Which trials qualifier came the furthest to make the Trials?

Bdubs wrote:

I call BS on Desert Trash.

40-50 drinks/week? That's either blackout drunk 3x week or plenty drunk 5-7 nights a week. Even 80 miles on that would be crazy.

Mr. Dalton apparently majored in creative writing at Grinnell.

The 6 months before my marathon debut, my only responsibility was being in a Master's program where I had 2 classes on 2 days of the week [7ish hours of class total] + was writing my thesis. I was unemployed otherwise. Therefore, my average week would look something like this:

Post-run shower beer after every run [8 drinks a week]

Go out on Friday night [10-12 drinks] then run Saturday morning

Drink basically all day Saturday [12 drinks] then run Sunday morning

Other 5 days: Stay home and do homework/work [2-3 drinks per-day]

Anybody know what Chris Barnicle is up to? He was ABSOLUTELY the highlight of "Who came the farthest ...." of the last trials. And, of course, his DFL was nothing short of epic.

That's totally understandable. To note, hitting OTQ was the kick in the butt I needed to begin taking training extremely seriously. Since then, I've moved, work 40+ hours a week at a professional job, began lifting 3-4x a/week, running 100+ miles a week, drinking only 10-15 drinks a week, stretching everyday, and getting legitimate coaching.

Desert Trash wrote:

Marathon Debut: 2:18:55

Furthermore, throw in the facts that:

3. I was drinking 40-50 beers/drinks a week in the months before my marathon debut

4. I generally only ran about 80mpw in my marathon training buildup before before OTQ

Your metabolism must be amazing!!!

There are two men with qualifying times of 2:18:55 -- Ryan Cosens and Kyle Wyatt -- and neither of their high school or college PRs line up with these. Definitely a troll. Well done though 7/10

unless the poster hit a faster time since that race

test

Definitely Steve vangamplier... that guy ran 2:18 last year and you can check his progression, he legit used to run a 19-20min 5k 10 years ago.

[quote]dadsfadsfdasfdsafdas wrote:

Don't these pretty much always break down into who didn't train in HS and college type lists? /quote]

There is some truth to this. I didn't have a very significant progression, but I did train extremely hard for many years. In that time, I greatly unperformed.

High school: 15:47 5k, 9:32 3200, 4:29 1600 (70 mpw)

College: Mileage progression - 80, 85, 100, 110

4:20 mile, 8:30 3k, 14:50 5k, 30:38 10k

Yes, I ran 110 miles a week just to go 14:50. I obsessed over training. I put in the work. For years, I always felt like my effort was worth more. When I graduated from college (2017), my goal was to OTQ for this cycle. It's not that my times wouldn't signify an OTQ after years of work, but I was always told that it would take a few Olympic cycles to get there because I didn't get that far off of training this much.

Debuted fall of 2018. 2:22:36 at Hartford.

Grandma's 2019: 2:21:07

Hartford 2019: 2:18:25

So I got it this cycle. I also lowered my 5k PR to 14:23 in December of 2019, eight weeks after the OTQ.

I'm certainly not a contestant for most improved, but I did train very hard for many years without fantastic results, before going self coached and finding some last second fitness to qualify. Just had my breakthrough at the right time.

I remember reading threads here about 14:50 5k runners trying to qualify. The general consensus is always telling people it won't happen until they run sub 14:30. I guess that's partially true in my case, because I did that soon after qualifying. But I think just about anyone around 15:00 could qualify within a year or two with a good plan. Even 15:30 guys coming out of college have a legitimate shot with consistency.

And for the record, I wore the Carbon X in my OTQ, and the course has ~700 ft of gain, with no net downhill. Good weather and a good pack through 15 miles certainly helped.

Tyler Underwood NO DOUBT. 4:10 to 2:18.

It’s not easy to run as slow as 4:10.

Teal Burrell has a great website milestothetrials.com in 2005 she ran a 4:07 marathon and just ran the houston half in 1:18 you can see her progression here: http://www.milestothetrials.com/p/races.html she ran in the 2016 trials and will run in 2020 as well

This is incredible, as is the tennis player to OTQ story. I know I read about a woman who had to overcome some serious medical issues to qualify. Can't find the story though.

what's the best time you've seen/heard of someone run with no athletic background until their 30s?

Has anyone like this ever made the trials?

I am from the Cleveland area and remember her! This thread is inspiring...Her times are similar to mine. She was in a tough division though I think in HS; Medina is the Suburban League (D1) and difficult to get out of the district and regional...Lots of good teams up there, Medina, Cloverleaf, Highland, Wadsworth, etc.

I found this while reading about Underwood and other runners he and his wife coach. A 2:18 guy and 3:11 girl with no huge running backgrounds...!

How about Annemarie Tuxbury?

I don't think she could break 17:00/35:00 in college and then was 35th in Atlanta, regular top 10 in USATF championships, and 2:31 to qualify for 2024. Now let's see what ZAP could do for her.