At the halfway point of February’s Zurich Seville Marathon, Rory Linkletter was feeling physically good, but his mind was starting to race along with his body.
He’d finished 13.1 miles in 64:01, much faster than you or I could run it, but not quite where he needed to be to feel confident he’d beat the Olympic marathon standard of 2:08:10.
“In professional marathoning, it’s pretty common for you to have a mile where you slip a second or two and that can be costly when you’re playing with fire and that close to mark,” Linkletter said.
And so he pushed himself to speed up.
Around the 25K mark, he passed the pacer for the runners trying to make the marathon standard and did his fastest 5K of the day. But the effort cost him, and he lost track of his pace as he went into “survival mode.”
“I was so focused on getting to the finish line that I didn’t know if I was going to hit the mark until I basically turned the final corner and could see the clock about 100 meters away,” Linkletter said.
The clock told him he was going to make it. He crossed the finish line at 2:08:01 — and then threw up along the side of the road.
“I pushed myself so much harder than I had ever been able to before knowing what was on the line,” Linkletter said.
With that gutsy performance, Linkletter almost guaranteed himself a spot on Team Canada for the 2024 Olympics. He got the official word that he was going about three months later, in May.
His performance also bought him more time to keep growing as a professional runner, since achievements like a 2:08:01 marathon attract sponsors and event invites. It was an important step for a runner who has been defying the odds for more than a decade, including when he walked on to the running team at BYU.
Looking back on the Zurich Seville Marathon, the Olympics and 2024 as a whole, Linkletter, a 28-year-old father of two, is grateful for all he saw and accomplished, but is also hungry for more. He has his sights set on even faster times — and on running the marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Linkletter, who is based in Flagstaff, Arizona, spoke to the Deseret News this week about finishing 47th in the Olympic marathon, his plans for the year ahead and his advice for anyone chasing big goals.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Deseret News: Thanks to that performance in February, you made Canada’s Olympic team. How did you feel when it became official that you were going to Paris?
Rory Linkletter: The moment I crossed the finish line (in Seville, Spain) was overwhelming and emotional. It was a once in a lifetime moment where all those lifelong goals came to fruition, and I don’t think I could ever recreate the magic of sharing that moment with my family.
So then I remember feeling pretty underwhelmed when I got the news in May that I was officially going because it had been drawn out for so long. I had already been thinking I was going to go for three months.
It was more like, OK, now we’ve got to get ready for this thing. At that point, you’re starting preparations and ramping up your training for the Olympics.
DN: Looking back, what stands out from your time in Paris?
RL: I think what stands out is how much of a hoopla there is around the Olympics even though it just feels like another race in a lot of ways. I was excited to be able to call myself an Olympian, but I think the event can feel underwhelming unless you’re competing for a medal.
I remember being at the closing ceremonies and feeling really grateful to be there but also really motivated to come back and do better because I was like, this would be so much cooler if I was one of those people walking around the closing ceremonies with a medal around my neck.
DN: How was the actual race? Did you meet your goals?
RL: The Paris course was extremely difficult — we knew that going in — and I thought I had prepared for it, but in hindsight, I think I kind of underestimated how good everyone at the Olympics is.
I know that sounds silly because I’d raced many of those people before, but I was maybe feeling too confident from having just raced my best marathon. I was under the impression that things would go really well but I basically got kicked in the teeth.
I know I’m good at what I do and I was good enough to get there, but I felt really humbled by how impressive the best in the world really are.
DN: How do you stay motivated when you feel humbled like that?
RL: I think anyone who knows me well and has been on this journey with me knows I’ve always dreamed really big and believed I could do really big things.
But there’s been a bit of a lag between reality and my expectations for myself. I thought I could make the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but I fell a little short. I ended up making it to Paris.
I have these big goals, but I almost always fail the first few times I reach for them. I have always believed in myself, but I’m a slow learner maybe.
It hasn’t come easy, but I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone and kept at it, and the sport of running rewards persistence and consistent competence, not flashes in the pan of brilliance. Running is one of those sports that’s meant to be a longer game.
Patience isn’t necessarily a naturally strong suit of mine but I’ve learned it a bit more with running.
DN: What wisdom do you have for people reading this who feel like they’ve fallen behind on their own goals, whether they involve running or not?
RL: You just have to follow what excites you more than anything. The reason I’ve kept going is that I couldn’t think of something I’d rather be doing more than doing this. As long as you’re in a place where you wouldn’t rather be doing something else, keep at it.
At this stage in my running career, a lot of my peers are starting to think about stopping or already have. I just always ask myself if this is feasible for me to keep doing and do I want to keep doing it. As long as both answers are yes, I’m going to keep going and trying to do my best.
DN: You’ve used social media to share your running — and life — experiences with others. How did that get started?
RL: I think when I got to college and started to blossom, I was the right age to start to build a social media following naturally. It was something people my age were doing, so I just shared my journey and tried to be pretty authentic to myself.
Over the past year, I did more with YouTube and started releasing long-form content. That was a big, scary thing for me, and I’ve felt more exposed, but it’s also helpful because it gives people a behind-the-scenes look at what I’m going through.
Even though I’m in the top 1% of distance runners, that doesn’t mean my experiences are that much different than others.
DN: You’ve called 2024 the best year of your career. What are some other highlights?
RL: I ran a personal best half-marathon in January as I built toward meeting the marathon standard, and then I raced a bunch in the spring, traveling to more countries than I ever have before. I went to Japan, Canada several times, the Olympics in Paris and Spain.
I don’t take it for granted how cool it is that my job is to prowl around the world and run races, and over the last several years I’ve gotten more opportunities to do big, cool races.
There’s a shelf life on my professional running days, so I am really going to enjoy how cool it is to see different parts of the world.
DN: Are you aiming to return to the Olympics in 2028?
RL: Absolutely. I think what making the Olympics this year did was buy me more time to keep trying and dedicating my life to this. That’s what I want to do.
God willing, I’ll stay healthy, have an abundance of opportunities, get better and be in a much better position for LA 2028.
I’ll have to hit the qualifying standard again, and it will likely drop another two minutes, so it will be even harder to make the LA team but it’s still very doable with plenty of ways for me to go about it.
If you’re not getting better, you’re getting left behind in the sport of running.
DN: What’s on your calendar for 2025?
RL: I want to do things I wasn’t able to do when I was pursuing the Olympics.
Last year, I was focused on fast times because that was what it took to make the Olympic team. Now, I’m going to do races that are exciting, big and scary in different ways.
I’ll be looking at the World Marathon Majors, and I won’t do them all, but I’d like to do a couple to keep checking them off my bucket list.
I love the half-marathon, and I think one of my biggest goals for 2025 is to see a big improvement in my half-marathon personal best. The 2025 road running championships are in San Diego, really close to where my in-laws live, and it would be really cool to represent Canada there in the half-marathon.
DN: As an alum, what’s it been like to see BYU’s success at running events over the past year?
RL: It’s been really cool. I’m still close with a lot of people there.
My college coach, Ed Eyestone, is still coaching there, and I love coach (Diljeet) Taylor. She’s a great person and has been a great mentor to me in a lot of ways.
I was very excited to watch (the cross-country national championships) Saturday morning, and I waited to do my morning run until after they finished up. It gave me a lot of motivation to see the program succeed.
The only bummer was that a great Saturday was dampened by BYU football losing to Arizona State.
But it’s certainly been an exciting year for BYU as a whole and hopefully there’s more of that to come. They’re in great hands with great leadership.