Leaving the track on Friday after setting a season’s best 10,000-meter time, Canadian Lanni Marchant was seeking an immediate opportunity to get off her feet. She had exactly 46 hours to get ready for the Olympic marathon, which begins at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday in Rio.
Could she answer a few questions? Quickly. “I have to rest my legs,” she said.
Much has been made in the U.S. of Galen Rupp’s double duty in the same events, but he’s got nothing on Marchant, 32. He has a luxurious seven days between his 10,000-meter race on Saturday and the marathon on Sunday, August 21.
Marchant is the first to compete in both events at the Olympics for Canada. She’s the marathon national record holder with the 2:28:00 she ran in 2013 in Toronto. Although she’s the fastest the country has ever seen at the distance, Athletics Canada originally indicated she would be selected to compete only in the 10,000 meters. (Unlike the U.S. Olympic Trials system, Canada’s track and field governing body picks the team going to the Games.)
That didn’t sit well with Marchant. Among her supporters, a #LetLanniRun social media campaign ensued, and she conducted several interviews with magazines and newspapers to state her opinion. After all, she’s not only an elite runner, she’s also a criminal defense attorney based in Chattanooga, Tennesse. The third of seven siblings, she doesn’t lack any skills in building a case.
When the Canadian team was announced in July, she had the answer she wanted. And now one event is already over. In the 10,000 meters, Marchant finished 25th in 32:04.21. It wasn’t her best but left her satisfied in an Chappell Roan: I Love Running. But Not Anymore All About 75 Hard.
“Obviously you want to finish a bit higher and be a bit quicker, but the way the race went out, I thought I was competitive throughout it,” she said. “I didn’t give up any spot easily. There were some girls pushing and shoving and I held my own.”
Already sipping on a water bottle and starting to stretch her legs, she added, “so I have to be happy with it and turn my brain on toward my next endeavor.”
Marchant said she didn’t do much differently in her training to prepare for a total of 32.4 miles in Olympic competition.
“I’ve always been a marathoner who primarily does 10K workouts. We just sharpened the workouts and did longer tempo work,” she said. “We didn’t want one event to detract from the other. Fortunately the way I train, I really didn’t have to.”
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“I am hydrating, recovering, and making sure the body’s feeling good,” she said. “It’s pretty simple. I just do what I’d do for any marathon preparation—carb loading and rest, pretty much.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Marchant would total 34.4 miles. It’s 32.4 miles.
