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Lewy Boulet and Russell also Beijing bound; Benoit Samuelson runs final competitive marathon
By Jim Gerweck, Running USA wire
BOSTON - (April 20, 2008) - A look back at the past six U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials reveals a history of upsets and surprises, with relative unknowns making the team and favorites faltering.
But in this Trials form held, as the top three finishers and now Olympic teammates - 2004 bronze medalist and prohibitive favorite Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell (fifth and fourth at the last Trials) - were on most people's list of runners to watch for the 2008 Olympic Trials in Boston on Sunday. Perhaps it was appropriate, in a year when all the top seeds made the NCAA basketball Final Four, but it was no less surprising, nor was manner in which the final results and Beijing berths were reached.
Last time in St. Louis, Russell brazenly blazed out to an early lead before being caught by Kastor, Trials champion Colleen De Reuck, and, with less than a mile to go, by Jen Rhines, leaving her a heartbreaking fourth. This year, under blue skies and temperatures in the 50s, after a desultory first mile barely under six minute pace, it was Lewy Boulet of Oakland, Calif. who struck out alone from the other 145 anxious starters, running a solo time trial along the Charles River and through Back Bay and establishing a lead that would eventually grow to almost two minutes by the halfway point, reached in 1 hour, 14 minutes and 37 seconds.
"I planned to run my own race, and my own pace," said Lewy Boulet, 34, who in the intervening years since St. Louis has given birth to a son. "I wasn't running any crazy splits, so I was a little surprised I was so far ahead."
Behind her, a chase pack of a dozen women keyed off Kastor, 35, who had been instructed by her Team Running USA coach Terrence Mahon not to begin racing until halfway. "I started picking up the pace then, but I was hearing Magdalena was still 1:40 ahead," the now three-time Olympian said. "For a while, I was thinking I'd misjudged things and been too conservative. I was beginning to feel like I'd have to settle for only one of my goals coming here, to make the team, and wasn't going to win."
As Lewy Boulet crossed the Massachusetts Avenue bridge for the fourth and final loop of the criterium style course, her pace began slowing to the high-5:50s per mile, although it never topped six minutes, at the same time, Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. was slicing big chunks off the margin. The two swapped places just past 23 miles, and the questions then became how much Lewy Boulet would continue to slow, and would she reprise Russell's agonizing last mile heartbreak of 2004.
Meanwhile, Russell, 32, intent on not repeating her mistake of '04, had been running solidly in third after Kastor's move shredded the chase pack. After shedding her initial company of Mary Akor, Russell of Pacific Grove, Calif. was alone for the first half of the third Cambridge loop, but quickly found herself faced with a challenge similar to St. Louis, this time in the person of Desiree Davila of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. At 22 miles, Davila, in just her second marathon, had closed to within five seconds and looked to be moving much more freely than Russell.
But as Russell later stated, "I knew a lot can happen in the last six miles of a marathon," and this time it was nothing good for Davila, who began a sudden fade, eventually finishing 13th. "It was a fuel issue," she said, noting that she had a hard time drinking her fluids. "But I'd rather have gone for it and finished where I did than hang back and wind up seventh or eighth and say 'What if?'"
For the top three, that's a question they won't have to answer until Beijing on August 17.
Kastor's 2:29:35 victory, her 25th USA and third national marathon titles overall, was the second fastest in women's Trials history behind De Reuck's 2:28:25 at St. Louis 2004. Runner-up Lewy Boulet set a personal record with her 2:30:19, while Russell redeemed her 2004 race with her third place 2:32:40. This was also the first Olympic Marathon Trials where the top three finishers reside in the same state, California.
Joan Benoit Samuelson, 50, the first women's Olympic Marathon champion in 1984, ran her last competitive marathon and finished 90th overall in 2:49:08, a new U.S. 50-54 age group record. The running legend and New England native, who fittingly finished the race wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball hat like she did for her first Boston win in 1979, called the crowds "amazing" and congratulated Kastor, Lewy Boulet and Russell on their races.
7th U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon - Boston, MA, Sunday, April 20, 2008
1) Deena Kastor (CA), 2:29:35, $50,000*
2) Magdalena Lewy Boulet (CA), 2:30:19, $40,000*
3) Blake Russell (CA), 2:32:40, $30,000*
4) Zoila Gomez (CO), 2:33:53, $20,000
5) Tera Moody (CO), 2:33:54, $15,000
6) Turena Johnson Lane (LA), 2:34:17, $12,000
7) Ann Alyanak (OH), 2:34:46, $10,000
8) Dot McMahan (MI), 2:35:02, $9000
9) Robyn Friedman (IA), 2:35:02, $8000
10) Erin Moeller (IA), 2:36:51, $7000
11) Kasie Enman (VT), 2:37:14, $6000
12) Megan Hepp (NC), 2:37:29, $5000
13) Desiree Davila (MI), 2:37:50, $4000
14) Melissa White (MI), 2:37:53, $2500
15) Veena Reddy (PA) 2:38:08, $1500
16) Sheri Piers (ME), 2:38:46
17) Linda Somers Smith, 46, CA, 2:38:49#
18) Samia Akbar (VA), 2:39:19
19) Mary Akor (CA), 2:39:34
20) Sally Meyerhoff (AZ), 2:39:39
90) Joan Benoit Samuelson, 50, ME, 2:49:08#
*Does not include $10,000 bonus for Olympic Marathon participation
#U.S. age group record (previous, F45-49, 2:42:28, Joan Benoit Samuelson (ME), LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, 10/13/02 and F50-54, 2:50:26, Shirley Matson (CA), Twin Cities, 10/06/91)
Deeper results, splits, photos and more at: BostonTrials2008.com.
Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
(805) 696-6232; Fax = (805) 659-0016
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
www.RunningUSA.org.
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