GRHS grad makes bid for Olympics

Borough resident and long-distance runner, Pelle Nogueira, who finished third and second in the last two Ashenfelter 8K races, traditionally run on Thanksgiving Day, ran Dec. 3 in the California International Marathon, held in Sacramento.

His goal was to finish the 26-mile distance and qualify for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, scheduled for this month. It was his first marathon and in a Jan. 25 telephone interview, he said the experience was hard to put into words.

“The best way I can say it is that it felt great until it turned into a nightmare which is how the marathon works,” he said. “My time had to be under 2 hours and 18 minutes to qualify for the trials. That was my goal. It wasn’t going to be easy.”

Nogueira, a 2017 Glen Ridge High School graduate and cross-country team standout, graduated from Manhattan College where he was selected for the all–Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference cross-country team, in 2020, and in 2022 took second place in the 10K at the MAAC championships.

At the halfway point in the Sacramento race, he said his time was about 65 minutes. At that marker, he figured reaching his goal was going to be tough, but not impossible. He needed to run the second half of the race in about 73 minutes. So he knew he had to run the rest of the race at the same clip. He felt confident because leading up to the race, he had trained well.

“I got through 21 miles on pace,” he said. “That’s how far I made it until I hit the wall. For the most part, the race didn’t feel too hard. Everything felt pretty good for the first 20 miles. I was getting cramps, but the breathing was fine. I felt in control of my breathing for the first 20 miles.”

Nogueira, at the 20-mile post, said he figured he was on pace to qualify for the Olympic trials. But after the race, he acknowledged he had learned something he did not know at the 20-mile post.

“I learned what a marathon was,” he said. “I hit the wall. My legs couldn’t move anymore. I struggled to finish. The marathon is all about the last 10 kilometers.”

Ten kilometers is a little over six miles. Nogueira said in those last six miles, he experienced pain he had never known before as a runner.

“I thought I knew, but when you experience it, you have a lot of respect for it.” he said.

Nogueira said he had “a complete shut down” over those last five miles.

“That’s how the marathon is,” he continued. “When you struggle, you lose huge chunks of time. I was there, in a position to qualify, but fell apart. When I think of it, the first 20 miles don’t mean much. When you get past mile 20, that’s what the race is all about. I felt humbled.”

Thinking about it later, Nogueira said his biggest mistake was not having run a marathon before.

“It’s hard to say what I should have done, but experience counts a lot,” he said. “When you do a marathon, you appreciate the event so much more.
When I felt that pain, my respect grew so much more.”

Nogueira finished with a time of 2 hours 27 minutes 33 seconds, a little more than nine minutes off the mark. He said the race had about 200 competitors and 30-40 qualified for the trials.

“It was a great experience even though it wasn’t what I had hoped for,” he said, adding that he is planning on running a half-marathon, in NYC, next month.

“Doing a marathon is tough on the body,” he said. “It’s nice to break your running up into different events and not get burned out on one event.”

On paper, he said, what appeared as a positive factor about the Sacramento race was that the course was mostly downhill. But Nogueira learned that it put an enormous amount of stress on his front thigh muscles.

“The front of the leg takes the load going down hill,” he said. “I could have trained more on downhills. I could see why it’s a fast course, but you have to be prepared.”
Nogueira said he is training again, but it took two weeks to recover from the physical ordeal of his first marathon. After the race, he said it hurt to even walk down stairs.

  Glen Ridge, Marathon, Olympics