Seattle's Brooks Beasts pro track team begins the buildup to Paris 2024...
The track and field competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics doesn't start until August 1st, but the buildup to Paris began on the playfields next to Green Lake, where less than 24 hours before, the Seattle Metro League held its cross country championships.
Friday morning, I had the opportunity to stop by the cinder track at Lower Woodland Park and check out the Brooks Beasts pro team as the squad reassembled for its first workouts of the 2024 season.
After a successful 2023 season that saw Josh Kerr (Paul Merca photo) win the world championship in the 1500 meters, and had three others on the line in Budapest this summer, the team went its separate ways for some well deserved time off at the beginning of September before reconvening this week.
With only newcomer Valery Tobias, a 2:00.31 performer who was sixth at the NCAA championships for the University of Texas in the 800, along with holdovers Marta Pen Freitas (still in Portugal), Dillon Maggard, and Brannon Kidder (different workout) missing, nearly everyone else was present for the training session.
World championships 800m finalist Nia Akins (Paul Merca photo) was in good spirits as she did a workout on the track solo, while the men's 800 group, including Great Britain's Kyle Langford, who wasn't on the team for world champs in Budapest, Isaiah Harris, the USA runner-up, and newcomer Brandon Miller did a 3200m tempo run on the track.
The rest of the group, which included Kerr, were out on a run on Green Lake alongside the morning recreational walkers and runners before finishing up on the track.
To celebrate the start of the 2024 season, I took a few photos of several of the Beasts holding a first week of practice sign, very similar to the traditional first day of school photos.
Here's how it went:
NOTE: Thanks to Brooks Running's media relations team who contributed to this report.
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