2019 Dubai Marathon. The 32-year-old Ethiopian won the 2023 Ottawa Marathon and finished second in Toronto last fall, with a time of 2:23:12.

Afera Godfay (Ethiopia): Godfay finished third behind compatriots Buze Diriba and Mekasha (see above) last year. She has a personal best of 2:22:41 and has finished in the top five in four of her last five marathons.

Roza Dejere (Ethiopia): The 27-year-old Ethiopian has the fastest personal best in the women’s field (2:18:30). She finished fourth in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympic Games. She comes to Toronto as a threat to the course record of 2:22:16, which was set in 2019.

Meseret Gebre (Ethiopia): Gebre hasn’t raced since Toronto last fall, where she finished seventh in 2:29:54. She set her PB of 2:23:11 to win the Barcelona Marathon in 2022.

Valentina Matieko (Kenya): One of two Kenyan women in the international elite field. Matieko comes to Toronto fresh off a personal best earlier this year at the Paris Marathon in April (2:24:21).

Lydia Simiyu (Kenya): Simiyu ran her PB of 2:25:10 earlier this year at the Rome Marathon. She served a six-month doping suspension in 2022 after she tested positive for chlorthalidone after the Poznan Half Marathon in Poland.

Rediet Daniel (Ethiopia): Two top-five finishes in her three professional marathon starts. The 24-year-old Ethiopian ran her personal best of  2:26:25 at the 2024 Doha Marathon in February.

The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, to be held on Oct. 20, is Canada’s premier running event and the grand finale of the Canada Running Series (CRS). Since 2017, the race has also served as the Athletics Canada marathon championship and Olympic trials.

(10/11/2024) Views: 257 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

Six American runners to watch in the 2024 Chicago Marathon

Excitement is building for this year’s Chicago Marathon that takes place on Sunday 13 October. Once again, a stellar field has been assembled including some of the best American runners operating today. Read on to find out which US athletes will compete in the 2024 Chicago Marathon. 

It’s been seven years since the last American was victorious in the Chicago Marathon, with Galen Rupp crowned winner of the men’s race in 2017. In the women’s race, you need to go back almost 20 years to find the last US winner, when Deena Kastor became the first female American to claim victory on the streets of Chicago in almost a decade.

But with this year’s Chicago Marathon just days away, a strong group of elite American runners will take on the challenge of the 42.195km race, bringing with them experience, pedigree and the hopes of a nation as they battle for glory on home soil.

Read on to discover the top American athletes competing in the 2024 Chicago Marathon.

Top Americans in the 2024 Chicago Marathon women’s race

Keira D’Amato

Keira D'Amato, the former fastest female American runner of all time, has an exceptional track record in long-distance events. The 39-year-old still holds the fastest US women’s time in the half marathon at 1:06:39, set in the Gold Coast, Australia in 2023, while her best in the 42.195km race is an impressive 2:19:12, which she achieved in Houston in 2022.

This year, D’Amato will have speedy support by her side, as she revealed her pacer for the Chicago Marathon will be none other than Rio 2016 Olympic 1500m gold medallist Matthew Centrowitz. Can the addition to her race-day crew catapult D’Amato to glory in the Windy City? All will be revealed on Sunday.

Betsy Saina

Born in Kenya, Betsy Saina has since received her US citizenship and will be one of the favourites to hold the title of fastest American in this year’s Chicago Marathon women’s race. Saina became a mother in 2021 but has gone from strength to strength since then, becoming the fastest female American marathoner in 2023. While her dreams of making the Olympic team for Paris 2024 were not realised, she comes into this year’s Chicago Marathon showpiece with one of the fastest times among all US runners with a personal best of 2:19:17 set at the 2024 Tokyo Marathon.

Sara Hall

A fan favourite and former American marathon record holder, Sara Hall has vast experience in elite marathon running, which includes a third-place finish in the 2021 Chicago Marathon.

Perhaps her most memorable performance was in the 2021 London Marathon where she produced a stunning all-out sprint finish to claim second-place in Britain’s capital.

At 41 years old, Hall will be among the older members of the elite field but she is showing few signs of slowing down. She finished fifth in the 2024 Olympic marathon trials and in April this year ended the Boston Marathon as the second-fastest American finisher in a time of 2:27:58.

Top Americans in the 2024 Chicago Marathon men’s race

Zach Panning

During the US marathon trials for the last Olympics, Zach Panning sent the crowd into a frenzy with a courageous run where he led from the front for almost three-quarters of the race. Panning eventually fell off the pace to finish the trials in sixth place, with only the top three nominated for the team.

However, the fearlessness of the 29-year-old, who holds a personal best of 2:09:28, makes him one of the most exciting runners in the field.

Brian Shrader

Following his 10th-place finish in the 2024 London Marathon, Brian Shrader is back on home soil hoping to impress on the streets of Chicago, where he finished 11th last year in a personal best time of 2:09:46.

While a DNF in the Olympic trials shattered Shrader’s dreams of going to Paris 2024 he enters this race with real aspirations of finishing as the top American and perhaps challenging the front-runners in the elite men’s race.

CJ Albertson

Perhaps best known for his exploits over distances that trickle into the category of ultrarunning, CJ Albertson’s pace over the legendary 42.195km distance makes him one of the top three American men in the Chicago Marathon field.

The former world record holder over 50km enters Sunday’s race with a best marathon time of 2:09:53 set at the 2024 Boston Marathon, where he finished seventh.

Albertson finished fifth in the 2024 Olympic trials but his recent form shows just why he is one of the most talked-about US athletes operating in the marathon today.

 

(10/09/2024) Views: 192 ⚡AMP
by Athletics

Hillary Bor sets national record at the New Haven 20K, Keira D’Amato wins women’s race

Two-time Olympian Hillary Bor fell in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the steeplechase and did not make it to Paris.

Neither did Keira D’Amato, who dropped out of the Olympic Marathon Trials after running with

Hilary Bor and Keira D'Amato won USATF national titles in the 20K Monday by winning the men's and women's races at the 47th Faxon Law New Haven Road Race.Bor finished the 20K (12.4 miles) race in 58 minutes, 9 seconds, while D'Amato crossed the finish line in 1:06:25.

Bor's time set the national championship record. He pulled away from Nathan Martin (58:26), Biya Simbassa (59:29) and Aidan Reed (58:31).

Bor, from Colorado, was a member of the 2016 U.S. Olympic team and competed in the steeple chase.

D’Amato, from Virginia, also won the Faxon Law New Haven 20K in 2022 when she set the course record. She held off Jess McClain (1:06.50), Savanah Berry (1:07:03) and Annie Frisbie (1:07:19).  

Both earned the Ryan Shay Memorial Award, given annual in honor of the 2004 Faxon Law New Haven Road Race winner who died while participating in the 2007 Olympic Trials Marathon in New York City. The award is presented in recognition of Shay’s hard work and dedication to the sport, as well as longtime support of the New Haven Road Race, which he ran four times. 

Connecticut's top finisher in the male division was West Hartford's Grant O'Connor, who placed 23rd in 1:02:54. The top state performer in the female division was Glastonbury's Alyssa Natario, whose time of 1:14:41 was 13th.

Other Connecticut residents to place in the top 25 in the female division were: Fairfield's Megan Connolly, Wallingford's Katie Overstrum, Woodbridge's Laura Pierce, Manchester's Olivia Mondo, Colchester's Alayna Bigalbal and East Lyme's Rebecca Snielson

The race, which drew more than 5,000 participants, also included a 5K, half marathon, half marathon relay and kid's fun run.

Benjamin MacDonald of Susbury, Mass. won the half marathon in 1:10:01, with Tabea Themann of Hamburg, Virginia winning the female division in 1:18:11. Westport's Clare Kutnick was second in the division in 1:21:48.

Prospect's Colin Slavin won the 5K title in 15:31 for the men, while Milford's Courtney Kitchen won the female division in 17:46.

(09/02/2024) Views: 228 ⚡AMP
by Lori Riley

World half bronze medalist Kamulu and Tokyo olympic marathon trials winner Nakamura take humid Hokkaido Marathon

2018 World Half Marathon Championships bronze medalist Pauline Kamulu Kaveke and Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura survived tough conditions, 22˚C at the start with 82% humidity, sunny skies and almost no wind, to take the 2024 Hokkaido Marathon Sunday in Sapporo.

Both running their debuts, Kamulu and Shiho Tachizako ran steadily around 2:28-flat pace surrounded by a group of amateur men, staying together until just before 30 km when Tachizako started to fade. Kamulu struggled with the hot conditions late in the race and could only watch the clock as sub-2:30 slipped away, looking very tired as she crossed the finish line in 2:31:04.

Tachizako faded to 2:33:47 for 2nd, but even that was good enough to easily beat the rest of the field, with last year's 2nd-placer Ayano Ikeuchi 3rd in 2:35:26 in her third marathon so far this year.

Nakamura had said pre-race that he didn't care about time and was only focused on getting in the win, and that was exactly how he ran, ignoring the early action and staying near the front of the main pack until he made his initial move at 30 km.

That got rid of the pretenders, with only 2:08~2:10 men Takeshi Soma, Atsumi Ashiwa and Masaru Aoki, and 2:18 amateur Ryuichi Yoshioka getting back on board. Soma countered with an attack after 34 km, but Nakamura quickly reeled him back in and made his real move with 5 km to go.

Yoshioka was the only one to try to follow, but it was all Nakamura the rest of the way, scoring his first win since his Olympic trials victory in 2019 with a 2:15:36 for 1st. Yoshioka was elated in the home stretch with a 2:16:28 for 2nd, a 2-minute PB and the only runner male or female in the top 10 to PB. Nakamura's toughest competition still standing when he dropped his big move, Ashiwa out kicked Soma and Aoki for 3rd in 2:16:40.

Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi ran Hokkaido as a training run, jogging in to a 70th-place finish in 2:41:19. The next-fastest man on paper after Hirabayashi with a 2:07:58 win in Beppu-Oita in February, Japan-based Ethiopian Derese Workneh was a DNF near 30 km.

(08/26/2024) Views: 206 ⚡AMP
by Brett Larner

Defending champions return to Bix

Kellyn Taylor and Biya Simbassa each ran the Quad-City Times Bix 7 for the first time last year.

They clearly loved the course, the atmosphere and just about everything about the annual race through the streets of Davenport.

Both Taylor and Simbassa held off late challenges from other runners, both ran the sixth best Bix 7 times ever by a U.S. athlete of their gender and both plan to return to defend their championships when the race is held for the 50th time on July 27.

It marks the first time in 12 years that both the men’s and women’s champions are returning to defend their Bix titles.

Simbassa admitted he wasn’t really sure how he felt about the Bix 7 course last year when he first saw the endless array of ups and downs in the course. But after holding off Olympian Clayton Young to win, he liked it.

“I mean, now I do,’’ he said after his victory. “It’s a course that’s all about strength and I train for this."

Taylor went through a similar transformation.

“When I saw the course, I was like, ‘Oh, no. What did I get myself into?’ ” she said. “That’s a super substantial hill right at the beginning and then it rolls all the way through. It’s certainly not easy by any means. I think that works to my favor since I’m more of a strength runner.”

Taylor appreciated more than just the hills.

“The crowds were amazing,” she said. “It’s not what I expected at all — the streets were completely lined, and a race that isn’t a huge marathon, I don’t feel like you see that that often. The crowds were incredible.”

Taylor and Simbassa will be bidding to repeat as Bix 7 champions, something that has been done only seven times in the race’s history, four times by men, three times by women.

Both runners failed to land berths on the U.S. Olympic team, which would have precluded a return to Bix, but they’ve still used their 2023 victories as a springboard to additional success.

Taylor briefly led the New York City Marathon last November before placing eighth, making her the top American finisher in the race. It was the third time she has been in the top eight at New York.

The Wisconsin native, who will turn 38 a few days before the Bix 7, then focused her attention on making the U.S. Olympic team and made a respectable showing in the trials in the marathon, finishing 15th, and the 10,000 meters, placing sixth.

Simbassa, a 31-year-old native of Ethiopia who now lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, attempted to earn an Olympic spot in the marathon but placed 11th in the trials.

However, he has followed that with an ambitious schedule on the U.S. road racing circuit, recording top-five finishes in the Bolder Boulder 10k (5th), Cherry Blossom 10-miler (5th), Gate River 15k (4th), Amway River Bank 25k (3rd) and Houston Half-marathon (4th).

Also included in the field are four former Olympians and nine other runners who have placed in the top 10 at the Bix 7 in the past. Elite athlete coordinator John Tope said even more top runners could be added between now and race day.

Among the top men’s entries are two former Iowa State University standouts.

Wesley Kiptoo of Kenya was the 2021 NCAA indoor 5,000-meter champion and a seven-time All-American for the Cyclones. He was seventh in the Bix 7 two years ago and won the Cherry Blossom 10-miler earlier this year.

Hillary Bor, a Kenya native who is now an American citizen, also attended Iowa State before representing the U.S. in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Olympics in both 2016 and 2021. He also is the U.S. record-holder in the 10-mile run.

Other former Olympians in the field are Morocco’s Mohamed El Aaraby and Americans Jake Riley and Shadrack Kipchirchir. Riley and Araby both competed in the marathon in Tokyo in 2021 and Kipchirchir ran the 10,000 meters in 2016.

Riley also is a Bix 7 veteran along with Kenya’s Reuben Mosip and Americans Frank Lara, Andrew Colley and Isai Rodriguez. Lara was second in the Bix 7 in 2021 and eighth a year ago.

Rounding out the men’s field are Raymond Magut of Kenya; Tsegay Tuemay and Tesfu Tewelde of Eritrea; and Americans Nathan Martin, Ryan Ford, JP Trojan, Merga Gemeda and Titus Winders.

The most recognizable name in the women’s field is 41-year-old Sara Hall, the wife of two-time Olympian, U.S. half-marathon record-holder and 2010 Bix champion Ryan Hall. Sara Hall was fifth in the U.S. Olympic marathon trials earlier this year and has two strong Bix 7 efforts on her resume, placing second in 2014 and third in 2017.

She and Taylor will be challenged by three up-and-coming runners from Kenya — Emmaculate Anyango Achol, Grace Loibach Nawowuna and Sarah Naibei. Achol has run the second fastest women’s 10k ever (28:57) and Naibei won the Lilac Bloomsday 12k in May.

Also in the field are Bix 7 veterans Kassie Parker, Jessa Hanson, Carrie Verdon and Tristin Van Ord along with Americans Annmarie Tuxbury and Stephanie Sherman, Ethiopia’s Mahlet Mulugeta and Kenya's Veronicah Wanjiru.

The elite field also includes four legendary runners who have helped build the Bix 7 into the international event that it is. Two-time champion Bill Rodgers, who has run the Bix 7 43 times, will be joined by four-time women’s champion and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Joan Samuelson, two-time Olympic medalist Frank Shorter and Meb Keflezighi, who has two Bix titles and an Olympic silver medal on his resume.

(07/22/2024) Views: 341 ⚡AMP
by Don Doxsie

Meet USA Women's athletics team for Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Discover Team USA's women athletes ready for Paris 2024, featuring new talent and seasoned champions aiming for Olympic glory.

The Olympic track and field trials have concluded and the roster for the USA Women’s Athletics Team heading to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is set.

This year’s team is a powerful mix of returning champions and new faces, each ready to leave their mark on the grandest stage in sports.

Pulse Sports dives into the details of each event and the athletes representing the United States.

Marathon

The USA women’s marathon team sees a complete refresh from the last Olympics, introducing Dakotah Lindwurm, Fiona O’Keeffe, and Emily Sisson.

O’Keeffe leads this group, having clinched her spot by winning this year's Olympic marathon trials in an impressive 2:22.10.

The team looks to build on the bronze medal performance from three years ago with this new, dynamic lineup.

100m

Sha'Carri Richardson is making a much-anticipated return to the Olympics in the 100m dash after missing the previous games.

Her trial time of 10.71 seconds shows she’s back with blazing speed and ready to compete on the Olympic track.

Joining her are Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, both formidable sprinters who have proven their prowess to secure their spots in this highly competitive event.

100m Hurdles

The 100m hurdles will feature an entirely new USA trio: Masai Russell, Alaysha Johnson, and Grace Stark.

Russell dominated at the trials with a swift 12.25 seconds, while Johnson and Stark showed exceptional skill, each clocking in at 12.31 seconds.

This team replaces the previous Olympic medalists and aims to bring a new energy to the hurdles.

200m

Gabby Thomas returns to the 200m, having won a bronze in Tokyo and posting even better times since.

Alongside her are Brittany Brown and McKenzie Long, both just hundredths of a second apart at the trials, setting the stage for a strong competition in Paris.

Notably, Sha'Carri Richardson, despite high expectations, will not compete in this event after finishing fourth at the trials.

400m

Kendall Ellis, Aaliyah Butler, and Alexis Holmes are the new faces for the 400m, each having run sub-50 seconds at the trials—a benchmark not met by the previous Olympic team.

Their performances suggest that they are serious contenders for the podium in Paris.

400m Hurdles

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone returns after setting a world record at the trials, clearly positioning herself as the favorite to defend her Olympic title.

She is joined by Anna Cockrell and newcomer Jasmine Jones, rounding out a team that mixes experience with fresh talent.

800m

With Athing Mu absent due to a fall at the trials, Nia Akins took the lead, winning the women's 800m in a commanding 1:57.36.

Allie Wilson and Juliette Whittaker also qualified bringing new energy to an event that saw unexpected twists during the trials.

5000m and 10,000m

Elle St. Pierre narrowly outpaced Elise Cranny in the 5000m, with Karissa Schweizer also making the team.

Schweizer and Parker Valby are waiting on world rankings to confirm their spots in the 10,000m, adding an element of suspense as they aim to compete in both distances.

Discus

Valarie Allman is set to defend her Olympic title in the discus throw, having dominated the trials with a throw of 70.73 meters.

Veronica Fraley, joining her, also showed strong form, ensuring that Team USA remains a top contender in this event.

Hammer

Annette Echikunwoke and DeAnna Price, both meeting the Olympic standard, are ready to improve upon their previous Olympic performances.

Their impressive throws at the trials indicate they are in peak form.

Heptathlon

Anna Hall, Chari Hawkins, and Taliyah Brooks are set for the heptathlon, each with their own story of redemption and debut at the Olympics.

Their diverse skills across multiple events make them versatile and formidable competitors.

High Jump

Vashti Cunningham and Rachel Glenn, both clearing the Olympic standard, aim to surpass their previous performances.

Their consistent top-three finishes at trials underscore their capabilities and medal potential.

Javelin

Maggie Malone Hardin is the sole qualifier for the javelin throw, her victory at the trials marking her as a key athlete to watch in this discipline.

Long Jump

Tara Davis-Woodhall, Jasmine Moore, and Monae' Nichols are set to represent the USA in the long jump.

Davis-Woodhall's recent silver at the world championships positions her as a favorite for gold in Paris.

Pole Vault

Bridget Williams, Katie Moon, and Brynn King, each having cleared impressive heights at the trials, are the pole vaulters heading to Paris.

Their collective performances suggest a strong potential for medal finishes.

3,000m Steeplechase

Valerie Constien, Courtney Wayment, and Marisa Howard, each having excelled at the trials, are prepared to make their mark in the steeplechase.

Their exceptional times are indicative of their strong conditioning and competitive spirit.

Shot Put

Chase Jackson, Raven Saunders, and Jaida Ross form a powerful trio in shot put.

Jackson's leading throw at the trials sets her up as a medal hopeful, while Saunders looks to add to her Tokyo silver.

Triple Jump

Jasmine Moore, Keturah Orji, and Tori Franklin are ready to challenge the distances that will be seen in Paris.

Moore's standout performance at the trials signals great potential for an impactful showing.

(07/03/2024) Views: 264 ⚡AMP
by Festus Chuma

Rena Elmer, a former steeplechaser who’s had two kids since running the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, placed seventh at Grandma’s Marathon.

In March, Rena Elmer watched her daughter Taryn—a freshman at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas—run a personal best 5:15 mile in a downpour.

So when Taryn saw the forecast for Grandma’s Marathon this weekend, she had a message for her mom. “She grabbed my shoulders and said, ‘Mom, you’re going to PR,’” Elmer told Runner’s World by phone on Sunday. “I PRed in the rain—you can PR in the rain, too.”

The elder Elmer, who’s 41, took those words to heart. Despite steady showers, she ran 2:35:45—nearly 5 minutes off her previous personal best—and placed seventh in her third marathon.

The time came as a bit of a shock to Elmer. She hadn’t raced 26.2 miles since the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta, where she ran2:41:22 to place 53rd. In the two years since, she’s had two more children—Jane, born in January 2021, and Jessica, born in December 2022—to add to her previous nine.

In fact, the only time she’d raced in the past four years was in March. Then, she won the Irving Half Marathon in 1:17:58 to gain entry to the elite field at Grandma’s. Based on that, and the times she’d run in training, she expected to be able to run between 2:40 and 2:42.

But all those paces have come in the brutal Texas heat. And though she uses a pace calculator during training to account for conditions, Saturday’s mid-50s temperatures and tailwind at the start left her feeling better than anticipated. She started the first 5K at 6:12 pace and gradually picked it up from there, latching onto other runners as she went and covering the last 10K at 5:44 pace.

“It was incredible—it felt so good, I just felt so powerful and smooth and strong,” she said. “I just love running for that feeling.”

The sport has long brought Elmer joy and carried her through both triumphs and tragedies. After running in high school in Beaver, Utah, she walked on to the track and cross country teams at Brigham Young University. Her junior year, she placed third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2005 NCAA outdoor championships.

She kept running after graduation, and after narrowly missing in 2008 and 2012, qualified for the 2016 Olympic Track and Field Trials in the steeplechase. There, she made the final and finished 10th.

In between those accomplishments came incredible hardships. She had her first two children—Taryn and her twin brother, Talon—in 2009, and Elmer developed serious complications afterward. And in 2015, two more children later, an abusive situation involving her now ex-husband broke her family apart.

But her sport—and her faith—carried her through. In January 2017, she met Will Elmer, who also had four children. They married and joined their families, and since then have had three more kids.

Elmer switched to the marathon in 2019, and ran 2:40:21 in her debut at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon to qualify for the Trials.

(06/27/2024) Views: 282 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Team USA Track and Field Team for the Paris Olympics

Here’s who will be representing the U.S. in Paris—so far.

The Team USA track and field team will compete at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris from August 1 to August 11. The first members were named on February 3 at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, Florida. The rest of the squad will be determined at the Olympic Track and Field Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, which are taking place now until June 30.

Here’s who has made Team USA—so far. 

100 meters

Women’s team

Sha’Carri Richardson

24 | First place in 10.71 | First Olympics

Melissa Jefferson

23 | Second in 10.80 | First Olympics

Twanisha “TeeTee” Terry

25 | Third in 10.89 | First Olympics

Multi events

Men’s decathlon 

Heath Baldwin

23 | First place with 8625 points | First Olympics

Zach Ziemek

31 | Second with 8516 points | Sixth at 2020 Olympics, seventh at 2016 Olympics

Harrison Williams

28 | Third with 8384 points | First Olympics

Shot put

Men’s team

Ryan Crouser

31 | First place in 22.84 meters | Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and 2020

Joe Kovacs

34 | Second in 22.43 meters | Olympic silver medalist in 2016 and 2020

Payton Otterdahl

28 | Third in 22.26 meters | 10th at 2020 Olympics

10,000 meters

Men’s Team

Grant Fisher

27 | First in 27:49.47 | 5th in 10,000 meters at 2020 Olympics

Woody Kincaid

31 | Second in 27:50.74 | 15th in 10,000 meters at 2020 Olympics

Nico Young

21 | Third in 27:52.40 | First Olympics

Marathon

Women’s Team

Fiona O’Keeffe

25 | First in 2:22:10 | First Olympics

Emily Sisson

32 | Second in 2:22:42 | 10th in 10,000 meters at 2020 Olympics

Dakotah Lindwurm

28 | Third in 2:25:31 | First Olympics

Men’s Team

Conner Mantz

27 | First in 2:09:05 | First Olympics 

Clayton Young

30 | Second in 2:09:06 | First Olympics 

Leonard Korir

37 | Third in 2:09:57 | 14th in 10,000 meters at 2016 Olympics

(06/23/2024) Views: 674 ⚡AMP

New York Mini 10k 2024: Senbere Teferi wins third consecutive race

Senbere Teferi, a two-time Olympian and two-time World Championships medalist from Ethiopia, won her third consecutive Mastercard New York Mini 10K in a time of 30:47, just shy of the record she set in 2023 with a time of 30:12.

ABC 7 New York provided live streaming coverage of the New York Road Runners' Mini 10K race in Central Park with more than 9,000 runners expected this year.

Teferi also won 2019 UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in New York and the 2022 United Airlines NYC Half, which was the second-fastest time in the history of the event.

"It is such a special race because there is a bond that exists with thousands of women also running. Even though we are not related, I feel supported like we are all sisters in running," Teferi said prior to today's race.

2022 TCS New York City Marathon champion Sharon Lokedi finished second with a time of 31:04.

Lokedi was also the runner-up at both the 2022 Mastercard New York Mini 10K and the 2024 Boston Marathon.

"Although I have only run the Mini once before, I felt embraced by the many thousands of women who ran the race before me, and hope to inspire the many thousands more who will come after me," Lokedi said prior to today's race. "It's an awesome thing, how women from so many different places and life experiences can come and feel connected to each other through the simple act of running a loop in Central Park."

Sheila Chepkirui finished third (31:09) while American Amanda Vestri finished fourth (31:17).

The 2024 Mastercard New York Mini 10K will feature four past champions, five Paris 2024 Olympians, and seven of the top 10 finishers from the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

The 52nd running of the event also featured members of 2024 U.S. Olympic Women's Marathon Team - Fiona O'Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm.

New York Road Runners started the Mini 10K in 1972 as the first women-only road race, known then as the Crazylegs Mini Marathon. Seventy-two women finished the first race, and three weeks later Title IX was signed into law, guaranteeing girls and women the right to participate in school sports and creating new opportunities for generations of female athletes.

The Mastercard New York Mini 10K is now one of nonprofit NYRR's 60 adult and youth races annually and has garnered more than 200,000 total finishers to date.

The 2024 Mastercard New York Mini 10K offered $39,500 in total prize money, including $10,000 to the winner of the open division. Mastercard served as title sponsor of the event for the fourth year, and as part of its ongoing partnership with NYRR will also serve as the presenting sponsor of professional women's athlete field.

Eyewitness News provided live updates from the race and streamed the event live on abc7NY. An all-women team of WABC sports anchor Sam Ryan and meteorologist Dani Beckstrom, along with U.S. Olympian Carrie Tollefson, host of the Ali on the Run Show podcast Ali Feller, and running advocate Jacqui Moore anchored the coverage.

(06/08/2024) Views: 557 ⚡AMP

World Athletics Adds Ranking Spots to Olympic Men’s Marathon Field — American Leonard Korir Will Run in Paris

The United States will have three men in the 2024 Olympic marathon after all. Following months of uncertainty, World Athletics added one universality place and four rankings places to the Olympic marathon field on Tuesday. The four ranking spots were awarded to athletes from Chile, South Africa, the United States, and Australia, meaning that Leonard Korir will join Americans Conner Mantz and Clayton Young on the Olympic marathon start line on August 10.

Korir’s spot had been in jeopardy after World Athletics added 11 universality places on May 8, but the Road to Paris list of qualifed athletes has been updated and American CJ Albertson is now listed as qualified at spot #84. Per USATF selection procedures, Albertson’s place will pass to Korir, the third-placer at February’s US Olympic Marathon Trials. Korir’s coach Scott Simmons confirmed to LetsRun.com that Korir is now qualified and will compete in the Olympic marathon on August 10.

Australia’s Wide World of Sports reported that in recent weeks, World Athletics had been working on a solution to fit some highly-ranked athletes into the Olympic marathon while respecting Olympic sport quota limits set by the International Olympic Committee.

It was not immediately clear why World Athletics added four ranking places on Tuesday; this story will be updated as LetsRun.com learns more.

(06/05/2024) Views: 381 ⚡AMP
by Jonathan Gault

Lokedi, Kiplagat and Chepkirui Headline New York Mini 10K Run

Three Kenyans headlined by Boston Marathon second finisher Sharon Lokedi are among the top athletes entered for the 2024 New York Mini 10K set for Saturday, June 8.

Veteran and consistent Edna Kiplagat as well as Sheila Chepkirui, who finished second at the 2023 Berlin Marathon.

The race also features four past champions, five Paris 2024 Olympians, and seven of the top 10 finishers from the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Produced by the New York City-based nonprofit for more than five decades, the 52nd running of the event will also be competed by event-record holder and two-time race champion Senbere Teferi and two-time race champion Sara Hall, who will join the previously announced 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Marathon Team – Fiona O’Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm – at the start line in Central Park.

Teferi, a two-time Olympian and two-time World Championships medalist from Ethiopia, has won the last two editions of the New York Mini 10K, breaking the event record in 2023 with a time of 30:12.

Also, in New York, she won 2019 UAE Healthy Kidney 10K and in her 2022 United Airlines NYC Half victory recorded the second-fastest time in the history of the event.

“I’m very happy to return to New York for the Mini, and I will try my best to win the race for a third time,” Teferi said. “It is such a special race because there is a bond that exists with thousands of women also running. Even though we are not related, I feel supported like we are all sisters in running.”

Hall is a 10-time U.S. national champion who won the New York Mini 10K in 2021 and 2022. Earlier this year, she finished fifth at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. She is also the former national record-holder in the half marathon and the only athlete in history to have won the New York Mini 10K, New Balance 5th Avenue Mile, and Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K in New York.

“It’s very cool that this year’s New York Mini 10K falls on the fifth anniversary of my first win at the race, and I can’t think of any place I’d rather be that weekend,” said Hall.

(05/30/2024) Views: 509 ⚡AMP
by Capital Sport

Fiona O’Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm to headline New York Mini 10K

Fiona O’Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm to headline world’s original women-only road race, which has garnered more than 200,000 finishers since 1972.

New York Road Runners (NYRR) has recruited the 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Marathon Team – Fiona O’Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm – to headline its Mastercard® New York Mini 10K taking place Saturday, June 8 in Central Park.

O’Keeffe won the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February with an event record in her 26.2-mile debut and will now make her NYRR race debut. O’Keeffe joined the professional ranks in 2021 after a decorated career at Stanford University, where she was a six-time NCAA All-American.

“I’m excited to step to the line of my first road race since the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials at the Mastercard New York Mini 10K on June 8,” O’Keeffe said. “It’s my first time running the Mini and I’m looking forward to running alongside a great group of women, some of whom I’ll be seeing in Paris later this summer.”

Sisson, the American record-holder in the marathon, finished runner-up at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to qualify for her second Olympics and first in the 26.2-mile distance. She is a six-time national champion and has been successful in New York, finishing as runner-up at the United Airlines NYC Half twice and winning the USATF 5K Championships. Sisson was fourth at last year’s Mastercard® New York Mini 10K.

“The Mastercard New York Mini 10K is one of those special races that I always have circled on my calendar,” Sisson said. “Although my summer will look a little different this year with a marathon in Paris in August, I wouldn’t miss the chance to race with New York Road Runners in Central Park with my Olympic teammates and thousands of women from around the globe.”

Lindwurm finished third at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and first gained notoriety after winning back-to-back titles at the Grandma’s Marathon in 2021 and 2022. Her highest finish at an NYRR race previously was sixth place at the 2023 United Airlines NYC Half.

“I’m really excited to join my Olympic teammates Fiona and Emily for the Mastercard New York Mini 10K,” Lindwurm said. “I’ve heard great things about the Mini my entire career, but it’s never quite worked with my racing and training schedule. This year, it works as a great step toward the starting line in Paris.”

New York Road Runners started the Mini 10K in 1972 as the first women-only road race, known then as the Crazylegs Mini Marathon. Seventy-two women finished the first race, and three weeks later Title IX was signed into law, guaranteeing girls and women the right to participate in school sports and creating new opportunities for generations of female athletes.

The Mastercard® New York Mini 10K is now one of non-profit NYRR’s 60 adult and youth races annually and has garnered more than 200,000 total finishers to date.

The 2024 Mastercard® New York Mini 10K will offer $39,500 in total prize money, including $10,000 to the winner of the open division.

Mastercard® will serve as title sponsor of the event for the fourth year, and as part of its ongoing partnership with NYRR will also serve as the presenting sponsor of professional women’s athlete field.

The event will be covered locally in the tri-state area by ABC New York, Channel 7 with live news cut-ins. The professional race will be covered by a livestream, distributed by ESPN+, abc7ny.com, and NYRR’s digital channels beginning at 7:40 a.m. ET.

The full professional athlete field for the Mastercard® New York Mini 10K will be announced later this month.

(05/09/2024) Views: 531 ⚡AMP
by Running USA

How to Watch the 2024 Boston Marathon

The world’s oldest annual marathon is back for its 128th edition.

On Monday, April 15, the World Marathon Majors will return stateside to the 2024 Boston Marathon. In its 128th year, the world’s oldest annual marathon features must-see storylines, including the return of defending women’s champion Hellen Obiri and two-time men’s winner Evans Chebet.

The point-to-point race is scheduled to begin in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and ends in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. The weather forecast for Patriots’ Day is showing slightly warmer temperatures than average in the city. The conditions could make race day more challenging on a course famous for its hills (we ranked Boston as the second-toughest of the six World Marathon Majors).

Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s race. 

How to watch the 2024 Boston Marathon

ESPN2 will broadcast the Boston Marathon from 8:30 a.m. ET to 12:30 p.m. ET. You can also live stream the race with an ESPN+ subscription, which costs $10.99 a month. 

For those tuning in from Boston, live coverage will be provided by WCVB beginning at 4:00 a.m. ET and lasting throughout the day.

Boston Marathon start times (ET)

Men’s wheelchair division—9:02 a.m.

Women’s wheelchair division—9:05 a.m.

Men’s elite race—9:37 a.m.

Women’s elite race—9:47 a.m.

Para athletics division—9:50 a.m.

First wave—10 a.m.

Second wave—10:25 a.m.

Third wave—10:50 a.m.

Fourth wave—11:15 a.m.

Race preview

This year’s elite race comes with added high stakes for many international athletes. Countries that don’t host Olympic Trials for the marathon are currently in the national team selection process. A standout performance in Boston could be a game-changer for athletes looking to represent their country in Paris this summer. 

Women’s race

On the women’s side, Boston podium contenders Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi were included in the shortlist of marathoners under national team consideration by Athletics Kenya. 

Obiri, 34, is set to return to Boston after a stellar 2023 campaign. Last year, the On Athletics Club runner won the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon. A former track standout with two world championship titles, Obiri aims to continue her winning streak on Monday. 

Lokedi, 30, is looking to top the podium at a key moment in her career. The University of Kansas graduate is set to run her first 26.2 since finishing third at the New York City Marathon last fall—a race she won in her marathon debut two years ago. 

Kenya will also be represented by 2022 World Championship silver medalist Judith Korir and two-time Boston Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat, among other standouts. 

The Ethiopian contingent should be strong as well. Ababel Yeshaneh finished second at Boston in 2022 and fourth in 2023. Plus, 2:17 marathoner Tadu Teshome will be one to watch in her Boston debut. 

In the weeks after the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February, more Americans were added to the field. Sara Hall, 40, enters the race after finishing fifth in a new American masters record (2:26:06) at the Trials in Orlando, Florida. 2015 Boston champion Caroline Rotich, 39, joins the field after placing sixth at the Trials. Jenny Simpson, 37, also entered after dropping out in her marathon debut in Orlando. And keep an eye out for 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden, 40, and Emma Bates, 31, who finished fifth in Boston last year. 

Men’s race

Evans Chebet is looking for a hat trick. Last year, the Kenyan became the first athlete to repeat as men’s champion since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot won three in a row between 2006 and 2008. In the process, the 35-year-old took down two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge in Boston. 

His biggest challenger will likely be Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia, who is returning after a breakthrough season in 2023. In December, Lemma, 33, won the Valencia Marathon in 2:01:48, making him the fourth-fastest marathoner in history. Lemma also won the Runkara International Half Marathon in 1:01:09, a new personal best. 

Gabriel Geay, last year’s Boston runner-up, is returning to the field on Monday. The 27-year-old from Tanzania is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Valencia Marathon. 

Other runners to watch include 2023 New York City runner-up Albert Korir; Shura Kitata, who placed third in New York last year; and Zouhair Talbi, who finished fifth in Boston last year. 

The American men’s field also grew after the Olympic Trials with the addition of Elkanah Kibet and Sam Chelanga. Kibet finished fourth in Orlando in a 2:10:02 personal best, and after dropping out after mile 18 of the Trials, Chelanga will aim for redemption in Boston. They join 50K world record-holder CJ Albertson and the BAA’s Matt McDonald in the elite race. 

(04/14/2024) Views: 593 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

6 Ways to Be a Great Training Partner

These 2024 Olympians know how to help each other while keeping it fun.

Pianist Harold Mabern said that jazz is “competition without animosity.” He might well have been describing the running relationship of Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, who finished first and second, respectively, at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February. 

That Mantz and Young are not just two guys who run together, but true training partners, became obvious over the second half of the Trials race. Zach Panning, who wound up finishing sixth, took the lead in the sixth mile and dropped the pace by more than 10 seconds per mile. Mantz and Young tucked in; by the 19th mile, when they were Panning’s only company, they slapped each other’s hands in an apparent celebration of making the team. 

When Panning started to slow a few miles later, Mantz and Young pushed on ahead. With two miles to go, Mantz was visibly struggling. Young, looking great by comparison, repeatedly talked to Mantz and stayed with him rather than running the faster pace he looked capable of. In the closing strides, Young eased back as an exhausted Mantz heaved himself over the finish line, one second ahead of his training partner.

Seven years earlier, their first run together was also memorable. Both are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), the largest Mormon denomination. Many LDS members go on a one- to two-year mission in their late teens to early 20s. Even for members who are top athletes, the mission is primary; most do little to no training and gain a significant amount of weight.

In 2017, Mantz returned from his mission weighing 150 pounds, compared to his usual 120. A little more than a month later, down to 140, he showed up for his first day of practice with the Brigham Young University team. The group was doing an 8-mile tempo run a little slower than 5:00 per mile. “I held onto the pack for as long as I could,” Mantz recalls. “I almost made it 5 miles until I had to slow down.”

Young, who was in the pack, says, “When Conner stuck with us past halfway, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s only a month and a half off his mission. Conner is the real deal.’”

They began training together regularly in 2019, the year when Young went pro after winning the NCAA 10,000-meter title. Young remained in Provo to train under BYU coach Ed Eyestone, a two-time Olympic marathoner. While at BYU, where he won two NCAA cross country titles, Mantz mulled going pro. He initially stayed in Provo, but thought that he would soon move and join the Oregon-based Bowerman Track Club or another group. Instead, a few months became several months, then several months became a year. After Mantz ran 2:08:16 at the 2022 Chicago Marathon in his debut, he thought, “Alright, this is working.”

That’s an understatement. Here are six takeaways about being good training partners from Mantz and Young, who will run the Olympic Marathon in Paris on August 10.

Find people with similar goals and outlooks

Since their build-up for the 2023 Chicago Marathon, where both PRed (Mantz 2:07:47, Young 2:08:00), they’ve had near-identical competitive schedules. Mantz and Young typically run together six days a week. They do their main run of the day in the morning. Depending on their schedules, the two, who live a few miles away from each other, sometimes also meet for their shorter afternoon run.

Why don’t they run together seven days a week? Both run their 100-plus-mile weeks while devoting Sundays to their faith. Being an outlier in that regard was one reason that Mantz decided not to join a more formal pro group. “I knew nobody else would be taking Sundays off,” he says, “and that added to the list of reasons to stay here.”

Good training partners help you get more out of yourself

Mantz is a notoriously hard trainer. Young is probably better aware of that than anyone else.

“My best workouts are keeping up with Conner, but Conner’s worst workouts are staying with me,” Young says. “I can’t remember the last time I dropped him in a workout or a long run. That’s one of the beauties about working out with Conner—you really do get pushed to your limit. My workouts with Conner are usually far better than they would be by myself. I just have to make sure I don’t go too hard.”

But pace-pushing Mantz also benefits from having Young to gauge himself by. 

“For the most part, I would be way worse on my own,” Mantz says. “I can put a lot of pressure on myself and run too fast early on. I’m all about, ‘Let’s run faster than we did at this point last build-up.’ I see it as I want to get better every day. It’s a little difficult, because I may have gone a little too hard in workouts over the last few years, and so now to even match what I did a year or two ago is quite difficult.”

Compare yourself to you, not your training partners

“There are definitely workouts where Conner is totally trashing me the last interval,” Young says, “and I just have to say, ‘Okay, I did what Coach said and I’m faster in February 2024 than in February 2023. I just really need to compare myself with myself.”

If, like Young, you have a training partner who likes to hammer, do like Young and listen to what your body is saying on that day.

“Typically, Coach will give us some splits he thinks we should start at,” Young says about hard workouts. “But it’s not uncommon for Conner to go faster than those splits, and so I have to do these mental gymnastics of, ‘Do I go with Conner or do I do what Coach said?’ Conner and I are obviously really competitive, and you get a lot of confidence training with one of the best athletes in the marathon, so should I stick with what feels good and with what Coach said, or should I try to close this gap and run with Conner? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.”

Share both the joys and the struggles

As pros, Young and Mantz are unlikely to come up with reasons to blow off runs. But we all need an occasional pick-me-up.

“If I’m not feeling good during a workout, I turn to Clayton and say, ‘You’re leading the next one,’” Mantz says. “And he’s always like, ‘Alright, I’ll help out,’ even if he’s also having a bad day.”

For many of us, meeting our running partners doesn’t just help us get out the door. Doing so is often a dependable source of pleasure. That’s as true for Olympians as it for the regular runners. “I just get excited sometimes thinking about the camaraderie and that I get to run with Clayton today,” Mantz says.

Acknowledge irksome behaviors but keep them in perspective

Some days with your training partners won’t be exciting or fun. You might even find yourself wishing you were running alone. But as with a romantic partner, it’s the overall quality of the relationship that matters.

“There are times I’m like, ‘Conner, why did you go that fast? I thought Coach said to do this,’” Young says. “I can get frustrated. But at the end of the day, it’s making me faster. As long as I recognize that balance and look at the big picture, having Conner with me as a training partner far outweighs the little frustrations that I have every now and then.”

Use your time together to improve your lives

Like a lot of us, Young and Mantz spend a good amount of their running time talking about running—how their most recent workout went, what races they have coming up, how the BYU team and other top runners are doing, what the weather will be like on their next hard day. But, says Young, “we’re kind of unique professional runners in that we have a lot of stuff going on outside of running. So we’ll also talk about family, real estate, investments, taxes.”

Mantz, who at age 27 is three years younger than Young, has used a lot of their run time to discuss marriage. “That’s the biggest benefit of having Clayton as a training partner—asking questions and getting advice on things like adjusting to having somebody in your life at a new level,” he says.

Young, who had knee surgery less than a year before making the Olympic team, says, “We’ve gone through some tough stuff. We’ve been able to lean on each other a lot. Our runs together are often like a therapy session.”

(03/31/2024) Views: 598 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Brigid Kosgei sets lofty ambitions at Lisbon Half Marathon as big bonus awaits

Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei is keen to make history at the Lisbon Half Marathon on Sunday as she seeks to use the race to tune up for next month’s London Marathon.

Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei is keen to break her half marathon personal best during the Lisbon Half Marathon on Sunday.

The former marathon world record holder is using the Lisbon Half Marathon to gauge her level of preparedness for the London Marathon set to take place on April 21 and she feels she can lower her half marathon personal best of 1:04:49.

"I'm really happy to be here again. I wanted to run this race because I want to test my speed for London Marathon in April,” Kosgei said on Friday.

“I come here to see how my body respond. I'm feeling good, I'm happy, did a good preparation. The course is very fast and I hope to have a good race on Sunday. If the weather is good, I will try to break my personal best in half marathon.”

The 30-year-old is no stranger to the Portuguese capital having won the 2016 Lisbon Marathon but she will come up against a stellar field on Sunday, in want has been termed the fastest half marathon in the world.

Seeking to upstage her is compatriot Vivian Cheruiyot, the 2018 London Marathon champion, whose last race was the Valencia Marathon in 2019 when she finished fourth.

There are also Kenyans Betty Chepkemoi, Pauline Esikom and Vivian Melly, Ethiopia’s Bosena Mulatie, fourth at the 2023 Istanbul Half Marathon and Senayet Getachew, the 2023 Junior World Cross-Country champion, who will be keen to upstage her.

The men’s field has attracted 10 athletes with the best marks under one hour. Abraham Kiptum will be returning and he is the biggest highlight, with a personal best of 59.09.

He will face a stern test from Ethiopians Solomon Berihu (59.17) and Dinkalem Ayele (59.30), but also compatriots Brian Kwemoi and Bravin Kipkogei Kiptoo (both with 59.37).

American Leonard Korir, third in the last month's US Olympic Marathon Trials, will also be in the race.

Korir achieved the needed spot in the podium, but not the time to guarantee the place in Paris. That's why he chose Lisbon to try to run a fast time, and maybe break the American record (59:43).

"I heard so many good things about the race, I heard that it's super fast. There were some guys that run fast here, like Jacob Kiplimo. I wanted to run something faster, and I told myself 'let me try to go to Lisbon',” said Korir.

“I heard the organisation is very good, the course is very nice. I just want to see if I can run a quick time, to see how my body feels before running a marathon in the near future,” added the 37-year-old American.

Lisbon Half Marathon oragnisers have set aside a €150,000 (Ksh22,044,775) bonus for new world records with the times to beat being 57:31 set by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, at this same race in 2021, and 1:02:54 by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey in Valencia.

(03/16/2024) Views: 533 ⚡AMP
by Joel Omotto

Leonard Korir running Lisbon Half and Rotterdam Marathon to improve olympic chances

Leonard Korir, who finished 3rd at the US Olympic Marathon Trials on February 3, will run the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon on Sunday in Portugal in an attempt to improve his world ranking and gain Olympic selection. His coach Scott Simmons also told LetsRun.com that Korir will run the Rotterdam Marathon on April 14. If Simmons runs the 2:08:10 Olympic standard in that race, he will clinch a spot in the Olympic marathon in Paris.

Simmons said Korir has recovered well from the Trials, where he ran 2:09:57 in Orlando. Rotterdam comes 10 weeks after the Trials.

“If you’re 100% prepared for the marathon, then you recover well,” Simmons said. “If you’re not prepared, even if you run well, then it takes a bit of time to come back. It was within two weeks and he was back to doing workouts.”

The question of whether USATF would allow Korir to run a spring marathon to chase the Olympic standard had been a matter of confusion both before and after the Trials. In a January 13 Zoom call ahead of the Trials (skip to 1:04:40 mark), USATF director of long distance running programs Amy Begley said that anyone who finished in the top 3 at the Trials would not be able to run a spring marathon.

“[The USATF Long Distance Running committees] decided that they wanted to send the best team to the Olympics and so they did not want anyone that was in the top three to go and try to run another marathon between the Trials and the Olympics to try to better their time to ‘chase the standard,'” Begley said in the call.

Then, two days before the Trials, USATF sent an email to competitors saying that an athlete would not be removed from the Olympic team for competing in a spring marathon as long as they had “met the qualification standards or have achieved the performance standard by the conclusion of the Trials.” The email was an attempt to clarify the situation but still left some athletes and coaches confused.

The selection procedure posted on USATF’s website states the following:

Please note, finishers at the Selection Event will not be permitted to “chase” the time qualifying standard following the Selection Event if they have not already met the Qualified Athlete standards or have achieved at least a 2:29:30 (women)/2:11:30 (men) performance during the Qualification Period as of the conclusion of the Selection Event.

But Korir had run under 2:11:30 by the end of the Trials, and there was nothing in the published selection procedure that prohibited him from chasing the time — despite what had been said on the Zoom call. In 2019, Simmons successfully appealed against USATF when the organization did not follow its published selection procedure for that year’s Pan American Games. He knew that the published selection procedure was what mattered, and that Korir would be allowed to chase the Olympic standard if he wanted — something Begley confirmed to Simmons after the Trials.

“It’s a matter of them not understanding their own selection procedures,” Simmons said. “At that point, by the end of the Trials, it was a contract that they couldn’t back out of, even if they wanted to.”

There are 17 weeks between Rotterdam on April 14 and the Olympic marathon on August 10, which Simmons believes is plenty of time to recover for the Games — indeed, it is common for athletes to run a spring marathon before the Olympics. The bigger challenge for Korir will be the cumulative fatigue of the Trials and Rotterdam — the Olympics would be his third marathon in seven months.

Looking to Lisbon: “For him to change his standing, it’s going to take a really good half marathon, a really remarkable half marathon”

Because Korir does not currently have the standard, Olympic status is currently in limbo. In order to be selected for the Games, he, or a third American besides Young or Mantz, needs to be in the top 80 of the Road to Paris list when the qualification period ends on May 5. Currently, Korir is the highest ranked American on the list in 71st*, though the list does not include universality spots that have yet to be awarded.

With only a few major spring marathons still to come, it is looking more and more likely that Korir will be at the Olympics. For Korir to be left out, 10 men would need to pass him in the next two months.

“As far as Paris, it’s looking really good for him,” Simmons said.

Still, Korir can increase his odds by moving up the Road to Paris list. And he can do that by running a fast half marathon.

(03/13/2024) Views: 522 ⚡AMP
by Jonathan Gault

Men and women course records set at Tokyo Marathon

The Tokyo Marathon—the first World Marathon Major of 2024—took place Sunday morning in Japan. In near-perfect conditions, with a starting temperature of about 42 degrees, more than 37,000 runners took to the streets in Japan’s capital city. Course records fell, although several notable pre-race favorites fell short.

Benson Kipruto wins men’s race in a course record

It was a Kenyan sweep in the men’s race: Boston and Chicago Marathon champion Benson Kipruto, 32, of Kenya, won in 2:02:16, a course record by 24 seconds. Timothy Kiplagat, 30, placed second in a personal-best 2:02:55, while Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich, 25, was third in 2:04:18.

Led by a trio of pacers, a pack of seven men blazed out at world record pace, traveling the first 5K in 14:16 (4:36 pace). By 15K, the pace had slowed, but only four men (and two pacers) remained: Kipruto, Kiplagat, and Ngetich, and Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, 39, the two-time Olympic champion and former world record holder.

Unlike the men, the women started more conservatively, then picked up the pace. The lead pack covered the first 5K in 16:16, a 5:12 pace. Shankule led much of the race as competitors dropped off; the pack thinned to seven by 15K, four by 25K, and the top three by 30K as the pace ratcheted down (Shankule, Wanjiru,and Kebede covered 25K to 30K in 15:59, 5:09 pace).

Just before the 40K mark, Shankule fell back. Then, at the fluid stop just after the 40K mark, Kebede pulled ahead of Wanjiru, battling to the clock to better the 2:16:02 Brigid Kosgei ran here in 2021. 

Sifan Hassan, 31, of the Netherlands, was fourth in 2:18:05—it was her third marathon, and her first loss. However, her time was still faster than the 2:18:33 she ran in her victorious London debut.

Saina shines after disappointment at Trials

Four weeks ago, American marathoner Betsy Saina, 35, who had been a favorite to make the U.S. Olympic team, dropped out of the Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, Florida, after the 21-mile mark of the race. Even though Saina had been in contention for the third spot, she suddenly pulled off the course and flopped in the grass at the side of the road, a victim of the rising temperatures.

Saina quickly regrouped and was a late addition to the field for the Tokyo Marathon on March 3. In much cooler weather, Saina finished fifth in 2:19:17. It was a PR by 2:23, the third-fastest time by an American woman (behind Emily Sisson and Keira D’Amato), and some measure of redemption after the disappointment of the Trials. She averaged 5:18.7 per mile.

Benson Kipruto and Sutume Asefa Kebede both won in course records, and American Betsy Saina ran a big PR to take fifth.

 

(03/03/2024) Views: 602 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Jenny Simpson Targets NYC Half

For the first time in her running career, Jenny Simpson faced a decision that she’d never considered in a race. At mile 18 of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, her debut at the distance, the most decorated U.S. 1500-meter runner in history made the difficult choice to drop out of the competition on February 3.

The marathon leaves runners vulnerable to a number of challenges—nutrition issues, tough terrain, the rigors of high mileage—which can derail even the most experienced runners on a bad day. When Simpson, 37, started cramping with 16 miles left in the race, the setback shocked her. After spending months transforming her body from an explosive middle-distance runner to a long-distance athlete on the roads, Simpson felt ready to take on 26.2, which made the race in Orlando, Florida, all the more confusing.

“One of the beautiful things about running is that so often what you put in is what you get out, but the [Olympic Marathon Trials] wasn’t that way at all,” Simpson told Runner's World.

After the race, Simpson took time to reflect. For two days, the three-time Olympian relaxed with her family in Oviedo, Florida, her hometown located just outside Orlando. In between playing with her nieces and enjoying home-cooked meals, she expected to feel sad following the race. But to her surprise, that feeling never came. Instead, Simpson felt motivated to find another opportunity to show her fitness.

While riding in an Uber on the way home from the Denver airport to her house in Marshall, Colorado, Simpson sent a text message to a contact at the New York Road Runners (NYRR), asking if there were any spots available to race the NYC Half. The event in New York City on March 17, one of 60 adult and youth races organized by NYRR throughout the year, will include Simpson in her third half marathon.

Coming out of a tough few years of personal and professional hardships, Simpson has a new perspective on disappointment. For her, the Olympic Trials is just another exercise in the importance of having faith in the process and her ability to bounce back.

“The race didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but I still believe in myself,” Simpson said. “I’m up at the plate, gripping the bat and I swung once, totally missed, but I’m gonna swing again because I believe I’m ready for it.”

Marathon metamorphosis

After spending well over a decade dominating American middle-distance running and collecting medals on the global stage—including world championship gold (2011), two silver medals (2013 and 2017), and Olympic bronze at the 2016 Rio Games—Simpson’s streak of making U.S. teams ended during the pandemic. In 2021, she made the finals of the 1500 meters at the Olympic Trials, but she finished 10th.

That fall, she started to transition to the roads with her first 10-mile race. But at the end of 2021, her life was upended by injury, the conclusion of a longtime sponsorship with New Balance, and a devastating wildfire that she and her husband, Jason, narrowly escaped on December 30, 2021. While their home was spared, most of their neighbors’ houses were destroyed. For three months, the couple was displaced while damage was repaired.

By the spring of 2022, things started to turn around for Simpson. Her sports hernia was healing, she and her husband returned to their home, and she was in conversations with shoe companies. That fall, she signed with Puma and shared her intent to focus on the roads.

In January 2023, she made her debut in the half marathon with a 1:10:35 in Houston. That summer, she announced her plans to race the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, her first 26.2.

In collaboration with her longtime coaches, Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs, Simpson threw herself into the event. She built up to 100-mile weeks during the training cycle, worked with a nutritionist on mid-race fueling, and spent three weeks in Orlando acclimating to the heat in preparation for the championship.

Lessons learned

On race day, Simpson started out at a pace that felt manageable (she ran between 5:23 and 5:38 per mile through the first 10), resisting the urge to go with the blazing pace set by the leaders. Just past halfway, Simpson got a side stitch, and then she started cramping, first in her toes and then in her calf and hips. “Over the course of a few miles, I went from being able to race, to feeling like I was in trouble being able to move through my normal range of motion,” she said.

Simpson tried to double down on hydration at the aid stations, but the muscle cramps got worse as the race progressed. While battling through the setback, Simpson ultimately decided to accept the loss. For an athlete who is used to being on the podium, dropping out was an agonizing choice, but the crowd’s support on the course helped her cope.

“It’s one thing for people to say, ‘We’re proud of you no matter what,’ and I’ve heard that my whole life. I’ve been the woman who can make the team,” Simpson said. “To actually be in the position where I’m not doing well and I’m not making the team and everyone is good on that promise to be proud of me no matter what, I’m just so grateful.”

Now almost three weeks out from the race, Simpson and her team are determining takeaways from the competition. After spending many years following a set schedule of Diamond League competitions and international championships on the track circuit, Simpson wants to choose races that excite her. Right now, that means conquering a half marathon through Times Square and Central Park.

“2024 for me is gonna be about embracing the freedom to dial in on the experiences that I want to have before this is all over,” Simpson said. “It’s not going to last forever, and that doesn’t mean I’m retiring tomorrow or anytime soon, but we’ve been through some tough years, and I still think life is beautiful.”

(02/29/2024) Views: 519 ⚡AMP
by Tailor Dutch

Kenenisa Bekele, Connor Mantz & Clayton Young To Headline 2024 United Airlines NYC Half

The New York Road Runners (NYRR) has announced that the 2024 United Airlines NYC Half, taking place Sunday, March 17, will feature 11 Olympians, seven Paralympians, and several more professional athletes who have their eyes on the Paris 2024 Games this summer.

Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, fresh off finishing first and second, respectively, at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, will headline the men’s open division at the United Airlines NYC Half, while two-time U.S. Olympian Hillary Bor will race 13.1 miles for the first time in his career and the world’s most-decorated distance runner, Kenenisa Bekele, will return to New York for his second NYRR event. The women’s open division will be chock-full of established contenders, including Olympians Des Linden, Jenny Simpson, Edna Kiplagat, Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, and Malindi Elmore, in addition to World Championships marathon bronze medalist Fatima Gardadi.

These athletes will lead more than 25,000 runners during the United Airlines NYC Half, the world’s premier half marathon, organized by NYRR, which runs from Brooklyn to Manhattan, passing historic landmarks, diverse neighborhoods, and sweeping views of the city along the way before finishing in Central Park.

Men’s Open Division

Mantz and Young, training partners from Provo, Utah, will line up together at the start in New York less than two months after finishing one-two at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando and qualifying for the Paris 2024 Games. Mantz was fifth in his first United Airlines NYC Half in 2022, and last year became the seventh-fastest American marathoner in history when running 2:07:47 to finish sixth at the Chicago Marathon. Young finished right behind him in seventh in 2:08:00 and will be making his United Airlines NYC Half debut.

“I think I have a lot of room to improve in the halfs,” Mantz said on the latest episode of NYRR Set the Pace, Feb. 22, 2024. “I want to get these halfs in so I can have more confidence heading into Paris. I ran [the United Airlines NYC Half] in 2022…which was probably one of the most special experiences and it was a huge learning [experience]. It was probably my first race where I was competing against a big international field…so it was a really good experience for me, and I think it’s one I want to repeat and take what I’ve learned in the last two years and use it.”

Ethiopia’s Bekele, a four-time Olympic medalist, 16-time world champion, and the third-fastest marathoner in history, will challenge the American duo, racing with NYRR for the second time after finishing sixth at the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon. He will be joined at the starting line by Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba, the reigning champion of the B.A.A. Boston Half Marathon who owns one of the top-10 half-marathon times in history.

(02/24/2024) Views: 580 ⚡AMP
by Letsrun

Malindi Elmore and Tristan Woodfine to run 2024 NYC Half

On Thursday, the New York Road Runners (NYRR) announced the field for the 2024 NYC Half on March 17, which will feature Canadian marathoners Malindi Elmore and Tristan Woodfine alongside 11 Olympians and one of the world’s most decorated distance runners, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.

This will be Bekele’s first time at the NYC Half and only his second career road race in New York City. (He finished sixth at the TCS New York City Marathon in 2021.) Bekele is one of the most prolific runners of all time, having been at the top of the sport for more than two decades. His personal best of 2:01:41 from the 2019 Berlin Marathon still stands as the Ethiopian national record, and makes him the third-fastest marathoner in history.

Bekele will headline the men’s race alongside top U.S. marathoners Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, who are fresh off finishing first and second, respectively, at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 3. Also joining the men’s field is Cobden, Ont.’s Woodfine, who is coming off an impressive 2:10:39 personal best and sixth-place finish at the 2024 Houston Marathon. The 30-year-old is currently training for the 2024 Boston Marathon, where he hopes to place in the top five to potentially secure a spot on the Canadian Olympic marathon team in Paris.

The women’s elite field will be full of established distance runners, including Olympians Des Linden, Jenny Simpson, Edna Kiplagat and Elmore, who was recently nominated to her third Olympic Games. Elmore secured her spot on the Canadian team last fall with a 2:23:30 clocking at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, the second-fastest Canadian women’s marathon time. Like Woodfine, Elmore is also training for the 2024 Boston Marathon, which she hopes will prepare her for the hilly marathon course at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which is expected to be the hilliest Olympic marathon course to date.

The men’s and women’s elite field will lead more than 25,000 runners during the United Airlines NYC Half, the world’s premier half marathon, which runs from Brooklyn to Manhattan, passing historic landmarks, diverse neighbourhoods and sweeping views of The Big Apple before finishing in the middle of Central Park.

(02/24/2024) Views: 512 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

Meet the marathon guru behind three of North America's top runners

It’s been an exciting start to the year for Brigham Young University (BYU) cross-country and track head coach Ed Eyestone. In February, three athletes who once ran for Eyestone at BYU qualified for the Paris Olympics in the men’s marathon, including Canada’s Rory Linkletter, who hit the Olympic standard at last weekend’s Sevilla Marathon, running a two-minute-plus personal best of 2:08:01.

Eyestone, who coached Linkletter for five years at BYU before Linkletter turned pro (he is now coached by former U.S. marathoner Ryan Hall), knew he was ready for a breakout performance after watching Linkletter execute a top-20 finish in the marathon at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. “I was super excited for him, and told him he was next, after the U.S. marathon trials,” says Eyestone. “To see him execute on race day, and run a fast time, I was proud of him.”

“It turns out that the group of 10K runners we had in 2018 was special,” laughs Eyestone. Linkletter ran for BYU in Provo, Utah, from 2015 to 2019, and just happened to be a part of a special group of young runners who would turn out to be three of North America’s top marathoners. U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion Conner Mantz and second-place finisher Clayton Young also ran at BYU during this time; they helped lead the Cougars XC team to three top-three finishes and an NCAA championship title in 2019.

“Looking back on that 2018 team, we were second and now have three men who’ve run faster than 2:08:10… if only the NCAA’s was 26.2 miles,” Eyestone laughs.

“Every high school athlete we recruit has aspirations of running professionally or being an Olympian one day,” he says. “I know with Mantz, he was heavily recruited out of high school, and he wanted to go to a school that would one day prepare him for the marathon.”

Eyestone’s coaching philosophy for developing long-distance athletes is not rocket science. He believes in long-term progression, so his athletes aren’t maxing out in college, and are leaving the window open for higher mileage post-collegiately. “I’ll have my 5,000m and 10,000m guys run around 80 miles a week, with a long run of 90 minutes,” he says. Eyestone has continued to coach Mantz and Young at the professional level, and still swears by not having them do much over two-hour long runs. “We have a great program at BYU, and it’s not unusual for Mantz and Young to hop in and work out with the college kids.”

BYU is an altitude school, standing at 1,400 metres above sea level, and has a large recruiting pool and an extensive following, with its affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When Eyestone arrived as a coach at BYU in 2000, his goal was to build a culture to become a powerhouse program in the NCAA. “We wanted to recruit guys who wanted to challenge for an NCAA XC podium spot every year,” he says. “It all starts at the beginning of the year, with the team’s veterans setting the tone and getting younger athletes and recruits to buy in.”

Despite Linkletter choosing to part ways with Eyestone as his coach in 2019, the two remain close friends and share a level of respect for one another. “Rory is an incredible leader; he was our team captain,” says Eyestone. “He would always hold the team accountable for showing up on time and developing a healthy routine […] I remember he called it Ferrari fuel.”

Eyestone’s favourite thing about being a coach is being able to see the ripple effect of a good performance or win on an athlete’s family and personal life. “My son-in-law told me on Sunday after Rory’s race that four percent of the athletes in the men’s marathon in Paris will be former BYU runners,” Eyestone revealed. “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

(02/24/2024) Views: 510 ⚡AMP

Ednah Kiplagat confirms next race as she chases more history

Forty-four-year-old Edna Kiplagat has opened up on where she will compete next, giving the impression that she is not hanging her spikes anytime soon.

More than 25,000 runners have confirmed participation at the New York City Half Marathon scheduled for Sunday, March 17 from Brooklyn to Manhattan, finishing in Central Park.

One of the headliners in the women’s field is 44-year-old Kenyan runner Edna Kiplagat who will be using the race as part of her preparations for the Boston Marathon.

Kiplagat is one of the most successful long-distance runners and from her records, she is a two-time Boston Marathon champion and former London and New York City Marathon champion.

Kiplagat will be up against compatriots Gladys Chepkurui, the reigning Tokyo Half Marathon champion, and Cynthia Limo, a World Athletics Championships half-marathon medalist. The duo has the two fastest times in the women's open division.

Two-time US Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon champion Desiree Linden will return as the top American finisher from last year's race, having recently finished 11th at the US Olympic Marathon Trials.

Olympic and World Championships medalist Emily Simpson will make her United Airlines NYC Half debut but she is no stranger to NYRR races as an eight-time winner of the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile.

Lindsay Flanagan and Annie Frisbie, both of whom finished in the top 10 at the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials, will also be ones to watch.

Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, a four-time Olympic medalist, 16-time world champion, and the third-fastest marathoner in history, will challenge the Kenyan charge in the men’s race. He will be competing in the streets of New York for the second time after finishing sixth at the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon.

The Kenyan charge will be led by, Abel Kipchumba, the reigning champion of the B.A.A. Boston Half Marathon who owns one of the top 10 half-marathon times in history.

Morocco's Zouhair Talbi will return to the event after taking third in his United Airlines NYC Half debut last year, which he called "the race of his life."

Since then, he finished fifth at the Boston Marathon and broke the Houston Marathon course record in January.

Tanzanian Olympian and marathon record-holder Gabriel Geay, who was the runner-up at last year's Boston Marathon, will race the United Airlines NYC Half for the first time.

An American contender to watch will be Hillary Bor, a two-time U.S. Olympian and five-time national champion who will be making his half-marathon debut.

(02/23/2024) Views: 442 ⚡AMP
by Abigael Wuafula

Kenyan-born American runner seeking redemption at Tokyo Marathon after US Olympic trials heartbreak

Kenyan-born American runner Betsy Saina is seeking a comeback at the Tokyo Marathon after missing out on the US Olympic marathon trials.

Kenyan-born American runner Betsy Saina will seek redemption at the Tokyo Marathon after a heartbreaking run at the US Olympic Marathon trials.

Saina exuded confidence ahead of the Olympic trials in Orlando but unfortunately failed to finish the race after the hype surrounding her. She now heads to the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, March 3 where she hopes to bounce back to winning ways.

Follow the Pulse Sports Kenya WhatsApp Channel for more news.

Two days ahead of the marathon trials, Saina had opened up on how her son motivates her to do better and she was optimistic of representing the US at the Olympic Games.

In a post on her Instagram, she said: “My little man has taught me to be resilient and brave. Everything I do he is the priority before anything else comes.

On Saturday I will be running for him, He has changed my life in many ways, I am the happiest woman in the world.”

She has now put the setback behind her and is looking forward to bouncing back at the Tokyo Marathon where she will be up against some of the greatest marathoners.

Defending champion Rosemary Wanjiru will be returning with the hope of bagging another title. During last year’s edition of the race, Wanjiru destroyed a strong field to claim the top prize, cutting the tape in 2:16:28. She enjoyed her 2023 season and will be looking to continue the hot streak to 2024.

Wanjiru also represented Kenya at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary where she finished sixth in the marathon.

2023 London Marathon champion Sifan Hassan will also be in the mix, hoping to notch up her third marathon victory since her debut in London last year. The Dutch woman has proven what she can do both on the track and the full marathon.

Hassan made her full marathon debut at the London Marathon and won most dramatically. She clocked 2:18:33 to beat marathon experts including Peres Jepchirchir, the reigning Olympic marathon champion.

She extended her winning streak to the Chicago Marathon where she stunned defending champion Ruth Chepng’etich to second place.

Hassan will be eyeing the Olympic Games and the Toyo Marathon is a better place for her to build up for the event.

Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Salpeter has also been invited and she will be out to challenge the double Olympic champion and Wanjiru for the top prize. The Ethiopian charge will be led by Sutume Kebede and Tigist Abayechew who will be out to reclaim the title they lost to Kenya last year.

Magdalena Shauri of Tanzania will also be hoping to continue soaring high after her dominant exploits in Berlin last year where she finished third.

(02/21/2024) Views: 494 ⚡AMP
by Abigael Wuafula

Kara Goucher Inks New Sponsorship Deal with Brooks

Her first brand appearance will be at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando this weekend, where she’ll be part of the official NBC broadcast.

Brooks announced on Monday that the shoe company has signed a new deal with Kara Goucher, which entails not only footwear sponsorship, but speaking engagement and athlete collaboration opportunities. Everything officially goes into effect starting this weekend in Orlando at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, where Goucher will be helping to tell the stories of the runners vying for Olympic spots on the NBC broadcast.

Footwearnews.com reports that the two-time U.S. Olympian and World Championship medalist will be the primary face of Brooks’ events throughout 2024, both at competitions and at Brooks’ community impact programs like Future Run, the company’s $10 million commitment to running programs across the country. She will also make appearances at the Track and Field Olympic Trials in Eugene and the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

“I’m excited to work with Brooks on this new partnership and share my excitement and belief of the impact that running can have,” Goucher said in a statement. “Telling the amazing stories of runners is something I’ve always been passionate about, and Brooks makes for an incredible teammate as we continue to advocate for the power of the run to improve the sport for future generations.”

Goucher began her professional running career with Nike—an experience she detailed in her tell-all memoir last year, The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team. She moved on to the Skechers Performance Elite Team and signed with Oiselle in 2014 and then switched to Altra in 2018, but lost her ability to compete at a high level in 2021, when she was diagnosed with dystonia, a neurological movement disorder.

Even so, at 45, Goucher remains an important and respected voice in the running community, through her work as a mental health advocate, sports broadcaster and co-host of the podcast Nobody Asked Us with fellow Brooks athlete Des Linden. 

“Kara’s lived experiences and her passion for bringing attention to the humans behind incredible performances,” a release from Brooks read. “The goal is for Goucher to help inspire runners and show how the sport can help change lives.”

(02/04/2024) Views: 587 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

These were the Fastest Shoes of the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials

Asics, Puma, and Nike had a big day.

The city of Orlando witnessed some amazing performances under a blistering sun, with tickets to Paris at stake. When the dust settled after three loops, six brands placed among the top 10 men’s and women’s finishers. There was a time Nike ruled the roads, but Asics topped them in this year’s Olympic Trials Marathon, with two men and four women making my list below.

Here’s a look at what the top 10 finishers in both races wore in their quests for a spot on the Olympic team.

MEN’S TOP 10

1st — Conner Mantz, 2:09:05

Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% (v1)

Despite two updates to the Alphafly, Mantz (right in the image above) continues to wear the very first version. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

2nd — Clayton Young, 2:09:06

Asics Metaspeed Sky 3 prototype

Young (left, above) looks to be wearing the newest, unreleased Metaspeed Sky. Asics has three “development” shoes (prototype) approved by World Athletics for use in competition, currently. This colorway looks a lot like the existing Metaspeed Sky+ and Edge+, but when we zoom in closer we don’t see any labels, and the sidewall of the midsole looks different than the shoe you can buy now.

3rd — Leonard Korir, 2:09:57

Nike Air Zoom Alphafly 3

Korir laced up the latest Alphafly and might just have run himself onto the squad headed for Paris. We reviewed the Alphafly 3 recently.

4th — Elkanah Kibet, 2:10:02

Asics Metaspeed Edge 3 prototype

Kibet is wearing a prototype, like Young. His, however, appears to be the Metaspeed Edge. You can see the ridge on the sidewall of the forefoot swoops down low toward the sole of the shoe. The Edge’s plate curves lower, allowing for more foam between your foot and the plate than in the Sky.

5th — CJ Albertson, 2:10:07

Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 prototype

It looks like CJ is wearing Brooks’s top racing shoe, which was just announced. But, the company also has a “Hyperion Elite 4 RD.010” prototype shoe that was approved by World Athletics for use in competition just two weeks ago. It’s likely he wore that version (we don’t have details yet) but the outsole of CJ’s race shoe has gray rubber, whereas the newly announced version has a web of black and orange rubber.

6th — Zach Panning, 2:10:50

Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 prototype

Panning seems to be wearing the same prototype of the Hyperion Elite 4 that CJ wore.

7th — Nathan Martin, 2:11:00

Nike Air Zoom Alphafly 3

8th — Josh Izewski, 2:11:09

Nike Air Zoom Alphafly 3

9th — Reed Fischer, 2:11:34

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

Fischer rolled to a top-10 finish with an all-white version of the Adios Pro 3. Adidas does not have any prototypes on the list of approved shoes as of race day.

10th — Colin Bennie, 2:12:17

Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 prototype

Bennie seems to be wearing the same prototype as Albertson and Panning.

WOMEN’S TOP 10

1st — Fiona O’Keeffe, 2:22:10

Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3

Not a bad first effort for O’Keeffe and Puma. Fiona won her first marathon in record fashion. And Puma claimed victory with the Deviate Elite 3 on the first day it was approved for use in competition. The World Athletics approved shoe list shows the 3 green lighted for use as a “development” as of Feb. 3, 2024.

2nd — Emily Sisson, 2:22:42

New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Pacer

New Balance has a new super shoe, the FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4, out. But Sisson laced up the thinner, lighter Pacer. It’s a shoe most of us recreational runners might only grab for a 5K or 10K (maybe). Seems like it’s working just fine for the American record holder.

3rd — Dakotah Lindwurm, 2:25:31

Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3

Lindwurm also wore the new Puma racer. Hey, Puma, need me to re-send my address? 

4th — Jessica McClain, 2:25:46

Nike Vaporfly 3

This marks an insane shift in racing footwear. On the men’s side, four of the top 10 runners laced up Nike. Only McClain, the team’s first alternate, cracked the top 10 women’s runners wearing the swoosh. Folks, we’re living in the golden age of running shoes. Pick the pair that fits and feels best—and rip it.

5th — Sara Hall, 2:26:06

Asics Metaspeed Edge 3 prototype

Like Kibet, it appears Hall wore the Metaspeed Edge prototype.

6th — Caroline Rotich, 2:26:10

Asics Metaspeed Edge+

Unlike Hall, Kibet, and Young, Rotich’s shoe seems to be the current Metaspeed Edge+ that you can buy right now.

7th — Makenna Myler, 2:26:14

Asics Metaspeed Sky 3 prototype

Myler is likely wearing the Sky 3 prototype—again, check out that ridge in the forefoot; it’s closer to the foot. One heck of a day for Asics, if I do say so.

8th — Lindsay Flanagan, 2:26:25

Asics Metaspeed Edge 3 prototype

N + 1.

9th — Emily Durgin, 2:27:56

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

Durgin held onto a top-10 finish wearing Adidas’s most popular marathon racer.

10th — Annie Frisbie, 2:27:56

Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3

Asics packed four runners in the top 10, but Frisbie finished strong to give Puma a triumphant trio, all wearing the new Deviate Elite 3.

(02/04/2024) Views: 1,606 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Conner Mantz, Clayton Young Finish 1-2 At U.S. Olympic Trials Mens Marathon

Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, the two former BYU teammates and training partners, took the top two spots with Mantz winning in 2:09:05 and Young finishing in 2:09:06 at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando.

Leonard Korir finished third in 2:09:57.

As of right now, only the Mantz and Young have guaranteed their spots on the team. Mantz, who ran a 2:07:48 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, and Clayton Young, who tallied a time of 2:08:00 in Chicago, earned their qualifying times prior to the Trials.

Because Korir did not finish under the Olympic qualifying standard of 2:08:10, he can qualify achieving a high enough world ranking on the World Athletics list by May 5, or via that third spot becoming unlocked by a U.S. men's Top 5 finish in any of the remaining platinum-level marathons (Tokyo, Seoul, Boston) within the qualification window.

Zach Panning controlled the race from its early stages. The three-time NCAA Division 2 champion from Grand Valley State took a group of eight men through the half in 64:07. The pack remained tight through 17 miles when things started to string out. Defending champion Galen Rupp was among those who began falling back at this point as a five-second gap formed between the top five and sixth place.

Panning pushed the tempo a bit more at Mile 19 and with Mantz and Young in tow, the trio pulled away from the field and established themselves as the prime contenders for the team. The three ran together for the next three plus miles until Mantz and Young made their move to the front at the 23 mile mark and quickly opened a 20-meter gap on Panning that continued to swell. 

With a mile to go in the race, Panning faded badly. Now gapped by Mantz and Young by almost a minute, the chasers had a target to focus on again within striking distance of a shot at the Olympics. Elkanah Kibet and Korir were the first to pass Panning and dueled over the final mile for that third-place spot. With a half mile to go, Korir emerged as the stronger of the two and held position.

Kibet finished fourth in 2:10:02. CJ Albertson moved up in that final mile and finished fifth in 2:10:07 while Panning wound up sixth in 2:10:50.

Rupp, who was attempting to make a fifth Olympic team, placed 16th in 2:14:07.

Scott Fauble, the top American at the last two Boston Marathons, dropped from the lead pack in the eighth mile and pulled out before the half marathon mark.

Five-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman, 47, dropped out of the race around the same time. 

(02/04/2024) Views: 492 ⚡AMP
by Flo track by Joe Battaglia

2024 U.S. Olympic marathon trials: Conner Mantz and Fiona O'Keeffe race to victory

Mantz crossed the finish line just in front of training partner Clayton Young in the men's race. Fiona O'Keeffe dominated the women's race in a record-breaking debut marathon.

Conner Mantz and Fiona O'Keeffe raced to victory at the 2024 U.S. Olympic marathon trials on 3 February in Orlando to secure their spots on this year's Olympic team ahead of the Paris 2024 Games.

In the men's race, Mantz crossed the line in 2:09:05, directly in front of training partner and close friend Clayton Young, who crossed the line in second place just one second later. Young has also secured a quota for Paris having previously run the Olympic entry standard at the 2022 Chicago Marathon. Leonard Korir ran 2:09:57 to finish in third. 

In her first marathon ever, O'Keeffe took a hugely impressive win in the women's race, breaking the U.S. Trials record with a time of 2:22:10.

She was comfortably in front of second-place finisher and American record holder Emily SIsson who ran through the line in a time of 2:22:42.

Dakotah Lindwurm couldn't believe her 2:25:31 third-place finish and looked around in shock as she crossed the line.

The largely fat course near Lake Eola Park was made up of an approximately 2.2-mile (five-and-a-half kilometer) loop followed by three eight-mile (12-kilometer) loops to the finish line. It was a sunny but humid 55˚F (13˚C ) at the 10:10 am start.

Women's winner Fiona O'Keeffe: "I'm so excited about this team" 

“The goal has always been to make an Olympic team,” Mantz said in a post-race interview.

His mental strategy had been to run each mile for a different person - his mom, his dad, Clayton, with the final lap being for his wife.

“Let’s go to Paris, let’s make this happen,” second-place Young smiled after a close-to-ideal race that unfolded alongside his friend and fellow Utah native Mantz.

Zach Panning had led the way for the majority of the race before Mantz and Young took over the lead and pulled ahead with less than four miles to go. Panning fell back further as Korir took over in the final stretch to secure third.

In the women's race, O'Keeffe detailed the excitement she had felt with eight miles to go, having to remind herself not to "freak out."

"The past couple years I’ve been clawing my way through things," she said, before adding of her victory that she is now "so excited about this team."

Sisson, the women's American record holder in the marathon, has previous experience of the Olympics, having come 10th in the 10,000m at Tokyo 2020.

"I'm elated," she said, reflecting on making her second Olympic team in front of her friends and family.

Lindwurm was still in disbelief as she laughed with the press after the race, revealing ”I’m such an underdog… I was a walk on to my Division II team."

(02/03/2024) Views: 533 ⚡AMP
by Sam Peene

Emily Sisson, Olympic Marathon Trials favorite, is ready for Saturday

Emily Sisson is the American record holder (2:18:29) in the marathon and the pre-race favorite to win the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials.

At the time of publication, 64.2% of you are picking her to win the Trials in the LRC $20,024 Prediction Contest Sponsored by Relay.

Sisson talked to LRC this week via video conference, and by all accounts her buildup for Orlando has gone very well.

“Everything’s been better, all the long runs, all the tempos, and actually my long interval workouts, those have actually been better than they’ve been before.”

When Sisson was asked to compare her fitness and buildup to the 2022 Bank of America Chicago Marathon where she broke the American record, she said:

Everything’s been better, all the long runs, all the tempos, and actually my long interval workouts, those have actually been better than they’ve been before.

The workouts like on paper, like the times they’re all better. I think like I get confidence from that, but also just I’m feeling good and I’m feeling strong. So the training’s been good.

Sisson ran a 30:52 time trial on the roads in Arizona, which is just slightly slower than her official track PB of 30:49. Sisson, unlike Trials #2 contender Betsy Saina who ran a workout with 12 male pacers in Kenya, ran the workout all alone although her husband Shane was next to her on a bike. Sisson wasn’t blown away by almost setting a 10k PR in practice, as she said her track PR should be much faster. But she was pleased she could run that pace by herself. “I was happy that I was able to push myself that hard on my own,” she said.

Lessons from Chicago 2023

Chicago 2023 didn’t go as well as Chicago 2022 for Sisson, as she developed a side stitch later in the race and ran 2:22:09 for 7th place.

Sisson now views the Chicago 2023 setback as a positive experience as she learned from it. “We found some videos early on in Chicago and I just looked a little less fluid this past fall than I did in my 2022 Chicago.  It was really subtle, like there was a little bit more movement in my upper body. So, we’re trying to like stay on top of that a bit more this time just to make sure nothing like a side stitch or anything else breaks down again,” she said, adding she worked with chiropractor John Ball.

Respect for the competition and the marathon distance

Sisson enters the Trials not only fit but healthy. When asked whether she worries about the other competitors in the race, she said, “It’s not that I don’t worry about my competitors. It’s not that I don’t think about them, but, I just feel like the marathon’s different than like a half marathon or a 10k. When I go into those races, I’m just trying to be as fit as I can and try to be fitter than my other competitors. But in the marathon, you are racing your other competitors, but you’re also racing the marathon itself. So it doesn’t matter, what your competitors are doing.”

“I feel fit and I feel healthy. With a marathon, that’s not everything, but those are two big parts of it. So I am happy with that. I’m happy with how training went,” Sisson said.

Getting a Real Olympic Experience

While Sisson made the 2020 Olympic in the 10,000m, she,  like Aliphine Tuliamuk, said she missed out on the traditional Olympic experience because of the Covid protocols.  She’d like to get another shot at it. “Being an Olympian is like the biggest dream,” she said of a goal that started when she watched Olympic gymnastics with her mom as a kid.

“I was so thankful they happened in 2021, but it was definitely a different Olympic experience than Olympics prior. So I’d love to get back there.”

Of Sisson’s 5 marathons, the only one that went poorly was the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta where she dropped out.

Now with some time to reflect, Sisson has a better picture of what she think went wrong. “I think I went too hard in the buildup. I think my body, when I was standing on the start line,  I think I was tired and, and I just didn’t realize it at the time because I was so new to the marathon, I thought it was just so normal to be tired,  but there were things afterwards that I looked back on and there were signs that maybe I’d pushed it too hard in training.”

Sisson has backed off a little in her training this time. “So we did try to focus this time on getting good training in, getting in a good buildup, but just not overdoing it.  I don’t wanna leave my race in training,” she said.

Sisson does believe she can do well in a hilly marathon. If she qualifies for Paris, she’ll get the chance as the Olympic course has a massive uphill heading to Versailles.

(02/02/2024) Views: 500 ⚡AMP
by Weldon Johnson

Molly Seidel withdraws from Olympic Marathon Trials due to injury

Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel announced she is withdrawing from Saturday’s U.S. marathon trials for the Paris Games due to a knee injury.

Seidel, 29, said in a video posted Thursday that she suffered a knee injury a month ago, couldn’t run on it and got an MRI that revealed a broken patella and a partially torn patella tendon.

“I have done everything in my power over this last month to try and get myself to the (starting) line,” she said. “I’ve had just the most incredible physios and doctors doing everything in their power to help me. I’ve been cross-training my (butt) off, but ultimately I got to this week, and my knee had not healed up enough, and I knew that I could not race a marathon hard on it in its current state without really, really injuring myself.”

The trials are Saturday at 10 a.m. ET from Orlando, airing live on Peacock with coverage on NBC, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app at noon.

Four years ago, Seidel placed second in the trials in her marathon debut to make the three-woman Olympic team.

After the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the Tokyo Games by one year, Seidel finished third in the Olympic marathon held in Sapporo.

She became the third U.S. woman to win a marathon medal after Joan Benoit Samuelson, who won the first Olympic women’s marathon in 1984, and Deena Kastor, the 2004 bronze medalist.

After Tokyo, Seidel dealt with a hip injury and anemia, plus took time to focus on mental health after an eating disorder relapse.

Then last Oct. 8, Seidel finished a 26.2-mile race for the first time in two years. She was the second-fastest American woman at the Chicago Marathon, running a personal best and re-establishing herself as a prime candidate to make the Paris team of three at trials.

Seidel is the second contender to withdraw in the lead-up to trials.

Emma Bates, the third-fastest U.S. female marathoner of 2023, bowed out Jan. 7, saying then, “There’s just not enough time to be where I need to be.”

The field still includes three of the four fastest American women in history — American record holder Emily Sisson, former American record holder Keira D’Amato and Sara Hall, No. 4 on the all-time list.

Plus, former Iowa State teammates Betsy Saina (the fastest American in 2023) and Aliphine Tuliamuk (Tokyo Olympic Trials winner).

(02/01/2024) Views: 435 ⚡AMP
by Olympic Talk

U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials unveil huge prize pool

We are less than a week away from one of the most exciting pre-Olympic qualification events: the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials (on Feb. 3). Not only will the top three men and women have the opportunity to represent Team USA in the marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, they will also share a large portion of the USD $600,000 prize pool.

The winners of the men’s and women’s races will each take home $80,000, while the second and third-place finishers will receive prizes of $65,000 and $55,000, respectively. The total prize purse for Orlando 2024 has increased by $120,000 from the $480,000 that was at stake in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta four years ago.

Beyond the top three, the prize money is distributed as follows: $25,000, $20,000, $15,000, $13,000, $11,000, and $9,000 for the fourth through ninth positions. The 10th-place finisher will receive $7,000. The 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials will be broadcast live on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m. ET on Peacock, with additional coverage on NBC at noon from Orlando. The NBC broadcast will also stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app (subscription required).

Last year, USATF and the City of Orlando organizing committee faced some criticism when they initially announced the race would start at noon. Eventually, after pressure from athletes and coaches who were concerned about the heat, the start time was adjusted to 10:10 a.m. ET for the men and 10:20 a.m. for the women. There was also some scrutiny for not announcing prize money earlier. In previous editions, the prize purse was released at least a year before the event.

According to a Runners World article, agents and coaches had feared that the lack of news about the prize purse indicated a potential reduction in payouts for top finishers compared to previous years, but that proved not to be the case.

More than 225 men and 173 women qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. However, the total number of participants will be lower, since only 380 have registered. Since the registration deadline, several qualified athletes have withdrawn due to injury or for other reasons.

(01/30/2024) Views: 475 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

Conner Mantz And Clayton Young Lead Charge At U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

The months leading up to the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials have been anxiety-inducing, but race day is nearly upon us.

From the intense back-and-forth exchanges between the Athlete Advisory Board and the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, to the uncertainty on exactly how many American men will be toeing the line this summer in Paris, the build-up to the trials has been nothing short of newsworthy.

That being said, we are just a few days out of the Trials, and there are certainly a few storylines at play.

The Young Guns

Conner Mantz, 27, and Clayton Young, 30, will step to the line on Saturday as the two fastest men in the field during the qualifying window. Mantz, a two-time national champion while at Brigham Young University, finished sixth at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon back in October. He was the top American and crossed in 2:07:47, which is tied for fourth on the all-time U.S. list.

Young, an NCAA champion himself while also attending BYU, was just a few spots behind his former college teammate and training partner, finishing seventh in 2:08:00, which was good enough for a U.S. No. 7 standing all-time among American men. 

Both of Ed Eyestone's former studs left the 'Windy City' with lifetime bests, and most importantly, unlocked two American spots for Paris 2024.

Following superb performances in Chicago just months ago, the Provo-based training partners would love nothing more than to claim the spots they earned on Saturday and officially punch their ticket to the Olympics.

However, they are both well-aware that nothing is earned in the sport, especially when the marathon is the distance of choice. Both are looking more than prepared, just check out the workout video:

The Veterans

While some of the field is preparing for their first-ever U.S. Olympic Trials, there are more than a few experienced marathoners that have been here before and are accustomed to the pressure.

One of those men is none-other than Galen Rupp, the two-time Olympic medalist and current/former American record holder.

Rupp has run his fair share of marathons, with the 2024 Trials marking his 15th attempt on the brutal race. 

Not only is he a veteran at the distance, but he's also qualified for two Olympic marathons -- Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 -- and competed at the 2022 World Athletics Championship. 

After battling a nagging back injury, Rupp returned to the marathon in October, was one of four Americans under 2:09 and ran 2:08:48 in his return. 

Rupp will see some familiar faces in Orlando, as fellow marathon veterans Sam Chelanga, Scott Fauble and CJ Albertson are all jockeying for a spot as well. 

The 38-year-old Chelanga is coming off a 2:08:50 from the 2023 Chicago Marathon, which shaved over six minutes off of his previous best along the way. 

Fauble's most recent marathon unfortunately ended with a 'DNF', but a seventh-place finish at Boston last year paired with a 2:08:52 personal best from 2020 says he's in the mix as well. 

For Albertson, this will be his fourth marathon since April. After finishing 12th in Boston, he ran and won both the California International Marathon (CIM) and the Baja California California on back-to-back weekends in December, running 2:11:09 and 2:11:08, respectively. 

Any of these four men could see themselves in the final three come Saturday, but despite none of them having the Olympic Standard, they could still snag one of two guaranteed spots thanks to their sub-2:11:30 performances during the qualifying window. And a third auto-spot could get unlocked if an athlete runs 2:08.10 or faster on the day. 

A few of the many notable names to keep an eye out include Elkanah Kibet, Zach Panning, Leonard Korir, and Futsum Zienasellassie.

The gun goes off for the men at 10:10 a.m. EST on Saturday, with the women following close behind at 10:20 a.m. EST. 

You can tune in live on Peacock, with coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. EST, and NBC will begin broadcasting at noon.

(01/30/2024) Views: 515 ⚡AMP
by Maxx Bradley

Lindsay Flanagan And Her Younger Sister Kaylee Are Both Racing The Marathon Trials

In the past 20 months, veteran marathoner Lindsay Flanagan has cut her personal best by 2 minutes, twice. She won the 2022 Gold Coast Marathon in Australia in a course record of 2:24:43. In August, her 2:27:47 run placed her ninth overall, and first American, at the World Championships marathon in Budapest.

But one of her proudest moments came in the wee hours of December 3. Huddled over her phone in Adelaide, Australia—where she’d traveled for a few months to prepare for the upcoming Olympic Marathon Trials—Flanagan repeatedly refreshed the results of the California International Marathon.

Not long after 4 a.m. Lindsay’s time, her younger sister, Kaylee, crossed the finish line in 2:35:24—a nearly five-minute PR and her first Trials qualifying time. “I did not sleep at all that night,” Lindsay said. As both Kaylee’s sibling and her coach, “I was so invested.”

After promising high school running careers in Illinois, both Flanagans (no relation to Shalane) ran at the University of Washington, overlapping for a year. Now, they live across the street from each other in Boulder, Colorado, where they typically share miles at least once if not twice daily. Kaylee cheered Lindsay on in Budapest; afterward, they vacationed in Croatia.

They’ve spent the past few months, uncharacteristically, half a world apart, though Kaylee frequently pops by Lindsay’s house to water plants and make sure the pipes don’t freeze. But they’re reuniting in Florida, lining up together at the Trials.

The Flanagans aren’t the only siblings competing in Orlando on February 3; the field also includes brother and sister Kaylee and Austin Bogina and twins Isabel and Monica Hebner. But they’re unique in also being athlete and coach—Lindsay has guided Kaylee’s training for about two years.

And in her third Trials, Lindsay stands out as a top, if under-the-radar, pick to make the U.S. Team.

The Asics-sponsored runner, 33, does most of her workouts alone. Her coach is remote, and she has no training group or partner capturing evidence for Instagram. Yet out of the limelight, Lindsay has spent nearly a decade preparing for a moment just like this one. “Every workout, every season, every race cycle has been meticulously chosen,” Kaylee, 28, said of her sister. “Trust me, she will be one to watch out for in Orlando.”

A steady ascent

As close as they are, the two sisters forged different paths from college to the Trials. Lindsay made her marathon debut the January after graduating. At the 2015 Houston Marathon, she ran 2:33:12, good for ninth place and a slot in the 2016 Trials. On a hot day in Los Angeles the following February, she paused to vomit around the 21-mile mark, then finished 14th in 2:39:42.

Through 20-some marathons since—so many she’s lost count—she’s gradually, if quietly, established herself. Her next breakthrough came at the 2016 Frankfurt Marathon, where she finished fourth in 2:29:28. She notched top-10 finishes in Boston and Chicago in 2019, and headed into the 2020 Trials ranked 12th. That’s exactly where she finished, running 2:32:05.

Post-pandemic, she was coaching herself but seeking mentorship. Her agent connected her with Benita Willis, a four-time Olympian for Australia and gold medalist at the 2004 World Cross Country Championships. After an hour-long conversation, Lindsay realized she wanted Willis to fully take the reins of her training.

The pair became fast friends, and under Willis’s guidance, Lindsay is now even faster. She first lowered her personal best to 2:26:54 in April 2022 at the Paris Marathon. Next, Willis suggested Lindsay make her first Australian trip to run Gold Coast in July.

The race would give the pair the chance to meet in person for the first time, and with her victory, Lindsay had an opportunity that her coach, a 2:22:36 marathoner, had missed. “I ran big races, but I never won a marathon or broke a course record,” Willis said. “I wanted Lindsay to have that sort of experience well before the Olympic Trials.”

(01/26/2024) Views: 471 ⚡AMP
by Cindy Kuzma

Orlando Unveils 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials Course, Announces Races Will Start at 12:10 and 12:20 pm ET

Just over six months out from race day, organizers revealed the course for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon on Tuesday morning. The race, which will be held on February 3, 2024, in Orlando, Fla., will consist of one 2.2-mile loop through the downtown business district and three 8-mile loops through the city’s Milk District — so-called because it features the headquarters of T.G. Lee Dairy, which has been based in the area for 98 years. It will start and finish at the Walt Disney Amphitheater at Lake Eola Park. None of the course will run through Disney World, which is located to the southeast of the city of Orlando.

Unlike the Paris Olympic marathon course, which features considerable climbing and descending during the middle of the race, the Orlando course is relatively flat, with few small inclines but a variation of just 38 feet (11.6 meters) between the course’s lowest and highest points.

Mid-Day Start Time

Getting the actual course layout is nice but not that significant. We knew the course was going to be mostly flat as Orlando is mostly flat.

Organizers also announced something more significant: the start times for the race. The men will begin at 12:10 p.m. ET with the women to follow at 12:20 p.m. ET. Both races will be shown in their entirety on NBC.

With basically a noon start in Florida, it’s possible the race could be run in quite warm conditions. The debate of the once-rumored but now confirmed 12ish start times has been intense on the LRC forums for over a month now.

A couple of Trials veterans have already shared their thoughts, with Sara Halland Des Linden offering contrasting viewpoints. Hall, who is known to not like racing in hot weather, expressed concern about the heat and the safety of the athletes. She even challenged USATF CEO Max Siegel to run a hot weather marathon this summer.

It must be noted that Orlando has not seen a 90-degree day in February since 1962.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympian Linden had no issue with the start time and thought it could boost her chances of making the team by running smart.

For those interested in what the weather is typically like in Orlando on February 3, here’s a look at the temperature, wind, and dew point at specific times from 2012-22.

If the goal of the Olympic Marathon Trials was for every athlete to run their fastest possible race, obviously it would be better to start the race earlier, but there are other concerns. Television is the reason why the race is being held in the afternoon (there’s not a huge amount of West Coasters watching TV at 5 or 6 a.m. on a Saturday). The 2016 Trials began at 1:06 p.m. ET (10:06 a.m. local in Los Angeles) while the 2020 Trials in Atlanta began at 12:08 p.m. ET. Both races were shown on NBC in their entirety.

The fact is, in professional sports, there are often competing interests — what’s best for the athletes isn’t always what’s best for TV, and someone is going to be unhappy. USATF designed its US championships schedule this year with athletes in mind but the result was that USATF could not get the US outdoor championships shown on NBC. With the Trials, USATF is prioritizing the broadcast on NBC with the athletes a secondary consideration. You can be mad about one of those two things, but not both.

Orlando can be warm in February, no doubt about it — from 2012-22, the average temperature at 2 p.m. on February 3 was 73 degrees. But guess which race also is warm? The Olympic marathon. The Olympic marathons will be held on July 10-11, 2024. On July 10-11 this year, it was 73 degreees at 10 a.m. in Paris, which is when the marathons would be nearing their completion (8 a.m. start times).

In general, we are for athletics to be on live TV so we are fine with the races being scheduled for 12:10 and 12:20. We do believe if the temperatures are truly extreme (say 75 or higher at the start, certainly 80), USATF should move the race up and show it on tape-delay. But if you’re looking for conditions that mirror the Olympic marathon, Orlando in February is not a bad facsimile.

The one big issue we still have is with the new Olympic qualifying system. If you haven’t run under 2:11:30 for the men or 2:29:30 for the women during the qualifying window, you aren’t going to the Olympics even if you are in the top three. We think that’s ridiculous but those are the rules. That’s tough to do in warm weather. While it’s very unlikely someone who hasn’t run at least 2:11:30 or 2:29:30 in the window finishes top three, it could happen in the case of someone just moving up the marathon like Molly Seidel did in 2020 or someone coming back from injury or maternity leave like Kellyn Taylor.

We really wish WA would simply accept the top three from the Trials since the US is sending three per gender most likely no matter what happens, but we’d rather take the small risk that someone without the 2:11:30/2:29:30 times is top three and have the race be on live TV than put it early in the morning. Plus athletes could chase the time up until April 30 and we’d love to see WA have to take the PR hit of someone on the way back from maternity leave having to run a time. Maybe it would finally make them let the spots go to countries as long as the countries hold legitimate trials.

(To cover all our bases, it’s worth noting there’s a small chance on the men’s side that the US has only one or two qualified men’s athletes at the start of the Trials. We’re pretty sure we’ll have at least three but it’s not set in stone and we won’t know for sure until after the fall marathon season is over. If that’s the case, then the start time is more problematic as the US men would either have to hit the 2:08:10 auto standard or run fast enough to raise their world ranking into a qualification spot. If that’s the case and the US men don’t have three spots guaranteed, we think the men’s start time should be moved up and shown on tape delay but keep the women’s race as scheduled).

Talk about the trials on our forum:

(01/21/2024) Views: 550 ⚡AMP
by Let’s Run

47-Year-Old Marathoner to Run Fifth Olympic Trials

Dot McMahan qualified with a 2:35:20 at Grandma’s Marathon, averaging 5:56 per mile pace. 

In the closing miles of the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon, last June in Duluth, Minnesota, Dot McMahan struggled to calculate how close she was to the Olympic Marathon Trials standard. 

“I was just trying to run under 2:37, but you know, math, when you’re running a marathon, isn’t always so good,” she said. 

McMahan was more than fine. In her 20th marathon, she ran 2:35:20, smashing the standard and qualifying for her fifth Olympic Marathon Trials. 

Her coach, Kevin Hanson, of Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, was ecstatic. And so was her husband, Tim, and their 14-year-old daughter, El, who is also a runner. El told her mom when they FaceTimed after the race that she had run her fastest time since turning 40. “She knew all my stats,” McMahan said. “She was over the moon.” 

McMahan, 47, and Des Linden, 40, are thought to be the only female athletes in the field running a fifth marathon trials. McMahan is the oldest women’s qualifier. On the men’s side, Fernando Cabada, 41, has qualified for five marathon trials and is entered in the race. Abdi Abdirahman, a five-time Olympian, is also 47, the oldest in the men’s field. 

It was never a given that McMahan would make a fifth trials, especially after USA Track & Field announced in late 2021 the tougher entry standards for the 2024 race. For the 2020 race, held in Atlanta, women had to run 2:45 to make the Trials. This time around, they had to be 8 minutes faster. 

“I was very supportive of the fact that they needed to make it quicker, for the women, at least,” she said. “It kind of loses its luster if we make it too easy. That said, I think it was a little harder than I [predicted], which was maybe 2:40, 2:39. So 2:37 was like, woah, okay, we’ve got a real goal here. I never assumed that was going to be a walk in the park.” 

McMahan, who was eighth at the Trials in 2008 and ninth in 2012, knows she’s unlikely to finish that close to the front again, unless something unexpected happens in Orlando. While her teammates have moved to Orlando for the month to prepare for potential heat and humidity, McMahan is still training in Rochester Hills, Michigan, where she works as an assistant track coach at nearby Oakland University and has a pet sitting business. (She’s also an online coach with McKirdy Trained.)

And she wants to be home with her family. McMahan’s only warm weather preparations at the moment are the occasional treadmill run. “It’s in a space that we can enclose a little more and turn the heat up,” she said. But simulating humidity “gets a little tricky. You don’t want to grow a bunch of mold in your house.”

That’s typical of the practicality McMahan brings to her training. Her longevity, she says, is a function of doing most of the same hard work she’s always done. She’ll reach 105–110 miles per week at her peak training for a marathon, and she’ll double three or four days per week. She used to run 120. 

“I’ve tapered back a little bit, but I’m still doing the majority of it,” she said of the Hansons-Brooks training. “That’s what it takes.” On January 14, McMahan ran the Houston Half Marathon as a tuneup and finished in 1:16:02, averaging 5:48 pace. She was very happy with the result. 

Hanson said he and McMahan frequently joke that she’s old enough to be the mother to some of the athletes on the team who are fresh out of college. But he notes McMahan’s durability. She has avoided serious injuries. “That’s what becomes career-ending in your 40s,” he said. “In your late 40s, any injury that sets you back sometimes ends things, because it’s just to hard to get back into it.” 

McMahan is practical about other matters, too. 

For one, she refuses to dye her hair. “I do have a considerable amount of gray hair,” she said. “I’m not doing anything about it; I’m just going to let it come in.” Plus, she said, her husband has gray hair. They’d look silly together if she dyed her hair and he didn’t. “We’re aging,” she said. “It’s just life.”

She devotes about an hour to getting ready for her morning runs—warming up, doing mobility exercises, and “making sure things are firing.”

When her pace slows on afternoon recovery runs, she doesn’t dwell on it. On December 26, she did a hard 20-miler. The next day, she was tired, and she had 10 miles in the morning, and 4 miles in the afternoon on the schedule. She did those runs, but she ran them slowly—for her. 

“I think in the past, I would have beat myself up mentally looking at my watch and being like, ‘You’re running 8-minute pace; this is so ridiculous,’” she said. 

Now, she thinks: Are you happy? Are you healthy? Does anything hurt? This is what recovery pace is for you. “I listen to my body, and I don’t get upset thinking it should be a certain pace,” she said. “That’s my concession to age.” 

(01/20/2024) Views: 797 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Ethiopians Jemal Yimer (60:42) and Sutume Kebede (64:37) won the overall titles in Houston Half

In what is becoming an annual tradition, Weini Kelati ran 66:25 on Sunday to break the American record at the 2024 Aramco Houston Half Marathon. It was the third straight year the record was broken in Houston as the 27-year-old Kelati, making her half marathon debut, followed in the footsteps of Sara Hall (67:15 in 2022) and Emily Sisson (66:52 in 2023) to become a record-breaker in Houston. Sunday marked the third time the record had been broken in the past year as Keira D’Amatolowered Sisson’s record to 66:39 at the Asics Half Marathon in Australia in July.

Kelati finished 4th overall as Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede, a late addition to the women’s field, upset Hellen Obiri to win in 64:37, a US all-comers record that moves her into a tie for 9th on the all-time list. The time was a pb of more than three minutes for Kebede, who was previously best known for finishing 3rd at the 2020 Tokyo Marathon and running 2:18:12 at the 2022 Seoul Marathon. Obiri, who was with Kebede through 10k (30:28) faded over the second half and wound up a distant 2nd in 66:07.

The men’s race came down to a five-man sprint finish with Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer, who won in Houston in 2020 and was 4th at the World Half Marathon Championships in October, prevailing in 60:42. Wesley Kiptoo of NAZ Elite and Kenya was 2nd for the second straight year in 60:43 with 2022 champ Milkesa Mengeshaof Ethiopia 3rd in 60:45.

Biya Simbassa was the top American man in 60:45 in 4th, just ahead of a resurgent Diego Estrada, who led for the first 20 minutes and finished 5th in a pb of 60:49. Galen Rupp, tuning up for the Olympic Marathon Trials three weeks from now, hung back from the leaders and finished 14th in 62:37.

In the Chevron Houston Marathon, contested simultaneously, former NAIA star Zouhair Talbi of Morocco won the men’s race in 2:06:39 to boost his chances of Olympic selection. 2016 NCAA XC champion Patrick Tiernan, now training as part of Alistair and Amy Cragg’s Puma Elite Running team in North Carolina, was 4th in 2:07:45, hitting the Olympic standard and moving to #2 on the all-time Australian marathon list.

Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa, the runner-up behind American Betsy Saina in September’s Sydney Marathon, won the women’s marathon in Houston in 2:19:33.

The races featured temperatures in the low 40s with 10 mph winds and gusts up to 17 mph, which made for a challenging end to the half marathon as miles 9, 10, and 11 were run directly into the teeth of the wind.

Below, six takeaways from the day’s racing in Houston.

2024 Houston Half Marathon men’s top 51. 60:42 Jemal Yimer, Ethiopia2. 60:43 Wesley Kiptoo, Kenya3. 60:45 Milkesa Mengesha, Ethiopia4. 60:45 Biya Simbassa, USA5. 60:49 Diego Estrada, USA14. 62:37 Galen Rupp, USA

2024 Houston Half Marathon women’s top 51. 64:37 Sutume Kebede, Ethiopia2. 66:07 Hellen Obiri, Kenya3. 66:24 Buze Diriba, Ethiopia4. 66:25 AR Weini Kelati, USA5. 67:36 Mestawut Fikir, Ethiopia

(01/14/2024) Views: 544 ⚡AMP
by Jonathan Gault (Let’s Run)

Hellen Obiri faces tough field in Boston Marathon title defence

Hellen Obiri will defend her Boston Marathon title on April 15 in what the organizers say is the strongest elite women's field in the history of the race.

However, Obiri faces a Herculean task in a race where 19 athletes have personal bests under 2:23:00 including Olympians, World Marathon Majors winners and national stars.

Obiri, a two-time Olympic 5000m silver medalist — now living in Colorado, USA — won the 2023 edition thanks to a perfectly-timed sprint in the final kilometer.

Obiri who has been named in Kenya’s marathon team for Paris Olympics is also the New York City Marathon champion.

“I am excited to return to the 2024 Boston Marathon to try to defend my title,” said Obiri, who finished last year’s race in 2:21:38.

“Boston is an historic race and I would like to add my name further to its history on April 15. Winning such a historic marathon with my family waiting at the finish line was an amazing experience.”

A trifecta of Ethiopians with lifetime bests under 2:18:00 will take to the Boston course.

Worknesh Degefa, the 2019 Boston Marathon champion, returns, while 2:17:36 marathoner Tadu Teshome will make her Boston debut. Hiwot Gebremaryam aims to improve on her eighth-place finish last year.

World championships medallist Senbere Teferi who won the 2022 B.A.A. 5K in a course record of 14:49 is also in the mix.

Experienced marathoner Ababel Yeshaneh –second in 2022 and fourth in 2023— will try to become the seventh woman from Ethiopia to win the olive wreath in Boston.

Joining Obiri from Kenya are 2022 World Athletics Championships Marathon silver medalist Judith Korir, two-time Boston Marathon winner Edna Kiplagat, four-time top-ten finisher Mary Ngugi-Cooper and 2022 New York City Marathon champion Sharon Lokedi.

Helah Kiprop, who holds a silver medal in the marathon from the 2015 World Athletics Championships and has earned wins in Tokyo, Copenhagen and Paris, makes her second career Boston start. From Morocco is 2023 world marathon bronze medalist Fatima Gardadi.

Desiree Linden leads the American contingent six years after winning the title. Linden has finished in the top-five five times and holds the third-fastest time by an American ever on the Hopkinton-to-Boston route (2:22:38).

Linden will run her fifth U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February. Joining her is Emma Bates, who finished fifth last year in the second-fastest time ever by an American woman at Boston (2:22:10).

“At this point in my career it’s an easy decision to return to the Boston Marathon and make it my top priority race of the spring,” said Linden.

“I can’t wait to take on the iconic course for an 11th time and have the opportunity to mix it up with some of the best runners in the world.”

Jack Fleming, President and CEO of the Boston Athletic Association said: “The Boston Marathon is proud to showcase the world’s best athletes year in and year out on Patriots’ Day.”

“This year’s women’s field is exceptionally fast and showcases many who’ve been podium finishers on the global stage. It’ll make for an exciting race from Hopkinton to Boston, and we look forward to crowning our champions on April 15,” he added.

(01/12/2024) Views: 502 ⚡AMP
by Angwenyi Gichana

Emma Bates Withdraws from Olympic Marathon Trials 2024

Emma Bates was widely considered a top contender to make the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon this year. But over the weekend, she announced she won’t be lining up at the Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, Florida, on February 3.

Bates, 31, tore her plantar fascia during October’s Chicago Marathon. On December 12, she posted that she had been healing well and was back to running on the ground for an hour at a time when she developed another injury, posterior tibial tendonitis.

And in a tearful Instagram video posted Saturday night, Bates said that while she had returned to workouts with her Boulder-based training group, Team Boss, “we just know that there’s not enough time to be where I need to be.”

Bates’ personal best of 2:22:10 at the 2023 Boston Marathon, where she placed fifth, was the third-fastest time by an American last year.

She headed into Chicago in the fall with high hopes—saying she was in shape to run 2:18 to 2:19 pace—but stepped in a pothole around mile 14. She finished 13th in 2:25:04 and left the finish line in a wheelchair. A week after the race, an MRI revealed a torn plantar fascia.

She put on a boot and began cross-training on the bike, knowing the buildup to the Trials wouldn’t be easy. With the new setback last month, she and coach Joe Bosshard decided it simply wouldn’t be possible.

Bates, a 2014 NCAA champion in the 10,000 meters at Boise State University, won her marathon debut and the USATF Marathon Championships with a 2:28:18 at the 2018 California International Marathon and has steadily improved since. In her second marathon, the 2019 Chicago Marathon, she finished fourth in 2:25:27.

Those performances made her a contender for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, where she ran 2:29:35 to place seventh. But her next big breakthrough was around the corner. On a hot, humid day at the 2021 Chicago Marathon, she ran a personal-best 2:24:20 to place second.

And in 2022, she was part of a trio of Americans who produced top-10 finishes at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon—she was seventh in 2:23:18, between Sara Hall (fifth in 2:22:10) and Keira D’Amato (eighth in 2:23:34).

Bates was clearly disappointed not to line up with the likes of Hall and D’Amato again in Orlando; “this one hurts a lot,” she wrote.

“It’s another four years to wait for another Olympic team,” she said in the accompanying video. “I’ll be OK. I’ll be OK.”

(01/11/2024) Views: 577 ⚡AMP
by Cindy Kuzma

Strongest Women’s Field in the race history at Boston Marathon 2024

The 128th Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America will feature the strongest women’s field in race history, led by defending champions Hellen Obiri and Susannah Scaroni. A total of 19 women with personal bests under 2:23:00 will line up in Hopkinton aiming to earn the Open Division crown, including Olympians, Abbott World Marathon Majors winners, and national stars. In the Wheelchair and Para Athletics Divisions, Paralympic hopefuls from around the world are set to compete.

“The Boston Marathon is proud to showcase the world’s best athletes year in and year out on Patriots’ Day,” said Jack Fleming, President and CEO of the Boston Athletic Association. “This year’s women’s field is exceptionally fast and showcases many who’ve been podium finishers on the global stage. It’ll make for an exciting race from Hopkinton to Boston, and we look forward to crowning our champions on April 15.”

Women from 20 countries will be competing as part of the Bank of America Professional Athlete Team.

“Each year, the Boston Marathon sets the bar higher with an unbelievable level of athletic talent, and its impact on communities around the world,” said David Tyrie, chief digital officer and chief marketing officer, Bank of America. “The 128th Boston Marathon builds on a rich history and will continue to be an inspiration for all athletes.”

HELLEN OBIRI SET TO DEFEND OPEN DIVISION TITLE

Hellen Obiri, a two-time Olympic silver medalist from Kenya now living in Colorado, won the 2023 Boston Marathon thanks to a perfectly-timed sprint in the final mile. Adding to her trophy case, Obiri also took home the 2023 B.A.A. 10K title in June and the TCS New York City Marathon crown in November.

“I am excited to return to the 2024 Boston Marathon to try to defend my title,” said Obiri, who finished last year’s race in 2:21:38. “Boston is an historic race and I would like to add my name further to its history on April 15. Winning such an historic marathon with my family waiting at the finish line was an amazing experience.”

A trifecta of Ethiopians with lifetime bests under 2:18:00 will take to the Boston course. Worknesh Degefa, the 2019 Boston Marathon champion, returns, while 2:17:36 marathoner Tadu Teshome will make her Boston debut and Hiwot Gebremaryam aims to improve upon her eighth-place finish last year. Also from Ethiopia is World championships medalist Senbere Teferi; she won the 2022 B.A.A. 5K in a course record 14:49 and has shown talent at the longer distances. Experienced marathoner Ababel Yeshaneh –second in 2022 and fourth in 2023— will try to become the seventh woman from Ethiopia to win the olive wreath in Boston.

Joining Obiri from Kenya are 2022 World Athletics Championships Marathon silver medalist Judith Korir; two-time Boston Marathon winner Edna Kiplagat; four-time top-ten finisher Mary Ngugi-Cooper; and 2022 TCS New York City Marathon champion Sharon Lokedi. Helah Kiprop, who holds a silver medal in the marathon from the 2015 World Athletics Championships and has earned wins in Tokyo, Copenhagen, and Paris, makes her second career Boston start. From Morocco is 2023 World Athletics Championships Marathon bronze medalist Fatima Gardadi.

Desiree Linden leads the American contingent six years after winning the 2018 title. Linden has finished in the top-five five times, and holds the third fastest time by an American ever on the Hopkinton-to-Boston route (2:22:38). Linden will run her fifth U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February. Joining her is Emma Bates who finished fifth last year in the second-fastest time ever by an American woman at Boston (2:22:10).

“At this point in my career it’s an easy decision to return to the Boston Marathon and make it my top priority race of the spring,” said Linden. “I can’t wait to take on the iconic course for an 11th time and have the opportunity to mix it up with some of the best runners in the world.” 

128TH BOSTON MARATHON PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S FIELDS

 Women’s Open Division

Country

Personal Best

Worknesh Degefa

ETH

2:15:51 (Valencia, 2023)

Tadu Teshome

ETH

2:17:36 (Valencia, 2022)

Hiwot Gebremaryam

ETH

2:17:59 (Valencia, 2023)

Judith Korir

KEN

2:18:20 (Eugene, 2022)

Meseret Belete

ETH

2:18:21 (Amsterdam, 2023)

Tiruye Mesfin

ETH

2:18:47 (Valencia, 2022)

Worknesh Edesa

ETH

2:18:51 (Berlin, 2022)

Zeineba Yimer

ETH

2:19:07 (Berlin 2023)

Senbere Teferi

ETH

2:19:21 (Berlin, 2023)

Dera Dida

ETH

2:19:24 (Berlin, 2023)

Edna Kiplagat

KEN

2:19:50 (London, 2012)*

Mary Ngugi-Cooper

KEN

2:20:22 (London, 2022)

Nazret Weldu Gebrehiwet

ERI

2:20:29 (Eugene) NR

Ababel Yeshaneh

ETH

2:20:51 (Chicago, 2019)

Vibian Chepkirui

KEN

2:20:59 (Vienna, 2022)

Helah Kiprop

KEN

2:21:27 (Tokyo, 2016)

Hellen Obiri

KEN

2:21:38 (Boston, 2023)

Emma Bates

USA

2:22:10 (Boston, 2023)

Desiree Linden

USA

2:22:38 (Boston, 2011)*

Buze Diriba

ETH

2:23:11 (Toronto, 2023)

Sharon Lokedi

KEN

2:23:23 (New York City, 2022)

Malindi Elmore

CAN

2:23:30 (Berlin, 2023)*

Fatima Gardadi

MOR

2:24:12 (Xiamen, 2024)

Angie Orjuela

COL

2:25:35 (Berlin, 2023) NR

Fabienne Konigstein

GER

2:25:48 (Hamburg, 2023)

Jackie Gaughan

USA

2:27:08 (Berlin, 2023)

Dominique Scott

RSA

2:27:31 (Chicago, 2023)

Grace Kahura

KEN

2:29:00 (Sacramento, 2023)

Katie Kellner

USA

2:32:48 (Berlin, 2023)

Briana Boehmer

USA

2:33:20 (Sacramento, 2021)

Dylan Hassett

IRL

2:33:25 (Pulford, 2021)

Parley Hannan

USA

2:33:43 (Carmel, 2023)

Sara Lopez

USA

2:33:48 (Eugene, 2023)

Annie Heffernan

USA

2:34:33 (Lowell, 2023)

Nera Jareb

AUS

2:35:00 (Queensland, 2022)*

Johanna Backlund

SWE

2:35:10 (Hamburg, 2019)

Argentina Valdepenas Cerna

MEX

2:35:34 (Chicago, 2022)*

Ariane Hendrix Roach

USA

2:35:39 (Sacramento, 2022)

Michelle Krezonoski

CAN

2:36:39 (Sacramento, 2022)

Shannon Smith

USA

2:36:43 (Columbus, 2023)

Caroline Williams

USA

2:37:01 (Sacramento, 2022)

Gina Rouse

USA

2:37:10 (Sacramento, 2023)*

Kim Krezonoski

CAN

2:37:20 (Sacramento, 2022)

Abigail Corrigan

USA

2:37:45 (Sacramento, 2023)

Marissa Lenger

USA

2:38:41 (Chicago, 2022)

Emilee Risteen

USA

2:38:46 (Duluth, 2023)

Isabelle Pickett

AUS

2:38:46 (Valencia, 2023)

Allie Hackett

USA

2:38:52 (Duluth, 2023

Mary Christensen

USA

2:38:55 (Big Bear, 2023)

Olivia Anger

USA

2:39:13 (Indianapolis, 2023)

April Lund

USA

2:39:23 (Houston, 2022)*

Sarah Short

AUS

2:39:51 (Valencia, 2023)

Maura Lemon

USA

2:40:30 (Valley Cottage, 2023)

Sarah Sibert

USA

2:40:31 (Philadelphia, 2022)

Lauren Ames

USA

2:40:34 (Valley Cottage, 2023)

Kassie Harmon

USA

2:41:48 (Utah Valley, 2023)*

Elizabeth Camy

USA

2:42:51 (Sacramento, 2022)*

Alexandra Niles

USA

2:43:23 (Hartford, 2022)*

Amber Morrison

USA

2:43:50 (Sacramento, 2022)*

Mindy Mammen

USA

2:44:01 (Duluth, 2023)*

Ziyang Liu

USA

2:44:56 (Eugene, 2023)*

*Denotes Masters Division (40+)

(01/10/2024) Views: 536 ⚡AMP

Philadelphia Marathon finisher’s Olympic dreams shattered after water bottle rule violation

A formal complaint from a race official brought attention to the water bottle infraction, disqualifying Ethan Hermann from the results.

In running, seconds can make or break dreams. The 2023 Philadelphia Marathon brought a mix of triumph and heartbreak, especially for one of the top American men’s finishers, Ethan Hermann.

The Philadelphia native finished the marathon in sixth overall, running an impressive 2:17:03 in his debut marathon, nearly a minute under the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying mark of 2:18:00. However, hours after Hermann crossed the finish line, his dreams were shattered when his result was disqualified due to his coach handing him a water bottle at a water station.

According to Citius Mag, which first reported the story, Hermann’s coach, in a well-intentioned act of support, handed him a water bottle at a water station. However, according to USATF rules, because Hermann did not personally grab the bottle, it constituted a violation due to the “inequality of resources offered to athletes.”

Hermann’s time has been removed from the official Philadelphia Marathon results, and it will not count for the 2024 Olympic Trials qualification.

Speaking to Citius Mag about the situation, Hermann said he does not fully agree with the rule, but understands it. “I just have to learn from it and move forward, and take on the next challenge in time,” he said. Despite the disqualification, Hermann remains positive about his result, stating, “I’m at peace and walking away knowing that my mission of qualifying for the Olympic Trials was accomplished–even if the start list will say otherwise.”

A formal complaint from a race official brought attention to Hermann’s infraction, leaving race organizers in a challenging position, due to the specificity of the USATF Competition Rule 144. “No competitor taking part in competition shall be allowed, without the permission of the Referee or Judges, to receive assistance or refreshment from anyone during the progress of the competition.”

“I had a special day and ran my heart and legs out, but I was not as educated as I thought about everything. Not all the right things happened the way they needed to, and I was ultimately given a disqualification from the race,” wrote Hermann.

The bottle rule only applies to USATF races and U.S. athletes. At the 2022 Berlin Marathon, the notorious Bottle Claus helped Eliud Kipchoge lower the marathon world record to 2:01:09 at the time, personally handing him bottles at every water station.

In a world where one false start results in automatic disqualification and triathletes face penalties for rule violations, the severity of Hermann’s case has been questioned on social media. What is the time value of a water bottle handed to a runner throughout a marathon? And how much time does it save a marathoner compared to picking it up from the elite table?

A hashtag #FreeEthan has been pushed by Citius Mag and the U.S. running community to permit Hermann to run at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials scheduled for Feb. 4 in Orlando, Fla.

(11/22/2023) Views: 694 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon: elite women’s and men’s preview

For the first time in the 34-year history of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the race has reached over 25,000 runners. Toronto has established itself as Canada’s premier marathon and has set a precedent in the global running community, with participants coming from 78 countries around the world for the marathon on Sunday, Oct. 15.

The elite field at the 2023 edition of the marathon looks significantly different from last year, and two new champions will be crowned on the men’s and women’s sides, as Ethiopia’s Yihunilign Adane and Kenya’s Antonina Kwamboi will not be returning. The 2023 elite field features up-and-coming stars, along with several American women aiming to achieve the Olympic standard of 2:26:50 ahead of the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials in February.

The race will also determine two new Canadian marathon champions, with compelling storylines on both the men’s and women’s sides.

Women’s race

Will we see an American winner?

It has been 22 years since an American woman last won the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon (Leslie Gold in 2001) but in this year’s field, two American elites could possibly end the drought. One of them, Emily Durgin, a road racing specialist based out of Flagstaff, Ariz. came to Toronto looking for redemption after a less-than-ideal marathon debut in NYC last year.

Durgin said during Friday’s elite press conference that she felt the pressure to hit times and perform during her debut and ended up dropping out of the race before 30 km. “I learned a lot from New York and my build for Toronto has been different,” said Durgin. “As for a goal time, I want to run in the low 2:20s and be competitive.” The 29-year-old marathoner hopes to use Toronto as a stepping stone for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2024 in Orlando. Durgin was able to qualify for the trials from her time at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon where she finished 6th overall, clocking the seventh-fastest half-marathon in U.S. history with 67:54. “I came to Toronto to be competitive and contend for the the podium, as that’s what it will take to qualify at trials come February,” she said.

Another U.S. name in the women’s elite field to watch is Molly Grabill, who is running her sixth career marathon in Toronto on Sunday. Grabill told the media that she has similar plans to her compatriot Durgin and hopes to bounce back after, in her words, falling short of her goals in her last marathon in Hamburg earlier this year. Although Grabill ran the second-fastest marathon time of her career in Hamburg, she said she was disappointed as she took a swing and missed, struggling in the second half. “The goal in Toronto is to control the second half of the race better and gain strong momentum heading into the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials,” said Grabill. The 31-year-old from Boulder, Colo., is coming off a top-15 finish in 69:53 at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, earlier this month, which she says has given her a lot of confidence for Sunday.

Eyes on the course record?

Outside of the American duo, two other international athletes to watch are the Ethiopian duo of Afera Godfay and 2023 Ottawa Marathon champion Waganesh Mekasha. For Godfay, Toronto is her first marathon in three years after giving birth to her daughter. Her last marathon came in 2020 when she ran 2:26:43 to place third overall at the Xiamen Marathon in China. In her first two races back since becoming a mother, Godfay has run respectable half marathon times of 70 and 71 minutes but has not yet returned to her previous form. She said at Friday’s press conference that she hopes to come through the half mark in 1:11 and feels well-prepared for her marathon return. A glimpse of hope for Godfay is that she currently trains alongside the new women’s world record holder Tigist Assefa in Ethiopia. So, who knows what she is capable of?

The favourite in the women’s race is Mekasha, who is coming off a win in the scorching heat at the 2023 Ottawa Marathon in May. Mekasha is targeting the Canadian all-comers’ women’s marathon record on Sunday of 2:22:16, set four years ago by Kenya’s Magdalyne Masai at this race. Mekasha holds a personal best of 2:22:45 from the 2019 Dubai Marathon and said that she expects around a similar time on Sunday. “If the pacemaker runs a good pace, I hope to break the course record,” says Mekasha.

The Canadian contingent

Two of the top three Canadians from last year’s race have returned to the 2023 field, with Malindi Elmore, the reigning Canadian marathon champion, opting to run Berlin, where she clocked the second-fastest time in Canadian history (2:23:30). Returning are second and third place Canadian finishers Dayna Pidhoresky and Toronto’s own Sasha Gollish. Pidhoresky had an iconic moment here in 2019, when she raced just under the Olympic standard at the Canadian trials, winning in 2:29:03–qualifying her for the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Although the Olympic marathon didn’t go as planned for Pidhoresky, she was able to bounce back at this event last year to place seventh overall (second Canadian) in 2:30:58. 

“Growing up in Windsor, Ont., I came to Toronto for so many races,” said Pidhoresky on tackling on her fourth Toronto Waterfront Marathon. “I feel I know the course very well, which is helpful in a marathon, and it’s great to have a high-quality field that’s close to home.” Pidhoresky told the media that this build has not been smooth but she is still confident she can run a personal best Sunday. “This course is advantageous, and I need to be smart and just run my race,” she said.

It is a similar story for Gollish, who is running in her second consecutive TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, less than eight weeks after her last marathon at the 2023 World Championships in August. Gollish told Canadian Running at the press conference that she wants to go into this race with a similar mindset that she had in Budapest. “It feels like a privilege to be here, and I am not putting any pressure of a personal best on myself,” says Gollish. “For the longest time, I avoided this race because I felt there would be pressure to perform, but why not run something in your backyard fuelled by a community that has done so much for me?” Last year, Gollish surprised herself with a personal best time of 2:31:40 after a short marathon build. Could she do the same on Sunday?

A few other Canadian marathoners to watch are Emily Setlack, Toronto’s Liza Howard and Kim Krezonoski of Thunder Bay, Ont. It has been four years since Setlack has last touched the marathon, but with a personal best of 2:29:48 from the 2019 edition of this race, her potential to finish as the top Canadian should not be ignored. Setlack has had a quiet 2023 season but has strung together solid performances, winning Toronto’s historic Sporting Life 10K and placing eighth overall at the Canadian 10K Championships in May.

Howard has a personal best of 2:35:29 (Chicago 2022) and was the top Canadian finisher at the 2023 Boston Marathon (37th overall) in cold, wet and windy conditions. Krezonoski moved to Toronto within the last year and has been studying the course thoroughly in the hope of crushing her marathon personal best come Sunday. She ran her personal best of 2:37 at the California International Marathon last year but has dropped her half-marathon PB by nearly four minutes since. The spots on the domestic podium are up for grabs, and each of these three women could break through. 

Men’s race

The rise of Elvis 

The absence of Adane opens the door for several East African men hoping to establish their marathon careers in Toronto. One of these men is Kenya’s Elvis Kipchoge, who may already lay claim to the title of the best running name. This Kipchoge is a little less well-known than the former world record holder but boasts a faster half marathon personal best of 59:15, which earned him third place at the 2022 Barcelona Half Marathon. However, this Kipchoge has not had much luck in the marathon. At the young age of 27, he ran 2:10:21 at the Vienna Marathon earlier this year. He hopes to turn things around on a fast and flat Toronto course. Kipchoge has ties to the race, training alongside women’s course record holder Magdalyne Masai in Iten, Kenya. 

While there is no relation between Elvis and Eliud Kipchoge, besides sharing the same last name and initials, Ethiopian athlete Adugna Bikila hopes to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, Worku Bikila. Worku was a world-class 5,000m runner who finished sixth in the 1992 Olympic 5,000m final in Barcelona and took fourth place at the World Championships the following year. Bikila enters Toronto with the fastest time in the field, holding a personal best of 2:05:52 from the 2022 Seville Marathon, where he finished fourth.

All the East African men will be aiming to break the Canadian all-comers record and course record of 2:05:00, held by Kenya’s Philemon Rono, set in 2019. The weather forecast for Sunday indicates cool and favourable conditions for both the men’s and women’s fields, which should make both course records vulnerable.

Who’s next for Canada?

A new men’s Canadian champion will be crowned Sunday, and for the first time since 2016, their last name will not be Levins or Hofbauer. The 2023 men’s field is full of up-and-coming Canadian talent on the precipice of breaking into the elite scene. Mississauga’s Sergio Raez Villanueva returns to Toronto after a stunning 2:18:04 debut last year, which earned him top-five Canadian honours. Challenging Raez Villanueva is Ottawa’s Blair Morgan, who was the second Canadian at the hot and humid Ottawa Marathon in May, running 2:19:50. Morgan ran his personal best of 2:18:29 at the 2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon but is looking for a sub-2:18 result this time around.  

Challenging Raez Villanueva and Morgan are debutants Thomas Broatch of Vancouver and 4:01 miler Kyle Grieve. Broatch is coming off a win at the Vancouver Eastside 10K where he beat three-time Toronto champion Trevor Hofbauer. “Winning the Eastside 10K was a huge confidence booster for me,” says Broatch. “Whenever you take the start line the objective is to win and run fast.” The 24-year-old software engineer told Canadian Running that he has ambitious goals to run under 2:15 on Sunday and that his marathon build has gone near perfect.

For Grieve, who grew up and still resides in Toronto, this marathon has always been on his bucket list. “I’ve been wanting to try a marathon for a few years and have just kept putting it off,” says Grieve, who got married in the summer. “Canada Running Series is a big reason I am still competing today, so it was never a question of where I wanted to run my first marathon.” His goal is to be competitive against a strong Canadian field and let the time come along with it.

How to watch?

Marathon fans from around the world will have the opportunity to watch the 2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon live on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET with a pre-race introduction followed by the introduction of the elite field. The gun for the men’s and women’s elite field fires at 8:45 a.m. ET. All race action can be followed on torontowaterfrontmarathon.com or CBCsports.ca /CBC Gem or AthleticsCanada.tv.

(10/14/2023) Views: 610 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

Galen Rupp: Healthy Again After Two Rough Years

The past two years have been the most difficult of Galen Rupp’s career. 

The four-time Olympian’s racing in 2022 and the first nine months of 2023 have included a mix of subpar results and DNFs. The last time he finished a marathon was July 2022, when he ran 2:09:36 at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and finished 19th. Cameras caught him walking for short stretches during the final miles of the race. Last November, he started the New York City Marathon but dropped out before 18 miles. At the NYC Half in March this year, which was the last time he raced, Rupp was 17th in 1:04:57. 

You’d have to go back to October 2021, when he finished second at the Chicago Marathon in 2:06:35, that he last had a result he was happy about. 

Now, Rupp, 37, is back on the starting line at Chicago, having overhauled his mechanics and having spent the past two months away from Portland, Oregon, where he lives, and training in Flagstaff, Arizona, where his coach, Mike Smith, lives. For the first time in several years, Rupp is free of the back pain that had plagued him. He spoke to reporters at a press conference in Chicago. Here’s what we learned: 

He was in pain just walking around last summer

After last year’s world championships, Rupp tried to push through the pain for his New York City Marathon buildup, but it didn’t work. Smith told Rupp that he needed to get fully healthy before he could start training again. 

The NYC Marathon “was a really big wakeup call,” Rupp said, calling himself “hard-headed” in his attempt to run it, just getting through one workout at a time. “For a long time I was just surviving,” he said. “You can’t do that as an elite athlete.” 

He’s been working on mechanics…

Rupp has been rebuilding his form, which he thinks was thrown off after his back injury. He’s been working with a team of therapists and running mechanics experts to fix what he called the “terrible” form he had in New York City last year. “That’s been the biggest thing I’ve been addressing,” he said. “I’ve got to clean that stuff up. It takes a lot of time. Running is such a repetitive motion. If you’re doing things a little funky or off, it starts to engrain in there. This past year, I’ve been trying to undo that.” 

When pressed for specifics, Rupp cited the positioning of his hips, and how his left foot interacted with the ground. “My whole body was twisted up, in a nutshell,” he said. 

…but now he’s training well

Rupp said his buildup has gone about as well as the one he did before Chicago two years ago and he’s returned to his previous volume, which at times has been 130 miles per week with 25-mile long runs. He was vague about his goals for Sunday, saying during the press conference portion of the day, “Above all else, I really just want to have a real solid race here.”

He’s unclear what role, if any, Alberto Salazar will have in his training going forward

Alberto Salazar, Rupp’s former coach with the Nike Oregon Project, was banned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for 4 years in September 2019 for anti-doping violations. Subsequently, Salazar was banned permanently by the U.S. Center SafeSport for sexual misconduct. 

Rupp was asked if he would use Salazar in a consulting role going forward. 

“I’m not really going to get into that too much,” he said. “I am looking forward to having a personal relationship with [Salazar] going forward, but I’ve got to figure out what exactly the rules are. Things have been going good with Mike. It’s been a great buildup in Flagstaff. I’ve had enough to worry about getting ready for this race. I’ve been focusing on my training.”

He has no problem with the announced noon start at the Olympic Marathon Trials 

Rupp said he is not a morning person, and whatever the weather conditions are like at the Trials, scheduled for noon on February 3, 2024, in Orlando, he’ll be ready. “That’s the one thing I absolutely hate about road running and the marathon. I’d rather run at 11 or 12 than 7 in the morning,” he said. 

He also has no problem with the current Olympic marathon qualifications system, in which runners can “unlock” spots for their countries, based on running a qualifying time, finishing top 5 in a World Marathon Major, or being high enough in the world rankings. 

But if an athlete unlocks a spot, he or she does not automatically get it. In the U.S., those spots go to the top three finishers of the Olympic Marathon Trials. 

Rupp hasn’t paid much attention to it. 

“The Trials to me has always come down to getting it done on that day,” he said. “You’ve got to get in the top three. That’s the way it’s always been. That pressure is a great thing. I learned at a young age, having to go through that process, about getting it right on that day, being ready and mentally dealing with all that pressure. I think it has served me well when I got to the Olympics.” 

He has two Olympic medals to prove it. 

He thinks he has several more years ahead of him. 

Rupp isn’t giving thought to retiring any time soon. He hopes to get to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, when his kids—he has 9-year-old twins and a 7- and 4-year-old—would be old enough to remember and appreciate it. 

He doesn’t feel like age right now is a limiting factor. Staying healthy is. 

“I truly believe, especially with the marathon, you can keep doing this well into your 40s,” he said. “A lot of it comes down to your health and how you’re moving. I really feel good about where I’m at.”

He also said he doesn’t lack for motivation, even after two Olympic medals and a Chicago Marathon title in 2017. He still enjoys getting the most out of himself as he can. 

“I love movement, training, all that,” he said. “I love the journey of getting ready for races. That fire burns as hot as ever.” 

(10/08/2023) Views: 779 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon extends warm welcome to canceled Twin Cities Marathon athletes

The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is extending a helping hand to several elite runners who were affected by the last-minute heat cancellation of the 2023 Twin Cities Marathon last Sunday.

Although Canada’s largest marathon had been sold out for months, marking the first time in the race’s history that the marathon has reached full capacity this early. There ended up being several withdrawals in the men’s and women’s elite fields two weeks before the Oct. 15 race day.

Jim Estes, the manager of the elite program at the Twin Cities Marathon, reached out to TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon race director Alan Brookes, exploring the possibility of accommodating some of the elite runners. Brookes shared that he and Jim have a close relationship and have worked on elite teams at Chicago and Houston marathons. “We ended up extending three spots to athletes who did not get the chance to run the marathon in Minnesota,” says Brookes.

This period is crucial for U.S. marathoners, as many are shooting to qualify for U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando next February. The fall marathon season represents a final opportunity to secure a qualification spot there or to chase an Olympic qualifying time of 2:08:10 (men) and 2:26:50 (women) before the trials.

Toronto was not the only marathon to offer invitations. The McKirdy Micro Marathon in Valley Cottage, N.Y., the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon have also offered spaces in their elite fields for athletes originally slated to compete in Twin Cities.

The Twin Cities Marathon was set to host nearly 8,000 runners on Oct. 1 but ended up being abruptly canceled just two hours before its 7 a.m. start due to soaring temperatures. Despite the short notice, many runners who had traveled to Minnesota decided to go ahead with their race on their own. The temperature in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minn., reached a high of 27 C (80 F) by 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Eli Asch, the race director of Twin Cities, defended their decision to cancel the race in an interview with Runners World, stating, “We saved lives.” However, Asch did not confirm whether the race would provide refunds or offer credits to the 20,000 registered participants but said the race’s intention is to be “as generous as possible.”

(10/06/2023) Views: 563 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

Scott Fauble Is Aiming for the Olympic Standard at Berlin Marathon

Fauble will hope to become first American man to hit 2:08:10 Olympic standard in Sunday’s race

Scott Fauble was not planning on running a fall marathon in 2023. On April 17, he finished 7th at the Boston Marathon to earn top American honors — just as he did in Boston and New York in 2022. His time of 2:09:44 represented the fourth sub-2:10 of his career, making him just the seventh American to accomplish that feat after Ryan Hall, Galen Rupp, Meb Keflezighi, Khalid Khannouchi, Alberto Salazar, and Mbarak Hussein. In previous years, a top-10 finish at a World Marathon Major counted as an automatic qualifying standard for the Olympic marathon; Fauble, with three straight top-10 finishes on his resume, figured he was in good position for Paris and could shift his focus to the US Olympic Trials in February 2024.

But the Olympic qualifying system for 2024 is far more complicated than in previous years, with ever-shifting world rankings and things like “quota reallocation places” creating confusion among fans and athletes alike. Any athlete ranked in the top 65 of the filtered “Road to Paris” list on January 30, 2024, is considered qualified…except the “Road to Paris” list does not currently exist. After Boston, Fauble, who is currently ranked 122nd* — that’s in the world rankings, which is a different list than “Road to Paris” — tried to take a closer look at where he stood, creating spreadsheets and projecting where he might rank after accounting for time qualifiers, the three-athlete-per-country limit, and potential changes after the 2023 fall marathon season. After a while, his brain began to hurt.

“I felt like the Pepe Silvia meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” Fauble said. “…It was like, this is complicated and stressful and I can just get the standard. This doesn’t need to be an issue.”

That is why Fauble, begrudgingly, made the decision to run the Berlin Marathon. He was not initially looking forward to the race, but with a strong training block in Boulder behind him and the race just four days away, he has changed his tune.

“I’m very excited,” Fauble said. “I wasn’t planning on doing a fall marathon after Boston and I had to figure out ways to get excited for it and I think that’s one of the things that has fired me up, actually seeing how fast I can go and pushing for a PR as opposed to letting the race play out and seeing what I can do.”

Chasing a time is a dramatically different approach to Fauble’s typical marathon M.O. Of the nine marathons he has run, only two have featured pacemakers: his debut in Frankfurt in 2017, and the Marathon Project in 2020. When Fauble runs Boston and New York, the hilly courses where he has found the greatest success, he does not enter with a goal time in mind. Instead, Fauble will wait until the race begins and assess a number of factors — the weather, how he’s feeling, how fast the other runners are going — before deciding which pace to run. Typically, that has led to Fauble letting the leaders go early and picking off stragglers as they fade over the second half of the race.

Berlin will be different. There are no hills to account for, and while Fauble will still fight for every place, he is not hiding the fact that the primary goal of this race is to hit a time. Specifically, the Olympic standard of 2:08:10. Only five Americans have ever bettered that time in history, but Fauble, who ran his personal best of 2:08:52 in Boston in 2022, believes he is capable of doing it.

“I don’t think that me running in the 2:07s is a huge stretch of the imagination,” said Fauble, who has removed some of the hillier routes from his training under coach Joe Bosshard but has otherwise prepared similarly for Berlin as he would Boston or New York. “I think I’ve been in that kind of shape a bunch of times.”

Every American marathoner will be rooting for Fauble

Currently, no male American marathoner has earned the 2024 Olympic standard — either by hitting the time standard of 2:08:10 or by finishing in the top five of a Platinum Label Marathon (which includes Berlin). It’s pvery likely someone such as Fauble or Conner Mantz will be ranked in the top 65 of the “Road to Paris” list at the end of January, but with the Olympic Trials less than five months away, US marathoners are getting antsy.

American pros rarely run the Berlin Marathon, typically opting for Chicago or New York in the fall — both of which pay much bigger appearance fees to American runners. But this fall, many are bypassing New York because of the date (just 13 weeks before the Trials) and the course (too slow for a shot at the Olympic standard). A sizeable crew, led by Mantz and Galen Rupp, will be in Chicago, while a far larger number than usual have opted for Berlin.

Berlin’s course is just as fast as Chicago’s, if not faster. It’s also two weeks before Chicago — an extra two weeks to prepare for the Trials — and the weather is typically a little better in Berlin than Chicago. That’s why Keira D’Amato opted for Berlin over Chicago for her American record attempt last year. It’s also why 60:02 half marathoner Teshome Mekonen — another American targeting the Olympic standard this fall — chose Berlin over Chicago.

In addition to Fauble and Mekonen, the 2023 Berlin field also includes 2016 Olympian Jared Ward, 2021 Olympian Jake Riley, and Tyler Pennel, who has finished 5th and 11th at the last two Olympic Marathon Trials. All of them will be looking to run fast. And every other American marathoner will be hoping they do the same.

That’s because of a new provision in the Olympic qualification system which states that any country with three qualified athletes may choose to send any three athletes it wants to Paris — as long as they have run at least 2:11:30 (men) or 2:29:30 (women) within the qualifying window. That’s why every American will be rooting for Fauble and others to run fast this fall: if the US has three athletes with the standard, then anyone who has run under 2:11:30 has the opportunity to make the team by finishing in the top three at the Trials.

The above provision, which World Athletics is referring to as “quota reallocation” means that someone such as Fauble could run the Olympic standard and open up a spot in Paris for an American athlete who ends up beating him at the Trials — thus taking a spot that would not otherwise be available had Fauble not run the standard. Fauble, obviously, is hoping such a scenario does not come to pass. But he is aware of the possibility and has accepted it as part of his reality.

“I don’t mind it,” Fauble said. “Sports have never really been about identifying the best team or the best athlete. They’re an entertainment product and they overemphasize very specific days on the calendar. Even if I was the only one with the standard and I get beat at the Trials, the 73-9 Warriors didn’t win the NBA title that year. You’ve gotta do it on the big days. That’s what being a professional athlete is about.”

(09/21/2023) Views: 707 ⚡AMP
by Jonathan Gault

Jenny Simpson, U.S. mile legend, to race Olympic marathon trials

Jenny Simpson, the most decorated U.S. female miler in history, is moving up in distance and plans to race the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials on Feb. 3 in Orlando, near where she grew up.

“It’s an easy decision for me to run the marathon Trials in Orlando,” she wrote in an email after making the announcement in an Instagram live video with the Orlando Track Shack. “For a long time I’ve flirted with the idea of going the full distance and with Orlando hosting the Trials, I just can’t miss the chance to go back home.”

Simpson, 36, announced last October that she was shifting focus from the track, where she was a world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in the 1500m, to longer races on the roads.

Typically for distance runners that accomplished, it means an eventual move all the way up to the marathon. Simpson messaged then that her chances of racing over 26.2 miles were “51% :).”

A month later, Orlando was announced as the host of the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials. Simpson’s family moved to Florida when she was in third grade, and she went to high school in Oviedo, which is 15 miles northeast of Orlando.

“It’ll be fun to literally come back to the beginnings of my running and take in the scenery of the place where I ran my first few races,” Simpson said in Tuesday’s video.

Simpson’s last track race was at the Tokyo Olympic Trials, where she was 10th in the 1500m final. It was her first time not placing in the top three at a U.S. outdoor championships since 2006 and first time not being on an Olympic team since 2004.

In September 2021, Simpson ran the Cherry Blossom 10-mile road race in Washington, D.C., nearly three times as long as the farthest distance she had raced as a pro up to that point.

She then focused much of her time in 2022 helping her Colorado community heal and rebuild from a late December 2021 fire.

She ran 5km and 10-mile road races late in 2022, then on Jan. 15 of this year placed ninth in the Houston half marathon in 70 minutes, 35 seconds to beat the Olympic Trials qualifying time of 72 minutes. That was her most recent race, according to World Athletics.

Simpson attended the 2020 marathon trials to watch husband Jason run. Jason has not qualified for next year’s trials yet but is still hopeful.

One U.S. woman has made Olympic teams in both the 1500m and the marathon in her career -- Francie Larrieu-Smith, who made her first team in the 1500m at age 19 and her last in the marathon at 39, according to Olympedia.org.

Simpson hasn’t said whether she will race a marathon in the fall or if the trials will be her debut at the distance, “but the next six months will be all about getting ready to go the extra 25.2 miles,” she wrote.

The list of marathon trials qualifiers already includes nine of the 15 fastest American women in history. The top three finishers on Feb. 3 will likely make up the Olympic team.

“As I get older, I didn’t want to run out of really good years to give to something that was so intriguing to me for so long,” Simpson said of the marathon. “I’ve accomplished a lot already, and now I can do something that I want to do, not necessarily something that’s going to just objectively, absolutely pay off.”

(08/02/2023) Views: 648 ⚡AMP
by Nick Zaccardi

2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to start at 12 noon

USA Track and Field (USATF) caused a stir on social media on Tuesday after announcing in an email addressed to athletes that the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials would begin at 12 noon, due to broadcasting rights. The marathon trials are scheduled to take place in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 3, 2024.

The late start time has already caused worry for many coaches and athletes due to the potential for high temperatures. In February, the average temperatures in Orlando range from a low of 13 C to a high of 23 C, but in recent years, it has not been uncommon for temperatures to soar to 30 C–which would be detrimental to performance and potentially unsafe for elite marathoners.

According to Runners World, the email sent to athletes mentions that the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in Orlando has extensive experience in planning and executing high-level events and has contingencies in place for any potential challenges, including weather-related ones.

The decision to set the start time at noon is believed to be influenced by executives at NBC, the network broadcasting the event. The email highlights that the race will be televised live on NBC for three hours, providing coverage of the men’s and women’s runners and races.

The Paris Olympic marathon, which is also expected to be warm, is scheduled for Aug. 10–the middle of summer in the French capital. But both the men’s and women’s races are set to begin at 8 a.m. local time. This disparity in start times has added to the concerns raised by the late start for the U.S. Trials in Orlando.

The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials serves as the selection race for the men’s and women’s Olympic teams that will compete at the Summer Games in Paris. The top three finishers who also meet World Athletics’ qualifying standards will go on to represent Team USA at the Olympics.

Some athletes and coaches have expressed concern, while others seem to be looking forward to it. 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden tweeted: “Warmer temps should slightly minimize the pace of super shoes and reward smarter racing. Count me in!”

U.S. ultrarunner Camille Herron said “We are seven months out from the Olympic Marathon Trials. No excuses to not be prepared for a potentially hot day in Florida.”

Renowned U.S. marathon coach Kevin Hanson, who currently has 13 athletes (eight women and five men) qualified for the U.S. Trials, stressed his disappointment that athletes’ health is not taken into consideration. “There is no amount of TV coverage that is worth the health of our athletes,” Hanson tweeted.

This isn’t the first time USATF has faced criticism for its handling of extreme heat during events. At the 2021 Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore., where temperatures were forecasted to reach highs of 40 C, several events were rescheduled for safety. However, the heptathlon was not, and athlete Taliyah Brooks collapsed on the track due to the heat and later filed a lawsuit against USATF.

In the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles, which began at 9 a.m., some athletes struggled on an unusually warm day, with temperatures reaching the mid-70s Fahrenheit. Shalane Flanagan, who placed third in 2:29:19, collapsed at the finish line, and the organizing committee and USATF later faced criticism for not providing adequate water on the course for the athletes.

(08/01/2023) Views: 657 ⚡AMP
by Marley Dickinson

Louisiana man Jarrett Leblanc runs 62-minute half-marathon on a treadmill

On Sunday, a Louisiana man took to the treadmill at his local gym in Lafayette, La., attempting to break the Guinness World Record for a treadmill half-marathon. Jarrett Leblanc, a 2020 U.S. Olympic marathon trials qualifier, clocked a time of 62:50 over 21.1 kilometers, breaking the old mark of 63:08 from 2020 and raising money for a non-profit organization that provides camps and programs for children with heart defects.

Leblanc had the speed on the treadmill set at a ridiculous 12.5 mph for nearly the whole challenge. According to local news, Leblanc was six seconds ahead of the record through his first 5K split (14:54) and built a 13-second cushion, hitting 29:46 through 10K. He ended up breaking the previous mark by 18 seconds. The previous treadmill record was held by U.S. 2:12-marathoner John Raneri, who placed fourth at the California International Marathon in 2022.

The 32-year-old told local news that his inspiration behind targeting the record came from a friend who broke this same record while running on a treadmill at altitude. “He broke the record at an altitude, so with me doing it at sea level, I knew I already had an advantage,” he said. “The thought of having a World Record attempt would not only bring the community together but also the entire world to get behind a great cause to help the children.”

Leblanc works full-time as a registered diagnostic cardiac sonographer at the Lafayette General Medical Center, and wanted to use his platform and passion to raise money for Camp Bon Coeur, a camp for children with hearts that have needed mending. Leblanc has so far reached nearly $10,000 of his $25,000 goal.

This world-record feat isn’t Leblanc’s first running accomplishment. In 2015, he became the first Louisiana native to run a sub-four-minute mile on Louisiana soil, clocking 3:59.95 in front of his friends and family in Lafayette. His success has also led him to qualify for the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

(07/24/2023) Views: 727 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine

Who Will Run the World Championships Marathon for the U.S. This Summer?

The three men and three women are selected by a descending order time list. But not everyone accepts their spot. Over 9 days in August, the World Athletics Championships will take place in Budapest, Hungary. The women’s marathon is scheduled for August 26, and the men’s is August 27, the last day of competition. 

USA Track and Field (USATF) uses different selection procedures for this event than it does for the Olympic Games. Instead of using a Trials race, as it does for the Olympics, USATF offers spots to athletes using a descending order time list for certain marathons run between December 1, 2021, and May 30, 2023, as long as those athletes have met the qualifying criteria set by World Athletics. (The rules are complicated. For instance, the Boston Marathon is not on the list of “World Athletics approved” courses, but USATF is allowing times run at Boston in 2022 and 2023 for the descending order list.)

Not every American athlete will accept a spot, if offered. Some instead will choose to focus on a fall marathon, where they can earn substantial appearance fees and prize money that aren’t offered at worlds. Others won’t race at all this summer or fall, and instead they’ll train for the Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2024. How is it likely to shake out? Runner’s World reached out to the top seven men and women currently on the list or their coaches or agents to inquire about their plans. The window to run a qualifying time, however, remains open until the end of May. So a top performance in the next month could shake up the list. 

Here’s what they said: 

Women

Emily Sisson, 2:18:29, 2022 Chicago Marathon: Not likely, per her agent, Ray Flynn

Keira D’Amato, 2:19:12, 2022 Houston Marathon: Yes, if offered a spot 

Betsy Saina, 2:21:40, 2023 Tokyo Marathon: No, she is focusing on a fall marathon 

Sara Hall, 2:22:10, 2022 World Championships marathon: Has not yet decided

Emma Bates, 2:22:10, 2023 Boston Marathon: Not likely, per her agent, Ray Flynn

Susanna Sullivan, 2:24:27, 2023 London Marathon: Yes, if offered a spot 

Aliphine Tuliamuk, 2:24:37, 2023 Boston Marathon: Will consider if offered a spot, per her agent, Hawi Keflezighi

Wild card: Will Molly Seidel run a May marathon? 

Men

Conner Mantz, 2:08:16, 2022 Chicago Marathon: Not likely, per his agent, Ray Flynn

Scott Fauble, 2:08:52, 2022 Boston Marathon: No Elkanah Kibet, 2:09:07, 2022 Boston Marathon: Yes, currently deployed with the U.S. Army in Poland but will accept a spot if offered 

Zachery Panning, 2:09:28, 2022 Chicago Marathon: Yes, per coach Kevin Hanson

Leonard Korir, 2:09:31, 2023 Paris Marathon: Did not immediately respond to a message from Runner’s World 

Galen Rupp, 2:09:36, 2022 World Championships marathon: No, will run a fall marathon, per his agent, Ricky Simms

Futsum Zeinasellassie, 2:09:40, 2023 Rotterdam Marathon: Will consider if offered a spot, per his agent, Hawi Keflezighi 

Wild card: Biya Simbassa runs the Prague Marathon, his debut, on May 7. 

(04/30/2023) Views: 830 ⚡AMP
by Runner’s World

Dave McGillivray Completes 51st Consecutive Boston Marathon

After all other participants had long finished their Boston Marathon journeys, Dave McGillivray crossed the finish line at 7:28 p.m. yesterday evening. McGillivray oversaw the course throughout the race earlier in the day, taking runners across the starting line and helping to ensure their safe arrival on Boylston Street. This is McGillivray’s 51st consecutive completion of the Boston Marathon and the 36th of which he has completed at night after seeing to his race day duties.

“It doesn’t feel so long ago that I was 18 years old, sitting on the curb at mile 21, wondering if I would ever get a chance to finish the Boston Marathon. If I could go back and tell my younger self that he goes on to finish that day and 50 more editions, I can’t imagine his reaction,” said McGillivray. “I’m grateful for the more than a dozen friends and colleagues who joined me on the journey to the finish line today. I had to dream big to get to this moment, and I couldn’t do it without my community and my family that support me every step of the way.”

The weekend featured two other special moments for McGillivray. On Saturday, Team With A Vision inducted McGillivray into their hall of fame during a dinner at the Westin Copley Place. Team With A Vision pairs blind and sighted runners together to complete endurance races across the country. Their efforts support the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which delivers professional, peer, and volunteer support to over 1,200 individuals each year, giving them the support they need to live with dignity and independence. All funds raised support MABVI’s statewide vision rehabilitation services, including 34 low-vision support groups, Assistive Technology and Training Centers, and 400 volunteers matched 1:1 with blind individuals.

In addition, McGillivray was a featured speaker during the Boston Marathon Expo, where World Marathon Challenge champion Becca Pizzi interviewed him about his long history with the race. He shared photos, videos and stories with the crowd, and signed copies of his books for attendees at the Dave McGillivray Finish Strong Foundation booth following the presentation.

McGillivray is one of just a handful of runners who have marked half a century or more of completing the world’s most famous marathon. Alongside his rich connection to this race, his running resume includes completing the World Marathon Challenge (seven marathons in seven days on seven continents,) nine Ironman Triathlon World Championships, a 1,250-mile run along the U.S. East Coast in 1980 to again benefit the Jimmy Fund, a 24-hour run (120 miles,) a 24-hour bike (385 miles,) and a 24-hour swim (27 miles.) He triathloned around the six New England states by swimming one mile, biking 80 miles and running 20 miles every day for 32 consecutive days. Over the span of his life, he estimates he’s run more than 150,000 miles.

For more information on Dave McGillivray, visit www.davemcgillivray.com and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

ABOUT DAVE MCGILLIVRAY

Running legend Dave McGillivray has increased the self-esteem of millions of people through his work as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, motivational speaker, author, and athlete. Dave is best known for his athletic feats including his 80-day trek across the United States, running the 3,452 miles from Medford, Ore., to Medford, Mass. in the summer of 1978 to benefit the Jimmy Fund. In addition, he’s received great acclaim for directing or consulting on more than 1,400 events throughout the world including the Boston Marathon, the Olympic Marathon trials, and the Olympic Games. For more information on Dave McGillivray, visit www.davemcgillivray.com and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

(04/18/2023) Views: 755 ⚡AMP
by Running USA