Andy Weaver Qualifies for Olympic Trials

Andy gets to run a marathon next month (photo: Emily Gispert)

Jacksonville, FL - Sunday's Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon was designed with one purpose in mind: get as many American men and women qualified for next month's Olympic Trials as possible. Baltimore's Andy Weaver was among the competitors that felt he had a chance to run the requisite sub 1:05:00 to get there. Coming into the race, Andy had run a 1:05:59 back in October at the Philly Distance Run, and has a half marathon personal best around 1:05:40 - so it was going to demand a huge effort from him to run this lofty goal.

One hour, four minutes and twenty-six seconds after he started, he crossed the line, leaving a friendly cushion between him and 1:05. He placed 10th overall, which is almost as amazing as the time, considering the depth of the field. In all, 27 men and 14 women made the Trials cut. It must have been an awesome sight to see so many runners coming down the finishing stretch, one after one, qualifying for LA.

Full Results

With this result, Andy demolished his own personal best and established a new team record, that I don't see getting taken out for quite some time (unless he does it himself).

He also gets to run a marathon next month now, joining Chrissie Ramsey as two team members who will be running the US Marathon Olympic Trials, held in Los Angeles on February 13th.

Naturally, Andy earned the first Purple Drink Athlete of the Week for 2016.