2008 Olympic Trials Marathon

I jealously watched the Olympic Trials Marathon on Sunday morning. I silently cursed the past year as the 26.2-mile race unfolded on Memorial Drive. For the first half of the race, I kept wondering where Deena was. That skeletal lady pictured above is minutes ahead of other American women in the marathon, and earned a bronze at the last Olympics. She was the heavy favorite, but she hung back in the pack for quite some time which is not her style.
Instead, this lady took off at the gun and led for about 20 miles. At one point she was almost three minutes ahead of Deena and everyone else. Everyone in the crowd kept wondering who this runner was: she's not sponsored and certainly wasn't expected to be a contender for the Olympic team. Nevertheless her giant lead paid off: Deena passed her with a few miles to go but she hung on for second place. The name? Magdalena Lewy-Boulet.
Rounding out the three-person Olympic team for Beijing is Blake Russell. She barely missed making the 2004 marathon team and finally got some redemption in 2008.
This chick, Desiree Davila, was considered the dark horse contender. She ran a great first half, then faded to 14th place. Ouch: marathons are rough.
Bruce was a pretty good spectator most of the time. He clapped for the runners but told me to stop yelling several times.
There were lots of people watching the Trials including big-name runners of other events. Pictured is Alicia Shay, who ran for Stanford and was married to Ryan Shay, the runner who died at November's men's Olympic Trials marathon. I also saw Alan Webb run by; he was the first high school runner to break 4 minutes in the mile in 20-something years and now runs for Nike.

And pictured here is Joan Benoit Samuelson, who won the 1984 Olympic gold medal in the marathon. She turned 50 this year and still pulled out a 2:49:08.