The Olympic Marathon Trials Field Is Ginormous Already—And Qualifying Remains Open for Another Year – runnersworld.com

The Olympic Marathon Trials, the race to pick the three men and three women who will run the marathon for the United States at the Games in Tokyo, is still more than a year away, but excitement is already building. The country’s most exclusive marathon will be held on Leap Day—February 29, 2020—in Atlanta.

With a huge field and new details about the course now released, the Trials look to be a competitive and spectator-friendly event that you won’t want to miss. Here are five things you need to know about the race so far.

The course is hilly, but not as hilly as it was originally designed.

Organizers from the Atlanta Track Club (ATC), which is hosting the race, unveiled the final course. The main loop, which runners go over three times, is 6 miles. The final loop, which covers the first half of the main loop before cutting south to add extra distance, is 8.2 miles.

The course is slightly less hilly than the route the ATC originally proposed with its bid for the Trials. The new route does not go through Piedmont Park, which eliminates some inclines. According to an ATC statement, runners will experience about 1,000 feet of elevation gain (yes, that’s A LOT), offset by equal downhills, as the finish line is 17 feet lower than the starting line.

The course is very spectator friendly.

Fans who come to Atlanta won’t have to move much to see runners go by multiple times. In fact, athletes will cover a one-mile stretch of Peachtree Street Northeast eight times—heading north and south four times on the same section of road. According to the course map, an enterprising spectator could stand for most of the race at Peachtree near where runners make a left-hand turn onto Ralph McGill Boulevard, then jog less than a mile to the finish in Centennial Olympic Park, in plenty of time to see the winner break the tape. Total sightings: nine.

Courtesy of Atlanta Track Club

The field will be crowded.

In order to gain entry into the race, men have to run a marathon in 2:19:00 or faster or a half marathon in 1:04:00 or faster. For women, the times are 2:45 and 1:13.

Already large numbers of runners have nailed the qualifying times they need. According to USA Track & Field lists, last updated in mid-December, 262 women and 140 men have already qualified. Should all show up in Atlanta, that will be a lot of people on Peachtree Street at the same time. (USATF makes the decision on when the men’s and women’s races will start, and that information has not been released yet.)

By comparison, at the 2016 Marathon Trials in Los Angeles, 211 men and 246 women qualified, for a total of 457. As of now, the 2020 Trials have 402.

There’s still plenty of time for the field to grow.

The qualifying window opened on September 1, 2017, for marathon times and September 1, 2018 for half marathon times. The qualifying window closes, for both events, on January 19, 2020. In other words, more than a year remains in the qualifying period, which means the ranks of qualified athletes are likely to swell further. The Houston Marathon on January 20 is the next race that should produce a fresh crop of qualifiers.

Women, especially, are hitting the sub-2:45 they need in large numbers. At a single race, the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 2, 2018, 99 women hit the standard. That number includes Hayley Sutter, who collapsed a few feet from the finish line and crawled across in a gun time of exactly 2:45:00. USATF organizers have accepted her petition into the Trials field.

Why are so many running so fast? More women are running, certainly—and perhaps, getting healthy inspiration on social media.

“There’s no doubt the depth of women’s marathoning in the U.S. has skyrocketed over the past decade,” said Sarah Bishop, a coach and mother of four who qualified at CIM in 2017. “I have to think this is a direct reflection of more women simply getting in the sport—which has led to an enormous increase in BQs [Boston qualifiers] as well as OTQs [Olympic Trials qualifiers]. But I also think the popularity of Instagram usage in the past five years as a daily tool to post workouts and goals has been a huge motivator for a lot of women as they follow certain athletes and see what could be possible.”

Atlanta will honor its commitment and pay for all qualifiers’ travel.

At past Trials, qualifiers were either “A” qualifiers or “B” qualifiers. “A” qualifiers are faster—2:15 for men and 2:37 for women—and had their travel expenses paid for, while “B” qualifiers went to the Trials on their own dime. That’s partly why in Los Angeles, only 374 of 457 eligible qualifiers started the race.

The ATC, however, promised to pay for the travel for everyone, which effectively erases the distinction between “A” qualifiers and “B” qualifiers. They’re not backtracking on that.

“Based on past Trials, we expected 400 to 500 athletes,” said Jay Holder, director of marketing for ATC, in a written statement to Runner’s World. “It appears as if it will be more than that, and we are adjusting accordingly.

“While there are more athletes qualified than we anticipated at this point, our commitment is unchanged. We are excited to see so many athletes performing at a high level. It says a lot about the future of American distance running. There will be operational challenges associated with a Championship, criterium-styled course with this many men and women but we, like the athletes chasing their Olympic dream, are up for the challenge.”