 |
|
|
|
Abdi Abdirahman
Age: 30
Residence: Tucson, Arizona
Qualified: 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, 2:08:56
Abdirahman—universally known as “Abdi”—is a three-time USA 10,000-meter champion who has competed in two Olympic Games and three IAAF World Championships at that distance. As a marathoner, he has progressed from a 2:17:09 debut in New York City in 2004, to a fifth-place 2:11:24 in NYC in ’05, and finally to a fourth-place 2:08:56 in Chicago a year ago.
A native of Somalia who became a U.S. citizen in 1999, Abdi approaches his first U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon full of confidence—and rightly so. “Chicago showed me that I can run with the best in the world,” he says. “Not just that I can run with them; I can beat them, too.” He posted a personal-best time of 1:00:29 at the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE in early August, and then placed seventh in the 10,000 meters at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, at the end of the month before returning to his training base in Tucson—from which he makes frequent trips to the altitude of Flagstaff—to focus exclusively on his Trials preparations.
Over the past two years, Abdi has committed himself to the 26.2-mile distance, and on November 3, he will be 100-percent ready for the most important race of his life. If he runs smart, he will be hard to deny.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Fasil Bizuneh
Age: 27
Residence: Boulder, CO
Qualified: 2006 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, 2:18:12
Though he has run only two marathons, Bizuneh must be counted among the Olympic Trials Marathon contenders, thanks to his sparkling credentials at shorter distances. Within the past 18 months he has set personal bests at distances from 3000 meters to the marathon, including a 1:02:20 half-marathon in Houston in January. Bizuneh was a four-time All-American at Arizona State; during his freshman year, he was the top American finisher at the 1999 World Junior Cross Country Championships. After qualifying for the Trials with a 2:18 in his marathon debut last October, Bizuneh ran a disappointing 2:29 in London this past April, struggling home in the heat after an aggressive first half. Since then he has focused intensely on his Trials preparations, including working with New York–based therapist Phil Wharton to address a biomechanical issue with his left hip, and moving to Boulder, CO, to train with ING New York City Marathon 2006 runner-up Stephen Kiogora under coach Dieter Hogen.
Bizuneh, who holds a degree in chemical engineering, was born in Germany to African parents who fled political chaos in Ethiopia. The family ended up in Indianapolis, and Bizuneh became a U.S. citizen in 1987.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Dan Browne
Age: 31
Residence: Portland, OR
Qualified: 2007 Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000 meters, 28:10.73
Browne made the 2004 U.S. Olympic team in the marathon and 10,000 meters and competed in both events in the Athens Games. Since then, he has had two knee surgeries and an emergency appendectomy, which stalled his career for the better part of two years and kept him away from the marathon distance. But Browne seems to have perfectly timed his return to top running form. He qualified for the Trials with a 10,000-meter track performance last spring, then spent the summer building his marathon strength in the mountains of Mammoth Lakes, CA, with 2004 Olympic marathon medalist Meb Keflezighi. In September, he tuned up for the Trials by claiming national road race titles at 20K in New Haven, CT, and 5K in Providence, RI.
Browne knows what it takes to make an Olympic marathon team, and he has a rock-steady temperament and years of experience at the world-class level. These factors put him in a perfect position to surprise on November 3. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
James Carney
Age: 29
Residence: Boulder, CO
Qualified: 2007 Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000 meters, 27:43.64
Carney took advantage of a special provision that allows non-marathoners to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon with a 5000-meter or 10,000-meter performance on the track. In 2004, he placed sixth in the 10,000 meters at the Olympic Track & Field Trials.
A graduate of Millersville University, a Division II school in Lancaster, PA, Carney is an inspiration to hardworking small-college runners nationwide who share his Olympic dreams. “I get e-mails from guys at Division II and Division III schools: ‘Hey, you’re giving us hope,’” he says. “I’m really proud of that.” Carney missed the track nationals in June with a heel problem, but he returned to form and ran to a strong seventh-place finish at the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod in August, and followed that with a second-place finish to Dan Browne at the USA 20K Championships in New Haven, CT, on Labor Day. Carney is the kind of wild-card entrant who will make the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials the most intriguing ever. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Josh Cox
Age: 32
Residence: San Diego, CA
Qualified: 2007 U.S. Air Force Marathon, 2:19:29
Cox was the youngest U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon qualifier in 2000, and he finished 18th in that race. He ran 2:13:55—still his personal record—at the 2000 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. Cox was seventh at the 2004 marathon Trials, but he had not finished a marathon since then until he ran his 2008 Trials qualifying race—a 2:19:29 at the 2007 U.S. Air Force Marathon in Dayton, OH, which he won by 12 minutes—on September 16.
Cox’s renown transcended running when he appeared as a contestant on the reality show The Bachelorette in 2004, and he once held the world record for a marathon run on a treadmill. Though his successes at the marathon distance have been inconsistent over the years, Cox looks—once again—to be fit and determined to succeed at the right time and in the right place on November 3. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Alan Culpepper
Age: 35
Residence: Lafayette, CO
Qualified: 2006 Boston Marathon, 2:11:02
The 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon champion, Culpepper went on to place 12th in the marathon at the Athens Games. He has been a dominant force on the U.S. distance running scene for the past decade, going head-to-head for national titles against Meb Keflezighi and Abdi Abdirahman. In February, Culpepper staged a brilliant come-from-behind victory at the 2007 USA Cross Country Championships. He keeps a cool head in high-pressure competitions, and he is a master at peaking for the big race.
Culpepper knows that qualifying for his second Olympic marathon team is a tall order. His PR of 2:09:41 dates from 2002, and he has had frustrations in both his training and race-day execution in several of his recent marathons, including a fifth-place 2:11:02 in Boston in 2006, when he was passed by Brian Sell in the final 600 meters. But recent race results suggest that Culpepper is rounding into fine form for November 3. He placed sixth in 1:03:34 at the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE in August before returning to his home near Boulder, CO, for his Trials buildup.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be out here killing myself every day if I didn’t think I could make another team,” says Culpepper. This will be his final Olympic cycle. He will be ready, and under the radar, where he performs best. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Peter Gilmore
Age: 30
Residence: San Mateo, CA
Qualified: 2006 Boston Marathon, 2:12:45
Gilmore has run his best marathons on challenging courses, including a 2:12:45 seventh-place finish in Boston in 2006 and a 2:13:13—good for 10th place—in New York last November. These results suggest that he is likely to run to his full potential on the hilly Trials course in Central Park. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Gilmore was eighth at the 2004 Trials. “He’s very good at preparing for a marathon,” observes Fasil Bizuneh, who has trained with Gilmore at altitude in Flagstaff, AZ. “He’s conservative in the beginning and he races up to what his fitness level is.”
Gilmore’s mileage during his Trials buildup has been as high as 160 per week, and his training has included a visit to New York to familiarize himself with the course. “A course like that will really start to be revealing as you get to 18 or 20 miles with all the hills,” he observes. “Guys might feel fine, and then the legs just go away late in the race. The guys who can handle pace change and terrain change are going to be the ones left standing at the end.” With patience and determination, Gilmore hopes that he’ll be among those runners. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Ryan Hall
Age: 25
Residence: Big Bear Lake, CA
Qualified: 2007 Flora London Marathon, 2:08:24
The expectations riding on Hall, a California native and 2005 Stanford graduate, have risen dramatically in the past 14 months. He set the USA 20K record in October 2006, then went on to smash the 22-year-old national half-marathon mark—in his debut—when he clocked 59:43 in Houston in January. But those performances were just a warm-up to Hall’s 2:08:24 marathon debut in London in April. The performance established a new American debut record, eclipsing the 2:09:41 held jointly by Alan Culpepper and Alberto Salazar. “It’s pretty exciting,” Hall said after London. “I always wanted to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys.”
Hall’s calm, patient demeanor makes him well suited to the marathon distance. And he is coached by one of the best in the business, Team Running USA’s Terrence Mahon, whose focus on long-term development has helped guide Deena Kastor to Olympic glory. Mahon and Hall opted for a low-key summer and early-fall racing schedule—he ran just a few summer track meets and skipped the 2007 USA 20K Championships due to travel fatigue.
The challenge for Hall on November 3 will be overcoming his inexperience with hills in long races; both his half-marathon and marathon records were run on flat courses. But Hall trains in the mountains of Mammoth Lakes, CA, with Meb Keflezighi, Kastor, and other marathon veterans. On November 3, we will see whether his talent and training are enough to fend off his more experienced competitors. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Mbarak Hussein
Age: 43
Residence: Albuquerque, NM
Qualified: 2006 Seoul International Marathon, 2:12:53
At age 43, Hussein still poses a threat to the top Trials contenders. The Kenyan native is a younger brother of 1987 New York City Marathon champion and three-time Boston Marathon winner Ibrahim Hussein, and was the USA Marathon champion in 2005, winning the Twin Cities Marathon in 2:18:28. He came back to Twin Cities in 2006 and ran 2:13:53 after having run 2:12:53 in Seoul in the previous spring in his Trials qualifying effort. Hussein’s personal best of 2:08:10 dates from early 2004; he became a U.S. citizen later that year.
Hussein was the top American finisher in Osaka at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics this past August, finishing 21st in 2:23:04 in brutally hot conditions. He has won the Honolulu Marathon three times. This intelligent and experienced marathon specialist won’t beat himself on November 3. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Meb Keflezighi
Age: 32
Residence: San Diego, CA
Qualified: 2006 Boston Marathon, 2:09:56
Keflezighi was the Olympic silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games, where he became the first American to earn an Olympic Marathon medal since Frank Shorter’s silver in Montreal in 1976. With a runner-up finish in the ING New York City Marathon in 2004, followed by a third-place showing in 2005, and then a third in the 2006 Boston Marathon, Keflezighi has shown himself to be a solid performer at major events.
Keflezighi’s two most recent marathons, however, have proven frustrating. Last fall in New York, food poisoning during race week slowed him to a 2:22 finish. Then in London this past April, a blister left over from his win at the USA 15K championship in Jacksonville, FL, in March forced him to drop out. Despite these mishaps, all eyes will be on Keflezighi on November 3. “Meb has been the top guy for four years,” says marathon legend Bill Rodgers. “And that silver medal is the mark.” With strong results on the summer road-racing circuit and a controlled 27:41 10,000-meter track performance in Brussels in September—his best time on the oval since 2004—Keflezighi will start his 10th career marathon looking for his first win at the distance. He’s a hard man to bet against for a top-three finish. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Khalid Khannouchi
Age: 35
Residence: Ossining, NY
Qualified: 2006 Flora London Marathon, 2:07:04
The American record-holder (and former world record-holder) in the marathon (2:05:38), the Moroccan-born Khannouchi is a marathoner of historic accomplishments. He set the WR twice, and he is the only person ever to run sub-2:06 three times and the only American ever under 2:08. He won four LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon titles and another in London in 2002.
But the past year has been full of setbacks for Khannouchi, and his training has been reduced to a shadow of its former brilliance. Though he has the fastest qualifying time in the field by well over a minute, a chronic foot injury has kept him from finishing the 2007 Flora London Marathon, and he withdrew from the field of August’s NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE. If any athlete is motivated to succeed at the Trials, it’s Khannouchi, who has never made an Olympic team and must know that this is his last shot. If he starts the Trials race on November 3, the eyes of his competitors will be upon him, and every mile that passes with him still in the hunt will make him more of a threat. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Jason Lehmkuhle
Age: 30
Residence: Minneapolis, MN
Qualified: 2006 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, 2:19:03
A member of the Team USA Minnesota distance program, Lehmkuhle won Missouri state high school track and cross country titles and went on to become an All American in the 5000 and 10,000 meters at Iowa’s Drake University. He finished ninth at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon in 2:16:27 (still his personal best) and he represented the U.S. at the 2005 IAAF World Marathon Championships in Helsinki.
Lehmkuhle has had a long, solid buildup to the Trials and has set PRs of 28:54 for 10K, 59:42 for 20K, and 1:02:51 for the half-marathon in 2007. He was third at the USA 20K Championships on September 3, and he won the Great Cow Harbor 10K in Northport, NY, on September 15, his second victory there. Though a top-three Trials finish would be a major upset, look for this solid performer to come through strongly and finish much higher in the field than his #44 seeding might suggest. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Dathan Ritzenhein
Age: 24
Residence: Eugene, OR
Qualified: ING New York City Marathon 2006, 2:14:01
The talents of “Ritz” have been on display since his sophomore year at Rockford High School in Michigan, when he broke nine minutes for two miles. Like Ryan Hall, Ritzenhein is inexperienced in the marathon; his only tour over 26.2 miles came last fall in the ING New York City Marathon, where he ran not far off the lead pack through 22 miles, then faded to 11th place in 2:14:01. That type of performance is standard-issue for a debut, and the cautious nature of the Trials race—particularly on the challenging Central Park course—could play to his strengths.
Ritzenhein has multiple USA Cross Country titles on his resume, and he has done his best work to date on the turf. But he also has a liking for Central Park, where he set a course record at the 2007 Healthy Kidney 10K in May over much of the same pavement on which the multiple-loop Trials race will be contested. Ritzenhein, who moved from Boulder, CO, to Eugene, OR, earlier this year, has raced sparingly since placing ninth in the 10,000 meters at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in August. In September, he and his wife, Kalin, welcomed their first child, a daughter named Addison. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Josh Rohatinsky
Age: 25
Residence: Portland, OR
Qualified: 2007 Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational 10,000, 27:55.86
Rohatinsky has been an age-group star since winning the USA Junior 3000-meter title as a sixth-grader, and he capped his collegiate career at Brigham Young University by winning the 2006 NCAA Cross Country title. The Trials will be his first marathon and only the second race of his professional career after a tune-up at the Great North Run, a half-marathon in Newcastle, England, in September—then the longest race of his career. He qualified for the Trials with a 10,000-meter track performance in April.
Former marathon world record-holder Alberto Salazar is Rohatinsky’s coach, and two-time Olympic marathoner Ed Eyestone mentored him while Rohatinsky was at BYU. Rohatinsky will be a great marathoner one day. It remains to be seen whether that day will be November 3, 2007. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Brian Sell
Age: 28
Residence: Rochester Hills, MI
Qualified: 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, 2:10:47
Sell defines the strength runner. Training up to 160 miles per week—and sometimes more—with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Rochester Hills, MI, Sell is a throwback to the club runners of the 1970s, men whose work ethic took them further than expected. Sell first gained national attention at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon in Birmingham, AL, where he led the race in miles 7 to 21, then faded to 12th place in 2:17:20. The time was still a two-minute PR, and Sell returned to Michigan to train harder and refine his racing tactics. He finished ninth at the 2005 World Championships Marathon in Helsinki, running a controlled first half and passing packs of runners in the second half. In 2006, he finished fourth in Boston in a PR 2:10:55, and he knocked another eight seconds off that time with a sixth-place performance in Chicago last October, running almost the entire distance solo.
The ability to run alone and finish strong, backed by his enormous well of strength, gives Sell a leg up on most of his rivals, and the Trials course should play to his advantage. Will these factors carry him to a top-three finish on November 3? Sell will be holding nothing back in his attempt to find out. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Ryan Shay
Age: 28
Residence: Flagstaff, AZ
Qualified: 2006 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, 2:14:58
Shay was heralded as one of the favorites heading into the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, but a hamstring strain hampered his efforts in the race and he finished 23rd in 2:19:19. He bounced back to run 2:14:09 in New York that November, a time that remains his PR. Though Shay’s 2:14:58 at last fall’s Twin Cities Marathon places him high on the list of qualifiers, he is the first to admit that he has yet to run to his potential at the 26.2-mile distance.
A native of Michigan and a graduate of Notre Dame University, Shay has been preparing for the Trials in the high altitude in Flagstaff, AZ. He placed fifth at the USA 20K Championships in September. Though he could surprise on November 3, Shay will have to overcome about a dozen runners who have posted faster times during the Trials qualifying window. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Clint Verran
Age: 32
Residence: Lake Orion, MI
Qualified: 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, 2:14:23
A U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon veteran, Verran finished fifth in the 2004 Trials race and 11th in 2000. He is the senior member of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project squad, which has 13 athletes entered in the 2008 Trials race. The Hansons group has prepared meticulously for November 3, including taking a road trip to New York in early October for a 26.2-kilometer Trials “simulation run” in Central Park.
Verran, a physical therapist by profession, uses his ability to hold a steady pace to his best advantage at the marathon distance, often picking off runners throughout the second half of the race. Though he is a long shot to finish in the top three at these Trials, he will likely run to his maximum potential and possibly collect some notable scalps in the process. |
|
 |
|
|
|
