The Blue-Collar Runner Aims for Beijing
Brian Sell will put it all on the line for a chance to represent the USA
in the Olympic marathon
By Cecil Harris
Through persistence, a strong work ethic, and the ability to learn from a mistake, Brian Sell has made himself an elite marathoner and a top contender for a berth on the team that will represent the USA at the Beijing Olympics.
Sell qualified for the Trials with a sparkling 2:10:47 at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon last October. A consistently strong competitor, he ran a 2:10:55 six months earlier at the Boston Marathon. Only four Americans (Khalid Khannouchi, Ryan Hall, Abdi Abdirahman, and Meb Keflezighi) have run faster qualifying times than Sell as of June 2007.
The Trials course in Central Park is one Sell has traveled before. But that won’t make the task any less formidable.
After revisiting the course in December, he said. “I ran the USA 8K there in the spring of 2002 and 2003, and I didn’t remember it being that tough. There’s a lot of rolling; there aren’t many flat parts.”
It’s a strength runner’s course. That complements Sell, who is a true strength runner. His heroes in the sport are men like Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter—self-made champions, hard workers who didn’t cheat themselves or the sport.
Sell, 28, is the type of runner for whom the term “under the radar” seemed to be invented. He didn’t run eye-popping times in high school that had major colleges beating down his door. He ran for tiny St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania.
Sell said. “When you weren’t the top guy in high school and everything didn’t exactly go your way, and you don’t have a lot of natural talent, I think you have to put more time into it to achieve your goals. A lot of guys burn out after college, and I have been out of college for almost six years now and I’m still going at it.”
Sell is still going and still learning about himself and the best way to conquer that 26.2-mile beast called the marathon. He competes for Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Rochester Hills, Michigan, one of the pioneer post-collegiate training groups in the United States. He lives in a house atop a two-mile hill that provides a vigorous workout just getting down and back. Working for Home Depot as part of the Olympic Job Opportunities program, Sell has the flexibility to train an average of 20 miles a day and compete in major races while enjoying quality time with his wife Sarah, a nurse. Their first child Lily Grace, was born in late May.
“The big key is pacing yourself,” he told Track and Field Radio. “You have to know what you can handle and try to run that exact pace. If you’re well-trained, you’re going to feel good the first 10-16 miles and then it’s like a different world after that. You just have to expect it and be ready for it.”
Sell wasn’t ready for it at the 2004 Trials in Birmingham, Alabama, where his aggressiveness got the better of him. He opened a 90-second lead over his closest competitor at the midpoint of the marathon by running eight consecutive miles at an average pace of 4:50-4:55. Thoughts of burning himself out did not occur to him. He was flying and feeling great.
“I was seeing my relatives and friends and feeling like I was on a magic carpet,” he said, “and then it got pulled out from under me.”
The pain as he lost his form and then his lead became almost unbearable. He compared the pain to seeing snowflakes on a clear, sunny day. “If you go out too hard, you’ll never do it again,” said Sell, who struggled to finish 13th in 2:17:04. “The Trials was definitely an awakening for me.”
A rude awakening that made Sell think about quitting the sport to attend dental school. But quitting would have been a betrayal of his competitive nature. Instead he looked within while brainstorming with his coaches Keith and Kevin Hanson, and he vowed to use the 2004 Trials as a source of motivation.
“I was pretty lucky soon after that race to have a couple of decent performances to kind of keep me positive,” he said. “Just sitting down with my coaches afterward really helped a lot too because they reiterated that the story might have been different if I would have went out a little easier and not tried to tackle the win all by myself. They twisted it into a positive experience for me and that helped a lot, too.”
Sell believes that he could have run 2:12 in Birmingham, which would have qualified him for Team USA. With the help of his coaches and his training partner Clint Verran, Sell is ready to try again. He is competing in races across the globe this year, but his focus is on November 3, 2007. “Definitely,” he said. “That’s the number one goal, beyond [races in] Houston, Japan, or anything else. That’s what I’m living for right now. It’s going to be really tough. I think it’s going to be the toughest Olympic trials in the marathon ever.”
With a laugh, Sell added, “I picked a bad year to put it all on the line for one race, but that’s the goal.”
