Recent NC State alumni Joanna Thompson and Matt Sonnenfeldt look to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as they participate in the Olympic Trials Marathon Feb. 13 in Los Angeles.
Thompson had a prosperous career on the track and the cross-country course for the Wolfpack. Her impressive resume includes All-American achievements in both the 10,000m track event and on the cross-country course.
However, following her graduation in December, Thompson decided to add an additional race to her repertoire.
“I think it was kind of inevitable for me,” Thompson said. “I’ve always been more long distance oriented, and I’m still going to be training 5km and 10km throughout the rest of my running career, but half marathon and marathon were distances I’ve always been more suited to.”
Conditioning for the half marathon and marathon races has been a strategic process for Thompson.
“I started training for the half marathon after my track eligibility ended last spring,” Thompson said. “So I spent all fall and most of the summer preparing myself to run a half marathon, which is the distance I used to qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon.”
For Thompson, the Olympic Trials will be her first marathon.
“The trials will be my debut marathon actually,” Thompson said. “But I’ve been transitioning over to marathon-specific training for the past four months and most of that has really been a matter of increasing the amount of mileage I do.”
The trials also feature a field of over 200 competitors in which only the top-three runners advance to the Olympics.
“For the track and field Olympic Trials, you have to come in the top-three in your given event to make it to the actual Olympics,” Thompson said. “For the marathon, there are 244 women who currently have the trial standard and, of those, about 200 will actually compete in the trials, and then only three will move on to the Olympics.”
Ultimately, her primary emphasis going into the trials is to have a stellar individual performance and gain experience.
“I’m not being humble when I say there’s almost no chance I’ll make the Olympics, but it’ll be a fantastic experience,” Thompson said. “I’ll get to compete with some of the runners that I’ve idolized for a long time and looked up to who have really inspired me in my career.”
As the race date nears, Thompson looks to taper her training regimen.
“I’m actually on my last week of high mileage,” Thompson said. “In the next two weeks, I’m going to be reducing the volume and resting up in preparation of the race.”
Sonnenfeldt, who graduated from NC State in 2014, also had a successful track and cross-country career with the Pack. His accolades include All-ACC and All-NCAA Southeast region cross-country honors. Following college, Sonnenfeldt had his eyes set on finding a route to the Olympic trials.
“Coming out of college, I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to qualify for Olympic
Trials and I thought the marathon would give me a better chance than the track,” Sonnenfeldt said. “I had always liked cross-country and road racing, which are pretty comparable, so I moved down to the city for my job and just started training for the marathon.”
Despite the additional road races he competes in, Sonnenfeldt began training for the Olympic Trials well in advance.
“I had to train in the fall for the Olympic Trials first, so I had to plan my race schedule around the halves I was doing,” Sonnenfeldt said. “I didn’t start training for the marathon trials until about 14 weeks ago, but usually runners train between 10- and 16-week build ups for the marathon.”
His training regimen at NC State made his transition to marathon training less difficult.
“The transition has been pretty smooth for me just because at NC State I was a pretty high-mileage guy and did a lot of high volume workouts there,” Sonnenfeldt said. “I’d say NC State kind of prepared me and made the transition a little easier. That’s not to say training hasn’t been hard, but it definitely helped going to NC State and being under coach [Rollie] Geiger and coach [Chris] Seaton and being able to train with really good guys.”
Looking toward his first marathon, Sonnenfeldt is hopeful for a positive experience.
“I’m pretty realistic; my goal was to make it to the trials,” Sonnenfeldt said. “I would go even as far as to say that the Olympic Trials is kind of my Olympics. I just want to go in there and have a positive experience. I’d like to run between 2:17 and 2:18, but it’s my first marathon.”
As race day nears, Sonnenfeldt is make the last few modifications to his training.
“I have my last big workout tomorrow morning; I’ll do another workout on Friday,” Sonnenfeldt said. “After tomorrow it’s kind of just moving the legs, staying sharp and making sure I’m not lethargic. I’ll decrease the mileage a little bit and hopefully get nice and rested before the race.”
In addition to Thompson and Sonnenfeldt, other NC State alumni who qualified for the marathon are Andie Cozzarelli, Kelly Calway and Stephen Furst.
