Sisson puts marathon trials behind, regroups
Through 20 miles of the 26.2-mile U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, Emily Sisson was among the leaders, right where she was expected to be.
Then she dropped off the lead pack with a 5:52 mile, and after 21 miles she dropped out of the race in Atlanta, remembering advice from her coach Ray Treacy to, if necessary, fight again another day.
Sisson thought then, on Feb. 29, that the next major battle would be June 19, the first day of the Olympic Track Trials. Not running most of the final 10K of the marathon presumably would make it easier to transition back to the track, improving her chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in the 10,000-meter.
“Atlanta was just a bit too extreme for me,” Sisson said. “I don’t want to just chalk it up to it was just the course, and that’s what went wrong. I want to know if there something I can do so this doesn’t happen the next time.”
Treacy’s response: “You’re not ever going to be running on a course like that again,” facing three loops with unforgiving hills after each turnaround. It was a bit much to ask of Sisson, who at 28 was running in just her second marathon.
The first went so well that Sisson leapfrogged into the trials favorite tier. She ran 2:23.08 at London in April 2019, first among American women and sixth overall. That performance coincided with her and husband Shane Quinn moving to Arizona, already familiar to Sisson for winter training.
“I started coming every year since 2016 and just kept extending my trips longer and longer,” said Sisson, who capped her college career at Providence with NCAA 5,000 titles (indoor and outdoor) in 2015.
“Training just goes really well here. It’s so much more predictable here because the weather is pretty constant and I don’t have to move training around too much. Spending more time here is better for us.”
Sisson can readily train at altitude in Flagstaff and in Phoenix, sometimes with her friend Molly Huddle, who lives in Providence, R.I., but winters here. Her chiropractor, Dr. John Ball, is close by in Chandler.
Sisson and Quinn bought a house in Phoenix near the Scottsdale line last summer.
It wasn’t as hard for Sisson to mentally regroup from the marathon trials as one might presume, perhaps because the Olympics were formally postponed March 24 alleviating training pressure for the track trials, planned for June 19-28 in Eugene, Ore.
“The (trials) build-up went really well,” she said. “I got aerobically very strong, which was great. That’s a big positive to take away from the whole experience.
“Marathons are so different than any other distance I race. It’s not just about building aerobic. On a course like Atlanta, your body has to physically be able to handle it. My stride and strengths don’t really line up with a course that undulating and more like a cross country course.”
The same will be true at the track trials, now in 2021. Sisson was 10th in the 10,000-meter at the 2016 trials then made World Championships teams in 2017 (ninth) and 2019 (10th).
Huddle, 35, a 28-time U.S. champion, won the 10,000 at the 2019 U.S. Outdoor Championships ahead of Sisson and Northern Arizona Elite teammates Kellyn Taylor and Stephanie Bruce. None of them made the U.S. marathon team for Tokyo and presumably all will be on the starting line in Eugene along with other contenders for three berths (provided all have posted an Olympic qualifying time of 31:25, which Sisson already has).
“I am glad I have more time to get ready for the 10K on the track,” she said. “Coming off a marathon, it’s kind of tricky sometimes getting your legs turning over fast again. But after a poor performance, it’s nice to get back going and racing again so that’s a little hard I can’t do that right now.”