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2020 USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon - The Women's Race
by John Elliott
The one thing we can be certain of at the Olympic Trials Marathon is that three women will be selected to become part of the team to represent the USA at the Olympic Games. What is never certain is who those women will be and how the race will play out.
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
The Massive Field
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The Deepest Olympic Trials Field Ever
The 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon featured the deepest field for American women ever. A comparison with past Olympic Trials shows that well. A sub-2:30 Marathon for women is world class and for the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon, 13 women qualified for the race with a sub-2:30 Marathon. Compare that 13 for 2020 to 10 women qualifying with a sub-2:30 Marathon for the 2016 Trials and 7 women for the 2012 Trials. Women in the USA - and in the world - are getting faster! Beyond that, while the standards for qualification to enter the Trials Marathon were the same or more stringent than in past years, more women than ever qualified to run in the race: 511 women qualified for the 2020 event, 450 declared to enter the race and 444 toed the start line. Of course most of those women would not be in contention for a spot on the Trials - the qualifying standard required a 2:45 prior Marathon, which is a far cry from a sub-2:30 Marathon. For this article, we'll focus on those who were really in contention.
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
The Women's Lead Pack
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The Race
Through the first 10 miles of the race, the pack consisted of 22 women running toward a sub-2:30 pace. What a big pack! Through mile 19, 12 women remained in the lead pack. For those who watch professional marathons, that large of a pack is unheard of - even in the major American Marathons (Boston/New York/Chicago/etc.), unless the women are running a slow/strategic race - and this was not that, these women were running quickly. Des Linden, the two-time Olympian began to push the pace from the 18th mile and by mile 20, the pack was down to 7 women, five of whom had run sub-2:27 marathons in the prior year.
At mile 21, Aliphine Tuliamuk pushed the pace - putting in the fastest mile of the race, a 5:17 mile into mile 22 - and only two of the women went with her: Molly Seidel, running her very first marathon; and Sally Kipyego, the 2016 NYC Marathon runner-up and 2012 Olympics 10,000m Silver Medalist. By mile, Tuliamuk and Seidel were running hard together, their 5:25 mile much faster than the 5:40 mile put on by any of those following them. Sally Kipyego was falling back and looked strongly in contention for the third spot for the Olympics. Des Linden was still in striking distance with Laura Thweatt a bit behind her, but the top three looked strongly in position to finish in the order that they were in.
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
Aliphine Tuliamuk and Molly Seidel Run to the Lead
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The Top Three + Des
After the race, Aliphine Tuliamuk told us that she was glad to have Molly Seidel to run with her. And, Molly Seidel told us that as her debut Marathon, she was just glad to have Aliphine Tuliamuk to follow and set the pace. With just over a mile to go, Tuliamuk with more experience ran away to win the Olympic Trials Marathon in 2:27:23. Molly Seidel, in a great debut Marathon, finished just behind in 2:27:31. Sally Kipyego held on, running alone, to take third place well back in 2:28:52. Des Linden, well.... we think had Linden stuck with the leaders she could have snuck in for third place - at mile 25 she was 20 seconds behind Kipyego and she made up half of that in the next mile, but too little too late. But fourth at the Trials in 2:29:03 is not bad.
The Next Five & Some Drop Outs
Four other women ran a sub-2:30 Marathon: Laura Thweatt (2:29:08), Stephanie Bruce (2:29:11), Emma Bates (2:29:35) and Kelly Taylor (2:29:55). Eight women finished sub-2:30, beating the previous record for that, 5 women running sub-2:30 at the Trials in Houston in 2012. And with prize money only offered to the first 8 finishers (editor's note: Atlanta cheaped out and that makes us mad, never before had a Trials not had money 10 deep), the need to run sub-2:30 to earn any money was the toughest of any Trials. In the next toughest prize money race, 2:33:42 would have been the last time to earn money and would have earned $4,000 in Houston in 2012. Meanwhile, 2:29:55 was needed to earn money and only earned $1,000 in 2020!
After Tuliamuk pushed the pace at mile 21, three of our favorites dropped out by Mile 22: Emily Sisson, Sara Hall and Molly Huddle exited the race before mile 22. Undoubtedly these three chose to save themselves to compete for an Olympic spot in the 10,000m distance; and with little prize money after 6th place there was little incentive for them to continue. We'll look forward to seeing them at the Olympic Trials on the Track and they will have a good chance to make the team for Tokyo.
The Shoes?!?!???
Going into the Trials, a big story was running shoes... Nike came out with their Vaporfly shoes which theoretically have been allowing runners to set new personal bests and some will credit with the huge number of athletes qualifying for the Olympic Trials Marathon. At the 2019 California International Marathon, 62 women received their Trials qualifier including 29 who made it with less than a minute to spare (a finish time of 2:44:00+). How many of these women were wearing the Nike Vaporfly and how many would not have received a qualifying time without them? Lots...
Nike came out with its new shoe version: the Nike Alphafly just days before the Trials. And to the Trials athletes, Nike made their shoes available to the runners. On the men's side, two of the podium finishers were wearing the Alphafly and the other was wearing the Vaporfly.
But if you have another sponsor, you can't wear Nike shoes... And, the top two women weren't wearing Nikes! So, there you have it, it's not all about the shoes, it's also about the runners' abilitites. Aliphine Tuliamuk is sponsored by and wore Hoka One Ones, Molly Seidel is sponsored by and wearing Sauconys.
Lessons Learned
With 429 women qualifying for the Trials with a Marathon faster than 2:44:00 and an additional 82 qualifying with a Half Marathon time of 1:13:00 (the equivalent of about a 2:33 Marathon), there are lots of American women running fast. And that is great.
With 13 American women coming to the Trials with a qualifying time sub-2:30 and eight women finishing the Marathon Trials - on a tough and windy course - in a time sub-2:30, there are lots of really fast American women.
Running is in good shape in the USA.
photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun
Aliphine Tuliamuk Breaks the Tape
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Top Finishers & Prize Money:
1. Aliphine Tuliamuk - 2:27:23 - $80,000
2. Molly Seidel - 2:27:31 - $65,000
3. Sally Kipyego - 2:28:52 - $55,000
4. Des Linden - 2:29:03 - $20,000
5. Laura Thweatt - 2:29:08 - $10,000
6. Stephanie Bruce - 2:29:11 - $6,000
7. Emma Bates - 2:29:35 - $3,000
8. Kellyn Taylor - 2:29:55 - $1,000
9. Nell Rojas - 2:30:26 - $0
10. Julia Kohnen - 2:30:43 - $0
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