Former Duck Galen Rupp to make marathon debut at US Olympic Trials

The men's field at the US Olympic marathon trials in a couple weeks just got a whole lot more stacked. Today, Galen Rupp, the reigning Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000 meters, announced he will make his marathon debut at the trials in Los Angeles on February 13.

Rupp, a native of Portland, Ore., qualified for the trials with a 61:20 half marathon in December. While Rupp himself has run faster in the past (his 60:30 PR in the half marathon from 2011 is the fifth-fastest time in American history), the ease at which Rupp ran his qualifying time opened some eyes. Ever since then, there's been a buzz surrounding Rupp's potential in the marathon.

For those of you not familiar with how to predict potential marathon times, you generally double a time in the half marathon and add between five to ten minutes. This would put Rupp in the 2:08 range for the marathon. Only two runners in the field this year have run under 2:10 within the qualifying window in the last two and a half years. Meb Keflezighi ran 2:08:37 when he won the Boston Marathon in 2014 while Dathan Ritzenhein ran 2:09:45 at the Chicago Marathon in 2013.

You can watch the video of Rupp's announcement through the link below.