Olympic Trials Marathon: Meet Donnie Fellows

Early tomorrow morning, the nation's top male marathoners will race through New York's Central Park for the right to represent the USA at the next year's Olympic Games in Beijing. Yesterday, the Star-Tribune featured Team USA Minnesota marathoners Jason Lehmkuhle and Chris Lundstrom in THIS story. Chad Austin just posted THIS preview of the event on his web-site.

For our part, we'll introduce you to Donovan Fellows, a relative newcomer to the Minnesota racing scene. He qualified for the Trials with a 2:19:23 a Chicago last year.

DtB: You're probably the least know the Minnesota OTM qualifiers. Where are you from and what's your running background?

Fellows: I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. I started running when I was pretty young. There was an alternative PE class at my middle school called Outdoor Fitness where we basically spent the last period of the day running or biking. I ran my first half marathon as a part of that class in 7th grade. I ran XC and track all through high school and slowly improved running fairly low mileage. I took sixth in the state meet in Washington my senior year. I then walked on at Purdue University and continued to get a little bit more competitive each year, eventually winning a Big Ten championship in the 10,000. I finished my eligibility at Purdue in 2002 and then ran with the Indiana Invaders through the 2004 Olympic Trials when I ran the 10,000. I moved up to Minnesota in the fall of 2005 and since then I’ve been coaching myself and doing a large portion of my training on my own>

DtB: When did you start marathoning and where did you get your qualifier?

Fellows: I raced my first marathon at Grandma’s in 2006. It was in my second marathon, Chicago also in 2006, that I ran my trials qualifier.

DtB: You've got a career job and a family, how does that work with time you need to put in on the roads?

Fellows: Beyond the top handful of guys in the race who make a living by running I expect almost everyone has their own difficulties in getting in the necessary miles while balancing everything else life has to offer. That’s also partly what makes it worthwhile because not everyone can do it. I think you have to be both very disciplined and a little bit selfish to make time for the training. What works best for me is to get up early and run before anything else might pop up to interfere. Fortunately, my wife Mary also loves to run and she understands what it takes to prepare for an event like the trials. She’s been really supportive of my addiction to the roads over the last couple of months. Everyone at work has also been very accommodating; in September and October I’ve left the office a little early on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so I can get in two a days.

DtB: Is the OTM race a "last hurrah" for you or are you hoping to stay at it until the next Olympic Trials?

Fellows: I hope it’s not the last hurrah, we’ll see. In the last couple of years I had definitely been less focused on any running goals. This year I’ve kind of caught the bug again and I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in since college. The marathon is a new challenge and I’d like to see if I can continue to shave time off of my personal best. If I can continue to improve, balance the family time and not get fired from work then I definitely plan on continuing to compete through 2012.

DtB: What would define a successful race for you on Saturday?

Fellows: I’ve been thinking about success as a PR time regardless of place. I’m sure everybody getting ready to run on Saturday will tell you this about their training but from my workouts there’s no doubt that I’m in better shape now than I was before I ran my qualifier in Chicago. All of my tempo runs have been consistently a good 10 seconds per mile faster than last year so I really think that even though the course may be tougher I should be able to run a PR time, sub 2:19. Most years I think that would get you into the top 25 but I wont worry about what place I’m in until the last 10k. I’m going to try to hit my splits and then beat anybody in my space over the last 10k.