“The night before I woke up, I had a nightmare that I didn’t finish the race…Just all the stress of this race, I don’t think I went to the well as much as I did in Chicago or Boston, as far as during the race. I was so nervous that I was going to mess this up, mess this opportunity up.” – Connor Mantz
Orlando, Florida, USA. – 03 February 2024.
To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the men’s race. Before the 2024 USA Olympic Marathon Trials began, I predicted the team would be composed of Connor Mantz, Clayton Young and a black naturalized citizen. Probably Army. Paul Chelimo, Leonard Korir, Shadrack Kipchirchir, and Sam Chelanga came to mind.
Orlando is the fourth straight Trials in which an African-born man will make the USA team. Abdi Abdirahman (de Somalia) and Meb Keflezighi (de Eritrea) did it in 2012. Meb made the team again in 2016, Abdi made the team again in 2020. America loves its immigrants.
I was rooting for old buddy Galen Rupp and estimable example Des Linden. Always do.
The largely flat course near Lake Eola Park was comprised of a 2.2-mile (five-and-a-half kilometer) loop followed by three eight-mile (12-kilometer) loops to the finish line. It was sunny but humid 55˚F (13˚C ) at the 10:10 am start.
Didn’t pay much attention to the men’s race, because the women’s race was just INSANE!!! On the balcony at the private PUMA party with Fiona O’Keefe’s father or watching the race on TV with Dakotah Lindwurm’s mom. Still get all tingly. I am too old for that much excitement and I just met these people.
Back in the 1970s when the father of the Marketing Director for Running – Puma North America and I were racing Boston, I could hold my own with Walt Stack but not today. Today, ‘open bar’ meant a virgin screwdriver which perplexed the first server, but I got my glass and headed to the balcony.
Yes, the balcony. That insane screaming in the concrete canyons of downtown? That was us. And we had every reason to scream. Did you see the race, when the three Puma girls were pushing the action? Exciting, wasn’t it? Even better when you are with all their parents and aunts and uncles and siblings and partners and sponsors and an endless breakfast buffet.
There’s a sniper on a rooftop. I can see him looking at me. Hope he’s one of ours. Last place woman goes by, and somebody says, she’s seven months pregnant. Not to mention the kinesio-tape holding her left leg together.
First met Illinois farmer Craig Virgin nearly fifty years ago. Back then we were lusting after the same Stanford distance runners. Here, we’re trying to convince ourselves some kid running her first marathon can actually win this dang thing.
And we were convinced the whole race. There was no other choice to make. Fiona’s run managed to be unbelievable, surprising, never in doubt, worried all the way, a completely expected shocker. The families and the PUMA folks were laughing and they were crying and it was good. It was damn good. It was fine.
So much genuine joy and not a little sense of relief.
The first to come through the 13.1 split was D’Amato in 1:11:43 with O’Keeffe, Hall, Durgin, Myler, Sisson, Dakotah Lindwurm, and Caroline Rotich right behind her.
Shaking things up in her debut marathon, the 25-year-old O’Keefe suddenly surged just before the fifteen-mile mark. The Puma Elite Running standout dropped the pace from 5:34 at M14 to 5:16 at M17. This BIG MOVE raised questions in the mind of every woman in the lead pack.
By mile 18, only O’Keeffe, Sisson, Hall, Saina, and Durgin had the correct answer. The entire Puma party was, I don’t know, buzzing seems like the right word.
Buzzing.
The pack didn’t stay together long as O’Keeffe finally broke away heading into the 19-mile with a 5:22 mile. Sisson seemed solid for second.
What’s this? Everybody crowds around the television, the unexpected yet expected was happening Closing fast, the Puma-shod Dakotah Lindwurm seemed to be headed for a qualifying berth at Mile 22.
Praying.
O’Keeffe found wings, posting a 5:09 mile at mile 25. the runner ultimately ran away from the competition, winning the Olympic Trials in her first marathon. The stunning breakaway resulted in a 2:22:10 victory for O’Keeffe, who also broke the Olympic Trials record.
Screaming.
“It’s so meaningful. The past couple of years, I’ve been kind of clawing my way through things and I was not expecting this performance,” O’Keeffe. “I had to pinch myself with eight miles to go and be like, stay calm, don’t freak out.”
Amazing.
“I just really didn’t want any regrets today,” she said. “I wasn’t sure at that stage if it would be a mistake or if it would pay off, but I just wanted to go for it and see what happens. I trust the training and the preparation and that was definitely a big inspiration.”
Watched the men’s field race by three or four times. Waved at the helicopter. That competition wasn’t really much mystery to me. Coach Ed Eyestone had his boys SHARP. It was a surgical victory for the Top Two. Domination. Waved at the sniper on the rooftop across the way. Expected, too.
The two qualifiers, members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, interrupted their collegiate running careers to serve religious missions. Coach Eyestone did the same as a BYU runner in the early 1980s. These guys are on an entirely different mission now.
“He’s an amazing coach, but he’d also done everything that I have wanted to do as a runner,” Mantz said.
“Following in his footsteps has been pretty special. It’s like this confirmation of everything I have done.”
Credit must be given. Zach Panning made the race worth paying attention to. Panning set the pace early, leading a dozen athletes through the halfway mark in 1:04:07. He needed a 2:08:10 to qualify for Paris and he was hellbent on getting there. Panning, a 28-year-old with the Michigan-based Hansons-Brooks Distance Project with a 2:09:28 PR, ran confidently at the front. Pushing. Always pushing.
M16, like he’d been shot with a barbed taser, Zach goosed the pace to 4:48 mile. Then 4:44. This guy is serious. By M19, nobody there but Young and Mantz, who glanced around and gave themselves a high-five. Confident about an Olympic berth. Seven miles yet to be contested, damn, that’s feeling good. Practically fresh.
Then Zach ran out of gas. Panning, who courageously led most of the race through Mile 20, finished sixth.
With the race in the proverbial bag, Mantz and Young sashayed to the finish line basking in the roar of the patriotic masses. Mantz earned $80,000 for the win, Young got $65,000 for second and Korir $55,000 for third.
Leonard Korir, fourth at the 2020 Trials, surged over the final miles. Korir placed third by outsprinting Elkanah Kibet in the final meters to the finish. But nothing’s final yet. Korir still must wait to see if he ranks high enough by World Athletics – Top 80, I believe – to get a third U.S. men’s spot in the Olympics.
“I’m hoping that the third Olympic spot is unlocked for Lenny,” Young said. “We want him there with us, obviously, and I think it will be. I think the American men are strong and tough, and we’ll be strong in Paris in a few months.”
But the girls. Oh, my, what fun. You can’t tell me they weren’t having a party. Don’t get me started.
“I ended up walking onto my Division II team because like, I wanted to keep running and I enjoy the community behind it. I was getting better through high school, but I knew that I wasn’t the best in the country or even close to the best in my state.”
Dakotah Lindwurm via @TheLapCount
Dakotah’s coach Chris Lundstrom had this to say:
“I was not expecting this performance,” O’Keeffe said in a post-race interview. “The past couple years, I’ve been kind of clawing my way through things,” O’Keeffe said. “I was not expecting this performance. I had to pinch myself with eight miles to go and say ‘stay calm, don’t freak out.’”
Fiona owns a half-marathon personal best of 1:07:42 from the 2022 Houston Marathon. Not like she didn’t have the wheels.
Just never driven this far before.
And she drives FAST.
I am actually on assignment, reporting for a prestigious Dutch literary running quarterly.
We’d be very interested in any last-place finishers, and their stories, the spectators (if there are any), and other unusual titbits. But I leave it completely up to you.
Hans Koeleman, Editor, Mystical Miles
“If there are any…” Ha! I laugh, chortle even. The crowd was three deep along the sidewalks of downtown. PUMA handed me a souvenir cow bell as well as a souvenir referee’s whistle, which I maximized simultaneously. You couldn’t hear the helicopters overhead. Like the Beatles at Shea Stadium loud. I am that old.
I had my eye out for the pregnant woman, but I might have been looking at the wrong lady. One athlete, she was in last place from the gun, as best as I could see. And I could see good. Except for her bib number. Black outfit, left leg wrapped in KT tape. Also black. Like she had a dreadful premonition.
Makenna Myler, 31, is an Asics-sponsored professional runner who ran the U.S. Olympic Trials on February 3 in Orlando, Florida, 10 months postpartum. She chopped five minutes off her personal best, finishing seventh in 2:26:14.
The women earned the same size prizes. O’Keeffe won $80,000 for the victory, while Sisson got $65,000 for second and Lindwurm $55,000 for third place. Doesn’t seem like enough.
I have a new measure for prize money. The reward is too low if you would take the same amount out of your pocket to buy that spot on the podium.
Finally watched the USA OT Marathon television broadcast in the quiet of my home a week later.
In my big leather recliner, I have trouble understanding Leigh Diffey with captions, so you know I had real difficulty in the PUMA party room overlooking the race course. Actually “ran” around the capacious venue – probably where I met Maya Valdivia, the Executive Director of Eola View – looking for TV screen with better audio. Turns out it was Kara Goucher’s microphone with the most issues.
But I digress.
Some final notes.
Galen Rupp ran the slowest marathon of his career. I think he’s got more left, still think there’s some more fire in the belly. Des is going to Boston. Wish I was.
I really like Kiera D’Amato and her gung-ho, let’s have fun, attitude. After pushing the pace for much of the early going, the former American marathon record holder, dropped out before Mile 21, while Jenny Simpson, also the gung-ho type in my eyes, did much the same.
Stephanie Bruce, age forty, five months after giving birth – it’s a girl! – finished 101st in 2:47:42. And she almost beat my PR.
The Olympic Trials are the most beautiful heart pumping heart breaking race. Six peoples’ dreams come true. Everyone else: Proud, defeated, motivated, hungry, questioning. And so WE LINE UP again. Keep paying attention to our sport, all years, all races, tons of stories. It’s good! – Stephanie Bruce
Gung-ho seemed to be the attitude surrounding the entire event.
Wasn’t just the moms & dads.
We should do this every month. Wait! Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Television. Downtown.
Maybe get a dozen consumer-friendly cities to put together a league.
Open bar for everyone!
2024 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Results
Women’s Results
1. Fiona O’Keeffe, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2:22:10, $80,000 *
2. Emily Sisson, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:22:42, $65,000 *
3. Dakotah Lindwurm, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2:25:31, $55,000 *
4. Jessica McClain, Phoenix, Arizona, 2:25:46, $9,000
5. Sara Hall, Crested Butte, Colorado, 2:26:06, $9,000
6. Caroline Rotich, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:26:10, $9,000
7. Makenna Myler, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:26:14, $9,000
8. Lindsay Flanagan, Boulder, Colorado, 2:26:25, $9,000
9. Emily Durgin, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:27:56, $9,000
10. Annie Frisbie, Edina, Minnesota, 2:27:56, $7,000
* = Secured 2024 U.S. Olympic Team berth for the marathon in the Paris Olympics
Men’s Results
1. Conner Mantz, 27, Provo, Utah, 2:09:05, $80,000 *
2. Clayton Young, 30, Provo, Utah, 2:09:06, $65,000 *
3. Leonard Korir, Colorado Springs, 2:09:57, $55,000 #
4. Elkanah Kibet, Colorado Springs, 2:10:02, $9,000
5. CJ Albertson, Fresno, California, 2:10:07, $9,000
6. Zach Panning, Rochester Hills, Michigan, 2:10:50, $9,000
7. Nathan Martin, Jackson, Michigan, 2:11:00, $9,000
8. Josh Izewski, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, 2:11:09, $9,000
9. Reed Fischer, Boulder, Colorado, 2:11:34, $9,000
10. Colin Bennie, San Francisco, California, 2:12:17, $7,000
* = Secured 2024 U.S. Olympic Team berth for the marathon in the Paris Olympics
# = U.S. Olympic Team berth pending updated World Athletics rankings
