Chat: Kyle O'Brien

Kyle O'Brien, 26, of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project ran 2:15:13 for 16th place at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on October 22. Previouisly, O'Brien had clocked a 2:19:57 for 18th place at the 2006 Boston Marathon and a 2:20:21 for third at the 2004 Detroit Free Press Marathon. O'Brien is from Danville, Illinois and attended Eastern Illinois in Charleston. In 2003, he won the 5000 and 10,000 at the outdoor Ohio Valley Conference Championships and the 3000 and 5000 indoors. He'd done that 3000/5000 double at the OVC Championships in 2002 and the 5000/10,000 outdoors in 2001. O'Brien's other personal bests are 29:36 for 10k, 1:05:01 for the half-marathon, and 49:06 for ten miles. He manages the Hansons Running Shop in Utica, Michigan.

Runner's World Daily: Your Chicago Marathon time seems to be a quantum leap of sorts. We're sure you knew in practice what progress was being made, but there didn't seem to be any other race performance that indicated you were a 2:15 guy.
Kyle O'Brien: Yeah. Chicago was definitely a huge jump for me race wise, and you're absolutely right; a lot of the other performances were way behind that. It's something I've definitely learned throughout the years, that a lot of times, you have to make a few breakthroughs in training before it finally all comes together in a race like that. And that's exactly what happened. I'd put together a few really good training segments and didn't exactly race to where we really thought my potential was. Finally, the day of Chicago, it all kind of came together for me.

RWD: In Chicago, there was a pretty good grouping in that 2:15 range. Did you have the company of Hansons colleagues for the whole race?
KO: Absolutely. The whole (training) segment, there were four of us who were training together to run 2:16. The group didn't stay together the entire time, but one guy who I really ran stride for stride with almost the entire way was Mike Morgan (who was 15th in 2:15:11). We took a lot of turns sharing the lead, and it was a pretty windy day out, so I think we helped each other out a lot in that aspect. It was definitely good having him right there, because we train together every day. He's been the guy through all the easy runs and all the workouts, and it's somebody that you really get comfortable running with.

RWD: Was Chicago a pretty evenly split race for you, and did you maintain the pace you wanted even through the last couple of miles?
KO: It definitely was. It was one of those things were we really didn't go in there planning to run 2:15. We felt our training was geared more towards a 2:16. We were trying to as close to 1:08 as we could the first half. We ended up being a little quick., and went through the first half in 1:07:48, I believe, and then really just kind of picked it up from there, and we were actually able to negative split on that day and came back in the 1:07:20s, and really maintained a solid pace the entire way. The only two miles where we slowed down were the last two miles coming back into the wind. We were running 5:13 or 5:14 down that stretch. I think it was really the same effort (as earlier in the race). I think the only reason we were slowing down on that part was because of the wind. I don't really feel like we were dying that much there.

RWD: Maybe the most amazing statistic, for Americans, about the Chicago Marathon was that 44 guys qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Behind you a little bit, there were an awful lot of guys running 2:19 and 2:20. They might have been too far back for you to notice. But it must have been a good day for running.
KO: It was a great day just because of all the talent that showed up. The conditions definitely were not ideal. The temperature was perfect almost; it was low 40s and didn't really warm up the entire way and that was great for the runners. The things that less than ideal were a light rain early. The pavement was obviously a little wet in places, but the wind was probably the biggest factor. I think it gusted up to 20 mph at some points. That was definitely less than ideal, but obviously by the amount of qualifiers and the times some of the people ran, you were able to run fast out there that day if you got in the right groups. Even besides the Hansons guys, through about 16 miles of that race, we had a group of 13 or 14 guys that were right there together, working together. I know there were groups like that further back (ie, in 2:19 range). The Chicago Marathon did a great job this year trying to promote the Olympic Trials qualifiers and offering the extra bonus money to anybody that ran under the qualifier, and offering American money 25 places deep. Carey Pinkowski and LaSalle Banks just did an amazing job just trying to get all the qualifiers out there, and they did. I mean, 44 guys running under the standard is just unheard of.

RWD: When Chicago offered that money, we wonder if they had any idea they were going to get that many qualifiers.
KO: I would assume that they had hopes, but I don't think that they could ever have planned for that amount. I think it went over a lot better than even they expected it to.

RWD: In your previous two marathons, you'd run just under 2:20 and just over 2:20 before that. You had qualified, but were you getting a little worried that maybe you were a high 2:19 guy and that was going to be it? Or did you always have faith there was going to be something more there?
KO: Honestly, I always had faith. I never try and put a number on it, especially being with the group that I'm in and seeing the guys that I run with every day have success at it, and just the success of the program as a whole. I've always known I was in the right place. It's one of those things. It's not the training that you did last week or last month, it's every segment built on top of each other. And you keep grinding it out, and eventually, it's going to happen for you. And that was kind of the attitude that I took into it (Chicago). I had run right about 2:20 a couple of times, but in both of those marathons, I truly felt that there was something I could have done better during the (training) segment and improved on that time. And then, with Chicago, it all came together. It was really gratifying to see that; just have faith in the coaches and the athletes and the coaches that you're working with and everything will come together.

RWD: Had Keith and Kevin (Hanson) always preached patience and said "this is fine, there will be a breakthrough, you will make progress?"
KO: They definitely do. An interesting story about that was that after my spring season in 2005, I had been here for just about two years and I'd actually had a similar conversation with both of them, that I really hadn't been improving at the rate that I thought I wanted to, and I wasn't sure if they were really happy with my progress. I was kind of toying around with the idea of maybe going somewhere else and starting to go to law school and still doing the training on my own, but I just wasn't sure if they were happy with where I was at in the grand scheme of things (compared with) what they thought I'd do when they brought me up here. And they actually convinced me to stay on for a little bit longer, and they thought even though I hadn't had the races yet, my training was there and it was only going to be a matter of time. That's exactly what I keep saying. It's just faith in the program. And that's what they always say. It's not the guys who come up here for one year and have instant success.... It's all a process, and it's getting stronger over years of consistent training, really.

RWD: You were a favorite quote on your Hansons website bio - "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." It sounds like those are all qualities that go into this Hansons program and your participation in it.
KO: They definitely are. Nothing that we ever do is an accident. It's well thought through. All of our training is always geared towards a certain race, whatever that may be, and it's something that anybody just falls into. We're all up here, we've got a common goal, we're all trying to be the best we can and trying to help American distance running as a whole get up to another level. That's not something that's going to happen by accident, and I think that we're definitely on the right track with a lot of the stuff that our guys are doing.

RWD: Is there anything specifically that was going on in the workouts in the last couple of months that made you think it wasn't just a matter of the accretion of workouts over time, but rather some particular things - long runs, tempo runs, time trials- that made you think a 2:15 marathon was going to be possible?
KO: Honestly, there wasn't anything in particular that really stood out to me. The thing that I had the most confidence in was the guys that I was training with and some of the stuff that I saw them doing, and really gauging myself off of that. I went into that (Chicago) race confident that every one of us was going to do well. When you're out there and see it unfolding right in front of you, how everybody's running, you're in there with the same guys you're training with every day. So I wouldn't say that there was any one workout or anything in particular that made me think a 2:15 was possible, but through the course of all of our runs and all of our workouts, I was very confident that I was going to have a big day. I was very confident that Morgan was going to have a big day, and (Brian) Sell and Clint (Verran). I mean, the list goes on. It seemed like everything was coming together for our group, and that's one of the fun things about being up here. It seems like when we have almost the entire group, really, preparing for one race, that always tends to work out for us.

RWD: You mentioned four of you Hansons guys were running together. One of the others was Mike Morgan. Who were the others? Was Luke Humphrey one of them?
KO: Actually, Luke wasn't. Luke went out a little bit ahead of us. He has hoping to run a little bit faster, around the 2:13 range, I believe. So we didn't end up catching Luke until the 24th mile or so (Humphrey finished 18th in 2:15:22). The people that I had trained with for the entire segment were Mike Morgan, Marty Rosendahl, and Dave Ernsberger. Marty and Dave both ran excellent races themselves, they both ran PRs (2:17:05 and 2:18:56 respectively). And then Chad (Johnson) ended up coming to out group early in the race, too, and he just kind of run in there with us, but originally, he had been training to run a little bit faster (Johnson ran 2:15:03 for 14th place).

RWD: Is Trent Briney still in this Hansons group?
KO: Trent is still in this group. He actually just had Achilles tendon surgery after the Boston Marathon, so it's been a long slow comeback for him, but he's looking better and better as the days go by.

RWD: You went to college at Eastern Illinois. You did very well in the conference, so upon graduation, it must have been a clear decision that it was worthwhile to keep it going as a runner.
KO: Yeah. I had an amazing experience at Eastern Illinois. The group of guys I trained with and my coach, I really couldn't say enough good things about those guys - not only what they taught me about running, but just about being good people and helping me to believe in myself all along the way, throughout the conference races and stuff like that. Obviously, I didn't have the fastest times in college. I wasn't really anything to look at on the national scene, but I had enough success in college to even have some of my teammates success I check this place (the Hansons program) out. I had some contacts with Kevin and Keith while I was in school, just from running against some of the Hansons guys in a couple of meets. We kept up a really good relationship through graduation, and I came up and checked it out my senior year and it definitely seemed like the right fit. I graduated college not really reaching all my goals time wise or anything like that, but knowing that I still had a lot of room for improvement, which I think was a good thing.

RWD: Your marathon personal best seems superior to your bests for other distances. Obviously, you have to worry about the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials a year from now, but is 2007 a year in which you think you'll be focusing on taking down some of the other PRs?
KO: I'm very excited about the year coming up. I definitely think Chicago was a huge step for me, and I can only hope I keep racing on that level and continuing to improve. We're not exactly sure what we're going to do the next couple of segments. We're toying around with a few different ideas. But yeah, I'd definitely like to attack some of those other PRs. Like I said, I'm just really excited with where I'm at right now and how my training's been going. I'm looking forward to going out there and racing again.

RWD: Several of the Hansons runners have gone to the USA Half Marathon in Houston in January. Is that one of the things you're talking about possibly doing?
KO: Yeah, I think we'll going to have a big group at the half marathon in Houston. I think I'm definitely going, and I know several other guys who are interested in running there, so it should be a very fun event.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From Races & Places