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INDIANAPOLIS - USA Track & Field, the U.S. Olympic Committee and New
York Road Runners on Thursday hosted a national media teleconference
with two-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman (Tucson, Ariz.), 2004 U.S.
Olympic Trials champion Alan Culpepper (Lafayette, Colo.) and American
half-marathon record holder Ryan Hall (Palo Alto, Calif.). All three
will compete Saturday in New York for a spot on the 2008 Olympic Team,
running in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon.
Below are excerpts from Thursday's call.
Q: Could you discuss your readiness for Saturday's race?
RH: I'm just really excited about this opportunity. I've been dreaming
about this for a long time and it's exciting to finally have the
opportunity to make my first Olympic team. I know whatever team is
selected here on Saturday is going to represent well in Beijing.
AC: Like Ryan said, we're all excited about this event. We're excited
about the build-up and the excitement of making an Olympic team and it
being here on the largest stage in New York City. I'm thrilled to be a
part of this and thrilled to get out and run on Saturday.
AA: I'm glad to be a part of the USA Olympic men's marathon trials. My
preparation has been going well leading to this race. Everything's going
well, I'm healthy and I'm ready to race. The three men that will be
selected Saturday for the U.S. Olympic team will represent our country
well at the Beijing Olympics.
Q: Alan, what is the difference in running a loop course in a marathon
and a point to point course?
AC: That's a good question. Tactically it allows you to stay a little
more in touch with where you are on a course and how much further you
have, and to not be as daunted by the distance quite as much. I think
it'll feel maybe more like a cross country style race or a European type
criterium style race, where you're always aware of where you are and
people are going to be giving us constant information, so hopefully
it'll make it mentally go quicker and physically, hopefully, it just
kind of takes that level of the distance edge off a little bit.
Q: The weather in New York on Saturday will be quite different than what
it'll be in Beijing. Alan, do you think the trials conditions should
replicate the conditions found at the Olympics, or does it make a
difference?
AC: I would not agree with that type of criterium. We already have
enough challenges in just facing the distance, and in the U.S. the way
we have the trials set up where it all boils down to one day. That's
enough, in and of it self. Once you've made the team then you can
prepare accordingly, which is what we did in 2004. To mimic those
conditions now would be impossible almost, and would really not be our
best way of selecting the appropriate team members.
Q: Ryan could you talk about the pressure of the one day trials?
RH: It definitely makes you pretty nervous the weeks leading up to the
race in terms of watching out, like you might get sick or little nagging
things that can happen in your final preparations for a big race like
this. It's really great for us to bring our A game on one day and that's
what being a great athlete is all about being able to have your A game
on a particular day, and that's what I'm hoping Saturday will be.
Q: Could you all speak about the quality of the field?
AA: I think the quality of the field, if you look at the history of the
U.S. marathon, this is one of the best fields that have ever been
assembled for an Olympic trials marathon. You have like five or six guys
that have run under 2:10, and then you have another 15 or 20 guys that
are capable of running fast times. Look at the history of USA running
where we were four years ago and where we are today is like totally two
different situations.
AC: Not in any way to take anything away from the mid-80s or '84 or '88
trials, those times when the U.S. clearly had a huge number of athletes
running under 2:20 and under 2:15 more importantly. In no way would I
want to take away from what those guys were doing then. I do think now
that due to the professionalism of the sport the level, of competition
now is raised to a whole new level worldwide, just with the progression
of the sport as a whole and I think that's clearly the case now. The
three that make the team will, in my mind, clearly be ones to look out
for in terms of sneaking in there to get a medal at the Olympics, and
Meb (Keflezighi) proved that in the last Olympics. He didn't win our
trials, but he went on to win a medal. I would say we're definitely at a
new level.
RH: One thing that makes this race exciting in terms of the quality of
the field is the range of guys we have out there from a previous world
record holder (Khalid Khannouchi) you have guys that have never run
marathons before but are extremely talented on the track, so you got
guys that you really don't know what to expect, and guys everywhere in
between. It's going to be interesting to see how everyone does.
Q: What is your strategy going into the race?
RH: I did learn some things in London that I'll use here. I think
patience is a big part of a marathon and learning how to spend your
energy, and I think I learned in London that as much as I wanted to
press at 10k out there it was a little too early for me, I needed to
wait a little bit later. I'm definitely going to draw off that
experience and I can learn from these guys while we're out there in the
race. I'll definitely be looking to Meb (Keflezighi) as a fellow
training partner up in Mammoth (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) to kind of lead
me out a little bit and be looking to see what some of the older guys
are doing because they have more experience than I have, so I'll be
looking to learn from them.
AA: To be honest, I usually do make a strategy but the strategy just
goes out the window once the race has started. We'll see how everything
goes once the race starts. To be honest, I can not tell you what my
strategy will be on Saturday. My strategy is to be competitive and stay
by the top and just make sure your in the top three always.
AC: I would concur with Abdi. We all have run a lot of races for a lot
of years and you kind of just know on the day what you need to do. You
trust your instincts and you trust your intuition. That's what I'll be
focusing on for myself, but also not ruling out the fact that that there
are some things that I thought about ahead of time that could possibly
happen.
Q: How do you prepare for doubt that might enter your minds during a
competition?
AC: We all have our own way of dealing with it, and we all deal with
doubt at some level when things aren't going well, but there's other
times when you don't doubt at all. It all depends on how you're feeling
and depending on how the race is going. There's a lot of self-talk that
goes on and that you practice at home, maybe unknowingly during your
training. There's a lot of times when you push through a lot of hard
workouts and hard days where you've kind of been doing it
unintentionally and come race day you just do the same thing. I know
that with the marathon one thing is you keep going, you don't give up
because anything can happen.
AA: There's a lot of things that go through your head when you're
running races, but at the same time I would say you practice things,
like when I'm hurting and when things are not going well I think about
my background and what I've been through in life. Because I have family
members back in Somalia and I think of what they are going through in
life, so it's just little things like that are something to motivate you
and wake you up, and that's what I basically do for motivation.
RH: I think personally sometimes there's a lot of doubts and negative
thoughts that come into my mind because my perspective is wrong. When I
start thinking like that I try to remember why I run, and for me it's
about praising God out there. When I get into that state of mind I never
have any doubts and I really enjoy the race. That's an easy key for me
to think about on the starting line and out there racing, just remember
why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Q: Are you considering trying out for the Olympic team in other events
if you don't make the team on Saturday?
RH: There would be no reason not to. I'm definitely not banking on that.
The marathon is my best event and my best shot at a medal, so I'm not
really thinking about that at this point, but I wouldn't see a reason
not to try.
AC: The last thing you want to do is come into this race with a back up
plan. I think the guys who are going to run the best don't have a back
up plan but we all want to make the Olympic team, so if something
doesn't happen the way we hope we'll move forward and make the next best
step.
AA: Regardless of the outcome of this race I'm running the Olympic
Trials 10,000 no matter what.
Q: What time do you think it'll take to win the trials and to make the
team?
AC: I don't think any of us want to lollygag around because that allows
guys that maybe shouldn't be up in there to be in there, but we also
don't want to sacrifice. To be honest I don't think it's going to be as
slow as we all initially thought, or like when I first saw the course, I
thought man, I'd be lucky to run 2:15. I don't think that's necessarily
going to be the case. For me personally I made that mistake in the
Olympics in limiting what I felt I could run on the course. You don't
want to over think it too much.
RH: I haven't even thought about what kind of time it's going to take. A
better question is what kind of 10k time is it going to take at the end
of the race. I think that's where the team is going to be decided,
during that last 10k. That's kind of been my thought process.
AA: It'll take a 2:04:25 (laughter). I wish I could tell you a time but
we're going to take what the course gives us on Saturday. We're just out
there to run and finish in the top three. It might take 2:15, it might
take 2:20, it might take 2:10, you never know. Expect the unexpected.
For more information on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's
Marathon, visit USATF.org.
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