Camden Catholic’s Kevin McDonnell and Rancocas Valley’s Erika Kemp will race in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials this weekend in Florida.
McDonnell, who’s from Moorestown and now lives in Cherry Hill, ran 2:17.22 in October at the Chicago Marathon to record his qualifier. The qualifying standard was 2:18.00 for a full marathon or 63:00 for a half and the cutoff date was Dec. 5.
The 2:17:22 was a more than 10-minute PR for McDonnell, who had run 2:28.43 in Houston in January 2022.
McDonnell’s time in Chicago was 36 seconds off the South Jersey alumni record of 2:16.46 set at the 1980 Boston Marathon by another Moorestown native, Moorestown High graduate Paul Friedman.
Kemp qualified with a 2:33:57 at the Boston Marathon last April, safely under the 2:38 women’s standard. That was her marathon debut and it broke the all-time South Jersey marathon best of 2:39.12 set by Megan Lacy of Cherokee in Duluth, Minn., in June, 2019.
McDonnell is one of 214 entrants in the men’s race, and Kemp is among 165 runners entered in the women’s race.
USATF makes it virtually impossible to know who’s in the race because USATF’s web site is a complete joke. But LetsRun.com somehow found entry lists and posted them here.
It’s a closely guarded secret but apparently the men’s race is scheduled to start at 10:10 a.m. and the women’s race at 10:20 a.m. The course starts and finishes near Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando.
The top three men and women will race in the Olympic Marathon scheduled for Aug. 10 in Paris.
I couldn’t find a course map anywhere, but there is a virtual course tour on YouTube, which you can watch here.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 