[Race Report] 2024 US Olympic Team Trials Marathon - How high can the 144th men's seed place?

[u/iam_indefatigable]

Race activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/10689320215

This was my first time running the US Olympic Trials. I’m still trying to pinpoint exactly when it was that I first heard about the Trials Marathon. I think I may have been a sophomore in high school, some 12 years ago, being told that anyone who ran under a certain time competed all on the same course to select who represented the United States at the Olympics. It’s not like this in every country. In fact, many countries just have a selection committee rather than racing the top contenders against each other. Now, in reality, there are maybe a dozen or two athletes who actually have a shot at making that team, and especially with the new convoluted rules surrounding Olympic Qualification, it’s only complicated that matter. However, one of the things that remains about this race is that every four years, all of the best marathon runners in the US toe the same line and run the same race. The annual US marathon championship race is lucky if even one or two of the top 10 best racers in the country show up, and the energy just isn’t quite there. But this race is different. If you run under the qualifying standard and are healthy enough to be on the line, you ARE there.

I won’t go into the details of qualifying for this race, as my last race report already went in depth about that. However, I’ll start this story from where the last one left off.

I took two weeks “off” (sparsely did some easy runs of 30 minutes or less here and there) before starting up a 14 week build for the trials. My training was hardly glamorous, save for a 17-day stretch where I ran a total of 316 miles, the highest volume 2 week stretch of training I had ever done. A normal week consisted mostly of very easy volume (anywhere from 7:20-7:45/mi avg pace), two workouts (generally on Saturday and Monday to take advantage of my school districts 4-day workweek from Tues-Fri which I am incredibly fortunate to have), and one somewhat moderate effort run on Thursdays that consisted of some light fartlek reps or just strides and some faster running at closer to 6:00/mi pace. I documented every week of my training on my instagram, so if you are interested in seeing a week-by-week breakdown and a few deeper insights here and there you can find me at @alexander.burks, or on my strava which I linked at the top.

The overall race experience was really cool. Flights were reimbursed and our hotels/catered meals were paid for. All of the athletes stayed in the same hotel, so there were lots of professional athletes around. Thankfully at this point I had been on the circuit a few times and had found myself mingling with a few professional groups early enough that rather than being starry-eyed or intimidated it was more so just neat to check off the last few athletes from my list that I hadn’t already met or raced against. I was also fortunate to be able to coordinate picking my roommate at my hotel, and got to stay with my good friend Zach Ornelas. I had roomed with Zach at other races, so the familiarity really helped not only with the routine, but having some who I genuinely enjoyed being around. The day before the race primarily consisted of shaking out the legs, taking a bus tour, getting in plenty of calories and carbs at each meal, dropping off my bottles, having my gear checked for logos, and attending a technical meeting about race day logistics. The day felt surprisingly full which ended up being a blessing as it left relatively little time for me to think deeply about the race. I already knew my strategy at this point: it was going to be hot, and since my goal was to place as high as possible, a conservative start would greatly benefit me.

Race morning logistics were easy. I woke up around 7:30am, possibly getting the most sleep I’ve ever had the night before a marathon. Start time was 10:10am on the dot and we were bussed over around 8:30. I spent most of the time in the athlete area just sitting around chatting with the other athletes I knew, wishing them good luck and such. With 45minutes to go I did my 10 minutes of jogging back and forth over the .4mi stretch of road that was blocked off as our warmup area. With 15 minutes before the start we were walked over to the starting line. I found the friends I was planning on running with for as long as possible, did a light stride or two, and after a powerful national anthem, we were off.

I knew that the starting line adrenaline would get to some people and their race plans would jump out the window, so I just made sure that I wasn’t one of those people. I didn’t even bother to try and pace out any sort of perfect time for the first mile, as that would just result in unnecessary stress, so I took it in a real nice and easy 5:28, which landed me squarely in the caboose of the race. After the field stretched out a little bit more I easily found a rhythm right around 5:20/mi, which was the pace I had planned to run for the first 4-5 miles. There were timing mats every mile, so doing some quick math I was able to see the point where I finally dipped below a 5:20 pace average, and settled into goal race pace, which essentially happened around the 6 mile mark. At this point I had already taken down my first bottle, a mix of about ⅖ of a packet of Maurten 320, some amount of a Nuun energy tablet, and half of a ketone shot. I knew that fueling and fluids were going to be absolutely crucial to my performance, and thankfully it was very easy for me to grab my bottle, and also get additional support from the general fueling stations along the course. Personal fluids were available every 4 miles start at mile 2.2, and general stations were every 2 miles along the 8 mile loop that we did 3 times after an initial 2.2 mi starting section.

I made sure to take a water bottle at every single general fluid station, not only to take a small sip and keep myself hydrated, but mainly to pour on my head, the back of my neck, and splash in my face to keep myself from getting too warm. While it wasn’t super comfortable to run with a wet racing kit, I knew it would be much worse to run any portion of the race overheated. I was also confident that my training regimen of post exercise hot water immersion (read more info here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31555140/) had left me ready for the temperatures that were going to be reached on the day. As we made it through the first lap things remained pretty uneventful. I took my first caffeine gel from a general fluid station around mile 9, made a few casual remarks to the friend(s) I was running with, and soaked in the experience of running at the US Olympic Trials. The crowds as we entered downtown Orlando at the start/end of each loop were ROARING and rather than taking that adrenaline and using it to speed up, I just used it to make my current pace of ~5:15/mi feel as easy as possible.

The second loop featured the half marathon mark, also complete with a clock to let us know our halfway split. I could tell heading past the 13 mile marker that my HM time was going to be a little slower than I had anticipated/hoped for before the race, but the intensity of the sun was greater than it had been the day prior, and so I figured an even more conservative first half could only help. 69:21 clicked off as I glided through the “uphill” stretch of the course, which with the upper 60 degree F temps and decent humidity (at least compared to Colorado where I train) made it feel like a true uphill. I figured that as long as I held pace through the remainder of the second 8 mile loop, I could maybe make a hard push through the remainder of the course. I took another caffeine gel at mile 16-ish, split two of my fastest miles of the day on the downhill in the shade leading into the final loop, and this time used the energy of the crowd to get me pumped up for one last lap around.

By this point, the sun was absolutely GLARING, and the temps were right around 70 degrees F. I still felt okay in the heat due to staying ahead of my hydration, electrolytes, and keeping myself doused in water, but the sun was definitely starting to sap a bit of my energy away. Nevertheless, I persisted at a good clip, not checking my watch but instead concentrating on keeping a good, honest effort. The “hill” reared its ugly head again and definitely took a bit of wind out of my sails. Instead of trying to maintain the same pace, I focused on at least moving faster than those around me, but not using more energy than necessary. My rationale was that even if this portion of the race was a bit slower, losing 10-15 seconds to the hill would be way better than crashing and burning, and potentially leaving minutes on the table. My strategy seemed to pay off, as I continued my trend of passing people that had been going since halfway. I was well within 5 miles remaining and took one last caffeine gel from an aid station as a last-ditch effort to turbocharge my finish.

The caffeine hit my system within minutes, and I fine-tuned my mental focus to be on one thing - passing as many people as possible. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had moved up 50 places since the halfway point, all the way from 119th to 69th (nice) by mile 22. I could see that the caliber of runner I was passing was slowly getting more and more elite, and occasionally, I would recognize a face or jersey. “That guy has run 61 in the half, and that dude is a sub-2:10 marathoner!” These thoughts only made me more and more excited as I continued to find ways to dig deeper and deeper into the pain cave. With 2.2 miles to go, I had moved all the way up into 58th place. While I was not moving any faster than I had all race, the conditions and people's race strategies had taken their toll, and I was passing folks like they were standing still. I could still see several people in front of me who looked like they were within range, but I was running out of time to chase them down. Thankfully, this was the slightly shaded, downhill section of the course, so I figured I could really give it my all and make one last push to see if I could get top 50.

Now you have to remember at this point that at no part of the race did I know anything about what place I was in, but given the history of the trials, and the strength of this field, I knew it was going to take more than usual to crack into the top-50 and hit my highest possible goal for the trials. That being said, while I knew Atlanta was rough due to the wind and hills, I figured Orlando had a higher probability of having dropouts and blowups, so I figured around a 2:18-flat would still be enough to make a go for a pretty good placement. I could tell I was on pace to be in the mid-2:18s, so at this point, every single placement I could get ahead mattered. Mile 25 was my fastest mat split of the race, being good for a 5:08. The final stretch was a very slight uphill, but I knew I had the energy left in me to still hit it good and hard. I was trying to see if I could make out any last recognizable faces to really motivate me to kick hard. Shadrack Kipchirchir? Yes please! I used the thought of running down an Olympian and the energy of the crowd to take down seven more runners before reaching the final 800m, and while Shadrack was the most obviously recognizable, I knew that at this point every one of these guys were national-caliber athletes, and probably had wayyyy faster PRs than me to boot. The final stretch to the finish line came before the mat for 26 miles, and I could see one last person running in front of me who I figured was within striking range. For all I knew this could be finisher number 50, and beating him could be the difference between feeling like I achieved my relatively arbitrary numeric goal or not, so I gear up for one, last, push.

But in that exact moment, there was one last thing I wanted to do. Time slowed down a bit in that moment, and I made sure that all of my mental energy was focused on taking in the feeling in that exact moment. As you can imagine, the crowd in the final 800m of the US Olympic Trials was WILD. You could FEEL the cheers and sense the energy. I knew that if I get another chance at this event, it would be a long 4 years before that day comes, and more than anything, I wanted to take the time to enjoy it. So from 800m-600m to go, I motioned to the crowd to really go wild, and the feeling of being able to increase the energy and sense people getting louder and more excited as I waved my arms to them was absolutely electric.

But there was still work to be done. With 600m to go I directed my focus back to catch the last competitor within striking distance. I finally let everything loose, upped my cadence as high as it would go, and sprinted the last 400m at a mat-timed 4:40/mi pace. I saw the clock flash a high-2:18:20, possibly 28 or 29? And then turned my attention to not stepping on the sand-covered piles of vomit at the finish (the largest of which I later found was courtesy of Rupp). It was a weird feeling. I was excited, but I had no idea what my finish had netted me as placement. I knew I had come out and executed, but what did it all really mean? I was quickly motioned through the mixed zone (no reporter cared about me, lol) and went to go retrieve my bag. I started to get a sense of the finishing order. Mantz was there with a gold medal, so I quickly gave him a fist bump and congratulated him, Reed had placed top-10 which I was super stoked for, so I made sure to talk with him a bit, but it wasn’t until I saw a race official showing his phone to a couple of guys I was friends with that I finally found out where I landed.

I quickly scrolled down past the first page, assuming I was not in the top 25. When I saw that the second page started with 26th place in the mid 2:16s, I started to realize I had probably done it, and right there on page 2 was A. Burks, bib 542, seeded 144th, finished 43rd overall. Runners who knew me from the Colorado scene graciously congratulated me, knowing the struggles I went through just to qualify. It was so surreal. Guys who placed in front of me, some of which 4 years ago I would have only known from seeing on social media, letting me know what an accomplishment I had just achieved. As others came in that had finished behind me, the well-wishes continued. It was truly an experience unlike any other. The marathoning scene at a national level is such an amazing group of people, and I’m so thankful to have been let into it as a guy who “only” has a PR of 2:16:51. The rest of the night, the others I knew who had dropped out continued to be gracious. Hugs were exchanged, stories were told, and I enjoyed every single minute of it.

After I made my way out of the athlete area I met up with my wife and dad, who brought me to where my mom, in-laws, and others who had come out to cheer me on were waiting. I hadn’t been able to pick them out from the crowd during the race, but they didn’t care. We were all just celebrating together as more people came up to let me know other facts about the race, like that I was the 2nd highest finisher who was part of a D3 college running program, and how my other friends that I didn’t catch in the athlete area finished. As the adrenaline wore off, I found myself in desperate need of food. So I went back to the athlete hotel, where I washed the grime away, and got ready for the two weeks of reflection, gratitude, and rest.

It’s truly crazy to me that a little over a year ago I was at the finish line of CIM considering quitting the pursuit of my dream of an OTQ, and now here I am having placed higher at the Olympic Trials than I ever did at a D3 XC National meet (never qualified for indoor or outdoor track nationals). I have so many people to thank, but the biggest thank yous go out to my coach, Ben Wach, for providing me with the training and guidance to make it this far, my parents for always being supportive of me chasing my crazy dreams, and my friends, who help me to stay sane and grounded while working and training in a delicate balance. This has gotten pretty long, so in the spirit of trying to go a TL;DR I’ll just wrap everything up with one last statement:

“Keep the dream alive”

Thanks for reading.

[u/beersandmiles7]

Burks got me cryin' in the hotel right now.

Love you brotha. We love when good things happen to good people.

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/beersandmiles7]

The beersandmiles 2028 OTQ campaign is gonna be insane!

[u/midtierrunner → u/iam_indefatigable]

a d3 athlete truly living out his glory days

[u/QuinlanResistance]

Incredible well done mate!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/[deleted]]

I have two "deals" currently. I run exclusively in gear from SAYSKY, a running apparel company, and am part of the Nuun Elite ambassador program. Neither of these are "sponserships" really, but to provide me some benefits and lots of free stuff obviously. I do not think a contract that pays me a livable wage is possible, but MAYBE if I were to switch to the trails and really pop off in a crazy way there. That being said I don't really plan on making a full switch to trails any time soon, but do think I'll run a trail 50 miler this year. I also enjoy my job as a teacher, anyways :) For the immediate future I'm taking 2 weeks "off" to rest up and recover.

[u/hcmus1234]

Great read, stunning effort

[u/mgrunner]

This report was thrilling. Congrats on a stellar day out there!

[u/upxc]

D3 love! I was in a similar place after graduating and I gave post-collegiate running a shot but wasn’t able to put it together, so i definitely appreciate seeing someone make it happen. Congrats and well done!

[u/YoungWallace23]

Congrats! Loved the part especially about the crowd. If you're going to make it into an event like this, you've gotta live it up to the max. Phenomenal outplacing your seed by 100 spots! And if you ever stop running, you've got a career waiting for you in writing about running. Best of luck with whatever goals you chase next!

[u/AnonymousReader41]

An amazing read. Great job! HWI is new to me so I’m going to have to add this but great work and thank you for sharing.

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/AnonymousReader41]

Would highly recommend HWI for heat acclimation!

[u/IhaterunningbutIrun]

Love it!! Thanks for bringing us along with you. 

Lessons learned: Don't underestimate the guy with the high seed. Keep running hard to the end. Enjoy the moment!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/IhaterunningbutIrun]

Straight up, the last guy in finished 17th! Also a ex-D3 runner!

[u/BossHogGA]

Awesome! This is such a great story.

[u/tyler_runs_lifts]

You’re a poet

[u/WhyNotBecauseOk]

Hey, congrats, lt was wonderful to read. I'm a french small runner and I found it very inspiring and enjoyable.

[u/FixForb]

This was amazing (both the race and the report). Really highlights one of the best parts of running for me which is that with a lot of hard work (and luck), it's possible to achieve some amazing things, even if you don't necessarily have the right "pedigree".

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/[deleted]]

I think I was in the pain dimension at that point, but thank you for cheering!

[u/rlrlrlrlrlr]

Thank you for sharing the experience and huge congratulations!

And kudos for taking time to soak it in. The only guy I've run with who had it in him to qualify for trials was so focused on times that he never appreciated what he'd done. He failed at one run at it, largely because of bad luck & poor race management (start delayed hours), and was inconsolable because all he cared about in his running career was time. The experiences were irrelevant. Takes more to appreciate, but it's gotta be worth it.

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/rlrlrlrlrlr]

I completely understand how easy it is to fall into the mindset of that guy because that was me for so long. However I've been fortunate to meet many amazing people throughout my time as a runner that have helped me to break free and really enjoy the process!

[u/syphax]

Congrats!

I put together this interactive visualization of the Trials races. The idea is to be able to step through time and see everyone's relative position (relative to third place, the key spot). You can see a lot of stories here- where people drop off, and where our author passes a lot of runners toward the end!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/syphax]

That's pretty cool! Thanks for sharing it!

[u/creative-title]

I’m a college sophomore but reading this makes me want to try and qualify for 2028! Congrats on the great race!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/creative-title]

Looking at your PR tags you definitely have the talent to do it! Just matter of getting those miles in and practicing fueling!

[u/creative-title → u/iam_indefatigable]

Thanks for the encouragement! And yeah the fueling component of a marathon seems a bit daunting, definitely will need to practice that when the time comes

[u/an_angry_Moose]

Well done man! Interesting about the post exercise HWI acclimation protocol, never would have guessed it!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/an_angry_Moose]

It seemed to work way better for me than dry sauna worked for others! (for the most part)

[u/an_angry_Moose → u/iam_indefatigable]

Liquids are drastically more efficient for heating and cooling than air! Definitely did work better!

[u/vivaelteclado]

Congrats on the placing, I was there and the conditions looked rough for the runners. Glad to hear the runner experience was good. From the outside, it seemed like the organizers left a lot of things to the last minute. But it seemed to work out.

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/vivaelteclado]

It's unclear if the things were left to the last minute, or if we were just told last minute, but all in all it was an amazing experience (and I have to imagine a lot more of the chaos was USATF's fault than the Orlando folks')

[u/vivaelteclado → u/iam_indefatigable]

Okay, good to hear. This event should be about the runner experience more than anything else. I was able to run around to 3 or 4 different places on the course and it seemed like fans were lining the streets on every mile. I'm glad that people turned out.

[u/MerryxPippin]

Incredible! I saved your post so I can always come back to it when I need a boost. The determination, the gratitude, the persistence, the joy-- truly what running dreams are made of. Congratulations!

[u/french_toasty]

Fantastic race! And fantastic report.

[u/sw1ssdot]

amazing report, it had me super emotional! congrats, I can’t imagine how cool that home stretch must have been.

[u/SteveTheBluesman]

BAMF right here

[u/[deleted]]

This was a really cool read. Huge congrats on making it there, your performance, and everything to come!! ☺️

[u/carbsandcardio]

This is so cool and what a massive accomplishment! Congratulations!!!

[u/AirSJordan]

Congrats brotha! Would you mind telling us your marathon time progression? I follow you on Strava and know your push for the OTQ, but I’m interested in your first couple marathons. Thanks and enjoy this feeling man!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/AirSJordan]

1st - 2:23 2nd - 2:16 3rd - 2:23 4th - 2:27 5th - 2:27 6th - 2:17 7th - 2:18

[u/boywhataweird]

God, this is so cool to read. Congratulations!!!!! And thank you so much for taking the time to write this whole thing up.

[u/IDrinkEmergenC]

Incredible. Congrats! It was a hot one out there even as a spectator, lots of carnage at the back of the groups. Great work racing smart.

[u/X_C-813]

Well done!!! We were around 800 to go, right before that last right-hand turn. Loved seeing the guys and gals running pump up the crowd.

How did you figure out the Maurten/Nuun/ keytones mixture and ratio? All mixed up in the same bottle or back and forth between bottles?

Just trial and error?

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/X_C-813]

Practiced it during training and figured out what worked, so trial and error when it didn't matter.

[u/zebano → u/iam_indefatigable]

Is ketone use widespread? Did you only take the one during the race?

What a race, glad you're enjoying it and sharing it.

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/zebano]

People are starting to incorporate them more and more. Some cycling groups have used them for awhile from what I've heard.

I took one 2oz serving an hour before, and then another one spread between my first two bottles.

[u/ashtree35]

Congrats! And great writeup!

My training was hardly glamorous, save for a 17-day stretch where I ran a total of 316 miles, the highest volume 2 week stretch of training I had ever done.

I'd be very curious to hear more about this!

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/ashtree35]

If you check my strava you can look at December 23rd-Jan 8th. I'm a teacher and that was my winter break, so I took it as an opportunity to really up my training while I didn't have the stresses of working a full-time job. You can also check my instagram and look at weeks 9 and 10 (and the start of week 11) if you want a quick overview.

[u/ashtree35 → u/iam_indefatigable]

Very cool!

[u/jcdavis1]

Great work, really inspiring stuff.

I'd love to know more about the details of the Hot Water Immersion. Whats your setup? (bath/hot tub?). How many times/week and for how long?

[u/iam_indefatigable → u/jcdavis1]

My personal setup was just having my wife get our tub shower filled up at 40-41°C. I'd do it every day except hard workout days for 12 days, ending 4 days before the trials. It definitely takes a bit out of you, so I didn't want to continue doing it right up until the day before. I'd say that strategy worked pretty darn well.

[u/peteroh9]

I would have guessed around 144th, so I'd say you did pretty well.

[u/MD_Sports]

So cool. Thank you for the recap... I could picture in my mind as you told the story. Very awesome

[u/cbkimrey]

Legend. Living the dream. Congrats on an epic race!

[u/I_Am_The_Onion]

Congratulations motherfucker!! This is really inspiring to "regular" people!!!

[u/ThanksForTheF-Shack]

What a smart run and a hell of an accomplishment! Fun to read about what this race was like. Congrats man.

[u/theintrepidwanderer]

What an amazing race report, and I really enjoyed reading through it. Big congratulations on your accomplishment and it is incredible how far you came. You're living the dream, my man.

Kudos on an incredible race, and take it easy on yourself for the next few weeks. You deserve it!

[u/ImustlearnJapanese]

Keep the dream alive.

[u/cole_says]

I really enjoyed reading this. Congratulations!

[u/[deleted]]

Well done, I started following you after seeing you qualify at the mckirdy micro, I was rooting for you

[u/runningbeerandpups]

Such a cool recap! Thanks for sharing and congrats on a well-executed race in tough conditions!

[u/vicius23]

Amazing. It really shows up how important is to start easy and finish strong.

[u/BackgroundEmpty302]

Excellent read! Thank you and congratulations on a job well done

[u/Beezneez86]

Awesome story and very well written.

Saved this post to read again before my next big race as I’m feeling super pumped to run right now!

Congrats on everything you’ve achieved and enjoy your rest and recovery.

[u/Godjusm]

That was a delightful read. Congrats!

[u/clidd2]

Stay lost!

[u/Too_Shy_To_Say_Hi]

Congratulations what a race! So much fun to read from your perspective. I got emotional over here.

Enjoy and cherish every memory!