BOULDER — When Joe Klecker steps to the starting line July 30 for the Olympic 10,000-meter run, he won't be thinking about the fact that Tokyo Olympic Stadium will be nearly empty.
Fans won't make him faster.
What will be on the former University of Colorado star's mind is that he will be ready to run in the most prestigious 10K in the world — and he earned his way into the race.
"One thing that I've looked at is that being an Olympian has a special label attached to it," Klecker said recently after a training run in Boulder.