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"I'm a marathoner at heart. I feel like I've been ready for it for a long time but didn't want to jump into it too soon," he says. "It feels like the right time."

The goal isn't outrageous for a young athlete who posted a 1:01:47 at the 2014 U.S. half marathon championships in Houston in January. En route to that finish, he also set PRs at 15K, 10 miles and 20K. It capped a fall during which his performances finally started meeting his expectations.

Llano was an All-American cross country runner at the University of Richmond. After graduation in 2011, he joined Team USA Minnesota for a year. When he realized that although he enjoyed the support he was receiving, the training philosophy didn't match his needs, he relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona, in July 2012.

"When I moved out here, I didn't have any plan beyond just trying to focus on running," he says. "It's something that I loved to do, so I figured I'd make it work, whatever it takes." He coached himself until he teamed up with Ben Rosario, head coach of Northern Arizona Elite, in July 2013.

"I saw someone who was serious about this sport," Rosario says about Llano. "Here's this kid who went to Richmond. He's very smart and could be doing whatever he wanted, and he moved out to Flagstaff on his own with no coach and no team because he thought this was the best place to train."

In 2013, Llano finished seventh at the USA 20K Championships (1:01:39) and the .US National Road Racing Championships (12K in 34:49). His breakout race was the half marathon in Houston, where he placed fifth and earned a spot on the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships team. To Llano, it signified that he was now a "legitimate elite runner."

"It has given me confidence moving forward that I could really be a contender at the [Olympic marathon] trials in 2016," he says. He wasn't as happy with his world half marathon performance (35th, 1:02:24), but the experience of running on a global stage was valuable. He learned how to deal with intimidation and a higher emotional charge than he'd ever experienced.

The big difference in his training since he teamed up with Rosario is that they've added more quality to his workouts. He's been logging more than 120 miles a week since college, but he describes a lot of those as junk miles. So instead of just running 15 miles, he'll warm up for 3 miles and then do 15 miles of steady state at 5:10 per mile, which is just a tad slower than race pace, followed by a 3-mile cool-down. He runs on a nine-day cycle so that he has time to recover between workouts done at altitude.

Llano also keeps a blog, and in December, he came out as a gay athlete. That post received a lot more attention than he expected, and he describes the feedback he received as overwhelmingly positive. "I just wanted to live more openly and honestly with myself," he says. "In other sports, you've seen athletes coming out, and we didn't have anything in running. It's a good chance to start the discussion. I want to be a role model and try to use my running for something other than myself."

The marathon has been on Llano's mind since he graduated from college, but he wanted to make sure his body could handle the training first. A sub-2:10 marathon is the goal this year (he wouldn't reveal which race at press time), and racing at the 2016 Olympic marathon trials is next on his list.

"Matt's fit, and he'll be in his absolute physical prime in 2016," Rosario says. "To me, it makes sense to get him ready to run the marathon, because that's going to be his best chance to make the team by far."

"[RUNNING] IS SOMETHING THAT I LOVED TO DO, SO I FIGURED I'D MAKE IT WORK, WHATEVER IT TAKES."