Hoping for a Cold Day at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon
The weather is a key factor for Ryan Shay
By Cecil Harris
Editor’s Note: Ryan Shay suffered cardiac arrest and died about 5.5 miles into the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials — Men's Marathon on Saturday, November 3. The underlying cause of his death remains unknown. NYRR extends our very deepest condolences to Ryan’s wife, Alicia, and to Ryan’s family.
How any elite runners perform at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon will depend on a number of factors, including health, training regimen, mental and physical conditioning, adaptability to the criterium course in Central Park with its undulating hills, and the performance of other athletes. For Ryan Shay, however, there’s another key factor: the weather.
“Most people know the course, so they’re training accordingly,” says Shay, who will compete in the Trials for the second time. “The other guys will say, ‘O.K., on this course I can run this particular time on a perfect day.’ But if it’s 75 degrees, or for me, if it’s 70 degrees, that’s going to change things a lot. The heat and I do not get along. Now if it’s cold that day, then that works to my benefit. I know a lot of runners who don’t like the cold, but I love the cold. Hopefully, the weather will be beneficial. I like the temperature to be around 60-65 degrees. If it’s weather that I can run well in, 2:11 or 2:12 is not out of my range.”
Shay ran a personal best of 2:14:08 while finishing ninth at the ING New York City Marathon 2004. He remembers it being 70 degrees that day, and suggests that he would have run even faster had it been cooler. Given the depth of the 2008 Trials field, he knows he will need to lower his PR, and he believes he can—if Mother Nature cooperates.
“I think a time somewhere between 2:11-2:12 is going to put you in a very good position that day,” he says. “My chances were better four years ago, even though I was running with an injury, because the field wasn’t what it’s going to be this time. It’s a much deeper field. In the past four years, so many younger guys, like Dathan Ritzenhein and Ryan Hall, have increased their distances and they’re running the Trials.”
Shay, 28, began the marathon trend six years ago when he graduated from Notre Dame (with a degree in economics). “The other guys probably thought, ‘If this guy can do it, I can do it,’” he said with a laugh. “You get more publicity once you move to the marathon. There’s a larger following. And if you look at the demographics of U.S. runners, the big thing is to complete a marathon. It’s kind of become the extreme [sports] thing to do. Those who don’t want to climb Mount Everest or do other extreme things can do a marathon.”
A former national champion in the marathon and half-marathon and the 2001 NCAA title-holder in the 10,000 meters, Shay is hoping to avoid the injury bug that plagued him at the 2004 Trials in Birmingham, AL. Running with a strained hamstring, he finished 23rd in 2:19:19.
The bug nearly bit Shay again on Labor Day, when he strained a hamstring at the USA 20K Championships in New Haven. “Different spot, though,” he says. “It wasn’t the same injury as in 2004, but it set me back about two weeks. But it was good to rest a little bit. I might have been overtraining. Your body will always tell you when to stop.”
Coached by Joe Vigil, Shay lives in Flagstaff, AR, and trains at the Altitude Training Center. With the Trials less than a month away, he has been running up to 145 miles a week at 7,000 feet. “I did my longest run during this training cycle [on September 23]—23 miles with a good tempo run in the middle of it,” he says. “I figure if my body can take that, I should be ready to run a marathon with no problem.”
For the next couple of weeks, Shay will focus solely on the Olympic dream he has had since growing up in East Jordan, MI. “A lot of people don’t understand the selection process for the Olympics,” he says. “When I tell people I’m a runner, they ask, ‘Are you going to the Olympics?’ I tell them that I have to qualify. They think you just get picked and get to go.”
Alas, it’s not that simple. But Shay likes the democratic system of giving all athletes who meet the qualifying time standards an equal chance of competing for a spot on Team USA.
“That’s the American dream right there,” he says. “When an underdog wins, it’s great for your sport. But the underdog doesn’t become a great story unless he gets the opportunity. Look at Billy Mills. People didn’t know who he was before he ran the 10,000 meters at the Olympics in Tokyo. But he won the gold medal and became a legend. I think that’s great.”
“Competition brings out the best in me,” he continues. “And I love this sport. Every chance I have to speak at a high school about the sport, I do it. I want to get kids to think that this sport is worthy of their participation. Basically, I want to recruit fans.”
If the weather on November 3 is to his liking, he’ll probably do just that.
