Our Men's Olympic Marathon Team

The Men's Olympic Marathon Trials were held on Saturday in New York City. The race was won by twenty-five year-old Ryan Hall who made winning the trials look easy. I had one person say that his 2:09:02 finish would have been faster had he not spent much of the last three miles waving to the crowd. Hall's move came somewhere between 16 and 21, for when he passed me at about mile 21, he'd broken free of the lead pack and seemed to be running comfortably.

Dathan "Ritz" Ritzenhein, who's 24, placed second, clocking a 2:11:07.

Brian Sell of the Hanson's - Brooks Distance Project placed third in 2:11:40, giving Keith and Kevin Hanson their first Olympian (I think). Sell had a TON of crowd support, being seen as a "regular Joe" making good.

Fourth place was captured by Khalid Khannouchi, a 35 year-old Morroccan born U.S. citizen in 2:12:34. His fourth makes him the first alternate, so if one of the others suffers an injury or elects to run another race and NOT race the marathon, Khannouchi will get to race for an Olympic medal.
Unfortunately, this great race will likely be most remembered for the untimely death of Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died around the 5 1/2 mile mark. Most of the racers were unaware of Shay's death until after the race.