I wish I could tell you that Laura O'Hara qualified for the Olympic Trials today in the Chicago marathon.  Unfortunately, Laura fell short of the qualifying standard, 2:46, running 2:57:34. While the result today was not what Laura had hoped for, I am exceedingly proud of Laura's effort.

Laura's sole focus for the past year has been to run sub 2:46 in Chicago.  Going into the race, Laura knew that her performance would be judged by the harsh objectivity of the qualification standard, where 2:45:59 is success, and 2:46:01 is failure.  The challenge of qualification is made even more daunting by the fact that because it takes months to recover from a marathon, Laura knew that she was putting all of her eggs into one basket, and that it would be impossible to try for a do-over this fall if something went wrong in Chicago.  Laura's training was exceptional, and in the weeks leading up to the big day, her races and workouts revealed a level of fitness that I felt sure would allow her to qualify by a comfortable margin.  The marathon is a cruel event, however, and Laura had the bad luck to encounter the one foe that no marathoner can best, extremely hot weather.  Throughout the arduous process leading up to the race, Laura and I knew that for all of the training factors we could control, the one factor we could not control, the weather, might be the most important, and sadly that proved to be the case.  Simply put, luck was not on Laura's side.  But I take great pride in the fact that Laura did everything she possibly could to put herself in a position to qualify, logging countless long runs in the heat of summer, completing brutally hard workouts on her lunch hour, and sacrificing her personal life in pursuit of her lofty goal.  Because I firmly believe that the process is as important as the result, I can say without hesitation that Laura's season was a great success.  Please join me in congratulating her on a job well done!

I also want to note the excellent effort of Brian Young.  Brian trained step for step with Laura, and he hoped to help pace her to a qualifying standard today.  Brian stayed with Laura through the half marathon, but he paid a heavy price for the aggressive pace in the second half of his race.  Brian proved his fitness during training, and his toughness today.

Laura and Brian, I salute your efforts.  I know that you will both meet your goals in the future.

 

-Coach Jerry