Charles started running to “get in shape” for football in middle school because he was a protege tight end and defensive end in his younger years. However, in 10th grade Charles decided to ditch the helmet and trade it in for some spikes because he was convinced he was going to the Olympics for the mile. However, Charles’s Olympics dream was shot when he realized a sub 5 minute mile wasn’t going to cut it! He continued competitive running anyways and Charles began to see that running in the Olympic trials might be a possibility even when he began marathon running a short 5 years ago.
Charles has had the goal of qualifying for the Olympic trials in the back of his mind for a long time, but just figured it was a goal that if it happened it happened! Charles ran CIM in 2:22:32 last year and absolutely wrecked every muscle in his lower body from trying to hit the Olympic Trials Qualifier solely using his own training. After Charles’s injury from CIM, he was sidelined for almost a four full months and decided that if he had a chance to qualify for the Olympic Trials he should consider getting a coach. So he began training with “The Good Boys” of Denver who are coached by Chris Hammer (an Olympic Triathlete out of Virginia).
Charles began training with the group and getting his rear kicked consistently in workouts back in June of 2019. Fast forward to this past weekend Charles honestly was not feeling like he had the ability to qualify but told himself “[he] was going to go out at Olympic Trials qualifying pace”. Charles began the race and ran in a smog of BO created by 30+ dudes trying to accomplish the same goal as him. After getting a pr in the 15k and half marathon en route, Charles was somehow able to hang on and cross the line in 2:17:56, almost a 5 minute pr. To make matters even better, all of Charles’s Good Boy teammates also qualified that same day! Charles explained that the day and his performance was pretty surreal. Now Charles gets to enjoy his prize of getting to hobble around the classroom with his quads cramping so bad that he almost falls over. Charles is majorly excited to get the recovery process over with and get in shape to do it all over again in Hotlanta on February 29th!
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