Alan Culpepper Quotations

Yeah, it changes the dynamics of the race because he is such a big-time marathoner. And I definitely think it opens up a spot because someone of his caliber, even if he were coming in at 75 percent, would be a 2:10-type runner.

Look, we have that problem solved, because there are only three of them in the Olympics. We got 187 of them out of the way for you.

But for those of us in it, we're not as surprised as some other people are. We've seen it building.

I felt good; I was trying to be mindful of what was coming. There's always that balance. You have to race but pay attention that there's another 15 miles or so.

I feel like the bad conditions and the tough course is to my advantage, just because a lot of people are going to be disheartened when it starts going poorly,

For those of us who are in it and make our profession, we're probably not as surprised as other people. We've seen this coming for a while. We've seen this building. I think it is a new day, for sure.

For those of us in it, we're probably not as surprised as some other people are. We've seen this coming for a while. This has been a work in progress for the last 5 to 6 years.

Our sport needs spectator friendly and all the help it can get on that side. That adds to the allure of the race. And just from the mental side it helps you stay focused better knowing you do these loops and you're not just off on the course out in the middle of nowhere.

I thought he was some guy who jumped onto the course.

Most countries around the world, they just don't think that way. They think, 'I'm just going to get in the race and I'm just there to race.'

Well, I think for those of us that are in it, as we make our profession this way, we're not probably as surprised as some other people are, honestly.

Those of us in the sport who make our profession at it have seen this coming. We're not as surprised as some other people are. We've seen it building. This has been a work in progress for the last five or six years. It's a nice change.

When Brian went by me, I thought it was some guy who ran onto the course.

When Brian went by me, I thought he was some guy that jumped on the course.

You don't want the race to go without you, but you know you have 22 miles to go. It's a balance.

It's a delicate balance. Because you don't want the race to go without you.

For Athens and Boston, I had really prepared for tough conditions, whereas here you can just prepare to run the marathon at your pace,

It went through my mind at that point that this is like the Tour de France, where the crowd opens up as you go by. It was really cool.

There was a moment there when we were getting concerned,

Every time we tried to get going there was some factor -- weather, wind or turns. I think we all suffered somewhat from conditions.

In Athens, I was running in long sleeves and pants in the summertime to acclimate as much as I could. ... In Boston, there's never any area on the course ... where you can settle in and just get on a pace and zone out, whereas here you can do that. You can zone out for huge periods.

The crowd's definitely going to bring more excitement for those that have the USA uniform on.