Triumph and Tragedy

Saturday was a crazy day for me, so here's my Olympic Trials Marathon post a day late. It was well worth waking up at 6am on a Saturday morning, that's for sure. I went to NBC sports, and was able to get the live streaming video working correctly using Mozilla on an aging and close to non-functional laptop (IE just failed miserably).

The race went out slow, and things were bunched up for a while, but then a few of the "hopefuls" broke loose and started running some respectable mile splits (around 4:50-4:55). This group was made up of Hall, Ritz, Meb, Abdi, and later on, Dan Brown. During the race, they announced that Ryan Shay had been taken away in an ambulance, which definitely gave me pause, but I didn't dwell on it.

Sell hung back in the chase pack. Eventually, Cox, and then Khalid Kannouchi broke away, and started giving chase to the lead pack which definitely could have become interesting. Cox wasn't in it for long, and KK was doing a good job of eating up ground on the lead pack. Then at Mile 17, Hall changed the race. He dashed up a hill, and in the course of about 1 mile put 20 seconds or so on the pack. A few tried to give chase, but there wasn't much hope. Then the pack fell apart. Ritz did the best job of maintaining the gap that Hall just kept building. Abdi DNF'd, and Meb had trouble holding form due to calf tightness. Dan Brown similarly had some issues (and even stopped at one point to stretch) and eventually sacrificed his third place rank. Sell just ran "slow" and steady throughout the race, and it paid off as he eventually passed KK and Brown.

Hall was in a class of his own the second half of the race. Throwing in a 14:28 5k from 30-35, and running a 1:02:47 second half...an incredible negative split. That performance has to strike much fear into the hearts of his international competitors in Beijing. I just don't know what to say about him. He looked like he was out on a darn workout. His form was loose and completely relaxed, even in the final miles. It was like he didn't even run the first half of the race.

This glorious moment didn't last. It was soon learned that Ryan Shay had in fact dropped to the pavement with a heart attack, and was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after. I was in complete shock...here was as prime of a human specimen as you could find, 28 years old and in contention for a spot on the olympic marathon team. I just can't understand how it could happen, especially with the slow early miles of the race. Hell, my 5k time is faster than the time they ran for the first one...it should have been a walk in the park that soon in the race. Something doesn't add up. What was so special about those 5.5 miles compared to the thousands he's logged over the course of the years?

At any rate, this really shook me up. We try and project ourselves onto our heroes, measure ourselves against them, and their goals in a way become our own. To see the dreams of such a hero dissolve in the worst way possible is a blow. To those who knew and associated with Shay the grief is, of course, far more real and shattering. Along with the entire community familiar with Ryan Shay, I offer my condolences.


Run:
45 deg. F slight wind
16 miles at a very slow pace on grass
2:11 (8:12mpm)

Kept HR below 140 for first 8, under 150 second 8.