I'll be watching while on the bike for a 90 minute interval workout. If Peacock will cooperate...

So far, so good

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Watching now on Peacock, which is mostly terrible. In fact, I think I'd rather run a marathon in Orlando than watch another minute of this execrable feed.

But marathons are about endurance, so I will hang in there. Too early to call the team at this point, but I don't think the men will qualify three, two only.

Can Panning stay with Mantz and Young after leading much of the marathon?

Nope. Hope he can hang on for third.

It feels like I'm watching a local news station with no knowledge of running cover this thing. Man we are bad as a country now, what happened to us??

I sure feel for the guy, he went for it. The marathon is a cruel discipline.

Women's race is fantastic so far!

It's Peacock thing, not a USA thing - your expectations are too high

Be thankful that it's broadcast at all, since they can't really tie it into DraftKings or FanDuel

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

The broadcast appears designed for casual fans, which I guess I understand, but why not offer split screens so serious fans can watch the race and casual viewers can enjoy the interview with the mayor?

It's Peacock thing, not a USA thing - your expectations are too high//

Ya but I watch swimming on Peacock and they do a great job there. They get great commentators and the overall look just seems more professional. Dan and I with the old ice cream truck could have done a better job here...(-;

Well a little more hopeful about the ladies performances. Always fun when someone runs their first marathon and crushes it. Could be some unlocked potential going forward, or like many others, the best you will ever do...

Bold strategy by O'Keeffe that paid off. Great racing. Nice to have the marathon for Team USA decided months before the big dance - unlike some other events...

So what you're saying is not that your expectations are too high, but that mine aren't high enough, and that I'm being underserved and unappreciated as an audience

That's fair

But then, I like Laura Green's reels, so ...
https://www.instagram.com/lauramcgreen

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Fiona O'Keefe rocked the marathon - it's amazing to get first place on the Olympic Trials, but it's even more amazing that it was her first marathon. Hopefully, the Men and Women can do a little bit of Rest and Relaxation and then get ready for the Olympics in Paris.

What on earth was going on in mens finish. The better runner (young) let mantz win and take bulk of prize money. He even was pointing to mantz for where to run

Being training partners, they likely had a side deal before the race based on winners bonuses built into contracts. Only explanation that makes sense.

Announcers with 1 mi left in the men’s race:
“These guys are so competitive, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them really go for it and have a sprint finish!”

Announcers with 0.5min left:
“These guys are training partners, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an agreed upon tie finish!”

Riveting commentary.

Yeah I agree. Would have been nice to watch them race the last mile. Young would've hopped under 2:09 on a warm day. But they're training partners. Maybe they'll split the prize money. Mantz probably has higher sponsor bonuses. Maybe Young was just doing him a solid for leading a lot of their workouts during the build. I like Korir but I feel bad for Panning. Everyone who tucked in behind him owes him a beer for making it an honest race.

The women's race was a lot of fun. Glad you can qualify with a half & someone like O'Keeffe can debut & take down the AR holder. Happy Sisson got her redemption from 2020. Lindwurm is a great story in 3rd. Some people don't like the Trials & would rather auto select someone with faster PBs. But Lindwurm beat those people H2H on the day & showed that she can handle less than ideal conditions. She also didn't have super fast HS PBs & walked onto her D2 team. Incredible!


Doing away with the Trials means getting rid of a meaningful race that an American can win. It means locking out all of the hard working runners who are finishing in the middle of this race who are hometown heroes. It means leaving it up to a governing body to do the right thing and letting sponsors influence the selection process. This race was a lot of fun. With countries only able to send 3 runners, I don't see how everyone going isn't a top-10 threat. Panning was 11th at Worlds last year. US women have been historically strong on the world stage. Only things I would change about today are 1) coverage, 2) more prize money, and 3) earlier start so US runners who got to NYC/Boston every year can run a PB. Would be a shame if that 3rd spot isn't unlocked for the men. Korir's effort today is worth 2:08:10.

I like the idea of a one time effort to make the team, just not with Americans only. I liked the old Kenyan philosophy, send everyone to a big race with big money, and pick your team from that. Just like the triathletes do now, use existing big races to pick your teams. Mostly because the actual race is going to be a big well attended race, so mimic as close as possible those conditions.

This run today is about as far away as you could get from a race like the games, Boston, Chicago, or any of the other majors. Maybe like triathlon you take two races to pick the team to help even out any anomalies too. This just seemed bush league to me, but suppose this is how they have been doing it for a very long time...

Super fun to watch a first timer just crush it too, really hope this is just the beginning for her. We need some new blood on the marathon front, men and women..

I should've seen & posted this yesterday, sorry

https://dumbrunner.com/...mpic-marathon-trials

“We’re seeing an unprecedented level of excitement leading up to this year’s Trials,” a Peacock spokesperson told Dumb Runner by email. “Literally dozens of people are talking about it online.”

“Given that, we are anticipating record streaming demand for this event,” the spokesperson said. “That could mean viewers numbering well into the hundreds.”

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Drove over this morning from just north of Tampa to be there on person. It was exciting to watch live!

What was bush league about today? Times would've been faster in better conditions. We're sending a strong team. The US has placed well at Worlds & the Olympics with this selection process.

Comparing it to triathlon doesn't seem it. World Athletics only puts on the Championship races. There isn't a set racing calendar where all of the best line up. You have majors, but even the top runners avoid H2H competition (when will Kipchoge/Kiptum race?). Running isn't like triathlon. There are strict limits to what can go on your race kits. The Olympic Trials gives athletes exposure/value to their sponsors. It gives Americans the chance to win a meaningful race & get prize money. It gives post collegiate runners the chance to keep training & hit the standard. You don't have to restrict field size on the roads so you can have a healthy # of qualifiers to try to bring some attention to the sport. In triathlon you're only allowing 5 athletes to enter selection races. It's a smaller sport.

I would also argue that a warm-ish marathon, like today, mimics a summer Olympic marathon much more closely than Chicago on a good weather day. Smaller field size with no mass participants on a closed course checks boxes to me.

1) coverage was great - i was at a bar watching it on livestream - saw no issues, every move made (except for my 1 hour run during first half)
2) prize money enough... 80k for first, close to 2nd place money in boston
3) im sure they can recover from/for NYC/Boston. maybe tokyo runners would be problematic. CJ albertson won CIM and mexacali 2 months ago 7 days apart and did pretty decent today