There’s this guy in England that just started training in 2006 and his goal is to qualify for the Olympics in 2008. A production company is pitching a documentary about it, the YouTube clip is here:
I started marathon training in December, but my goal is Boston, not Beijing. 3:10 vs 2:15.
The thread where I found the video is from CoolRunning.com’s message boards and contains a chatter that mostly amounts to the guy can’t do it, no way, no how.
This ties in to the book I’m reading, The Dip by Seth Godin. The prediction from the book is that Alex Vero here will run into the dip, i.e. get to a point where he’ll want to quit. In essence, the dip is what separates the average runner from Olympians (beyond genetics). I hope he makes it through.