CHICAGO (11-Oct) — At the USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon last February in Orlando, Zach Panning made the most important move of the race, dropping a 4:49 sixth mile and breaking the race open. He felt confident. Still a young marathoner, he felt free to experiment.
“This was my first Trials and, I would say, inexperience was showing a little bit,” he said after that race. “I’m really proud of how I raced.”
After a 64:07 halfway split and a 4:44 17th mile, Panning’s energy was sapped by the time he reached the last two miles. He faded to sixth place at the finish line in 2:10:50, and his Olympic dream would have to wait four more years. Still, that race showed him that on the right day he could run a fast marathon. He hopes that at Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon here he can achieve that goal. It was here in 2022 where he set his still-standing personal best of 2:09:28, a time he hopes to beat by minutes.
“Personally, I think I have improved a lot since then,” Panning told Race Results Weekly in an interview here this morning just after finishing his training run. “It hasn’t really shown up on a results page. That’s really my goal, right? Just improve on that personal best and just finish as high as I can.”
Panning, 29, has had an unusual year. After recovering from the Trials he ran an unconventional slate of events. He did an 8-kilometer team event in Chicago with his Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project teammates, a road 5-K in Boston, a 10,000m track race in Britain, and the USA Olympic Team Trials, also at 10,000m.
The goal was to get him away from marathon training, change-up his muscle usage, and allow him to clear his head before buckling down for big miles he would need to run ahead of Chicago in the fall.
“I feel like each time it’s a little more difficult to go back to the track,” Panning explained. “I’m in my young marathon career here. I think it’s important to not let things get stale (and) run those faster races, get uncomfortable still. That was kind of the goal of the segment.” He continued: “The focus was on this fall, running a fall marathon. But, be able to spin those gears a little quicker this summer was nice.”
As he built-up his mileage this summer Kevin Hanson, who coaches Panning with his brother Keith, could see that his athlete was on a good trajectory. They used a 14-week build-up, instead of the usual 12, and Panning responded positively.
“Honestly, the race couldn’t get here fast enough,” Kevin Hanson told Race Results Weekly in the lobby of the athletes’ hotel. He added: “We’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve seen him do what other people haven’t been able to do.”
A month ago Panning tested his fitness at the Philadelphia Distance Run Half-Marathon. It was a “train-though” race where he wanted to check how he felt at marathon pace, the kind of faster-than-Orlando tempo he hopes to run here on Sunday.
“The goal was to run 10 miles at race pace and then go the last three if you could,” said Panning, who clocked a personal best 1:02:48. “That’s kind of what we did. Maybe I was just a little bit quick early on, but at the end of the day I was able to accelerate off of it. We were pleased with that.”
Panning also used the Philadelphia race to help train his mind, to stick with a race plan when others around him were in different periods of their seasons.
“That was another thing: trying to run what I want to run,” Panning explained. “I haven’t run a lot of halfs. That PR, just knowing you can run under 63 makes it a little easier to wrap your brain around running 63:30 two times, or 64 two times. I think that helps build up confidence as well.”
With cool weather forecast for Sunday morning, after a temperature spike into the 80’s today, conditions will be good for the power-packed elite field here on Sunday. In fact, keeping his pace in check might be his biggest challenge. He’s ready for that, he said.
“I think that’s where having a team comes into play quite a bit,” Panning said. “I really enjoy having some fun with my teammates. Not making light of the race, but just being able to enjoy the process of getting here. The result is going to take care of itself if you are focused on what you did to get here.” He added: “It’s like getting ready for the school play for months and then when it’s finally here, that performance is the most important part, the most exciting part. But, all the rehearsals leading up to that moment is what you remember, not necessarily the performance. I think about that a lot going into races like this.”
When he’s not running, Panning has been following the Major League Baseball playoffs. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he didn’t grow up rooting for Detroit sports teams. But now that he lives in Michigan, he’s gotten on board with Detroit fandom. He’s rooting for the Tigers in the American League Division Series which concludes tomorrow with the fifth and deciding game against the Cleveland Guardians.
“I’ve got to be cheering for the Tigers,” Panning said, breaking into a smile. “I wasn’t a Tigers fan growing up, but Detroit sports is so crazy. People just get invested in it, in these teams. I think they are just starved for the playoff atmosphere. When they get a taste of it it’s cool to see, cool to see the city.”
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At today’s elite athletes press conference, former USA marathon record holder Keira D’Amato revealed that she has a bet with her husband, Anthony, on the outcome of the race. Anthony, an accomplished recreational runner, will try to stay within 40 minutes of his wife. The couple purchased a WWE-type championship belt, and the winner of the bet gets the belt.
While D’Amato said that her husband had trained well, the 39-year-old liked her chances.
“I think it’s cute that he thinks he’ll be within 40 minutes,” she told the media today.
