Hehir is now sponsored by Reebok and belongs to the company’s new elite training group based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Reebok Boston Track Club, although he sees his teammates only rarely. The group is led by Chris Fox, who coached Hehir at Syracuse. Hehir and Fox communicate daily by text.
“We’re all amazed by him,” Fox said. “I’ve been around professional runners for the last 30 years. Everyone justHehir’s buildup to his first marathon has been conservative. “We’re not doing a ton of mileage,” Fox said. “We went into this with the idea that we’re going to do it at 80 percent ready, but healthy and feeling good.” His goal is for Hehir to run a couple of minutes faster than the 2:19 he needs to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials.
Based on recent results, however, Hehir may be capable of much more. On November 4, he won the Pittsburgh 10-Miler in an event record time of 46:48. That time, and the 28:08 for 10,000 meters he ran while he lived in Arizona, predict that Hehir may be capable of a marathon in the 2:10 range.But Hehir’s route to the marathon has included fewer training miles than many of his competitors have done before CIM, which is doubling as the USATF marathon championships.
He’s feeling fresh, however. “You do get into a good groove; I’m feeling very good right now,” he said. “I should be able to go out and run with everyone there. The main goal is to place well. I want to make it to the end of the race strong and not blow up and not be another one of the horror stories you see in this event.”
His coach thinks this will be his one and only marathon before the Olympic Trials. As long as he runs the qualifying standard, there’s no reason to do another one. Instead, he’ll train. “We can take a year and do things exactly the way we want to do them,” Fox said.. For Hehir, it’s when he starts his clinical rotation, “working in the hospital under doctors, doing things in the operating room, pediatrics, family medicine,” he said. “That’s when you get the on-the-job training.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.