Dan Huling Nike Bowerman Track Club

(listen to Dan’s full audio below)

This looks like the picture of someone that knows he’s never gonna be an Olympian.

I look a little confused, like, how did I get here? I am thirty two years old here. This is my third Olympic trials. My first one was 2008. So I guess I must’ve been 24 or something like that. That was one year where I had not run the year before. So I was like two years out of college and not run the year before due to foot surgery.

And so I remember not making that team and I think I hope to make that team, but I didn’t really believe that I could in some ways. So leaving that one, I remember being distinctly in the warm up area afterwards and going, oh, I got to wait four years now. That’s such a long time. And I just kind of moving on very, very quickly from there, basically. Yeah. The next three years did really well, you know, set PB’s, ran fast. And 2012 was I think, the one I was supposed to make right?

You know, you’re 28. You’d been top three the three years prior to that, you know, national champion at one point. And that was one where I don’t know what happened. I mean it was probably the pressure of the moment that I didn’t handle well. Training wasn’t going well for a couple weeks prior to that. But I remember being in a complete fog after that in the mixed zone, not even really knowing what happened and just being really emotional like hours, days later.

I mean, that one really stuck with me for a while. And at that time I was like, okay, well, I think there’s a chance that I may never make an Olympic team. And then kind of moved out to Oregon after that kind of process, that whole experience, and was like, okay, you just got to get back to business and joined Bowerman had another great three years of high level running, had the best training partners in the country. One of the best in the world.

And yeah, and then this happens.

I kind of half expected this result.

I think I had gotten a little bit of an injury, so I was able to run, but I kind of reinjured what I did in 2007. But coming off, you know, fifth in the world the year before, you know, I still hopes that this is gonna be my year. It was my kind of penance for waiting 8/9 years of running.

And, yeah, it just didn’t happen. And that looks like the man is just kind of realizing it. And we texted a little bit.

That’s the look that knows that running is in his future. Which every single person that you took a picture of there, they’re gonna go through that at one point they’re going to have to identify someone other than a runner.

I’ve had a great time doing it and wouldn’t change any of those experiences for the world.

It’s some of my fondest memories.