Olympic Marathon Trials

The Olympic Marathon Trials were held Saturday in Houston, Texas. The event wasn't carried live on NBC, but tape delayed. I needed to know what was going on. I followed the trials on twitter. I watched the whole replay Sunday morning.

The top three men and women's finishers will represent the United States in the upcoming summer Olympics in London.

The men started 15 minutes before the women. It was exciting from the start. Ryan Hall took the lead and laid down some super fast miles. Some of the splits for the early miles were 4:50, 4:51 and mid 4:40s. Close to the finish of the race, the lead pack was down to three. With less then two miles to go, Meb Keflezigihi ended up pulling away from Hall and Abdi Abdirahman, winning the trials in 2:09:08. Ryan Hall finished second (2:09:30) and Abdi Abdirahman was third in 2:09:42.

Shalane Flanagan won the women's marathon trials in 2:25:38. Coming in behind Flanagan, was the 2011 Boston Marathon runner-up, Desiree Davila in 2:25:55 and rounding out the team was Kara Goucher (2:26:06). Unlike the fast start of the men's race, the women's race started slow. The first mile was run in 6:11. Davila went to the front after the slow first mile and picked up the pace. The second mile was run faster in 5:49 and the third mile dropped down to 5:34. The pace continued to fall and the lead pack started to break up. By the fifth mile, the huge pack was down to nine runners.

I'm excited for the six team members. The US is sending the best team over to the Olympics. It would be awesome to have them medal. Besides feeling happy for the six runners, I was heartbroken for the fourth place male and female runner's.

Dathan Rizenhein ran with the lead group for a long time. He ended up getting separated in the later part of the race. Near the finish line, Ritzenhein closed a 30 second gap between him and third place Abdirahman. Ritzenhein finished only 8 seconds behind to finish in fourth. I felt so bad for him when he cried after the race. Amy Hastings was running with the lead group until about the 20 mile mark. She lost contact with the lead group and finished 1 minute 39 seconds behind Flanagan in 2:27:17.

Top photo: The top three men finishers, left, Ryan Hall-second, center, Meb Keflezighi-first, and Abdi Abdiraham-third pose after the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Saturday in Houston. (Associated Press/David J. Phillip)

Bottom photo: The top three women, left, Desiree Davila-second, center, Shalane Flanagan-first and Kara Goucher-third, pose after running the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Saturday. (Associated Press/David J. Phillip)