Marty Hehir Reebok

(listen to Marty’s full audio below)

“When I see that photo, I think of how wild of a ride my whole experience at the Olympic trials was, particularly in the lead up to it. I was on the bubble, I knew for a couple months out. And ultimately, when we got to when kind of the window for entries was officially closed a couple of weeks out, I didn’t make it. I was a couple of spots outside of the qualifying mark.

So, you know, I was fresh out of -I had just finished at Syracuse University. I didn’t really have many plans. And I knew I was really hoping to make that race. And I didn’t. So I you know, I was bummed and hanging out with my then girlfriend in Philadelphia as she was finishing school. And I remember just we were just hanging out in the field. I’m like a random Wednesday, the Wednesday before the Friday race.

And I get a phone call from a random USATF person.

And they said. “Hey, we all we ended up like letting a few more entries into the field so you can come and run the 10K if you want it.” OK, thanks. And that was literally the phone call and the race was, you know, I’m on the other side of the country in like 48 hours. And then it was just like a whirlwind.

I called my, you know, my my Syracuse coaches. I was like, look, ” I just got this call. Can we, like, set this up? Can we get me out there?”

And, you know, they we worked it out. I was on a flight the next morning out of Portland and I had a teammate from Portland so his dad let me borrow his car. So I like, you know, drove his car down and got to Eugene. Probably it right around dinnertime the night before the race. So, like, the first thing I did, I dumped my stuff in the hotel, got like my my my bed number and then went got some dinner. Got a dinner with a friend.

And then I was exhausted.

I mean, I just literally traveled the entire day for across the country and from about 7:00 p.m. that night. And then the race was, I think, around like 6:00 p.m. the following day. I just like sat. I like sat, slept, rested in my hotel room. I didn’t leave. And then I went and it was hot. It was a hot day.

Gosh, I kind of remember everyone. We started that 10k. Everyone was, you know, really intense and hyped. And, you know, me fresh out of college, I got one last chance to wear my Syracuse uniform, which was really exciting for me. And I was just happy to be there. You know, I was kind of that kid at the time and we started the race. I wasn’t even in great shape. That’s another kind of element, is I was like kind of training.

And then, when I didn’t make it two weeks out, I kinda kind of let off the gas. But then I did a workout two days before, like it was it was a mess. I had zero preparation that I just went out there. I ran the same pace, the whole race and the heat kind of took its toll. And I just found myself passing more and more people and ended up in seventh place. So which brings me to this picture, right?

When I finished the race, I was I was pumped. I don’t think anyone really wanted to talk to me because, you know, I still got 7th. Still not really. I wasn’t close to making the spot. I didn’t have quite the big time. But then I think, you know, I kind of nervous owns a hey smile for a picture and I like whip myself back round like big smile and, you know, boom. The rest is history.

I had friends who had booked tickets to go and watch the trials before assuming they had, you know, thought I was going to be in there. So I was bummed at first that they were you know, they were going and I wasn’t. Then all of a sudden I was there. So then we spent the rest of the week watching the races and, you know, just living the dream, being huge track nerds. So, gosh, yeah, it was a really cool time.

I also got to hang out with with the NAZ team. I was kind of finding my way and into the professional world. So it was a really special, special week for me. And I think this picture kind of captures it really well.”