Five Runners To Watch At Saturday’s Olympic Qualifying Marathon In Atlanta

So if you venture out on Saturday and find a good place along the course to watch the marathon, here are five runners to watch:

Des Linden, 36, became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 2018. She said the Atlanta hills will be a real test.

“It’s incredibly challenging, I think there’s nothing quite like it out there, so it’s going to be certainly something that’s talked about quite a bit afterwards and whoever manages that the best is going to have a good day,” said Linden.

If she finishes in the top three, Linden will be the first woman in U.S. history to run in the Olympic marathon three times.

“It’s such a fun day,” said Linden. “And it feels super stressful and there’s so much on the line. But if you go and pour everything into it, whether you make the team or not, it’s pretty satisfying. And you get to walk away and know how you measure up to the best people in the country.”

Also navigating the course will be Bernard Lagat, the 45-year-old former track and field Olympian, who’s trying to get back as a marathoner.

Lagat said he’s had to get used to the increased mileage of marathon training. He said a 10-mile run used to feel like an eternity, but now it’s one of his shorter training runs.

“The beauty of it is,” Lagat added. “It feels like when you’re competing – that’s the fun part. The training part is not. So, coming here now all these runners, if they have the same feeling as I am, they’ve already done the hardest part and they’re here for the fun part.”

Lagat said he was excited by news that the cauldron from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games will be ignited for the first time in 24 years.

“It’s going to be awesome, it’s going to remind me of my first Olympics when I saw the torch being lit and then 2004 and 2008, everything brings back those memories, and I think it would be fantastic,” he said.

Sara Hall, 36, was busy last fall. She set her personal best by running the Berlin Marathon in two hours and 22 minutes. Just five weeks later she set out to run the New York City Marathon but couldn’t finish because of stomach issues.

Jim Walmsley is trying to make the transition from one of the world’s best ultra-marathoners (i.e. 50 and 100-mile races, often over rugged terrain) to the 26.2-mile road race. This will be the 30-year-old’s first-ever marathon. He qualified with a speedy half-marathon time.

There are also several local runners including Laurie Knowles, the 42-year-old Atlantan, who will be running her fourth Olympic qualifying marathon. She said being super familiar with the course will be helpful, despite the hills.

“This one kind of up-and-down the whole way,” said Knowles, comparing it to other marathons like Boston or New York City which have flat stretches. “There’s two or three significant hills, but lots of little rollers that are going to really force people to race and not just set in a pace and go.”

Knowles said she can’t wait to see friends and family along the course. But she said her two children, would prefer to be elsewhere.

“They’re kind of bummed that they have to stay home on spring break and not go anywhere exciting and just get stuck watching mom do a marathon. That’s not nearly as much fun,” she said.

The men’s race begins at 12:08 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29 with the women starting 12 minutes later. The marathon begins and ends at Centennial Olympic Park.