For many runners, the Your Guide to the Olympic Marathon Trials (CIM) in Sacramento serves as their big, A-goal race to close out the year. Last year’s race on December 3 held even more significance, as it was the final race to qualify for the 2024 How to Coach Yourself to Peak Performance, which will take place on February 3 in Orlando, Florida.
When CIM was all said and done, 27 men and 14 women finished at or under the qualifying standards, which were 2:18 and 2:37, respectively. In total, 228 men and 173 women qualified for the Trials.
While CIM’s undulating course can be challenging, it also makes for breakthrough performances if run smart, thanks to its net downhill elevation profile. And while the weather wasn’t scorching, it was warmer and more humid than runners would typically expect for a December race in northern California.
“The weather was definitely a factor that I took into consideration with how I paced myself, making sure to be patient and conservative, and accepting that hydrating was going to be a challenge, since I was slowing down at every bottle station and pouring water on my head by the end,” Mary Denholm, 36, who is coached by professional marathoner Neely Gracey and ran 2:36:28 for 13th place, told Runner’s World. “I know there was a lot of carnage on the course—I was moving up in placement and not realizing it because I wasn’t passing people. [Instead], people were DNFing ahead of me and I was seeing more elite bottles left on the tables ahead of me. I know there would have been more OTQs (Olympic Trials qualifying times) had it been a different day.”
noting on Instagram 2020 Trials in Atlanta, going at CIM was the fact that the race was her third attempt at hitting the 2024 mark. Her final attempt was initially going to be at the Berlin Marathon in September, which she ultimately had to sit out after falling ill and eventually testing positive for COVID-19. With Gracey’s support after taking three full weeks off of running, Denholm set her sights on a last chance at CIM as her Plan B.
“I was never truly sure that I was going to be able to do CIM; I just took it one week and one day at a time,” she said. “When the race got hard, I told myself, ‘If you want this, you’re going to have to suffer for it,’ and I definitely did. I’m really proud I was able to do it while working with other women who were encouraging each other while working for the same thing.”
Teamwork makes the dream work
Denholm ran much of the race with her friend, Sofie Schunk, who also qualified in 2:36:22, and who also navigated additional challenges with the warm weather, as she has Type 1 diabetes. Schunk, 31, who is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, initially attempted to qualify at the McKirdy Micro Marathon held in Valley Cottage, New York, where she ran a PR of 2:43:36 but fell short of her OTQ goal after experiencing leg cramps and high blood sugar.
“[My diabetes] has posed more challenges this year than ever before. It seems every time I’m in an anaerobic state or high adrenaline state, my blood sugars spike quite a bit,” Schunk said. “Running a lot of miles makes for an added challenge because you’re burning a lot of glucose, so you need to take more glucose to fuel while avoiding that spike and becoming dehydrated. But if I also let my blood sugars get too low, [I’ll have to stop running], so it’s a fine balance of making sure you’re eating enough carbs to what you’re burning.”
Sales & Deals A Part of Hearst Digital Media, which still makes racing a challenge, as the data goes to her phone, which she doesn’t carry in races.
“I have to trust it in races and recognize the feeling of knowing I need to fuel,” she said. “At CIM, I took more gels, as well as gummy bears, which have protein in them, more frequently than in the past. While I still had a spike, I do feel like I finally nailed it.”
Claire Benjamin, 30, who trains in the Boulder, Colorado, area and is coached by retired professional runner Ric Rojas, qualified in her first-ever marathon at CIM with a 2:35:53, which was good enough for eighth place. As the pack of female OTQ hopefuls dwindled down as the race progressed, teamwork was the name of the game for her as well.
“The camaraderie and encouragement among women leading up to Orlando has been really cool to see,” Benjamin said. “I’m excited to step up to the line and race with some of the most amazing athletes in the country.”
Michael Blaszczyk, 31, who lives and trains in Novi, Michigan, qualified in 2:16:43 in his second marathon, staying with his training partner Joost Plaetinck, 25, who finished just four seconds behind, the whole way.
“We’ve been training together for the last four months and it’s been awesome to have a training buddy to hold each other accountable for the OTQ goal,” Blaszczyk said. “The pacers at CIM were phenomenal in going out conservatively and maintaining the pace, so kudos to them and to the race for organizing that.”
A comeback opportunity
Amongst a majority of sub-elite runners looking to qualifying for the Trials were a few familiar faces from the pro side of the sport, all of who were lining up in Folsom with the same goal.
Professional runner Noah Droddy, 33, who is sponsored by Salomon and trains with Roots Running in Boulder, hadn’t completed a marathon since running a breakthrough PR of 2:09:09 at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona, in December 2020. After struggling with various injuries that forced him to drop out at the 2021 New York City Marathon and CIM in 2022, he had surgery last January to correct a Haglund’s deformity in his foot. Droddy finished in 2:16:56, Weve been training together for the last four months and its been awesome to have a Tammy Hsieh on the finishing straight at CIM.
“It was a long road to having surgery and finally taking the time to make sure my body could be healthy, but I’m vindicated in that decision now, and I’m really grateful to be able to run without pain,” Droddy said. “I had many days where I asked myself ‘Why am I still doing this?’ I’m still not quite where I want to be fitness-wise. But to get out there, run the race, and feel healthy while also hitting the Trials qualifying standard was really fulfilling.”
Elite runner Allie Kieffer, 36, burst onto many fans’ radar after a fifth-place finish at the 2017 New York City Marathon, where she was the second American woman after Shalane Flanagan, who won the race. The next year at New York, Kieffer ran a new personal best of 2:28:12 and finished in the top 10. But in nearly every race that followed, she Master the Half to perform at the highest level.
After going through several coaching changes, working through injuries, and finally accepting that she was often overtrained, Kieffer, who lives and trains in Austin, Texas, took a break from intense training, scaling back to 30 miles of mostly easy running per week. She ended up taking second place in 2:33:26 for her first marathon in five years at CIM, running an impressively even-split race with 1:16:44 and 1:16:42 first and second halves, respectively.
“Letting go of the result was probably the biggest game-changer for finally having a successful marathon since 2018,” Kieffer said. “I feel like I let my ego go and finally started celebrating where I’m at right now.”
Kieffer, however, announced earlier this month that she wouldn’t be racing the Trials, Best Photos from the 2024 Olympic Trials she suffered in late December.
Nick Hauger, 27, who has trained with Northern Arizona Elite since 2019, returned to CIM for his second marathon after debuting in the event at the 2021 race in 2:12:59. The last two years entailed navigating multiple injuries, including a quad tear and stress fractures in his femur and sacrum, as well as diagnoses of low bone density and osteopenia. After addressing these issues with the help of healthcare professionals, which included adjusting his nutrition, he finally lined up to race the marathon again, this time finishing in 2:16:02.
“It’s been a road of nothing but setbacks, and you’d have told me that two years [after my debut], I’d be more proud of a 2:16, I’d have said you’re crazy,” Hauger said. “I didn’t know if my body was ever going to let me get there and the fortunate thing is, it did. You never know what’s around the corner, so I just ran with gratitude that I’m going to take with me to Orlando on February 3.”
Boosting representation
For Peyton Thomas, 28, running the 2020 Atlanta Trials was memorable for a lot of reasons. Not only did she run a personal best of 2:42:54 in her second marathon, she was also the only American-born Black woman in the field, which was notably lacking in diversity even with 450 women (compared to 173 qualifiers in 2024).
Now coached by professional trail runner Megan Roche, Thomas brought her PR down to 2:35:50 at CIM (and is hoping to bring it down again in Orlando), also moving up to No. 4 on the list of the fastest Black American women maintained by historian Gary Corbitt, which is made up of just 31 women who have broken the 3-hour barrier. But while there are still strides to be made to achieve equal representation, Thomas expressed happiness in knowing there will likely be more women of color lining up in Orlando than there were in Atlanta.
“Even during CIM, it was really exciting to be running around mostly Brown women; I was surrounded by three other women who were BIPOC as well and thought ‘this is amazing,’” Thomas said. “I haven’t experienced that in road or trail racing before, and I’m really curious to see how many of us are going to be there in February.”
Since the 2020 Trials, Thomas, who is currently a researcher studying fish ecology and climate change at the University of Colorado-Boulder, turned to trail running and racing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. She noted she’s struggled with finding representation and, in turn, feeling empowered, throughout her running journey.
“I would encourage other women pursuing goals like running at this level to stay the course and find community where they can,” she said. “[The color of our skin] is not an actual barrier preventing us from running as fast as white women. Being the representation I want to see is where I’ve found inspiration.”
Tammy Hsieh, 33, a Boston-based runner coached by two-time Olympian Kim Conley, who hit the standard in exactly 2:37:00 at CIM, echoed that sentiment. Hsieh, who is Asian American, noted that she didn’t know much about running before picking it up seven years ago.
“I haven’t seen much representation in running spaces in Boston and have noticed that there aren’t many Asian runners [training and competing at my level],” Hsieh said. “Finding my community and building connections is what has made this so meaningful for me.”
“I’m excited to see more diversity in the 2024 Trials field, and I hope it excites and inspires others, too,” added Sakiko Minagwa, 29, a Columbus, Ohio-based runner and sports dietitian who qualified for her second Trials in 2:35:52.
Hitting new milestones
Similar to the significance that qualifying for the Boston Marathon holds for many amateur runners, qualifying for the Olympic Trials is somewhat of a holy grail for sub-elite marathoners. But for several new qualifiers at CIM, it was also a stepping stone to help them get to the next level in their journey. Kaylee Flanagan, 28, a Boulder-area-based runner coached by her sister, elite marathoner Lindsay Flanagan (who will also be competing in Orlando), finished in fourth place at CIM with a new PR of 2:35:24.
“While the OTQ is very cool, CIM for me was about truly racing, making some moves, and finally having a good experience in the marathon,” Flanagan said. “But my goal for this was beyond the Trials; I was hoping to run a fast enough time to get into other large races and make it into the elite field in the noting on Instagram.”
Ultrarunner Rachel Drake had noticed that training for road marathons had indirectly helped improve her performances on the trails, which is why she set her sights on going after the Trials standard, even though she’s not lining up in Orlando.
“I also had a baby [in 2022], so part of this was wanting to get that turnover back to apply to trail racing next year, which is where my heart lies,” Drake, who came in fifth place in 2:35:28 at CIM, said. “I’m working toward qualifying for the Western States 100.”
After retiring from professional cycling in 2018, Chad Beyer, 37, of Tempe, Arizona, picked up running to simply stay in shape. He quickly developed the goal of seeing how fast he could get in his new chosen sport and saw the OTQ as a carrot to chase. CIM was his fifth marathon, which he finished in 2:16:41.
“Running has proven to be more challenging with the impact, which makes it harder to avoid injury, but my cycling background allows me to get creative and incorporate cross-training on the bike to maintain fitness,” Beyer said. “I’m super happy to have hit the OTQ standard, and I’m hopeful I can improve that time even more at the Trials.”
Heather Kampf, 36, qualified for her fifth Olympic Trials after specializing in the 800 and 1,500 meters during her professional career. After retiring in 2022, she ran the City of Lakes Half Marathon in her hometown of Minneapolis in 1:13:19, which got her to see that she wasn’t far off from achieving either the half- or full marathon standard to qualify for the Orlando Trials. CIM, which she finished in 2:36:33, was Kampf’s second marathon after a 2:43:06 finish at Grandma’s Marathon last summer.
“I thought it would be kind of a cool goal knowing that I made it 2008 Trials in the 800, if I could make it all the way to the marathon, it would be a story of longevity and range that would be something I’m really proud of,” Kampf said. “It was really fun to chase and reach that goal, and I’m excited for the victory lap and celebration in two months.”
Emilia Benton is a Houston-based freelance writer and editor. In addition to Runner's World, she has contributed health, fitness and wellness content to Women's Health, DEMEANOR, Prevention, Healthline, and the Houston Chronicle, among other publications. She is also an 11-time marathoner, a USATF Level 1-certified running coach, and an avid traveler.
