who are they kidding? this event, time has passed by completely. it has no relevance what so ever with reality nor competition beyond journeyman of the day,.
japan has 100 guys that are 208 and better.
the us marathon trials are an absolute joke.
210 marathon has nothing to do with the OG by now.
If you want to go for a goal, go for it, get offline.
Respectfully tho, you're not going to run an OT until you can confidently and consistently race 10k's under 30min, and even that is a soft mark. Most marathon OTQ's are running upwards of 90-100mile weeks for weeks on end, so the fact that 70 has been your ceiling recently is tough, especially since you don't have the high school, college, or recent PR's to back up the idea that you're capable handling the training speeds at volume needed to run an OTQ. None of this is to dissuade you, in fact, doubt is fantastic training fuel.
However, there is nothing more cringe than an unrealist runners with delusions of grandeur.
who are they kidding? this event, time has passed by completely. it has no relevance what so ever with reality nor competition beyond journeyman of the day,.
japan has 100 guys that are 208 and better.
the us marathon trials are an absolute joke.
210 marathon has nothing to do with the OG by now.
farce.
all down votes. sure, what have you. its just that it has nothing to do with reality, as being Olympic caliber.
ya, sure, it's an achievable thing for the average good runner, the OG marathon trials, go for it and good luck. an obtuse achievement. I wouldn't want that as a main achievement, bogus ego inflating claim to fame.
of course we're not talking about a couple of Americans that might pop a 205
a real trial would include people that are in the top 100 in the world, or some such vague metric
Wow, just came across this thread for the first time and it really resonated with me. I wasn't nearly as fast as you in high school (17:40, 10:21, 4:48 PRs), but I really wanted to run in college. Had a couple offers from some small D3 schools that I was considering taking, but my dad convinced me to go to a big school and not sacrifice my education just to play a sport. I ended up taking this advice and didn't run in college, but always felt like I had unfinished business in running.
Fast forward to today, I'm 28 and about 3 years in since I started running again. Just now getting back into the shape I was in when I quit. I also share the farfetched dream of hitting an OTQ. I'm not stupid, I know it's probably impossible for me at this point, but I'm gonna keep getting after it because I'll never really know until I try. I know for sure I won't hit it by 2028, but maybe, just maybe if I can keep a good trajectory I can qualify for the 2032 trials when I'm 35 haha. If nothing else, I at least want to hit some big PRs before I'm done. Thanks for the inspiration, man!
17:40 5K huh
How could you OTQ if you can’t run the pace for even a 5K?
all down votes. sure, what have you. its just that it has nothing to do with reality, as being Olympic caliber.
In case you have not realized yet, you get the downvotes because you are replying to a thread written 15 years ago. I you bother reading the thread before posting, you may notice that the OP has revived the thread with a very interesting post that describes his efforts towards getting an OTQ in these 15 years (Spoiler Alert! he fell short). And yes, he did run 100+ MPW.
Broski... with your lack of natural talent, you'll need to run much higher mileage to even sniff that OT qualifier. 100+ mpw stacked for months on end, if not a couple of years. But it's certainly doable. You could be this generation's "Jason in Asia."
Why do all of you kids simply strive to meet the MINIMUM standard? There are too many time-trial runners already. Why not go out and actually attempt to win a race? Find out how fast you can run! Go freaking try to make a US team. You probably will not make an Olympic team but who knows, you might make a XC or Pan Am team, or some other opportunity may arise.
It's the same thought process as "I only want a C to get out of this class and graduate." Those kids sitting on the front row might not be smarter than you, but they have a better attitude. Runners at the front of the pack might not be as genetically gifted as you, but they have a better work ethic.
Congratulations on your journey and thanks for coming back to your thread to update us. I’m currently at 2:28 in the marathon (aged 31) hoping to go sub 2:25 at London in 2 months, with a long term goal of going sub 2:20. As you figured out though, looking ahead that much is naive, I’ve just got to focus on breaking 2:25 first and take it from there
Breaking progress down into chunks was big for me. And it's amazing how much you can improve with consistent training over time. Good luck in London!
I think this was the key for me. I was a fairly mediocre D3 guy (15:30/25:4x) and an even worse HS kid (4:52/10:26). I got back into taking it seriously in 2018 (age 26), ran 2:30 low in 2019 and trying to drop to 2:25 immediately set me up for failure a bit. I focused on little wins and let training/shorter races/consistency be a guide of where I was at while still playing it safe. And of course finally staying healthy. Went 2:28 at boston in 2022, then 2:23 at Chicago that fall, 2:23 at Boston 2023, then finally 2:19 low at CIM.
Wow, just came across this thread for the first time and it really resonated with me. I wasn't nearly as fast as you in high school (17:40, 10:21, 4:48 PRs), but I really wanted to run in college. Had a couple offers from some small D3 schools that I was considering taking, but my dad convinced me to go to a big school and not sacrifice my education just to play a sport. I ended up taking this advice and didn't run in college, but always felt like I had unfinished business in running.
Fast forward to today, I'm 28 and about 3 years in since I started running again. Just now getting back into the shape I was in when I quit. I also share the farfetched dream of hitting an OTQ. I'm not stupid, I know it's probably impossible for me at this point, but I'm gonna keep getting after it because I'll never really know until I try. I know for sure I won't hit it by 2028, but maybe, just maybe if I can keep a good trajectory I can qualify for the 2032 trials when I'm 35 haha. If nothing else, I at least want to hit some big PRs before I'm done. Thanks for the inspiration, man!
17:40 5K huh
How could you OTQ if you can’t run the pace for even a 5K?
I ran that in 2014. I took 7 years off after high school, started running again in 2022 and I'm currently training for sub-2:50 marathon this year. Like I said, I'm not stupid and I know it's a far off goal that's probably unattainable at this point in my life. But I'll never know until I try. Shoot for the stars and land among the clouds, right?
There's nothing like putting in the work and knowing your body is a finely tuned machine. Whether it was ripping off 400s in 1500/5000 training faster than I ever thought possible, or finishing 8 miles of threshold work at the end of a 20 miler and knowing there was more in the tank... There was nothing like being in the best shape of my life.
Truly no better feeling.
That's really the point of all this, isn't it? I still remember this hill climb I used to do repeats on (on my road bike), and this one day I got all the way around the next switchback, which I had never done before and never did again. I felt so good that day, decades ago now.
Breaking progress down into chunks was big for me. And it's amazing how much you can improve with consistent training over time. Good luck in London!
I think this was the key for me. I was a fairly mediocre D3 guy (15:30/25:4x) and an even worse HS kid (4:52/10:26). I got back into taking it seriously in 2018 (age 26), ran 2:30 low in 2019 and trying to drop to 2:25 immediately set me up for failure a bit. I focused on little wins and let training/shorter races/consistency be a guide of where I was at while still playing it safe. And of course finally staying healthy. Went 2:28 at boston in 2022, then 2:23 at Chicago that fall, 2:23 at Boston 2023, then finally 2:19 low at CIM.
Honestly, this is so incredibly cool. This sport is great because you can chase big dreams as a working person. Chasing the OT standard is such a unique aspect to American running, and has kept the dream alive for so many. Keep pushing!
Many of the posts here resonate with me. I was a 16:40 5k, 4:40 mile hs guy. Didn’t take college seriously in the slightest. My low point was running a 4:37 1500. I was truly uncommitted trash.
I got back into running in 2022 after a couple years off. I quickly improved from 16:09 5k, 53:54 10 mile….. to 14:51 5k, 51:07 10 mile, 66:52 half, and 2:23 full. Was probably in 2:20 shape but was pretty sick the week leading into the race. Going for sub-50 10 mile, 2:19 marathon this year. Confident I can do both, if not this year then next.
Never give up the dream, work smart and hard, and don’t let some jabroni tell you that OTQing isn’t cool as hell. thanks for bringing this back after 15 years OP
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Me too. You guys both (@neanderthaldream and @ningkaiyang) inspire me with your guys's commitment. Sets a role model for people like me who are also trying to get faster in college. I had high school PR's of 65/2:23/4:55/10:20 and a 17:27 5K and 1:25 half marathon and I'm at around mid-40's miles per week trying to get to 50mpw with hopes of qualifying for the Boston Marathon and getting my 5K time into the low 16's.