US Men's Marathon Olympic Trials - Race Recap. (LetsRun.com co-founder Weldon Johnson offers his post-race feelings on his 25th place showing and recounts his race here).

DeHaven Wins.

There's no need for us to go into Rod DeHaven's win as tons of other websites/newspapers are going to tell you how he did. Click here for a full-recap from Runner's World. The only thing we'll say is that the weather was BRUTAL. Americans may not be as fast as the Kenyans or what not, but they don't completely suck either. Rod DeHaven ran a heck of a race - LetsRun.com running guru John Kellogg says his performance is equal to at least a 2:11:00 if run in Chicago, but it's almost not fair to compare times. Running a race in the heat is almost a different sport - hence some random guy seems to win the Olympic Marathon often nowadays. Our goal at LetsRun.com is to provide you with interesting odds and ends from the race that you wouldn't learn anywhere else.

Possible "A" Status for Rod DeHaven?

LetsRun.com has learned that both Joe LeMay and David Morris were drug-tested after the race, leading to speculation that USATF will petition the IAAF behind the scenes to have Rod DeHaven granted an "A" qualifier. We can think of little reason why both LeMay and Morris would be drug-tested as they finished in 61st and 38th place respectively unless USATF was going to try to get them on the Olympic Team by having Rod DeHaven granted "A" qualifier status. DeHaven could be granted the "A" status for either today's performance or for his 24th place showing at the World Championships last Fall when the top 20 were all retroactively granted "A" status.

Thumbs Up To Todd Williams/David Morris

We're sure that both Todd Williams and American record-holder David Morris will be criticized in the media for coming in 41st and 38th place in 2:30:18 and 2:29:26 respectively, but we believe both men should be commended for finishing the race when it was obvious that neither one of them was going to qualify for the Trials or even finish in the money. Todd was seen walking at mile 18, clutching his side while David bent over at mile 15, but both men at least managed to finish the race. We're sure that a bunch of people will say that even Oprah can finish a marathon, but these idiots obviously don't properly understand that these guys had absolutely no reason to finish the race except to gain a small sense of self-satisfaction. Joe LeMay also deserves a small thumbs up as he finished way back, but he wasn't in the type of pain that Morris and Williams were because he never put himself into contention.

Give Me A Break - A T.V. Break!!

Flagstaff, Arizona-based Carlos Paradelo, who has been battling a variety of injuries the last few months, didn't expect to have a great performance today and he didn't as he finished in 2:46:32 in 73rd place. However, he had a good attitude about the whole thing and made the best of a bad situation by joining in the fun had by 45 LetsRun.Com Team Wejo members (that's the 45 people who traveled to the race in support of the LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson and wore the official LetsRun.com t-shirts throughout the day.) When Paradelo ran by about 10 Team Wejo members at around mile 22, he turned to them to ask how his occasional training partner Weldon Johnson was doing. They told him Weldon had faded to 20th and Paradelo then asked who was winning the race. They responded, "DeHaven and he's about to finish. Do you want to watch (on our portable t.v.)?" Paradelo ran a few steps, stopped, and said, "Sure." He then turned around and stopped for about three minutes to watch DeHaven earn his Olympic birth. Paradelo then proceeded to finish the race. His t.v. addiction wasn't all that costly as he was only passed by one runner during his television break. Click here to go to our trials homepage.

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