Racing — Coach Joe’s Notes to the Olympic Marathon Trials Athletes

I’m not Facebook friends with all of the athletes that figured prominently in this past weekend’s 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, but if I were I’m sure each of them would have posted something on their wall about their performances. I would have then perhaps taken a moment to comment on their performances. Not just a “good job” but a few of the thoughts that crossed my mind as I watched the race. So today, here are my comments to some of the standouts at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials.

Dear Ryan — Ryan, oh Ryan. We love you brother. You are our fastest marathon runner. In fact, you were minutes faster than any American runner last year and you’re sitting on something like a four minute gap over everyone else in between your PR and theirs. We get it that you don’t like to “run in back”, but you seem to keep doing the same thing over again. You get out in front and lead the race from the start and then don’t quite have it at the end. Here’s all I’m saying: when you’re sitting on like a four minute differential in your PR over everyone else in the race, maybe let the other guys lead and save it for the last two miles. Then bust out that great speed and take it home. Granted, things will be different at the Olympics where there will be much faster people in the field. But you are a great talent and still young. You can race to make the difference between first and second.

Dear Shalane – Shalane, the people of Portland are really proud of you. You were facing the probably the toughest competition ever in a US Olympic Trials and you were far from the most experienced runner in the bunch. A lot of people were thinking that experience would trump the young speed in the field. I wasn’t one of those people. I knew it was going to come down to the new faces. I admit that I had picked Desi to take the win, but I would have put money on you to win, place or show. You looked great out there. Your form is picture perfect. With more experience at the marathon distance you are going to be unstoppable. Nice work!

Dear Meb– Meb, I met your dad once. Ever since, I’ve been a huge fan. You were such an inspirational American story before this win, but this just really tops it. Now you can add “comeback” to the resume. You looked so strong out there in the last miles. When other people were falling apart, you had it. You looked great on the hills in New York the last couple of outings as well. Despite Ryan’s speed, you really are the strongest American marathon runner right now. What you have is the combination of strength and strategic thinking that it takes to win. You’ve shown that you can perform on tough, hilly courses like New York and Athens with international competition. The question is how will you do in London? Thrilling I’m sure!

Dear Desiree– Desi, I have to compliment you for something that you did in the US Olympic Marathon Trials this weekend. I noticed that you were not just drinking from your bottle and chucking it. You were holding onto it and sipping from it for quite awhile after each aid station. Thank you for doing this. We tell our new marathon runners that they need to drink during their races, but they never get to see the elites role model this behavior. Even on a cool day like it was, your were taking in your fluids. We’ll replay that film over and over again to show people how it’s done. By the way, your stride was much more compact than the other leaders up front. With the way you’re built, you look like you’d make a great cyclist and duathlete. If you’re interested, the Duathlon World would love to have you.

Dear Ritz– Dathan, you are a stud man. Don’t worry about finishing in fourth place. You were a rock star out there. Your form looked great in the last miles. It was pretty clear that if you’d had about one more mile you would have taken Abdi. He was coming un-glued. We could see it in his shoulders and arms. Unfortunately, the race wasn’t 27.2 miles or 26.9 or 28.1 miles. It was 26.2 miles and you just ran out of road. But you made all of us Portlander’s proud man. Plus as first alternate if someone opts to run say the 10,000M instead of the marathon, you might still be headed for London in the marathon. Great job!

Dear Kara– We love you Kara. You continue to come back after having your baby. It’s got to be a tough road being a new mom and an athlete. I mean you’re already dead tired keeping up with a baby, but then throwing in training on top of that. Forget about it. Considering the length of time you’ve had, you are making incredible progress in what has proved to be a tough re-bound situation for a lot of top women athletes. Keep up the good work. You’re amazing and you’ve got time.

Dear Josh– Mr. Cox, you continue to impress me as being the most public relations (PR) savvy athlete running today. OK, there might be one other, but I don’t mention his name on my blog. Josh, I could not help but smile seeing you right up there on the front line with the favorites. Everyone in the race was going to be fast, you might as well be in the start photos. And your performance was great. Nice work on the PR(of both types) and for your 14th place finish in 2:13.

Dear Amy — Amy, I reserve some special comments just for you. You were the most inspiring person in the race for me. When you disconnected from the leaders at around mile 16, you didn’t throw in the towel. You easily could have. Most people would have said, ‘hey, these people are faster than me and I can cruise from here.’ But you didn’t. A few minutes later, you were not only back with them, but you had jumped out into the lead. Bam! That was the biggest move of the day. Sure, it didn’t stick, but you went for it. In fact, both Desi and Kara mentioned you after the race. Desi said, “…Amy had made huge surges throughout the race. I couldn’t assume she had been dropped,” and Kara added, “I definitely ran outside of my fitness for a few miles trying to get away from Amy.” You stamped yourself into that race by making those moves. I had this interesting sensation last year in the ITU Duathlon World Championships. Somehow I found myself leading the race and I thought, “huh, I’m leading at f-ing worlds.” I knew it wasn’t going to stick, but I thought I would put myself out there and go for it. That’s what you did too. You totally rocked it. Thanks for running so inspirationally.

Dear All US Olympic Marathon Trials Runners — The fact that you made it to the trials was amazing in itself. The level of dedication and talent that it takes to qualify for the Trials is just amazing. If you didn’t make it to the front, or never expected to, and didn’t get mentioned anywhere in the news, don’t be hard on yourself. You are an inspiration in all that you do to have the legs to be there. Keep up the good work and thanks for allowing us to dream through you.

Coach Joe English, Portland, Oregon, USA
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