ATLANTA — The goal had come to pass after she had run the 2017 Philadelphia Marathon in a time of 2:50:20.
Needing to shave just five minutes, 20 seconds off her marathon time, Kane alumna and Mt. Jewett native Chelsea Benson decided to begin training with a coach in hopes of qualifying for and running in the Olympic Trials.
After months — and miles — of hard work, Benson was able to live out that goal. The 37-year-old mother of five-year-old twins qualified for the Trials in the California International Marathon, held in Sacramento, in December of 2018, and then last Saturday took part in the Trials in Atlanta.
“It was incredible,” she said of the weekend, which featured the largest women’s field in Trials history. “It felt amazing to be buoyed by that surge of all these women.”
Benson qualified for Atlanta with a time of 2:42:27, which is under the “B” standard for qualifiers, set at 2:45:00. Athletes under this standard tend to be the best of America’s amateur athletes who, like Benson, tend to have full-time jobs that don’t involve running.
The “A” standard for women was set at 2:37:00 this year, and qualifiers under this standard are the ones who are at the Trials with a realistic chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games, such as two-time Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Des Linden or 2016 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Galen Rupp. The top three finishers make the cut.
In most years, the hosting track club — in this year’s case, the Atlanta Track Club — normally only provides the “A” standard athletes with amenities such as free meals, hotels and travel reimbursement. This year, though, the Atlanta Track Club extended that treatment to all qualifiers.
“They really treated us like royalty,” Benson said. “They rolled out the red carpet and treated us like professional athletes, which was amazing. To have dinner in the Atlanta Aquarium and to be surrounded by these elite athletes was really, really cool.”
As for the race itself, things weren’t easy for Benson. The Ithaca, N.Y. resident ran a time of 2:47:05, or a pace of 6:23 per mile, to place 163rd out 450 women that started the race. Of the 450, about 390 ended up finishing.
Benson’s finish was slightly off of her personal goal of placing in the top 100.
“I was off what I had hoped, but at the end (of the race), I just took it mile by mile and tried to enjoy the experience instead of stressing myself about not hitting my splits,” Benson said. “That whole thing went out the window, so it was survive, finish and make the most of what’s left of the race.”
The first of Benson’s issues had to do with her fuel intake. She says she became nauseated anytime she tried to take in energy gels or liquids like sports drinks or water.
“By mile 20, when it got really hard, I was pretty much out of fuel,” she said. “So that made it harder.”
And if running that 26.2 miles without proper fueling weren’t enough of a challenge, the weather and course in Atlanta did Benson no favors, either.
The course itself was undulating and featured plenty of tough climbs, while strong winds posed an even tougher challenge. Wind gusts of up to 19 miles per hour were reported during the race.
In particular, once runners reached about mile 20, the course departed from the immediate downtown area and into more open spaces that featured both higher winds and bigger ascents.
“You’d hit a head wind, and it would stand you straight up, and you’d feel like you’re running into a wall,” Benson said. “So it got really difficult that last six miles just trying to hold it together and getting to the finish. It was a lot.”
Still, though, the course featured plenty of scenery. The athletes did three loops around Atlanta, which featured plenty of time on Peachtree Street and took them by landmarks such as Mercedes-Benz Stadium (home of the Atlanta Falcons) and the Centennial Olympic Park, where the 1996 Olympics were held.
In addition, the runners passed under the Rings and Torch structure from the ‘96 games, and the torch was lit for the first time since those Olympics 24 years ago.
The course also looped, giving Benson a first-hand look at the leaders of the race who were vying for spots in this year’s Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo and plenty of time around fans who came out to watch.
“The fans were really incredible,” she said. “People could stand in one or two spots and see you seven or eight times. So they pretty much lined the streets, and in some places went three or four deep on both sides, so it was like running through a scream tunnel… They were super encouraging.”
Now back to her life in Ithaca, Benson, who works as a public programs coordinator for Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, will take some much-deserved time off from running.
“I won’t run now for 10-12 days, which is nice,” she said.
Will she return to action in marathons any time soon?
“My guess is I’ll do another marathon in the fall, but I feel a little traumatized from this weekend, so I don’t know yet,” she said. “As the weeks go on, it starts to get less painful in memory. I’ll probably convince myself to do another one, but it’ll take a little time.”
