Olympic Marathon Trials

Every year since 2004, I’ve run Houston’s big half marathon or full marathon in mid-January. Eight years in a row! But alas, a 9th straight year was not to be since I wasn’t selected in the lottery. I was pretty bummed to see my streak come to an end, but I’m hopeful that I’ll get in next year. I did, however, get a pretty nice consolation prize (through no doing of my own, obviously, but still) — the 2012 US Olympic Marathon Trials were held in Houston on Saturday morning! I dragged Jose downtown bright and early to see them, and it was even cooler than I expected!

It was a really chilly morning with the temperature at start time hovering around 40. I knew we’d be in the shade and possibly some wind downtown, so I was pretty bundled up. I had on running tights under my jeans, thick wool socks, a long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt topped by a fleece jacket, and a hat and gloves. I felt pretty silly leaving the house but I was thankful for all the layers once we actually got out there!

Men’s pack at Mile 1

We found a good spot about a hundred yards from the 1/9/17/25 mile marker and settled in. The course took the runners on a 2.2 mile loop followed by three times around an 8 mile loop. I read somewhere that it was designed to mimic this summer’s Olympic Marathon course in London, but it was also ideal for spectators! We got to see both the men and women as they passed the mile marker, and then we could jog a short block to see them pass again about a quarter of a mile later — so all in all, we got to see all the runners 8 times during the race, including a final look less than a mile from the finish! The staggered start also meant that we never had to wait more than 20 or 25 minutes for the next round of runners to come through, and more like 10 or 15 minutes towards the end of the race, since the men began to catch up to and lap the “slow” women.

Women’s pack at Mile 1

The men’s race started at 8:00 and the women started 15 minutes later. This was the first time the men’s and women’s trials have been held on the same course on the same day, which was really a treat for all of us here in Houston. I wasn’t involved in the race as a volunteer or anything, but from my perspective as a spectator and runner, everything seemed to run like clockwork. Race volunteers were all over the place making sure the course stayed clear and that everyone knew how far out the pack of runners was.

Men’s lead pack at ~Mile 9.2

Each time the runners came around, the lead pack had changed slightly. The 5 men above had separated themselves from the rest by a significant amount by mile 9 — and I’m sure the separation actually happened a lot earlier than that. These guys are the cream of the crop of American long distance runners. From left to right are Ryan Hall, Mo Trafeh, Dathan Ritzenhein, Abdi Abdirahman, and Meb Keflezighi.

Look at all those spectators watching the men turn the corner! I really wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of crowds, but Houston surprised me. I’m sure the crowd was even bigger on Sunday for the marathon and half marathon, but there were still thousands of people that turned out on a cold morning to watch the trials. I loved it!

Women’s lead pack at mile 9

The women’s lead pack didn’t dwindle quite as fast as the men. At mile 9 there were still a bunch of women up front. From left to right in this particular photo are Amy Hastings, Shalane Flanagan, Serena Burla, Katie McGregor, Deena Kastor, and Desi Davila. (Just out of frame were Kara Goucher and Janet Cherobon-Bawcom, and possibly 1 or 2 more.) And yes, as they ran past in their skimpy running outfits I was still bundled up in all my layers! Pretty funny.

Men’s lead pack at mile 17

By mile 17, there were only 4 men in contention — Ritz, Abdi, Hall, and Meb. Abdi’s been on 3 Olympic teams already and Meb’s been on 2 — including the 2004 team in Athens where he won a silver medal in the marathon. Ritz and Hall are relative newcomers by comparison, but they both ran the marathon in Beijing in 2008 (Ritz was 9th, Hall was 10th). Ryan Hall is particularly memorable to a lot of people in Houston because he broke the US half marathon record here in 2007.

Women’s lead pack at mile 17

The women’s leaders had thinned out quite a bit when they came back through at mile 17, and it was down to Hastings, Goucher, Davila and Flanagan. I was sad to see that Deena Kastor, who won a bronze medal in the marathon in 2004 in Athens, had been dropped. Still, it was so amazing to watch these ladies and realize that they are running almost twice as fast as I can. They averaged somewhere around a 5:40 mile I think, and frankly I don’t think I could even run ONE mile — maybe not even a HALF mile — at that pace. The men quite literally ran twice as fast as me, since their 2:09:xx finish matches my PR in the HALF marathon exactly. The real kicker is that none of them even look like they’re working very hard! If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were just out for a relaxing jog.

Meb Keflezighi – 1st

I was really excited for the runners to come past a final time at mile 25, because I knew we’d probably be able to identify the top 3 in each race that would go on to the Olympics. And we were! Meb was in the lead and would go on to set a PR of 2:09:08 and become the oldest trials winner at age 36. And did I mention he had just run the New York Marathon in November? Meb rocks!

Ryan Hall – 2nd

Ryan Hall had another great race and finished second in 2:09:30 (which is exactly my PR for the HALF marathon — geez).

Abdi Abdirahman – 3rd

Abdi was a bit of a dark horse, sneaking into the 3rd spot in 2:09:47. According to one article I read, he hadn’t run under 2:14 since 2006 so he must have been training like a monster all fall! He was about 30 seconds ahead of Ritz when we saw them at mile 25, but Ritz rallied and might have been able to grab 3rd place if the race had gone another half mile. He finished in 2:09:55 and looked absolutely heartbroken — it was so sad to see the photos later that day. So close!

Shalane Flanagan – 1st

The women were a bit closer together, but the order at mile 25 held through the finish. Shalane Flanagan won a bronze medal in the 10K in Beijing, but this was only her second marathon ever! She won in 2:25:38. I found out this morning that she is Becca’s uncle’s sister’s step-daughter, which is pretty neat — plus she’s a former Tarheel, so I automatically like her.

Desi Davila – 2nd

Desi Davila was on Shalane’s heels, as you can see from the photo above, and finished 18 seconds back in 2:25:55.

Kara Goucher – 3rd

I’ve seen Kara Goucher run several times on TV, and she always looks like she’s about to keel over, but I guess that’s just her running style. She finished in 3rd in 2:26:06. That’s less than 30 seconds that separated 1st and 3rd in the women’s race! Amy Hastings finished in 4th just over a minute behind Goucher.

And even though I haven’t highlighted them in this post, it was also really fun to watch all the “other” runners. I was explaining to Jose that there were really only a dozen or so people in each race that had a realistic chance of finishing in the top 3 and making the Olympic team, but there were still 100+ other runners in each race who met the qualifying times and earned the right to compete in the trials. They gave it just as much effort as the winners and actually looked like they might have had a little more fun along the way. There were runners in the back of each pack (and let’s be clear — the “back of the pack” in this race were still all amazing athletes) pumping up the crowd with huge smiles on their faces, just ecstatic to be there. I can only imagine how they felt, but I’m betting it felt awesome.

Overall it was a really great morning and I had so much fun watching Olympians run right here in my city! Can we do this again next year, Houston? Please?