Jordan Daniel Qualifies for U.S. Olympic Marathon Time Trials

Jordan Daniel has a knack for setting goals and accomplishing them pretty quickly.

After his performance in the New York City Marathon last November, in which he placed 25th overall, Daniel, a 2013 Westhampton Beach High School graduate, stated that his skyrocketing success in competitive running — which only spans five years, not relatively long for runners — had fueled real aspirations for qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Daniel continued to pile up victories this year — including winning the 50th annual Long Island Marathon in the second fastest time ever — but he was still a few minutes behind the 2:18:00 threshold needed to qualify. With the qualifier coming up in February, Daniel knew his chances were waning.

So, on October 14, Daniel took a trip upstate to Rockland Lake State Park to partake in Bakline’s McKirdy Micro Marathon, “a blazing fast, certified course to run your fastest marathon or 10K,” as stated on its website, mckirdytrained.com. The McKirdy Micro Marathon is basically a closed course and is meant for the “on the cusp” runner specifically looking to run the OTQ standard or faster. But in order to be eligible for entry, runners much have achieve a time of 2:25 or better at previous marathons, which Daniel had easily.

The race is basically set up to help runners achieve their fastest time with bottle support for all participants, a full course tangent line where if you stay on the line you run exactly 26.2 miles and dedicated pacers. There is also a shared prize purse evenly split among all who make the standard, including international athletes who are also there trying to qualify for their own county’s time trials.

Needless to say, Daniel achieved yet another goal, qualifying for the Olympic Trials after crossing the McKirdy finish line in 2:17.10, a 5:14 mile pace and a personal best by nearly three minutes. Not that placement was all that important that day, but Daniel finished 24th out of 148 runners, and he was one of 35 who ran under the 2:18:00 threshold.

“It’s a marathon, it’s a long race, so I tried to be patient,” Daniel explained. “Nine laps in, I wasn’t trying to get too far ahead myself, I was just trying to shut my mind off a bit, tuck inside the pacers that were there, relax and let the people in the front do all of the work. I was pretty comfortable between laps five and six, but then around seven I became a bit doubtful and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do this.

“Then, one of my friends came up from behind me and spurred me on,” he continued. “He had dropped back earlier and came back and really led the charge the last three laps. But I still had a lot of that doubt or panic, or not having that awareness of the times because I didn’t check my watch until the seventh lap, where I realized I’m a minute head of my pace.

“After that, I realized I had a good shot, although it’s not completely in the bag,” he added. “Going into my last lap, I was just thinking hold on for half the lap, I’ve got a good chance at doing this, and then the last half give it everything I’ve got. The last 800 kilometers or so, I kind of knew I was going to finish as hard as I could. When I saw the time I was in complete disbelief. It was surreal.”

A mental performance coach, studying to be a psychologist at LIU-Post in Brookville, Daniel said he’ll usually take a little time off after a marathon and ease his way back into training. But with the Time Trials coming up relatively quickly on February 3 in Orlando, Florida, Daniel said the training for it has basically already begun.

“It’s another marathon training block for me. It’s not going to be as long. Typically they’re about 19 weeks, whereas this one will probably be 13 to 14 weeks,” he explained. “But what I think will be new for me is that it’ll all be in the wintertime when I typically take some time off and recoup after a hard year, so this is an exciting challenge. I’ll be trying to integrate everything in the dead of winter.”

Only time will tell if Daniel will accomplish his next goal of reaching the Olympics. But if history has taught us anything it’s that it wouldn’t be surprising if he were to make it. Not bad for someone who on his 23rd birthday, December 30, 2017, just decided to go out for a long run just for the fun of it.

“It’s pretty wild. I think in just under six years I started running more competitively and it’s pretty cool to see how serious things have progressed since then,” he said. “To be honest, I’m just really thankful for the process of training and racing. I am still very, very, very new at it. I wouldn’t consider myself a veteran by any stretch of the imagination, so that’s why I like to keep an open mind for whatever comes my way.

“I like to run different races,” he added. “I like to try different training styles and really enjoying the process that comes along with that. And I’m thankful for all the people that support me. In July, I got married to my wife, Crista, and she’s really been there since day one. Local people like Clint [Greenbaum], who I met on a cold day run and he was on his ElliptiGO and we just struck up a conversation and he’s been a big fan ever since. I’ve just had huge support in my life, not too mention my parents too. I really try not to take those things for granted because they’re special.”