Interview: Trent Briney

by Parker Morse

Who is Trent Briney? The fourth-place finisher in the Olympic Trials marathon had so few top results before the race that he had never been interviewed at a press conference before. Qualified with a 2:21:10 in Chicago, Briney's previous best result at a national level was a 29:14 10,000m at the NCAA Division II nationals in 2001, which earned him second place.

A relatively unimpressive high school runner at Manitou Springs High School in Manitou Springs, Colorado, his 4:49 high school mile PR carries the note "Late bloomer" on his Hansons-Brooks Distance Project bio. Running for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Briney became that school's first-ever All-American in any sport, winning four certificates (two for the outdoor 10K, one for the indoor 5K, and one in cross country.) He joined Hansons after graduating in 2001, and worked through a bumpy few years with the program, posting places in the teens and twenties at several national races before making his marathon debut at the 2003 Chicago Marathon. A new half-marathon PR of 1:05:05 at the Halliburton Half-Marathon in Houston three weeks before showed Briney in good shape, but still didn't show his true conditioning.

At the Olympic Trials, Briney remained anonymous until Alan Culpepper set out in pursuit of Briney's teammate Brian Sell, carrying Meb Keflezighi and Dan Browne along with him. The 25-year-old Briney covered the move, leading spectators to peer at his bib number, check their entry lists, and ask the question nobody had an answer for: Who...? In his first all-out marathon, Briney ran 2:12:35 to finish fourth in the Olympic Marathon Trials, a surprise to everyone but his coaches and teammates. Briney's second half, run in 1:05:28, was less than half a minute slower than his half-marathon PR.

Q: Usually the guy who's fourth is kicking himself and saying he should've been on the team. But you just ran, what, a nine-minute PR?
TB: Yeah. At first I was just elated. How can you not be, you know? To run 2:12 in this day and age? I'm 25 years old, I've got years ahead of me if I want. I'm very excited about that. But on my short warm-down, I was certainly shaking my fist a little bit, 'My God, I wish I had just a little bit more confidence,' to chase, and to believe in myself, like every runner needs when the hurt is the worst. People were telling me, 'Dan's hurting, he's holding his hamstring,' and I'm thinking, 'My God, I hurt.'

Q: When did you start hurting?
TB: There was hurt throughout. Early on in the race, the hurt wasn't very much. It was like, 'OK, I'm a little fast here, for my comfort zone.' But then I would feel better in the next mile, and I would decide to keep hanging in the pack, be smart, run with the pack, run with my teammates.

Q: What was it like when the pack thinned out?
TB: I didn't necessarily know what I should do there. I didn't think about it that much. I just thought, well, people have been falling off every time [the pace picked up] and I don't want to fall off. So I went with those guys. Then the thought was crossing my head, as it had for many miles, since Brian was out on his own, if I'm feeling OK, do I push? Or do I try to break these guys? And then I thought, that's my teammate up there. So you balance between your teammate and your own goals. And I think the balance worked very well for me today.

Q: Do you feel like you could have forced the pace anywhere?
TB: At some point I felt like, maybe I should have. I don't think it would have changed the race outcome. If I would have pushed, it might have hurt my race. It was more like, stay relaxed, stay relaxed. That's what the marathon's about. Stay relaxed and be efficient. Things just came together for me. They've been going very well for the last three months, since Chicago last year, in October. That was my first marathon, in Chicago.

Q: How did the Trials effort evolve from there?
TB: That was a time trial, to get a qualifier. 2:21:10. Then I ran a 1:05 half-marathon in Houston, and I was talking through the race. I was pretty happy about that. Based on that we said, let's put me with Clint and Brian in the Trials, and I'll hang out in the back of the pack. We didn't really know where my fitness level was, so we decided to just go in and see what happens. That was as much of a race plan as I had, and I was a little scared of that race plan. But I guess it worked out pretty well.

Q: What did you think of having Brian so far out in front for so long?
TB: I think Brian's a very good example [of what we need to be doing]. As Americans, on the world scene, that's probably what we need. To go out there and test ourselves. I was so proud to have Brian as a teammate.

Q: You're still discovering the marathon at this point. But you even resisted getting in to the marathon, and you even thought about leaving the Hansons. How do you feel about it now?
TB: A month and a half ago I had that question, of how I was going to leave Hansons. What would be the decision-making process. The last month and a half or so has gone so well, I forgot about that question. It'll still be in my head, it'll still be a question. I love the 10K, college teaches you to love the 10K, and I think I still love it. I'll have to let this race sit on me for a couple of days, maybe weeks, and just see where to go from here.

Q: We think you ran, today, the fastest-ever Olympic Trials marathon that doesn't make the team. How does that sit with you? [Note: Upon further research, it appears that Briney's time was the third-fastest non qualifier, behind Dave Gordon (4th, 2:11:59 in 1984) and Dean Matthews (5th, 2:12:25 in 1984).]
TB: I'll take it. It's good training and good teammates, and obviously good coaching. Without that, nothing could be possible.

Q: A 1:05 half-marathon doesn't exactly predict a 2:12 marathon.
TB: No, it doesn't predict 2:12, certainly. It was a time trial for the Trials. We didn't want to hurt ourselves by having an unbelievable race three weeks before the Trials; we would rather have the unbelievable one here. I built confidence with that race.

Q: Did you make any adjustments to your training based on that half-marathon?
TB: They only moved me up to the faster training group maybe a month ago. I just looked at it as, 'Hey, I'm getting a little more intensity in the taper phase.' Which is, in a lot of programs, what you want to do; you want to get more intense in that taper phase. I'd say that was a good thing.

Q: Is the Hansons' program any different from what you were running in college?
TB: Certainly. I averaged 75 a week in college because it's hard to get out the door alone, even though I had teammates coming to run with me sometimes. Here it's not hard to get out the door; we're running over 100 miles a week very easily, all the guys on the team. We don't run as many hills as we did in college, but we train really hard.

Q: Not quite as many hills in Michigan as there were in Colorado.
TB: Not the same type of hills, no.

Q: What's the path you followed from high school running to Hansons?
TB: That's one thing Brian and I have in common. At altitude, in Colorado, I was a 4:48/10:20 track runner, and a 16:58 5K runner. In college I put my mile PR down to 4:27, 5K about 14 minutes, and 10K to 29:14. Knowing that the Olympic Trials were a 29-flat standard at that time, that's why I continued my running after college. Even in high school, I didn't really believe that I could run in college. I got an opportunity to run, and then it was just one goal after another, just keep collecting the goals. And it's fun to get another goal.

Q: What kind of places were you getting with those times?
TB: My best finish was a second in the 10K on the track my senior year. I ran 29:14 at nationals. I had an eleventh-place finish at Nationals in cross, and then another fourth in the outdoor 10K (junior year) and an eighth in the indoor 5K.

Q: Was it a case of you not being able to stay in the Hansons' program if you didn't run the marathon?
TB: At least in part, that's true. They said they would like to train me for the marathon. We moved on from there.

Q: Why did they think you were going to be a marathoner?
TB: All the guys in our program have the talent to make the Olympic Trials. At that point it was showing that maybe the 10K wasn't going to happen in my case. So they said to me, 'We want you to run in the Olympic Trials. The marathon is probably an easier standard, so if you want the Olympic Trials experience, we want to train you for the marathon.'

Q: Was there any question in your mind about making that transition?
TB: I didn't want to give up on the 10K. We learned never to give up on a goal, and my goal was to make it in the 10K. I didn't want somebody changing my goals. But it's worked out.

Q: Do you have a qualifier to run in Sacramento?
TB: I don't. I've run two 10Ks in the last two years. I've been hurt, I've been sick, and I've been over thirty minutes. Nowhere near where I expect myself to be.

Q: Have they said anything about the coming season? What if you go to Mt. SAC and run a low-28-minute 10K?
TB: No. There will be a discussion about that at some point. But that's for another day.

Q: What's the first time you realized you would be a legitimate post-collegiate professional distance runner?
TB: I ran 29:13 at Stanford in 2001, and I knew I would have the opportunity to run at the U.S. Championships if I got any better. That made me think I should continue. It was two and a half years to the Olympic Trials in the 10K. I improved a minute and a half in that year. I figured if I kept at it, I could improve another fifteen seconds and make the Trials.

Q: What prompted you to go with Hansons?
TB: Training alone versus training with a team, to start with. Then, the fact that there's got to be something unique going on with Hansons. Not many people are willing to put up their own money to help support others' ambitions and goals. That meant so much to me, that they were that type of people, that I believed that was the place for me.

(Interview conducted February 7, 2004, and posted February 9, 2004.)