Watertown’s Hayley Sutter crawls to qualify for Olympic trials

Hayley Sutter had 30 seconds to cross the finish line if she wanted to qualify for the 2020 Olympic trials. Hurting and fighting to stay conscious, Sutter kept running. 10 seconds left. A few meters away from the finish line, Sutter’s legs buckled. She dropped to the ground. Five seconds left. On her knees, Sutter crawled the last few meters across the finish line.

There are two ways to time a race. Gun time tracks how long it takes a runner to complete the course from when the initial pistol is shot. This method does not consider whether a runner began the race at the start line. Chip time uses radio-frequency identification tags to measure how long it takes a runner to complete the course. RFID mats are placed at the courses’s start and finish line. A runner’s time begins at the moment they cross the mat at the start line and ends when they cross the mat at the finish line. USA Track and Field use gun times to determine who qualifies for the Olympic trials.

There are time variations between the two methods. The difference is less significant in a smaller race but, in a larger, more crowded race, the variances are noticeable. For Sutter, this difference determined whether or not she would qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials.

Houston we have a runner

Sutter remembers the exact date her career in running began. When she was 12 years old, Sutter severed her Achilles tendon.  Sutter recalls sitting in the surgeon’s office, where she was told her she would never run again and would most likely walk with a limp for the rest of her life.

“I am very fortunate that I was a very defiant little girl,” Sutter said. “I remember sitting in that office, thinking ‘I will show you. Don’t tell me what I can’t do’”

A year and a half later, Sutter competed for her middle school track team.

Sutter ran her first full marathon in Houston, at 27 years old, placing 12th overall in women. Sutter learned she was seven and a half minutes away from qualifying for the Olympic trials. She had run the course in 2:52:36. To qualify for the Olympics, she would need to shave her time down to 2:45:00.

The next year she started training with qualifying for the Olympic trials as her goal.

“You just have to get there”

On Dec. 2, 2018, at the California International Marathon, Sutter started off the course well. If she continued at the same pace, Sutter would finish the course in about 2:43:00.

“In the moment I adapted this mindset ‘you are going to do it, you just have to get to the finish line.’” she said. “This became ironic in the later stages of the race, when this became the motto I had to keep telling myself over and over.”

At mile 23, she hit a wall. Her pace had slowed from a 6:12 mile to a 6:38. She kept pushing, but Sutter said wondered if she would even finish the race. If she kept running she knew she could still make the qualifying time. With the finish in sight, she had 30 seconds to run across the line.

“I am trying to sprint as hard as I can because I have 30 seconds, 28, 27, and I can see the clock right there with the time” she said.

A few meters away from the finish line, with the clock ticking, Sutter collapsed. Unable to get back up, she dragged her body across the finish line and crumpled back to the ground.

Sutter’s chip time clocked 2:45:00, but her gun time was 2:45:07. She was seven seconds over the qualifying time. A few hours later, after she recovered, Sutter petitioned the USA Track and Field to accept her chip time.

Sutter and her boyfriend researched her case. They found two cases the previous Olympic cycle similar to Sutter. In both cases, the USATF accepted the runners’ chip scores. About a month after the marathon, Sutter received the news. USATF told her they would accept her chip time. Sutter would be going to the 2020 Olympic trials.

Setting the sights high

The trials will be held Feb. 29, 2020 in Atlanta. Sutter’s goal is not to qualify for the Olympics but to finish in the top 50. The USATF has put out a list showing the athletes who have met the qualifying standards. The list is ranked by time, and Sutter is last on that list.

“It is definitely an audacious goal,” Sutter said “I figure, set the sights high and, even if I don’t make it, I have at least given myself the ability to try to compete my best.”

A motto of relentless positivity

Sutter said a motto of relentless positivity fuels her. It gets her out running when she would rather stay inside, sitting on the couch. It helped her get through a month of not knowing whether she had qualified for the trials. It is what motivated her at 12 years old when the surgeon told her she would never run again, and it is what carried her across the finish line.

To see USATF’s list of athletes who have met the Olympic trials qualifying standards visit: http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2020/U-S--Olympic-Team-Trials---Marathon/QualifyingStandards/Eligible-List/Women-Marathon.aspx