The American field with US XC champ Amy Van Alstine, Jen Rhines, Megan Hogan will take on a currently unannounced international field.
*Elite Field Bios
Sambu ran 14:04 to break the previous record from 14:43 from 2009. The race is trying to raise money to buy a water purification system for Sambu's village in Kenya.
*Donate Here
*Results/Photos/Interview With Sambu
*Pre-Race: Oyster Bay Turkey Trot runner vies for clean water in native Kenya
Hartman says he “can’t complain” about his training going in and feels confident in his fitness. Hartman also talks about still not having a sponsor (despite back-to-back 4th place finishes at Boston) and wanting to be a college coach when his career is over.
On his training going in he says, “I can’t complain. The goal has always been to be as best prepared as I can. I’m confident in my preparation. [The race is] the final exam. The thing with the marathon is you never know. There’s a lot that could go wrong in an event that goes over 2 hours. There’s an element of unknowing, but I’ve trained really hard, so I’m confident in my fitness.”
Practice the way you plan to race. People change things on race day out of nervousness, but it’s just another day, and just another race. The marathon is really about trial and error, and you have to bonk before you really know what it’s about. In my first marathon, despite all the great knowledge I gained from elite runners and coaches that I knew, I still bonked. The marathon is an experience, and the only way to get better at the distance is to run the distance. But you learn from that, and apply that moving forward. It’s all about adjusting to the situation at hand.
Multiple things: After losing sponsorships, I got back to the essence of what my running was all about — that’s to push myself, and compete at the highest level possible. It’s about the satisfaction that comes with enduring something this difficult.
I hadn’t had that perspective until I lost my sponsorship. So, in a way it’s been good, but you always want that support from the sponsorship. It made me more hungry in my running. I feel a joy about my running pursuits now, the way I had when I first got into it. I like to perform. I don’t do this for notoriety. I just love to compete. When I don’t have that anymore, then I’ll put that into focus into coaching. But for now, I’m still in it.
Mutai's training group is doing incredible this year.
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