Kerry Allen doesn’t have a car, so she will commute to her Capitol Hill job many mornings with a pair of running shoes, and other days she will squeeze in a few more miles circling the National Mall at lunchtime. Kelly Calway has school drop-off most mornings, followed by a full workday. So she usually waits until after bedtime to hop on a treadmill and log her miles. Kieran O’Connor also has two kids at home, so he tries to find a block of time each weekend to sneak in a quality training run.

All three have qualified for Saturday’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials, perhaps the most unusual, accessible and democratic qualifying event for the Tokyo Summer Games. In many Olympic sports, only the best of the best — think of full-time athletes with shoe contracts and dedicated sports agents — reach this stage. The marathon trials provide a much bigger tent, allowing the nation’s top amateurs, including working parents and dedicated recreational runners, to run alongside the fastest long-distance runners in the country.

Roughly 700 runners are expected at the starting line in Atlanta on Saturday — 511 women and 260 men have qualified, though not all will run — but only a handful have a realistic shot at the precious few spots on the U.S. Olympic team. The top three male and female finishers will punch a ticket to Japan.

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• Πηγή: washingtonpost.com
• Ετικέτες: athletes, marathon, olympic