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McGlynn and Wallace hope for U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifiers at Napa Valley Marathon

Posted February 27th, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Tom McGlynn of Burlingame, C.A., and his training partner, Mike Wallace of Menlo Park, C.A., hope to score a fast time at the 29th Annual Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon on Sunday, March 4, that will qualify them for the U.S. Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials on November 3, 2007, in New York City. The Trials race will select the U.S. men’s team that will compete in the 2008 Olympic Games men’s marathon in Beijing, China next year.

To qualify for the men’s 2008 Trials, U.S. men must run 2:22:00 or faster. Coincidentally, 20 years ago at the 1987 Napa Valley Marathon, Dick Beardsley set the men’s course record of 2:16:20 on NVM’s certified course in a successful outing to qualify for the 1988 U.S. Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials.

“I’ve run Napa more than any other marathon,” Beardsley said. “Napa is an awesome course to run fast. I like the fact that there are rolling hills, and the toughest hills seem to come in the early parts. The crowd support at the crossroads along the course is excellent. The weather is usually perfect and the race organization is second to none.”

Beardsley, who placed second on the heels of Alberto Salazar in the memorable 1982 Boston Marathon, and is the fourth fastest U.S. marathoner all-time (2:08:54), returns to the NVM again this year as a featured guest.

Neither McGlynn or Wallace dream of approaching Beardsley’s swift record mark at Napa. McGlynn, 34, formerly competed for Penn State, and is a veteran of two previous Olympic Marathon Trials races (2000 and 2004). Wallace, 30, is aiming for a first-time Olympic Trials spot. Not that either runner expects to contend for an Olympic team berth in New York among America’s cream of the running crop. For them, it’s getting to the Trials that counts.

“It would put a nice culmination on all the running that I’ve done over the years,” said Wallace, who has been running competitively since the third grade and works in fund raising at Stanford University. “I don’t know how many years I’m going to be able to keep the same level of focus I’ve maintained over the last ten years. An Olympic Trials qualifier
would add a nice level of accomplishment to my life.”

“I’d love to run 2:18 or 2:19,” said McGlynn, a sales and marketing consultant, whose personal best is 2:20:42. “But anything under 2:22 I’d be delighted with. I’ve been training from 90 to 110 miles a week specifically for this effort, but certainly running sub-2:22 is not a foregone conclusion for me.