The three runners had their choice of several fall marathons this year; all three chose Marine Corps, partly to reward Brooks, a major sponsor of the race.
"Just having any of the Hansons here this year has already enhanced our presence in the race," said Jesse Williams, a Brooks marketing specialist and the company's liaison to Hansons. "Every time they descend upon a city, it totally does so much for us -- they leave that city and everybody remembers them."
Carl Rundell, Bob Busquaert and Terry Shea, from left, are members of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, aimed at rejuvenating American distance running.
(John F. Martin For The Washington Post)
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_____A Field of Champions_____
Defending champion Peter Sherry of Great Falls highlights one of the deepest Marine Corps Marathon men's fields in recent years. In addition to three Michigan-based professionals -- Carl Rundell, Terry Shea and Bob Busquaert -- the men's field is expected to include two former champions: 2002 winner Christopher Juarez of San Antonio and 1999 champion Mark Croasdale, a Royal Marine based in Lancaster, England.
Other potential threats include Retta Feyissa of the Bronx, an Ethiopian native who ran with Juarez until the 20th mile in 2002; and Chris Farley and Craig Vanderoef, college teammates at Virginia who plan to work together tomorrow. Sherry, meantime, will attempt to become the first back-to-back champion since Jim Hage in 1988-89.
On the women's side, no one seems likely to approach Heather Hanscom's blazing time of 2 hours 37 minutes 59 seconds from last year. Arlington's Mary Kate Bailey, a 1998 Naval Academy graduate who won last month's Annapolis Ten Mile Run, ran last year's marathon six weeks after giving birth and figures to be one of the first women finishers tomorrow.
She could be challenged by fellow Marine Jenny Ledford of Pensacola, Fla. and two runners sponsored by Brooks: Connie Buckwalter of Pennsylvania and Machelle Cochran of San Antonio.
-- Dan Steinberg
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| _____ Marine Corps Marathon _____
• Retta Feyissa wins the Marine Corps Marathon in 2:25:35.
• Mary Kate Bailey becomes the first active duty Marine to win the women's race since 1979.
• Marines help organize the race.
• Some marathoners run in memory of the fallen.
_____ Top 10 Men _____
1. Retta Feyissa, Bronx, N.Y., 2 hours, 25 minutes, 35 seconds.
2. Terrance Shea, Rochester, Mich., 2:25:57.
3. Chris Juarez, San Antonio, 2:26:03.
4. Jose Miranda, Mexico, 2:26:26.
5. Carl Rundell, Birmingham, Mich., 2:26:48.
6. Benjamin Palafox, Mexico, 2:30:36.
7. Paul Rades, Silver Spring, 2:31:18.
8. Mark Croadale, United Kingdom, 2:32:54.
9. Chris Farley, Arlington, 2:33:50.
10. Mark Goodridge, United Kingdom, 2:34:31. _____ Top 10 Women _____
1. Mary Kate Bailey, Long Island, N.Y., 2:48:31.
2. Kimberly Fagen, San Diego, 2:51:17.
3. Suzanne Clemmer, Gastonia, N.C., 2:59:11.
4. Eleanor Stewart-Garbrech, Jacksonville, Fla., 3:05:47.
5. Jill Metzger, APO AE, 3:06:26.
6. Sage Stefiuk, Fayetteville, N.C., 3:06:36.
7. Kirsten Ward, Arlington, 3:07:25.
8. Amanda Rasmussen, Colorado Springs, Colo., 3:08:37.
9. Connie Buckwalter, Lititz, Pa., 3:08:46.
10. Kelly Jaske, Washington, 3:08:56.
_____ On Our Site _____
• Photos
• Course map
_____ Live Online _____
• MCM's Rick Nealis took questions Thursday. Read the transcript.
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But none of the three Hansons runners who has come to Washington is exactly a typical team member.
None, for example, has met the group's "Tier One" standards that qualify runners for housing and health insurance, and thus they each live outside the group houses, supporting themselves while receiving the other perks.
Having already attained and then left full-time employment puts them in a slightly different position from many of the younger Hansons runners, who "haven't really had that chill-down period yet, where they have to work a job 40 hours a week," as Busquaert puts it.
The 30-year old Shea, who spent two and a half years in Washington after graduating from Bucknell, shed his biotech career, taking a sizable pay cut to work part time as a laboratory technician for a company that makes metal fasteners and bolts for auto factories.
Busquaert, 29, continues to substitute teach several days a week, taking off a week or two for each marathon he runs.
Rundell, at 36 the program's senior member by six years, had perhaps the strangest trip to the Rochester area. After graduating from Vanderbilt, where he walked on to the track team, he became a consultant for Ernst & Young. But after helping found a consulting firm, several Internet busts landed Rundell in debt, and he moved home to Michigan and used running to reassemble his life. Rundell went to a Hansons store for one of the program's community runs -- which attract up to 70 or 80 recreational runners -- hanging on during the run because he didn't know exactly how to get back to his car. He soon became an honorary member of the group while also working fulltime as a consultant for auto manufacturers. Before he joined the group he was a 2:30 marathoner; last year, at the age of 35, he broke 2:20, a massive improvement for a runner in his mid-30s.
Such dramatic gains, the Hansons say, partly explain why they continue to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a batch of mostly unknown runners, although the brothers' ultimate goal is to send athletes to the Olympics.
Shea, Rundell and Busquaert have shared a training schedule, and will likely work together at the front of tomorrow's race.
But each said that winning marathons is almost less important than proving to the Hansons and themselves that they still have more potential, more minutes to shave, more chances to validate their commitment to running.
"You're putting your life on hold to pursue a dream that you've had since high school -- to run to the best of your ability and see what you could do," Busquaert said. "That's what I'll get out of this. I'll know I gave it a shot, devoted a fraction of my life to finding out what I could do."
