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Lead Stories: Thursday, January 8, 2009

Interview Excerpts: Mary Wittenberg and Glenn Latimer discuss the Olympic Trials

Posted October 15th, 2007 at 1:50 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Special Features, Interviews

Last week, the New York Road Runners hosted the first of a three part series of teleconferences about the about the November 2 U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon trials in New York City.

In the first installment, the media had the opportunity to speak with NYRR CEO and President Mary Wittenberg and USATF Men’s Long Distance Running Chair Glenn Latimer. The following excerpts feature May and Glenn’s thoughts on a few of the keys topics:

On the Central Park course:

Mary: This is a rolling course, and this is a course that we expect to be full of spectators. The ability to find the right balance of restraint in the early laps to run strong at the end, coupled with being out there hard and fast enough to beat this field, is going to be the hard dynamic. It is a fine line the athletes are going to have to run. Those two elements are what makes the course unique. It rolls the whole way, and I think on those last two laps, they’re going to feel that.

On this course and how it prepares athletes for Beijing:

Glenn: The reason we chose New York is the timing of the event, to allow the guys to fully prepare, and that it’s a testing course. If the guys are to race flat out, in my opinion it’s a 2:09, 2:10 course. I think the race will be won in 2:11, 2:12. What we didn’t want to do was go somewhere where it was hot and humid, where you beat up their bodies so that they then had to do that twice. What you do is you try to pick your best guys and then give them all the best support we’ve got.

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