U.S. Olympic Marathon Results

I was able to watch the trials live through the NBC sports online application. It was 68 degrees at the start of the men's race and mid-upper 70's before the women finished. That's about 15-20 degrees too warm for ideal marathon conditions, but the argument can be made that we wanted to see who might be able to handle the heat of Rio.

The criterium course through the USC campus was strange. The course in general had lots of turns, but the campus was ridiculous, especially with a brick and concrete surface. These elements don't make for fast times. I loved the announcers for the race, the man with the British accent (Tim Hutchings) has done quite a bit of announcing for marathons and track and field events, he is good.

Surprisingly Cragg and Flanagan took the lead by 12 miles, quite early for a marathon on a hot day. My pick for medal contention, K. Taylor had been in the lead pack but dropped off the pace along with everyone else. By 21 miles you could Flanagan was really hurting. Linden and Kara Goucher were moving up and Flanagan's training partner was holding back trying to pace and encourage Flanagen to keep going, it suddenly became a very dramatic race. Cragg took off for the win with less than a mile to go, not wanting a fast closing Linden to beat her. The finish order was Cragg in 2:28:20, Linden 34 seconds back and in third place Shalane Flanagan 2:29:14. Goucher came in fourth. 2:30:24. My pick, Taylor, was sixth in 2:32:50. Veteran Deena Kastor was injured and couldn't start the race. So I had 2/3 correct, Linden and Flanagan.

The men's race had a substantial pack until 15-16 miles when Tyler Pennel took over, running a 4:47 17th mile to break things open. By mile 19, though, Meb and Galen Rupp had control and continued running sub 5 minute miles, leaving everyone else behind. Rupp cruised ahead of Meb in the 25th mile, looking like he had no trouble pushing the pace. Rupp ended up with an "easy" 2:11:11 (5:01 overall pace) with Meb 68 seconds behind. Jared Ward came up to take the third spot and earn a trip to Rio, running a 2:13. My third pick. Jeffrey Eggleston, from Greece, NY, came in at 2:17:19, 13th overall. Dathan Ritzenheim, my other pick, did not finish the race, so I was 1/3, only picking Meb correctly.