Time: 2:13:42
Place: 13
Age: 28
Affiliation: unattached
Runners Feed: Describe your 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials experience.
This was my second trials race, with 2007 being my first, so the trip was a lot more laid back. It also helped me to have raced in Houston 3 times already. I got to town on Thursday and had a nice meeting and dinner from my sponsor, Mizuno.
I was abruptly awoken on Friday morning by USADA (US Antidoping Agency) for an out-of-competition drug test…at 6 am. I had to wake myself up bright and early on my last day of sleep before the race for a blood and urine test. Needless to say, that worried me and fatigued me quite a bit.
Still, I am in the line of work where I have to be able to react to adversity and still bounce back and perform. I tried to put my morning behind and make up for it with a solid night sleep Friday night. It worked!
Saturday morning, I talked with my coach, Brad Hudson, who reinforced that I should take a fairly conservative approach and come through halfway about 1:07 or thereabout. Before I knew it, the gun went off and I was executing the plan to a tee! The miles flew by. I was running with a former Hansons teammate, Josh Eberly, who also lives in Colorado now. We shared the work for a good chunk of the way until the first breaking point occurred, about 17 miles in. The group was about 5 of us at that point, but I knew I had to do a bit of a breakaway move or I was going to have a rough result. I HAMMERED up the bridge, 4:58 up it, actually. I was suddenly alone and moving up through the field for the first time. I don’t remember much more until the final half mile, when Ricky Flynn and I had a couple back and forths. In the end, I came a second short of winning that battle.
RF: Were you satisfied with your performance?
I was satisfied with how I ran, but would have liked to close just a bit better in the final couple miles. Training was solid going into the race and I think I still have more headroom to move forward. I call this kind of a performance, where I PR, but still under-perform, ”positive frustration.” Still a positive result, but a bit frustrating that it wasn’t perfect. I think the next marathon I run will come into with a lot of experiences from this race and I can come away even better than what I did this weekend.
RF: What is on tap for the spring/summer?
This spring is likely to be some shorter distance work. I just ran 2 marathons in 3 months, so my mind is fried more than my body from the mileage. I need some shorter, faster stuff for a couple months so I can make sure that I go into my next marathon that much faster and fitter.
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RF: In 1 word describe your approach to the race. Prepared
RF: Rate the crowd support out of 10. Nine, there were some patches that were thin with spectators, but everyone who WAS there was 100% INTO IT!
RF: What besides water fueled you throughout the race? I use standard Gatorade G2 perform, lemon-lime.
RF: Who proved to be your #1 fan today? My nephew. He’s 7 and he was absolutely proud of everything I did. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he was going to run onto the course to run with me.
RF: Can we expect to see you gunning for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials? Absolutely!
RF: In 1 word describe your emotion when you crossed the finish line. Proud.
TRUE or FALSE
RF: I executed my race plan. True
RF: I hit the wall. False
RF: I had fun! Absolutely True
RF: I will do my best to make it to the start line of another OT race. True
RF: I will take a week or more off running. False, I will take 2 weeks away from workouts, but will be jogging around by mid-week.
Read Interviews with Olympic Marathon Trials Participants
