Posted: February 17, 2004

Athletics: Lost In The Shuffle - Desert Classic Marathon

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved < RaceResultsWeekly.com>

Our friends at MarathonGuide.com reported today that the Desert Classic Marathon was held in Phoenix last Sunday and had a grand total of 135 finishers. That's in stark contrast to the new P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & Half-Marathon held in that city last month where some 20,000 runners finished in both races.

The race was small, but there *was* news, as MarathonGuide.com pointed out. The overall winner was a woman, 35 year-old Janice Posey of Flagstaff, Ariz. She ran a creditable 2:48:47, beating the nearest man by some six minutes. Running all alone, she came 47 seconds short of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials Women's Marathon qualifying standard.

Last March, Posey won the Valley of the Sun Marathon (also in Phoenix) in 2:52:22, and in June, 2002 she ran 2:49:35 at the Suzuki Rock 'N' Roll Marathon in San Diego.

One has to wonder if she had gone to Austin where about ten women were trying to break 2:48 in near perfect conditions she might have done it.

The U.S. Olympic Team Trials Women's Marathon will take place in St. Louis on Saturday, 03-Apr. About 150 women are expected to take part. The top-3 earn provisional berths on the U.S. Olympic Team.

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