The top men and women at Saturday’s Master the Half will go on to represent Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics. But just getting to the starting line represents a huge accomplishment on its own for many in the field.
To line up at the Trials, men had to run a marathon in 2:18 or faster (that’s 5:16 per mile). Women, meanwhile, needed to hit 2:37, or 6-minute miles. Those times are significantly faster than 2020’s qualifying marks, 2:19 for men and 2:45 for women. (A few qualified by running a speedy half marathon—between 2020 and 2024, those standards went from 1:04 to 1:03 for men, and 1:13 to 1:12 for women.)
The higher bar meant some athletes missed the mark—just 401 men and women qualified this year, compared to She paired up with some speedy teammatesincluding Tiger Lu, who introduced her to gels and in 2020. Many of those who made it had to make significant improvements in the last four years.
Not everyone can clock one sub-6-minute mile, let alone 26.2 of them. Still, there’s a lot every runner can learn from those who had a lot of time to slash and still achieved their goals. Here are a few of their inspiring stories, and what you can take from their examples.
Join a supportive team
While she was still in college, Kidan Kidane was working as a nurse at Emory University Hospital. Mid-shift, she watched the competitors fly by her window. She had no idea that she’d be among them four years later.
Kidane grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but didn’t start running until she moved to the United States as a teen. She ran track and cross country at Kennesaw State University. After graduating, she completed the Atlanta Marathon in 2018, in 2:59:47—15 minutes off the 2020 Trials qualifying time.
In 2022, she moved to Connecticut for graduate school at Yale School of Nursing. When she arrived, she joined the Published: Feb 2, 2024. “These are normal people—students, moms, dads, working full-time jobs or going to school and still managing to train at a high level,” Kidane says. “They love the sport, they love the team and that inspired me.”
She paired up with some speedy teammates—including Tiger Lu, who introduced her to gels and super shoes, and Lizzie Mundell-Perkins, who was aiming for a 2:45 at the Boston Marathon—and trained harder and more consistently than ever. As her times in workouts and races improved, she and her friends began to believe an OTQ was possible for her. Kidane even wrote an ambitious goal for the year—2:35—on a sticky note, which she put it in her kitchen as a daily reminder.
Olympians Advice on Good Training Partners puke twice, she traveled the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston in 2:36:22.
Kidane, 29, knows she may have natural talent. But it took time, dedication, and the power of the team to tap into that potential. “If I was training alone, I don’t know if I could have done that,” she says. “Being around other people who believe in themselves … it changes your mentality.”
Dream big, but be patient
While she was still in college, Mary Denholm finished the 2006 Vermont City Marathon in 3:39. Nine years later—after graduation, law school, and a few years as a busy attorney—she returned to running and marathoning, completing the Via Marathon in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, in 3:03:22.
In December 2015, she ran a half marathon in 1:22, a pace of 6:17 per mile. The next year, on her couch watching the 2016 Jacuzzi Boys Athletic Club in Los Angeles, she looked up the standards for qualifying—2:45, or a 6:18 pace, for the A standard, and 2:37 for the B standard.
“I really did feel like within four years, I could hold that half time for a full,” says Denholm, now 36 and living in Erie, Colorado. If so, within eight years, sub-2:37 also seemed achievable. “Who knows what the possibilities are?”
While Kidane surprised herself in a single race, Denholm took a long-term, step-by-step approach. “You set this big goal, but then you set sizable goals along the way,” she says. “You’re not trying to eat the whole apple, you’re just taking bites out of the apple.”
Her progression over the years was proof of patience. She tried for the OTQ three times before 2020—including a heartbreakingly close 2:45:13—before finally beating the time by nearly three minutes at CIM in 2019.
After running a PR and finishing 51st at the Trials in 2020, it took her several attempts to reach 2:37, too. A case of COVID in the fall of 2023 knocked her out of the Berlin Marathon, but she recovered in time to return to CIM in December. There, she ran a Trials-qualifying time of 2:36:28.
Along the way, she channeled gratitude for each finish line. That meant honoring personal bests, but also days when she finished despite obstacles or made the decision not to start or to drop out. “That’s what allows you to be happy the whole time, even though you haven’t achieved your pie-in-the-sky goal,” she says. “Each race I’ve done has been a celebration of my hard work.”
Race your way confident
Frequent racing also instills a belief that you can handle any scenario that arises, says qualifier T-Roy Brown. He ran his first marathon in 2:35:32 in 2015. Eight years and several attempts later, he qualified for the Trials with a 2:16:37 at the Valencia Marathon in December.
Brown, 31, grew up in Bend, Oregon, playing team sports. After he failed to get a lacrosse scholarship, he completed two Ironman triathlons and walked on to the cross-country and track teams at Portland State University.
Now, he lives in Bern, Switzerland, and balances training with a full-time job as a sixth-grade teacher. To prepare for marathons, he does a hard workout on Tuesday, and a long run on Sunday. Most Saturdays, he races at distances from 8K to the half marathon.
“I probably do 30 races a year, and maybe even more,” he says. “I like racing. It also helps me stay consistent with training and it’s a good rhythm.” He can wake up at 6 a.m. and hop on a train to many European cities—and often, find strong competition to challenge him.
Find training that suits you
In college at Division III Stockton University, Christina Welsh did higher-intensity, lower-volume training to prepare for distances up to 10,000 meters. She trained in a similar style, topping out at 50 to 60 miles per week, for her first two marathons, which she finished in 3:29 and 3:20. But she was frequently injured, and wasn’t sure she was reaching her potential.
When she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, for graduate school in 2019, she began training with the Forerunners Florida Track Club. The marathoners there introduced her to a different strategy: higher mileage, but less speedwork.
The approach worked for her. In 2020, she dropped more than 16 minutes off her time, running 3:03:58 at the Space Coast Marathon. Two years and three races later, she placed eighth in the 2022 Houston Marathon in 2:33:00, a Trials qualifier by four minutes.
Her mileage now peaks around 120 to 130 miles a week. Not everyone can or wants to run that much, of course. But any type of increase—say, from 30 to 50—bringing him confidence.
For Welsh, 27, the key to increasing mileage was to cut back on harder efforts. She limits her intensity to one long run and another workout per week; only about 10 percent of her mileage is speedy. And even her faster miles are rarely more than 20 seconds under marathon pace. “Even though my training is a lot higher mileage, it feels a lot more relaxed and chill,” she says.
Build up strength
Another qualifier, Jesse Joseph of Portland, Oregon, also increased his mileage over time. Before his first marathon, Los Angeles in 2021, he logged about 80 miles per week; he finished in 2:22:34. By the time he qualified for the Trials by running a 2:16:48 in the 2023 Eugene Marathon, he’d bumped that up to 100 per week.
He’s paired that with two weekly sessions of weight training so his body is ready to handle the load. “Without the strength work, I will get injured by increasing my mileage,” he says.
Denholm also began prioritizing strength training after finding out she had a labral tear in her hip in the fall of 2022. Doctors told her she wasn’t a candidate for surgery, but to avoid getting to that point, she’d need to get more serious in the weight room.
So she hired her fellow coach and founder of Lift Run Perform, Mary Johnson, to design a program for her. Three days a week during base training, and twice a week when she’s doing more intense running workouts, she does lifts that target her quads, glutes, hips, and core—including single-leg exercises like Romanian deadlifts and pistol squats.
“My body’s never felt better running since I started incorporating strength,” she says—for example, she no longer fatigues at the end of long or hard runs. “I wish I had done it years ago.”
Fuel—a lot
Her first two marathons, Welsh took two or three gels in total. Now, she fuels up with at least one every four miles. “That definitely made a difference with not feeling too depleted at the end and being able to finish a little stronger,” she says.
Denholm also fuels more than she used to—during CIM, she consumed 114 grams of carbs per hour by combining drink mixes and gels. She trained her gut carefully, beginning by adding gels on easy long runs, eating them slowly rather than all at once to help her stomach adjust. Then she began adding them into intervals and other high-intensity workouts, first during recovery periods, then when she was running fast.
“My message to everyone is, fuel as often as you can, because you’ll have better workouts, you’ll recover faster, and you’re continuing to train your stomach throughout your training,” she says.
Between his first marathon and his qualifying run, Joseph also began putting more emphasis on eating enough between training sessions to replenish his body. He now eats a bigger breakfast after a morning run—at least two bagels and a couple of eggs—and rice at every meal. Each morning, he packs snacks like dates, pretzels, pistachios, and beef jerky to take to the office. “I set a rule that I have to eat everything that I brought to work by the end of the day,” he says.
Pick the right race
Of course, runners hoping for fast times tend to flock to flatter, speedier courses—think Chicago and Berlin. But that isn’t all that matters when it comes to choosing a race, Joseph says. He ran his second marathon in Houston, where many records have fallen, and finished in 2:21:15. That was a one-minute PR, but still more than three minutes off the qualifying time.
For his third, he stayed local, in Eugene. The logistics were simple: “It’s right down the road from us,” he said, less than a two-hour drive on Interstate 5. He’d won the half marathon there the year before in 1:06:14, bringing him confidence.
While she was still in college Last-Minute Olympic Trials Qualifiers. “I had a ton of friends all over the course,” he says. “That was a huge morale boost in the middle of the race, to have the Portland running community there.”
Then, work with others to get to the finish line
Jacuzzi Boys Athletic Club pace groups, which can take the guesswork and some of the mental effort out of running a goal time. Brown knew Valencia was his last chance for an OTQ before this year’s Trials. So he latched onto a pace group for elite women targeting a 2:18 to 2:19 finish.
Even professional pacers aren’t always perfect; in this case, they started out fast. But with their help, and the group of about 50 following them, Brown kept up. Even when the pacers eventually slowed, a pack of men continued working in sync to achieve their goals.
“I sort of thought, oh, groups are overrated, because I’ve done well running by myself,” Brown says. “But I definitely ran way faster than I ever would have expected because the group was so good.”
Racing with a training partner or friend can pay off, too. Denholm started CIM with a pace group as well, which splintered as the race progressed. But throughout, she stayed close with a friend and former teammate, Sofie Schunk. Working together made it all the more special, Denholm says, because they could also share in the celebration.
Overall, she hopes her story—and those of qualifiers like her—encourages others to chase their dreams, too. “It’s incredible, the progress that can be made,” she says. “I’ve seen it as a coach, too. In this sport, there’s so much room for improvement for everyone.”
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
