CIM 2025: Back to the OTQ Factory

CIM 2025

Back to the OTQ Factory...

and this time, there's a US Marathon Championship Title on the line.

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Words Jeff Merrill

Right about now, bottles are getting packed into rolling bags along with the thinnest, softest, stretchiest (in the right places) high tech racing apparel. Multiple outfits, high stockings and calf-length, layers of warm-up gear, and shoes, stacked as high as the world order of the sport will allow. Bags are being packed around the country for CIM this weekend. Heck, most bags are already packed and lists checked and crossed off with all kinds of comforting items ready to hit the overhead compartment on a flight from anywhere USA to SMF.

Sunday will be the 42nd running of the California International Marathon. The race will once again host the USATF Marathon Championships, as it has in 2017, 2018, and 2022.

Race organizers have hit us with the unsurprising detail that there are more athletes registered at sub 2:20 on the men’s side and sub 2:40 on the women’s side than ever before in the race’s history.

Over the last 2 Olympic cycles, the depth has been the leading story of the race. More athletes have qualified for the Olympic Trials at CIM than in New York, Boston, and Chicago combined. In an era marked by sonic level times at the front of the World Majors, CIM has etched its reputation with overall quantity. It, more than any other race in the United States showcases the cross section of marathoners that have fully been bit by the running boom. Their lives revolve around the activity, not to say that they aren’t fulfilled with other exploits, but those essentially take place after the morning training session is completed.

‘Sub elites’ is what they are called by industry insiders, a back-handed sounding term given for lack of a better one to those just behind runners receiving sponsorship contracts. These runners are in the top 1/2% of upright ambulatory creatures on the planet. They are the ones who win your local races, give advice at your hometown running stores, coach your kid’s high school team, recline in sweaty tights at the corner coffee shop and loiter behind open car trunks drinking high calorie, salty liquids out of plastic containers next to an arcing suburban road that makes a perfect 4 mile loop.

They, as much as the headliners of the field at CIM are the stars of the show, because nowhere else in the United States can you see packs of 200 strong rolling on dreams and calories at 5:10 and 5:58 per mile.

In the 2024 window, there were 112 athletes who qualified for the Olympic Trials in Sacramento. In the 3 US World Majors combined, there were 64. In the previous window, before the qualifying times were sliced, the numbers were twice as big, but the ratio was the same, 2:1 basically.

This year, the 2028 OTQ window is open. The men’s qualifying time has been cut from 2:17 in the last go-round to 2:16, and the women’s, having been reduced by 5 minutes in the last cycle has stayed at 2:37- an exciting target to keep an eye on, as United States women, first hit with shock by the daunting time have now had 4 years to wrap their minds around it. It is not the same number it once was. There will be dozens under it.

40 women entered in this year’s race have already run under 2:37

This is 22 more women entered than 2 years ago. Headlined by 2017 race winner Sara Hall, this group showcases 3 athletes with bests under 2:30- Hall with a best of 2:20, Biruktayit Degefa at 2:21, and Anne Marie Blaney, who has run 2:29. Sara Hall will also have a chance to break Steph Bruce's Master's Course Record set last year when Bruce placed third in 2:28:41- a time that would have won CIM in all but 5 years of the race's 41 year history.

60 women entered have personal best under 2:40

This is 10 more women under this mark than at CIM 2 years ago.

And don’t forget the athletes making their debut. CIM is famous for making names. Sara Vaughn debuted here in 2021, winning the women’s race and breaking the course record in 2:26:53. The course record has been broken twice since then, in 2022 by Paige Stoner, chopping it down to 2:26:02, and then last year, by Calli Hauger Thackery, who cut it down to 2:24:28 in her victory. Jackie Gaughan ran under the old record last year as well (2:24:40) as even though the depth was not as great as in the historic 2022 year, the top 10’s on both the women’s and men’s sides were the fastest they’d ever been (2024’s race took place before the 2028 Olympic Trials qualifying window was open).

After 32 years of attempts, Jerry Lawson’s historic course record of 2:10:27 was smashed last year by Tsegay Weldlibanos, who scorched the course from Folsom to the capitol in 2:07:35. Local California hero, CJ Albertson dipped under Lawson’s record as well, running 2:10:06.

Futsum Zienasellassie is back this year as the top overall seed in the field. Z took the victory and the USA Marathon Championships crown in 2022, blasting the final 10k at 4:50 pace to clock 2:11:01. Navigating the early rolling hills and summoning the strength to hammer the final flat 10k through the downtown streets has been the tried and true recipe for success on the course.

5 men entered under 2:11

Despite the wild depth, 2:11 has been a difficult barrier to crack. 4 men have ever done it, with Weldlibanos and Albertson accounting for half that number last year. Zienasellassie brings a 2:09:40 best to the field, Nico Montanez enters with a 2:09:55, and mullet-flying, trail merchant, Christian Allen comes in with a 2:10:32 run in Houston earlier this year.

27 men entered under 2:16

The eye-popping 2:16 time announced as the 2028 Olympic Trials qualifier will likely have the same effect on American men’s marathoning as 2:37 has on elevating women’s racing. Men will have to clock an astonishing 2:15:xx to make it to wherever the Trials will be hosted in 2028. The 27 number is already bonkers. In 2023, 35 men entered with bests under 2:18- the then OTQ mark. This year, that number is 55!

73 men entered with bests of 2:20 or faster

Contrast this with 2 years ago, when 83 men were entered at under 2:25.

These numbers are even more astonishing when you remember that this is a USATF Championships and every last one of the runners in the Championship fields are Americans.

238 men and women entered in the Seeded Fields

All numbers previously referenced are solely based on the USATF Championship fields. The seeded fields add over 200 runners to the mix with bests under 2:27 or 1:08:30 in the Half for men and 2:49 or 1:19:30 in the Half for women. In 2023, Ava Nuttall was not even entered in the Championship field, and ran herself onto the podium, placing 3rd in 2:35:09. Nuttall is in the field again this year.

All in all, it is safe to say there are hundreds of athletes traveling to Sacramento this weekend with their sights set on an OTQ, and plenty in contention for a win and a top 10 finish in the US Championships.

If you can’t tell by now, we’ll be keeping a close eye on course records, depth in the top 10, and just how many 2028 Olympic Trials Qualifiers punch their tickets to the big dance.

The record for qualifiers at CIM in 1 year is from the fabled 2022 race, where 42 men and 44 women ran under the marks. Conditions, as they have been for the previous decade, look ideal for marathon racing, with the low to start the race at 43 degrees and the temperature rising to 46 around finishing time.

Keep an eye on the finish line, in the minutes before the clock strikes 9:16am and 9:37am in Sacramento, it is one of the most joy-filled and gut-wrenching places in all of running.

Last Year’s Top Ten’s: