Here’s an RRCA article about the men’s Olympic marathon trials race in February.
Keep reading >>
Anyone know any of these runners or have opinions? Closest I can come is that when Tonya and I were on vacation in Switzerland in July, we went to a Diamond League track meet in Lausanne (it’s the elite circuit in the summer) and Paul Chelimo was in the 5000m race that day. He led for a while, but didn’t win. Great race to watch on a track though—the crowd cheers in the packed stadium followed the runners around every lap.
(Amusingly, some other guy in that race miscounted his laps and kicked from 800m out, celebrating when he crossed the finish line with a lap to go. He figured his mistake out pretty quickly but couldn’t get back in the race. Turns out even elites make rookie mistakes, and even when the race officials had times, lap counts, and a bell for the final lap.)
Not necessarily a huge Jim Walmsley fan but it would be really cool to see an ultra runner in the hunt.
I wasn’t familiar with him before, but wow, he seems like a badass…
Weirdly, I can’t find him in the competitor list.
https://www.atlanta2020trials.com/fan-zone/athletes/men/1/56
Walmsley’s training is ridiculous for trying to run a fast marathon. (I just saw on Strava that he ran 30.5 miles yesterday, with almost 2,000 feet of elevation gain, at 5:46 average pace.) He’s said in interviews that his goal is not to make the Olympic team, but to win the Comrades Marathon—a 54-mile road race in South Africa this summer, which is probably the most competitive ultra in the world. Training for the trials, then recovering and building up to the 54 should put him in a position to go for the win.