2016 Olympic Marathon Trials Athlete Review

I have seen this before wrote:

EXPECT TOUGHER STANDARDS IN 2020

In New York in 2007 (2008 Trials) there were many of these same complaints. The B standard was 2:22. MENS LDR decided that these complaints were being driven by B Standard athletes and immediately changed the standards to 2:19 for 2012. WOMENS LDR did not have these same complaints and remained lenient in their qualifying standards. This made the men complain about the women's standards being easier than the men. Keep bitchin.

Please remember that qualifying standards are decided by your own gender. The MENS LDR made them tougher. WOMENS LDR think that more men should be involved in the trials but they don't get to vote on MENS issues. Totally done by you to you.

To do what you are saying the USATF would have to change their bylaws which say they can not have a standard faster than the IOC Olympic standard. That is why the standard moved from 2:18 to 2:19 in December. I do expect the half standard to lower, which I personally think should happen anyway. Again, I did mention positive things as well. A well run organization would value participate feedback and strive to do better next time, not try to punish people for having an opinion they may disagree with.

OTQualifier16 wrote:

http://pjrizzo.runnerspace.com/profile.php?member_id=44240&do=blogs&blog_id=11845

Wow. This is just sad. As a hobby jogger I get that USATF could care less about supporting me in the sport, but if they can't support the top ~400 folks in our sport... really tragic.

And seeing as volunteers usually pick up runners at the airport free at big races, how the heck do they dont figure out some free transit (or at least not charge for it) for the freaking Trials!!

Everything in that blog post is 100 percent accurate.

They failed to mention that the athletes did receive a nice heavy-duty grocery bag for participating, though.

My favorite part was the tech meeting ... Where the race director basically said, "Guys, it's all good. Everything will be totally radical!" without giving anything by way of details. Except for the additional ONE water stop, which went in the wrong spot.

I don't think people understand that the athletes literally went for miles long stretches with no water. And then they got to pick up their warm water bottles from the table.

The USATF, USOC, and race organizers should be embarrassed by the race they put on.

OTQualifier16 wrote:

http://pjrizzo.runnerspace.com/profile.php?member_id=44240&do=blogs&blog_id=11845

👏👏👏 Bravo Rizo! There is a lot of stuff I either didn't think about, or just forgot. I think it is important to make sure that people are clear that not everything is on the USATF. The Los Angeles Organizing Committee shares the same if not more of the blame. Based off my experience I will never recommend the LA marathon to anyone. There are so many great marathons out there why choose one that doesn't put runners first.

Olympic Trials Athlete wrote:

OTQualifier16 wrote:http://pjrizzo.runnerspace.com/profile.php?member_id=44240&do=blogs&blog_id=11845

👏👏👏 Bravo Rizo! There is a lot of stuff I either didn't think about, or just forgot. I think it is important to make sure that people are clear that not everything is on the USATF. The Los Angeles Organizing Committee shares the same if not more of the blame. Based off my experience I will never recommend the LA marathon to anyone. There are so many great marathons out there why choose one that doesn't put runners first.

Rizzo* 😉

Water Boy wrote:

2. Extra water bottles? Where would those be set up? There were close to 100 tables for each gender, with a mere 8 personal bottles per table, to assist in athlete access. I believe the sponge and towel station was added to combat the warm temps, but I don't think it was meant as a substitute for drinkable fluids. I don't know if the logistics and course would allow for the addition of an entirely new fluid station as well. Can you imagine the course if there were thousands of paper cups for the 2nd-4th loops?

The extra water bottles were supposed to be set up at the sponge and towel station, as promised at the technical meeting the day before.

Thousands of paper cups? I was told the athletes got sealed bottles only, other than their personal drink bottles. There were only a few hundred people in the race, litter isn't a legitimate concern.

Before the agreement had been reached (and subsequently broken) to add water bottles to the north station, one of my coaches was told by one of the USATF event staffers (not Jim) that the athletes could get fluids from the sponges if they were thirsty when they hit that station.

I wish they were sponges. You could actually get water from that. They were at first micro fiber cloths, and then at the end they were tearing up shirts right as I was coming up to the station.

This was my 2nd Trials as a coach. I was more involved this time with my runner than I was with the 2 I had in Houston as far as Tech Meetings, fluid stations, etc. My runner this year is more inexperienced than my runners in prior years (one had run 2 track trials and both were former NCAA All Americans)

We weren't surprised buy the uniform requirements and had that pretty nailed down as I knew from previous trials that the uniform police were going to be strict. My runner only had to put one piece of tape on the top she was going to change into after she finished and also on one sock.

I too was disappointed that while the volunteers were provided with nice shirts and jackets, the runners were not nor were they offered the chance to purchase these. There was an OT shirt that was for sale in the USATF tent, but sadly they were only in Men's sizes and not women's. I wasn't the only coach who was a bit disappointed by this, there were a couple of well known coaches who thought the USATF got it wrong.

I didn't realize that neutral water station was so close to the special fluid station until after the race when my runner told me about it. She basically grabbed her bottle, and then a bottle of water, drank the 17 oz of her electrolyte fluids, tossed her bottle to the side then opened her bottle of water to pour on her head. She said carrying both was a bit of a pain in the ass but manageable. We don't use any gels or sports drinks so we were fine and didn't have to down warm powerade.

The one thing I thought was typically USATF, they didn't have sponges cause the sponges they were going to use were filled with soap and they had to resort to cutting up t shirts My runner said they worked fine.

I did feel that 75.00 per ticket for the pre race function on Thursday for glorified finger food was a bit steep.

Being from Texas, my runner handled the conditions well. We had a plan for pre race hydration, because I didn't want to hang our hopes on USATF. We seemed to have gotten our plan right and in retrospect I'm glad I got so "deep in the weeds" with planning.

This was my first Olympic Trials, and I will say that while the overall experience was great, I did lose a little bit of my dwindling respect for USATF.

First of all, I was met with a strange amount of sexism, for lack of a better term, throughout the weekend. I had four incidents where USATF officials blatantly assumed my boyfriend was the one running in the trials, despite me being head to toe in my sponsor's gear, and he in street clothes and 40 lbs heavier than his long-gone racing days.

I, too, felt there were too few fluid stations, and really didn't feel comfortable drinking from sponges and strips of t-shirt (and by comfortable, I mean that it was really difficult to do). While I will be the first to admit that I did not properly prepare myself for the heat, coming from the midwest, I was really disappointed that we were not granted additional fluids. Also, many of my bottles and water were downright warm.

I experienced heat stroke/exhaustion like symptoms around an hour into the race. I stopped sweating, had chills, couldn't absorb fluids, etc. I did finish the race, but also made the conscious decision to run for finishing, no longer for place (since I had dropped off the lead pack after 10k, there was very little chance of winning money at that point). While I understand the excuse that we should be picking the top 6 runners who will fare best in Rio, USATF should also have been concerned about the top 6 athletes bouncing back from the effort that it took to run in those conditions. Heat injury/stroke/exhaustion is very serious and can be career ending. I hope I am wrong, but I worry that Shalane will struggle to bounce back from the race.

I disagree about the part (not sure if it was mentioned here, but definitely saw it in Rizzo's blog) where USATF did everything to nickel and dime us. We weren't FORCED to stay at the JW. Despite my sponsor paying for my trip (I qualified with a B standard), I still chose to stay ~3/4 of a mile away for $148/night, simply to avoid the nervous energy and chaos that tends to occur at the host hotel. It wasn't a big deal. I took a Lyft everywhere I wanted to go (which was really reasonable). I picked up groceries from Ralph's, and besides Friday's night dinner, only spent ~$50 on food.

I really enjoyed LA as a whole, but was disappointed with the lack of knowledge the city had that the trials were going on. Given the size of the course's loop, I was bummed there weren't more spectators out, especially between USC and the water stop on Figueroa. I was also disappointed with crowd control, as a group of pedestrians stood in the middle of Figueroa at one point and impeded runners (granted, this was towards the end of the race and I finished in the 50's, so it's not like it really mattered).

The USC portion was disappointing. Why were we running on rocks/potholes, and hopping on/off of curbs? I second what someone said - it reeked of manure and pot. The marching band was cool, though!

While I think it was neat that men and women were on the same course and running at approximately at the same time, the women were lapped a lot sooner than I anticipated. I ran in the 2:40's and the top men lapped me on the 2nd lap. Women were informed during the tech meeting to stay to the right and allow the men to pass. While the street was wide enough to accommodate this, I was unable (mostly unwilling) to reach the sponge/t-shirt stop after that. I did not want to cut in front of the men to the left side of the street in order to get one. As someone who was overheating but determined to finish, it would have been welcome to have had the chance to cool down a little.

In terms of a t-shirt: I was happier to have gotten a (pretty sweet) medal. My sister actually bought me a trials t-shirt, but only men's sizes were available, and the men's xs is still huge on me. My coach searched for two days in an attempt to buy a t-shirt for himself, and he didn't find the vendor until right before the race. Many spectators/family members searched for an opportunity to buy souvenirs, and were disappointed at how difficult they were to find. We felt like USATF/Nike would have been better served to make the gear more accessible.

The volunteers, as always, were great. With people like Carolyn Mather, it really doesn't matter how crappy the amenities are when you have people that treat you like their own children. Since this was my first trials, I didn't know what to expect, but I was a little surprised it wasn't as hospitable as other races I have run, such as Houston.

The VIP reception was really cool, and I think it was worth the $150 (total) I paid for my coach and boyfriend to attend. There weren't enough tables to sit down at, but the food was great and it was fun to meet Meb, Bart Yasso, and Cary Pinkowski. We were definitely given red-carpet treatment, which was great. That said, though, I will likely skip it next time.

Last, I got really tired of the emphasis that the entire weekend seemed to have on whether or not someone "deserved" to be there. It seemed like the topic of conservation steered that way quite often. USATF and RRCA members constantly asking what your goal was, what your qualifying time was, and sticking up their noses at the bottom 25% of the field (or blatantly telling someone that his goal was too ambitious, as I heard at the reception).

Finally - I haven't seen mention of this ANYWHERE, but I saw a runner get placed into an ambulance, covered in a blanket except for his feet on my last lap. My boyfriend saw it too, and actually saw the guy getting defibrillated. Any details on this?

localboy wrote:

OTQualifier16 wrote:There WAS, however, a catered, cooled tent for VIPs that athletes could be rudely kicked out of while USATF and USOC bigwigs wined and dined in our misery.

Read more: pjrizzo - Blogs - The Olympic Marathon Trials

they fed the nike run club hobby joggers / schmucks (VIP access) off the streets but nothing for you guys? ridiculous

NEWSFLASH. Wannabes and never was do not fund the USATF. You have to be nice to the sponsors that paid for a lot of the stuff. Do you have any idea of the cost to closed down part of LA

Geez so many complaints.

First of all, all you yahoos who suggest that they treat runners better at a local 5K haven't been to many local 5Ks with little sponsorship. or many local races.

My local race....which attracts major elites (14,000 runners) ....doesn't have water stops or t-shirts or anything.

They have athletes stay at people's houses etc. Maybe the USATF could have done that.

Everyone who complains about the start time...guess what..you weren't going to Rio. Why not give those who had a chance the opportunity to simulate the conditions. Take Shalane for example. She probably learned a lot about running in those conditions...do you really want here to experiment at the Olympics? For runners like Rupp and Cragg, it probably gave them a confidence boost to run will in those conditions and Meb.

Sorry you thought TV dictated the schedule. Guess what...you want national coverage...you have to give ups something. This is big boy sports ... and this is what happens if you want 2+hrs of live coverage on a national network.

It's funny that a lot people complained about the heat, yet you had had story after story of how the elite elites prepared for the heat. Some when to FLA, some trained in special ways. It sounds like many of the subs didn't prepare at all for the heat. you should shoulder some of the blame there.

The USATF is not blameless, but running is no longer hard core anymore..you've become pampered babies.

femaleOTQ wrote:

Finally - I haven't seen mention of this ANYWHERE, but I saw a runner get placed into an ambulance, covered in a blanket except for his feet on my last lap. My boyfriend saw it too, and actually saw the guy getting defibrillated. Any details on this?

Where was that exactly?

Ustala wrote:

femaleOTQ wrote:

Finally - I haven't seen mention of this ANYWHERE, but I saw a runner get placed into an ambulance, covered in a blanket except for his feet on my last lap. My boyfriend saw it too, and actually saw the guy getting defibrillated. Any details on this?

Where was that exactly?

It was actually in the middle of my last water stop. The ambulance was parked right after Table 5 (in my hazy state, I thought they were tearing down the water tables early).

femaleOTQ wrote:

Ustala wrote:

Where was that exactly?

It was actually in the middle of my last water stop. The ambulance was parked right after Table 5 (in my hazy state, I thought they were tearing down the water tables early).

Yeahhhhh that was me haha. No defibrillator, just an IV shoved not in my vein (that hurt a bit). Unless someone else also passed out there and was defibrillated but that doesn't seem likely.

Ustala wrote:

femaleOTQ wrote:

It was actually in the middle of my last water stop. The ambulance was parked right after Table 5 (in my hazy state, I thought they were tearing down the water tables early).

Yeahhhhh that was me haha. No defibrillator, just an IV shoved not in my vein (that hurt a bit). Unless someone else also passed out there and was defibrillated but that doesn't seem likely.

Oh great! My bf just clarified he saw the defibrillators OUT, not that they were used. My bad! Glad you're not dead!

femaleOTQ wrote:

Ustala wrote:

Yeahhhhh that was me haha. No defibrillator, just an IV shoved not in my vein (that hurt a bit). Unless someone else also passed out there and was defibrillated but that doesn't seem likely.

Oh great! My bf just clarified he saw the defibrillators OUT, not that they were used. My bad! Glad you're not dead!

I hope that's just protocol to have the defibrillators out and that they didn't actually think I was in a condition where that might be necessary.. Yikes.

But thank you, I'm glad too!

Thanks for posting this - this attitude is admirable.

No matter how good you are at something, the likelihood that you are the best is very, very low. The bottom line, to me, in situations like this, is that you give everything that you have, and perform the best that you can.

I think, in a crude sense, that was what the official who made the original comment was getting at. At a championship race, you want everybody, top to bottom, giving it their very best, and humbly accepting whatever the outcome may be. The people who are there to jog the race, just to say that they did, are doing a disservice to the ideal of the race.

Props to you for recognizing this, and giving it everything that you have.

Thanks to everyone for writing up their thoughts. This has been truly interesting to read.

You're welcome.

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