No Olympic Trials Qualifiers from FL? Of Course

And they never ever had any good guys training for the marathon there. There was this one tiny club that had a Galloway and a Shorter on it but I am sure that they must be different guys then those marathon stars we all know.

arent' dusen and khannouchi both from new york?

Florida isnt all bad, north florida such areas as tallahassee arent to bad, the weather stays nice there for a few months and it has some nice hills and trails. I live in the tampabay area and it is flat and hot but you make good with what you have.

Keith Brantly was from Florida. He was pretty good at the marathon.

tampa is crap for training, but great for eye candy.

Actually the Headline is wrong cause if you open up the article it says NY has 2 qaulifiers and technically it goesz by where people train not by where they are from. Chris Graff is from NY but doesnt train here.

To get more technical for no reason technically Fam is a qaulifier (NY) just didnt enter, but that opens another can of worms

In any case the headline doesnt match the article

You guys are missing at least one of the points. The OP is saying that the conditions in Florida are not conducive to training for a marathon. Look where Frank Shorter and Bachelor and Galloway (I think) trained. If it was good enough to win the trials hands down and win the Olympic Gold then the thesis lacks teeth.

Are you sure Shorter and Crew trained there year-round? Maybe, but even then Gainesville has some nice hills and nicer weather. I guess I should to refer training to being Crap down further south in Florida.

If the trials were in a Beijing-like setting you might expect more marathoners to train in Florida. I do not know what part of the year that they were there but it was in stark contrast to the OP, which is why I made the 'jab'.

sweathog wrote:

Keith Brantly was from Florida. He was pretty good at the marathon.

No, not really.

While there may be no qualifiers from FL this time, I can guarantee that FL is not the worst place to train for a marathon.

I was able to train here for not 1, not 2, but for 3 marathons under 5:00 pace. '93, '96, + '97

If you have the mental toughness, the determination, and of course the work ethic to get the hell off the message board and get your ass out on the roads and train, you too could run fast enough to get out of the way of shit flying out of your mouth.

If you train for four months in temperatures at over 80s and 90s and get a nice crisp day of say mid 40s or even as lucky to get temps in the mid to upper 30s, it feels like you're running in the air conditioning for 26 miles. It takes you a helluva a lot longer to even get to the point of overheating.

Oh, by the way, when YOU can run under 2:12:30 for a marathon, which I am CERTAIN most of you can NOT, then, and only then, can you berrate the efforts of Keith Brantly. If you've ever run Pittsburg's marathon course, you could understand and appreciate Keith's effort on that course!

Yes, it may be true that it's HARDER to train in FL, and there may in fact be a lack of qualifiers this time, that is not to say that FL is the worst place to train. Come on down and I'll teach you how to run 800 miles in August some time :-)

Jerry Lawson

Well said. So there you have it, in the last 10 years there has been a US champion and an AR holder training in Florida. That's a lot more than most states could say.

Marius Bakken trained in Tampa

Jerry,

Do you still have the "race car" or did you get something more conservative? I thought for sure that night going home from the Foundry that you, myself, and John were dead!

Dudley

Didn't you briefly have the AR in the marathon?

Dudley,

Race car stolen Labor Day weekend '01, motorcyle stolen in JAX fall '02; driving car of affordability, looking for car of necessity (just had twins :-)

Jerry,

The Hansons always speak highly of you and that is good enough for me. The Hansons also spend a great deal of the winter down in Florida and they have a dozen qualifiers, so does FLA get partial credit for that?

Domesticated Jerry,

Congrats on the twins and the affortable car! I, myself am expecting 1 any day now so life will be different. Are you back in Jacksonville?

Dudley

I think if you want to train for Beijing the best should be sucking on a muffler somewhere like downtown Houston in the summer. The had a cycling race in Beijing recently and most of the riders dropped out and said the air quality was horrendous. If u have ever ran in heavy smog you realize what a crapshoot Beijing is gonna be