Posted: February 10, 2004

Athletics: 2004 U.S. Men's Olympic Marathon Trials Recap

By Ryan Lamppa, Running USA wire

Without a doubt, the recent U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon in Birmingham was an exciting competition with plenty of drama. Under gray skies, cold temperatures and windy conditions, emerging star Brian Sell "made" the race with his bold front-running before the chasing pack eventually caught him at 21 miles. In the final stages, 2000 Olympians Alan Culpepper and Meb Keflezighi pulled away to wage another memorable duel with Culpepper prevailing. Below are a few post-race tidbits.

Top Trials Times
With his impressive 2:11:42 victory, Culpepper produced the second fastest winning Trials time behind Tony Sandoval's 2:10:19 at the 1980 Olympic Marathon Trials. Overall, Culpepper's time is the fourth fastest Trials performance behind the second and third place finishers in 1980, Benji Durden (2:10:41) and Kyle Heffner (2:10:55). In addition, Keflezighi's second place time of 2:11:47 ranks #7 on the all-time Trials list, while Trent Briney's time (2:12:35) is the second fastest 4th place Trials performance ever.

First Time
With numerous track and cross country national titles to his credit, Culpepper now has his first U.S. road title - the biggest and best road title of them all, Olympic Trials champion.

Second Half Charge
The top four men - Culpepper, Keflezighi, Dan Browne and Briney - ran big negative splits (i.e., second half faster than the first half) with their second halves averaging over two minutes faster.

Group Success
Six of the Trials top ten are part of training groups: 2. Keflezighi (Team USA California), 3. Browne (Nike Oregon Project), 4. Briney (Hansons-Brooks/Team USA Michigan), 5. Clint Verran (Hansons-Brooks/Team USA Michigan), 9. Peter Gilmore (Farm Team) and 10. Jason Lehmkuhle (Team USA Minnesota).

USARC Kick-Off
The U.S. Men's Olympic Marathon Trials also opened the 2004 USA Running Circuit, a USA Track & Field road racing series featuring USA Championships from 5K to the marathon. At each USARC race, the first ten U.S. runners earn points (15 points for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), but Circuit points at the USA Marathon Championship were doubled so Culpepper leads the USARC standings with 30 points followed by Keflezighi (24) and Browne (20).

The 2004 USARC offers a record $818,700 in guaranteed prize money with a final $12,500 grand prix purse ($6000, $4000 and $2500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall. The next USARC race for men and women is the Gate River Run 15K on March 13 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Lucky 13
Despite the less than ideal conditions, 13 of the 71 Trials finishers set personal records with Briney improving his PR the most (8 minutes and 35 seconds). See the below.

PL/Name/Age/Hometown/Time/Improvement
4) Trent Briney, 25, Rochester Hills, MI 2:12:35 (8:35)
9) Peter Gilmore, 26, Menlo Park, CA 2:15:44 (1:49)
10) Jason Lehmkuhle, 26, St. Paul, MN 2:16:27 (1:57)
13) Brian Sell, 25, Rochester Hills, MI 2:17:20 (2:39)
14) Fred Kieser, 32, Cleveland, OH 2:17:21 (1:06)
16) Steven Moreno, 26, Oakland, CA 2:17:48 (1:56)
17) Corey Creasey, 25, Berkeley, CA 2:17:58 (3:07)
18) Scott Nicholas, 30, Portland, OR 2:18:13 (0:39)
19) Conor Holt, 31, Norman, OK 2:18:17 (3:24)
21) Ryan Meissen, 25, River Falls, WI 2:19:02 (1:57)
24) Matt Sandercock, 34, Downingtown, PA 2:20:23 (0:57)
27) Michael Cox, 28, Princeton, WV 2:21:52 (0:14)
28) Jason Ryf, 32, Oshkosh, WI 2:21:55 (0:29)

Finally, kudos to race director Valerie McLean, her staff and the city of Birmingham for hosting perhaps - in totality - the best U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to-date.