CHICAGO READY FOR FAST TIMES AFTER OPENING IN PRACTICES
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
CHICAGO (Oct. 11) — At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials marathon in Orlando last February, Zach Penning made the most important move of the race, dropping a 4:49 sixth mile and breaking away. He felt confident. Still a young marathoner, he felt free to experiment.
“It was my first trials and I would say the inexperience was showing a little bit,” he said after that race. “I’m really proud of how I competed.”
After a 64:07 halfway split and a 4:44 mile 17 split, Penning ran out of energy before the final two miles. He finished sixth in 2:10:50, and his Olympic dream would have to wait another four years. However, that race showed him that on the right day, he can run a fast marathon. He hopes he can achieve that goal here at Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon. It was here in 2022 that he set his still-standing personal best of 2:09:28, a time he hopes to beat by minutes.
“Personally, I think I’ve improved a lot since then,” Penning told Race Results Weekly here this morning shortly after completing his training. “It didn’t really show up on the results page. That’s really my goal, right? Just improve my personal best and finish as high as I can.”
Penning, 29, has had an unusual year. After recovering from the trials, he undertook an unusual schedule of events. He ran an 8-kilometer team event in Chicago with his Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project teammates, a 5-K road in Boston, a 10,000m run in Britain and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, also in the 10,000m. The goal was to get him out of marathon training, change his muscle usage and allow him to clear his head before putting in the miles he needs to run before Chicago in the fall.
“I feel like every time it’s a little bit harder to get back on the track,” Panning explained. “Here I am in my young marathon career. I think it’s important not to let things get old (and) run faster in that race, still feel uncomfortable. That was kind of the point of the segment.” He continued. “The focus this fall has been on running a fall marathon. But being able to spin those gears a little bit faster this summer was good.”
This summer, Kevin Hanson, who trains Penning with his brother, Keith, was able to see his athlete on a good trajectory as he increased his running. They used a 14-week build-up instead of the usual 12, and Panning responded positively.
“Honestly, the race couldn’t get here fast enough,” Kevin Hanson told Race Results Weekly in the lobby of the athletes’ hotel. He added: “We’ve been doing it so long that I’ve seen him do things that other people haven’t been able to do.”
A month ago, Panning tested her fitness at the Philadelphia Long Distance Half Marathon. It was a “train” race where he wanted to test how he felt at marathon pace, the kind of pace he hopes to run here on Sunday from Orlando.
“The goal was to run 10 miles at race pace and then go the last three if you could,” said Penning, who clocked a personal best of 1:02:48. “That’s kind of what we did. Maybe I was just a little bit fast early on, but at the end of the day I was able to speed it up. We were happy with that.”
Panning also used the Philadelphia race to help train his mind to stick to a race plan when others around him were at different points in their seasons.
“It was another thing. trying to run what I want to run,” Penning explained. “I haven’t run many halves. That PR, just knowing you can run until you’re 63 makes it a little easier to wrap your brain around running 63:30 twice or 64 twice. I think it helps build confidence as well.”
With cool weather in the forecast for Sunday morning, after temperatures soaring into the 80s today, conditions will be good for a power-packed elite field here on Sunday. In fact, keeping his pace down may be his biggest challenge. He is ready for it, he said.
“I think having a team plays a pretty big role,” Penning said. “I really enjoy hanging out with my teammates. Not taking the race lightly, but just being able to enjoy the process of getting here. The result will take care of itself if you focus on what you did to get here.” He added: “It’s like preparing for a school play for months, and then when it’s finally here, that play is the most important part, the most exciting part. But all the rehearsals leading up to that moment are what you remember, not necessarily the performance. I think about it a lot to go to races like this.”
When he’s not running, Penning follows the Major League Baseball playoffs. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he didn’t grow up rooting for Detroit sports teams. But now that he lives in Michigan, he’s settled in with Detroit fans. He’s rooting for the Tigers in the American League Division Series, which ends tomorrow with a fifth and decisive game against the Cleveland Guardians.
“I got to cheer for the Tigers,” Penning said with a smile. “I wasn’t a Tigers fan growing up, but Detroit sports are so crazy. People just invest in it, in these teams. I think they’re just hungry for a playoff atmosphere. When they get a taste of it, it’s nice to see, cool to see the city.”
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At today’s elite athletes press conference, former US marathon record holder Kyra D’Amato revealed that she and her husband Anthony bet on the outcome of the race. Anthony, a recreational runner, will try to stay within 40 minutes of his wife. The pair won a WWE-style championship belt, and the winner of the bet gets the belt.
While D’Amato said her husband had trained well, the 39-year-old liked his chances.
“I think it’s nice that he thinks he’s going to make it in 40 minutes,” he told the media today.
