How a former Benedictine runner qualified for US Olympic Marathon Trials

Sam Geha was one of the top cross country and track athletes in the Coastal Empire during a memorable high school career competing at Benedictine, where he graduated in 2014.

But he was racing short distances, usually at five-kilometers for cross country and as a 3,200 and 1,600 meter specialist during the spring season on the track and field team.

He went on to compete in the college ranks for two seasons at Elon University and then he started getting interested in running longer distances. He quickly showed his potential running half marathons and marathons and became one of the top distance runners in the country.

On Saturday, Feb. 3, Geha will compete in his biggest race yet as he runs in the U.S. Olympic Teams Trials in Orlando, Florida.

"I never dreamed I would be able to run in an event like this when I was younger," said Geha, 28, who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I ran for Coach (Bill) Curley and Coach (Alex) Lowry at Benedictine and learned how to compete and about the discipline you need to be a good runner. But that was racing at shorter distances — running marathons is a different beast entirely. It's not just physical, but there is the mental side of things and I just loved that dimension of it. After a couple races, I started thinking about being able to qualify for the Olympic Trials."

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Geha is part of a set of triplets with brothers Jared and Sam. They ran at Benedictine together.

In order to qualify for the Olympic Trials, male runners must have a time under 2 hours and 18 minutes. Geha made the cut when he ran a personal best of 2:17.25 at the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota in June of 2022.

"I usually start at a moderate pace and then pick things up," Geha said. "But I carried my pace well in that race — averaging about 5:15 per mile. As I got to the last eight miles, which is usually the most grueling part of marathon, I was feeling in great shape. I was executing my game plan perfectly."

Saturday's race in Orlando will be Geha's eighth marathon. He has ran in the New York City Marathon twice, and competed in the 2021 Boston Marathon. He usually puts in about 90 miles a week, he said, and takes just one day off every two weeks while training. He said his coach, Tomilyn Thornberry, has played a big role in his development as a distance runner.

"Sam is extremely thorough and detail oriented," said Thornberry, who lived in Savannah from 2008-2010 and now resides in Greenville, S.C. "We communicate by text a lot, and he'll send me novels about his workouts. He's a Type A personality with a lot of self discipline. He does everything by the book and is super hard on himself — so I see my role as keeping him from getting in his own way."

She said Geha hasn't reached his ceiling as a runner.

"He started right out of college, which is considered young for a marathoner — and he hasn't reached what he is capable of," Thornberry said. "He's working full time and has to balance a lot of things, but I think he can shave some minutes off his (marathon) times in the future."

Geha works for Citibank in finance and recently married another accomplished marathon runner, Sarah Fountain, in May. The Geha team will be out in force for the big race on Saturday.

"I'm ready to give it my best effort," Geha said. "I'm in a race with the best of the best, so there's not a huge chance of winning. But everyone has a shot. I'm going to go after the best time and placing I can get -- and I'm going to be proud to be able to compete in a race like this."

Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Former Benedictine standout Sam Geha to race in US Olympic Marathon Trials