Psychological Neoteny: US Men's Olympic Marathon Trials

INCIDENT:
The US Men's Olympic Marathon Trials were held in New York City on Saturday November 02 2007. Most of the American elite marathoners were there. It was quite a field. The race started at 7:30A near the cathedral and then looped through Central Park several times. It was a very spectator-friendly course. Spectators were able to see the runners about 10 times during the race. And there definitely was a great turn out of spectators including a group of crazy bare chested guys with letters painted on their chests to spell "SELL" (Brian Sell was one of the crowd favorites). Yeah. We were at a road race and there were guys jumping up and down in 40 degree weather with their shirts off as if we were at a football game. It was crazy. But this is the nature of the running community. They are just as passionate about supporting the sport as they are about participating in it.

Brian Sell with fans before the start of the race (Photo credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

It was a great race. There were two main lead packs and the runners changed places often within and between the packs. For such an intense race and distance, it was a nail biter until the end. In this amazing field of runners, emerged a new group of Olympic hopefuls.

2008 US Olympic Marathon Team -- Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell (Photo Credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

It was a day of great triumphs but also of great tragedy. As we walked from the start of the race to about East 79th Street, there was a runner down on the course. We stopped for a second to see what was going on thinking that someone might have sprained an ankle or something... but there were the medics administering CPR. It was not a good sign. We could not see who it was but we did not want to stick around. We were worried but knew that the runner was in good hands. It was only later that we found out that the runner was Ryan Shay (he was the 2003 US Marathon Champion) and that he passed away after he was brought to the hospital. It is a huge loss to the running community. My deepest sympathies to his wife and family.