Road to Gold Race To Provide Preview of Olympic Trials Marathon Course

By Adam Kopet

The Olympic Trials Marathon in Atlanta is a year a way. To prepare for the race, the Atlanta Track Club is hosting the Road to Gold race Saturday, held on the final eight miles of next year's Olympic Trials race.

Among the athletes set to compete in the course preview race are 32 men and women who have already achieved the Olympic Trials Marathon "A" standard.

The men's race will feature Jared Ward, who finished sixth in the 2016 Olympic marathon and sixth at last year's New York City Marathon. He will be joined by 2018 USATF Marathon Championships winner Brogan Austin, 2018 Boston Marathon third-place finisher Shadrack Biwott and three-time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein.

Ritzenhein has thus far only qualified for the Olympic Trials Marathon with a half marathon time. He won the New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in 1:01:28 earlier this month.

The women's race will feature Amy Cragg, who in addition to placing ninth in the 2016 Olympic marathon, finished third at the 2017 IAAF World Outdoor Championships marathon and the 2018 Tokyo Marathon. She will be joined by 2017 New York City Marathon fifth place finisher Allie Kieffer and future marathoner Emily Sisson.

Cragg withdrew from last year's Chicago Marathon, citing an injury during her build-up. She finished fifth at the USATF Cross Country Championships earlier this month, showing her fitness.

Sisson is another athlete to watch as she prepares for her debut marathon in London. She finished fifth in last month's Houston Half Marathon, running 1:07:30. That is good for second on the American all-time list, only five seconds back from Molly Huddle's American record. Sisson and Huddle are training partners.

The Road to Gold race is set to start at 7 a.m. Saturday. A prize purse of $7,500 will be available for the elite runners. The elite race will be followed by a mass start public race with as many as 2,000 runners competing. A full list of athletes competing who have already hit the "A" standard for the Olympic Trials Marathon is available from the Atlanta Track Club press release.

Update: Emily Sisson has withdrawn from the race.

Update on #RoadToGold: @Em_Sisson will not be racing Saturday. We are wishing her an awesome training cycle as she prepares for the @LondonMarathon

— Atlanta Track Club (@ATLtrackclub) February 28, 2019