Trials Times

(June 1999 RW)

Jim Howell is the only member of my family ever to compete in the Olympic Trials. The two of us were related only by marriage, but we'd lived and trained together before he qualified for the marathon with a little more than a minute to spare.

Jim ran in the 1972 Marathon Trial, and I was almost as thrilled to see him there as he was to be there. He had no chance to make the team, so this was his "Olympics."

His time in the 2:28s wouldn't come close to qualifying now, but maybe it should. A man of his ability would rank about as high nationally now as it did then. The field of sub-2:30 runners wasn't overcrowded at Eugene in '72, and wouldn't be at Pittsburgh in '00 if the race were open to sub-2:30s.

This is the contention of Al Morris, among others. He's an exercise scientist with the military, and he attended the recent meetings at the USATF convention where the question of easing the men's qualifying times came up.

"What if we gave a party and no one came?" says Morris. "Or what if we held a race and not enough runners showed up to make the party exciting, meaningful and important to TV that is showing this party to millions of viewers?"

The most exclusive parties in U.S. running are the Olympic Trials. Morris contends that the guest list is too limited.

"As I write this in late December," he says, "we have only about three dozen runners invited. While we may expect more men to qualify, what if we reach only about 100 competitors?"

That's too few in Morris' view. He notes that "the women expect 250-plus at their Marathon Trial. This is a much better field, in my opinion."

He would prefer even more than that. "One can make the case for 500 or more entrants. Imagine the 'hometown-hero' effect we could establish across this great land if we expanded the Olympic Trials fields."

Jim Howell became a hometown hero in 1972 to those of us who knew and ran with him. Developing others like him now would be a wise and cheap investment.

This would cost the Trials little or nothing. The additional runners would pay their own way, as men running times of 2:20 to 2:22 do now. Only the sub-2:20 runners earn expense money.

Al Morris says, "At the USATF convention I made a motion to ease the qualifying time. The macho men took over and voted the motion down."

He asked what I thought of the idea. My reply:

Open the window wider. Don't make it an open race, don't even make it huge. Keep the standards fairly high and the honor of running in this event special.

But bring the men's event into line with the women's. The women have an eight-minute window (2:42 to 2:50) for qualifying to run the Trial at their own expense.

The men trying to reach the "B" standard must squeeze into a two-minute gap. I support any effort to ease the upper limit, and would like to see it raised as high as 2:28 to match the women's time span.

Give today's Jim Howells, the good but not quite great marathoners, a chance to run their "Olympics."

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