Galen Rupp’s announcement that he would jump into the field for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials came as a welcome jolt of excitement in an otherwise uneventful lead up to the marathon.
Rather than discussing who wasn’t running on Saturday in Los Angeles (Ryan Hall and Matt Tegenkamp due to retirement and Abdi Abdirahman due to injury), we had an exciting new entrant to the race and plenty to speculate about.
MORE: Athletes bound for Rio | PHOTOS: Running record-holders, in action
Some, despite it being Rupp’s marathon debut, slotted him right into the top three Olympic qualifying spots.