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U.S. Olympic runners chosen in N.Y.C.; Tradgedy mars event

By Dillon Bates

Posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007, 12:00 am

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There are incredible feats of athleticism and then there are testaments to the human body. The New York Marathon falls into the latter category. The most grueling event in athletics, very few humans are actually in condition to race the 26.2 miles.

In addition, every four years, the world’s largest and longest running sporting event comes around: the summer Olympic Games.

As one can imagine, when these two superlatives of sport combine for the Olympic Trials, in which only the top three runners from every nation will qualify to represent their country on the world stage, it creates quite a spectacle. The U.S. trials are held in New York City, the cultural, and often the athletic epicenter of the country, in front of hundreds of thousands of live spectators.

A man named Phidippides ran the first marathon in ancient Athens, and the event became a centerpiece of the Olympic Games. In his day, Phidippides’ ran to spread news and request help for a battle. In 2007, the run itself was the battle.

Wandering around the streets of midtown Manhattan before 5 a.m. sounds crazy to some people, but my friend and I were crazy enough to have just bused 10 hours from Bangor to the Port Authority and weren’t about to stop there. The U.S. Olympic Trials, the biggest sporting event in the U.S. in the last few years was being held at 7:30 a.m. in Central Park. We knew we were in for a show, but we didn’t know just how dramatic that show would be. Before 10 a.m., we, along with the rest of the city, would be witness to every emotion from exuberance to tragedy.

The race, which consisted of the best 134 marathoners in the nation, started off in Rockefeller Center, and would enter Central Park about a mile later, to complete the rest of the course in a series of five five-mile loops. The race started out at a fairly pedestrian pace, with the pack averaging right around a five-minute mile for the first few miles. However, around five miles in, the favorites took the lead, Meb Keflezighi, the 2004 Silver Medalist in Athens among them. Other challengers were Dan Browne, a 2004 Olympian in the 10,000 meters, Khalid Khannouchi, another 2004 Olympian and former world record holder, Abdi Abdirahman, the favorite to win and Dathan Ritzenhein, a promising young runner. With them also was Ryan Hall, an NCAA National Champion in the 5,000 meters, but a young kid who had only ever run one marathon in his life.

At seven miles in, the lead pack began to break away from the crowd by reeling off Sub-5:00 miles. The next three miles were consecutively 4:56, 4:54 and 4:45. As the lead pack lifted, the New York crowd began to come to life, encompassing the course and screaming their support to the athletes flying by. Around 10 miles in, Khannouchi fell back, and would never close the gap to run with the lead pack again. Brown, Meb, Ritzenhein, Hall and Abdi fed off of one another, taking turns leading the pack, which averaged high 4:50s until mile 13. At the 13-mile mark, the “kids” decided to try something. Though only halfway through the race, Hall and Ritzenhein started pushing the pace at mile 13. Though this strategy is sometimes questioned, as there was plenty of time left in the race for those two to run out of gas, they gambled anyway. It would pay off.

Browne, Meb and Abdi would drop back, waiting to make a move later. However, Hall and Ritzenhein were not about to wait for them; Hall took the lead, with “Ritz” about 50 meters behind him. Knowing the more experienced runners behind them would finish strong, they decided to build up as much of a lead as they could. Hall took off, with Ritzenhein trying to follow, and, beginning at mile 13, laid down a mile split of 4:44, and would never be over 5:00 again. He ran in the 4:40s most of the way, including a 4:32 18th mile. At this point, Hall was in command, and wouldn’t look back, winning his first ever Olympic Trials race in 2:09:02, an American Olympic Trials record.

The most dramatic battle of the day was for third, the final spot on the Olympic team. With all of the experienced runners slugging it out, nobody saw Brian Sell coming. A kid out of Michigan, Brian had quietly been running great times for years, but received little attention compared to the star power of Meb, Abdi, Khannouchi and Browne. However, they were all about to learn who Sell was. Over a minute back at the 10-mile mark, he seemed out of contention. However, he wasn’t fazed, and at mile 15 began a long drive to the front. As he slowly picked up ground on the pack of stars in front of him, who were all running sub-5:00 miles, he began picking them off, one by one, passing Browne in the last mile to take third, the last spot on the Olympic team, and completing what is arguably the greatest comeback in marathon history. The crowd was deafening as the runners came in, and it seemed all of New York City was celebrating at the finish line.

The 2008 U.S. Olympic team had been chosen. For these three men, years of hard work had paid off. For 131 others, heartbreak. As emotions ran wild with athletes, coaches and fans celebrating, hugging and crying, the din was quickly muffled by tragedy.

In an ironic flashback to the story of Phidippides, who had collapsed and died after completing one of his incredible runs, Ryan Shay, a five-time national road race champion, and a contender for an Olympic spot, had collapsed and died around the five-mile mark. The sobering news put a somber mood on the post-race party and press conference, as many athletes wept openly upon hearing the report.

Despite the terrible news, the U.S. had selected what is already being touted as one of the most powerful marathon teams in U.S. history. These three youthful racers are bright spots for the U.S. in an event that is often a weak area for this country. The most grueling event in sports awaits them on the world’s biggest stage. Already feeling the pressure of a nation’s expectations bearing down on them, these men will simply try to keep their heads clear and train for Beijing in 2008.