Correction: On subsequent inspection, several other competitors ran personal bests in the race.
Maegan Krifchin might not have made the U.S. Olympic team for the marathon, but she got something out of Saturday’s Olympic Trials in Los Angeles that nearly as rare: a personal record.
Some of the bags Kieran O’Connor took with him to Los Angeles were packed with racing shoes and a uniform to wear in Saturday’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. The others were stowed under his eyes, after his wife’s early delivery three days before the race gave him their firstborn daughter and the peace of mind that she would not be going into labor while he was out of town.
On Sunday he flew home to his family with a hard-earned 24th place finish in 2:21:37, less than a minute off of his best marathon time run in much cooler conditions, and the knowledge that on the day that effort mattered, he was tougher than most of the field.
Maegan Krifchin finished seventh in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Saturday in Los Angeles to lead eight women who live in or train around the D.C. area.
[button-red url=”http://www.usatf.org/Events—Calendar/2016/U-S–Olympic-Team-Trials—Marathon/Results.aspx” target=”_self” position=”left”] Results [/button-red]Her 2:33:34 was only four seconds off her personal best time from last year’s Hamburg Marathon. She was one of three athletes sponsored by Mizuno to finish in the top 15. Serena Burla, who lives in Stafford, was eighth in 2:34:28, and Lindsay Flanagan, who lives with Krifchin in Silver Spring, was 14th in 2:39:49.
I save this run for special days, when I know it won’t be too hot, or rainy, because I don’t want anything to mar my favorite loop. One mid-June day in 2017, we were blessed with uncharacteristicly dry weather, and I relished one of my few summer runs out here.
Our soon-to-be-released spring magazine notes that 10 local athletes will compete in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. It also mentions that one runner’s entry was still in limbo.
Julia Roman-Duval, 33, of Columbia, Md., had run a personal best and trials-qualifying 2:40:55 at the California International Marathon — but as we went to press, she was still waiting to hear whether or not she would be allowed to compete.
For running fans, the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials are like a cult classic on a four-year loop. Every time the races are upon us, it feels as if we just saw the last ones yesterday. We again wonder: who will break through to the Olympics, who could surprise us, and who among our local running scene will be there.
We’ve had five days to dig out of Jonas’s snowfall and results are about what we saw after snowfalls last year, with few surprises. Thank you to everyone who has chimed in with their observations! We’ve seen a lot of progress on Friday alone, so if you see more open on Saturday, let us know for the benefit of Sunday runners.
Zoom in for more detail. Read on below the map.
The Montgomery County Road Runners Club will no longer sponsor the Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest, a mid-July 8k road race. The number of finishers hit a recent low of 1,269 […]
