By David Rogers. RICHMOND, Va. — Eighteen seconds doesn’t sound like much when you have just won a 13.1 mile, half marathon road race, but to middle distance specialist becoming a marathoner Ryan Ford of Blowing Rock, it makes all the difference in the world — at least for this year.
Ford won the CarMax Richmond Half Marathon on Nov. 11 with a time of 1:03:18, more than two minutes ahead of his ZAP Endurance teammate and No. 2 finisher, Dan Schaeffer (1:05:26). The only problem? He needed to come in at or under 1:03:00 to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon on Feb. 3, in Orlando, Fla.
Schaeffer, explained ZAP Endurance Pete Rea, is a shorter distance race specialist, usually focusing on the mile up to 5,000 and 10,000 meters. On this day, he “paced” his teammate and friend for the first 10 miles before telling Ford, “Go get ’em!” and easing off the pace. Remarkably, he still finished No. 2, just ahead of a trio of other runners completing the course under 1:06. The next athletes to finish were 1:08+, more than five minutes behind Ford and three minutes after Schaffer.
So while Ford and Schaffer might go to Orlando to support their six ZAP Endurance teammates who have qualified, they won’t be competing.
Blowing Rock will still be well represented by three ZAP Endurance men and three ZAP Endurance women. The men include Tyler Pennel, who finished fifth in the 2016 Los Angeles-hosted Olympic Trials; Andrew Colley, who in October’s Chicago Marathon established a new ZAP Endurance club record; and Josh Izewski, who had the previous ZAP club record and in July was the top U.S. finisher in the Gold Coast Marathon, in Australia.
On the women’s side, Tristin Van Ord (set a club record at Chicago, too); Annemarie Tuxbury and Whitney Macon have all qualified for the Orlando marathon trials in February.
