Heidi Caldwell Races at Olympic Marathon Trials

Heidi racing at the Hartford Marathon last fall.

This past Saturday, a sunny day with temperatures close to freezing and blowing winds, Craftsbury Running Director Heidi Caldwell took part in Olympic Marathon Trials. She ran a blazing fast time of 2:43:23 on the hilly course in Atlanta, Georgia and finished 89th in a field of over 400 competitors. Heidi qualified for Trials by racing the Hartford marathon in a time of 2:42:15, 2 minutes and 45 seconds under the B qualifying standard of 2:45. Heidi trained for Hartford this summer while directing the Craftsbury Running Camps, as well as managing other community running programming, and trained for the Trials this winter while skiing and coaching.

The winner Aliphine Tuliamuk finished in a time of 2:27:33, 8 seconds ahead of Molly Seidel and 1 minute and 29 seconds ahead of Sally Kipyego in a race that saw many favorites struggle and ultimately fall short of Olympic qualification. On the men’s side Galen Rupp had a dominating performance and finished 2:09:20 with a comfortable lead over Jacob Riley and Abdi Abdirahman who finished 2:10:02 and 2:10:03, respectively.