Rory Linkletter is tapered and “ready to fight” at Canadian Olympic Marathon Trials

Rory Linkletter will make his marathon debut at the Canadian Olympic Marathon Trials this Sunday in Toronto, and it looks like he’ll be going for broke. Olympic standard is a daunting 2:11:30, and Linkletter says he has “big expectations that some might think are crazy, but I believe I can achieve.”

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Originally from Calgary, Linkletter grew up in the US, recently graduating from BYU and joining the HOKA Northern Arizona Elite professional training group (aka NAZ Elite). A multi-time Team Canada member, Linkletter, 23, competed most recently at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru, and he was the second Canadian across the line at the Cross-Country World Championships in Denmark last spring.

Linkletter is keeping good company–his training partners include Scott Fauble, the fastest American man at this year’s Boston Marathon, and Stephanie Bruce, the current US half-marathon champion. Back in August, Linkletter told us “In my heart I want to run in the Olympics, and I feel the marathon offers me the best opportunity to do that.”

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Linkletter’s training log shows he’s now in full taper mode, with an easy runs of between eight and 14 miles on each of the last five days, with some drills and strides added on Tuesday, and a 2 x 3-mile workout at 5:02 pace (between 3:05 and 3:10 per kilometre) today.

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Linkletter tells us he’s “feeling rested and ready to fight,” and that he’s “excited to compete and see what I’m capable of Sunday.” He will be racing in the HOKA One One Carbon X shoe.

RELATED: Esselink and Linkletter to run marathon debuts at STWM 2019

Conditions for Sunday look excellent. Environment Canada is calling for a mix of sun and cloud and temperatures between 7 and 15 C. If winds are calm, we could see some very fast times on the course.