What to watch at the United States Olympic marathon trials

Every four years, elite marathon runners in the United States gather for a one-shot race to earn one of three spots apiece on the men’s and women’s Olympic teams. On Saturday in Atlanta, more than 700 of the fastest marathoners in the country will take aim at one of those coveted berths.

Not every country has a trial race. In fact, most have committees that simply pick qualified runners and send them to the Games. The U.S. race is a uniquely democratic competition in a sport filled with stifling bureaucracy.

For a time there was some concern about whether the American way of doing things would survive a change in Olympic guidelines established by the International Association of Athletics Federation. However, in July, the IAAF announced the American trials would serve as a “Gold Standard” event. Translation: the Americans could keep their qualifying race.

Running has lots of rules and governing bodies, many of them arcane and arbitrary. But in Atlanta, things will be much simpler. The top three male and female finishers earn a spot on the Olympic team. Of course, just earning the right to race is a major accomplishment.

To qualify, male runners need to clock a sub-2:15 marathon. That’s the “A Standard,” which is the top tier. The “B Standard” allows runners who ran 2:15-2:19 to gain a spot in the field. Additionally, runners who knocked out a half marathon in 64 minutes or less also qualified.

For women, the A Standard is a 2:37 marathon with B Standards coming in at sub-2:45, or less than 73 minutes in the half. By any standard, these are some seriously fast people who have earned the opportunity to run the race of their life.

Here’s who, and what, to watch for Saturday.

For the whole history of the marathon, from Pheidippides to Haile Gebrselassie, the 2-hour marathon seemed an insurmountable barrier. Then in October, Eliud Kipchoge ran into history wearing gaudy neon shoes called Alphaflys. They were an updated prototype of Nike’s Vaporfly, the shoe that has led to an astonishing string of record-breaking performances.

Kipchoge had previously set the official marathon record of 2:01.39 in a version of the Vaporfly and Brigid Koseigi was wearing Vaporflys when she shattered the women’s mark that had stood for 16 years by a staggering 81 seconds with a 2:14.04 marathon in Chicago.

Independent research has shown the shoe delivers a measurable boost in performance, which gets to the heart of a major philosophical argument in running circles: Is technologically-enhanced performance worth the price of competition?

There are parallels between the fast kicks and those full-length bodysuits swimmers wore in the 2008 Olympics when they smashed records. Those suits were subsequently banned and there was some thought the shoes would come by the same fate.

However, the shoes were deemed legal for competition in January when World Athletics, track’s governing body, released what it called modified rules that placed limits on stack heights (40 millimeters) and embed plates. This gets very nerdy, but those limits just so happened to closely mirror the Alphafly’s specs.

The ruling, not surprisingly, sparked controversy. In a long, fascinating post, the sports scientist Ross Tucker wrote:

The failure to regulate “super shoes” hurts running. It undermines one of the sport’s most valuable qualities, namely that the outcome, the title, the victory, goes to the athlete whose physiology is optimized through training and genetics, then enabled by tactics, to cross the finish line first.

Is it the shoes or the runner that make the race? The marathon trials will offer clues.

In 2016, only 198 female runners qualified to run in the Olympic trials. This year, there are more than 500 competitors. You’d be hard-pressed to find a favorite in the crowded women’s field where more than a half-dozen runners could claim that mantle.

Among them: Des Linden, best known for surviving dreadful conditions in 2018 to be the first American to win Boston in 33 years. Linden is also trying to become the first U.S. woman to make three Olympic marathon teams. She’ll have competition from Sara Hall, whose relentless schedule is the stuff of legend.

The accomplished Molly Huddle, owner of 28 national titles and American records in the 10,000 meters and half marathon, seems poised to record a breakthrough marathon. Her training partner and fellow Providence Friar, Emily Sisson, ran a sizzling 2:23 in London in her first marathon.

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Jordan Hasay, Amy Cragg, or Kellyn Taylor earned spots. Emma Bates, who lives off the grid in Idaho, is an inspiration for runners who would rather be nowhere than anywhere in particular.

Galen Rupp, one of the country’s greatest distance runners ever, won the trials in 2016 in his first-ever marathon and earned a bronze in Rio. He is considered the favorite despite several setbacks including recovery from Achilles surgery. Rupp was also coached by Alberto Salazar, the disgraced former head of Nike’s Oregon Project who received a four-year ban by the US Anti-Doping agency.

Leonard Korir has only one marathon under his belt, but it was the fastest debut ever by an American: 2:07.56. That was the second-fastest qualifying time behind Rupp.

Another 2016 Olympian, Jared Ward, happens to run for Saucony. He will be an interesting test case for whether the Vaporflys provide an unfair advantage. Ward and friendly rival Scott Fauble dueled at both Boston and New York last season and it would be a treat to watch them battle again for an Olympic spot.

A pair of 40-somethings — Bernard Lagat and Abdi Abdirahman — are sentimental choices for this 40-something runner.

Atlanta offers an interesting layout in two respects. Rather than going point-to-point for 26.2 miles, it’s an eight-mile loop run three times with a finishing kick through Centennial Park. Running loops can be something of a mental challenge, especially if a particular section gives you trouble. You know it’s waiting for you again and again.

Also, there will be hills with 1,389 feet of climb and 1,382 of descent. There isn’t a lot of flat on the Atlanta course, so runners will either be going up or down for the duration.

That’s markedly different than say, Chicago, which is notorious for being flat and fast. Boston, known primarily for the soul-crushing Heartbreak Hill, is actually a downhill course with the climbing back loaded toward the end.

The unique layout of the Atlanta course may benefit one runner in particular ...

Jim Walmsley is the closest thing ultrarunning has to a crossover star. He’s torched courses, setting records in 50 miles (4 hours, 50 minutes) and at Western States in back-to-back years, the oldest and most iconic race on the circuit. Walmsley has never run a road marathon, but he qualified for the trials with a 64-minute half in Houston.

Road runners and trail junkies have lots more in common than they’d like to admit, but there’s some goofy tribal battles between the two camps. Obsessed as they are with splits and trying to shave seconds off their times, road runners view ultra runners as weirdo hippie amateurs, while ultrarunners think road warriors should chill and take it down a notch.

Because of his elite speed, Walmsley has the potential to bridge the two worlds. To be sure, it would be a long shot if he made the Olympic team. Still, no one in the field puts in the kind of training he does — 200-mile weeks at altitude with thousands of feet of climbing. In a recent profile in the New York Times, Walmsley offered a quote that sums up the ultrarunner ethos.

“A lot of people train to have their best day ever,” he told the Times. “In ultra­running, you learn to train for your worst. I’m looking to get to the most painful spot I can.”

Yes. Shoutout to my friend Brian Harvey who qualified for the trials running a 2:17.50 at Sacramento. A seriously good dude who used to run/commute to work and makes a mean butternut squash risotto, Harvey is the kind of hardcore semi-pro runner who makes this event so unique.