From Runner's World.com

Until a couple of days ago, I had never met or talked to Fasil Bizuneh, one of those "dark horse" picks to run well in the Marathon Trials. So I figured I should ease my way into our first conversation. I wanted it to go well. I didn't want to tell him, right off the bat, that I thought he was nuts.

But somehow we got there quickly. And somehow he changed my mind. What I'm thinking now is: This is one of the smartest runners out there, and ballsy as well.

My original thesis went like this: Bizuneh has twice run under 1:03 in the half marathon. He's run plenty of other fast times as well, and seemed to reach a new peak in his performances last spring, from January to March. My logic said he only had to put himself through a similar or slightly harder buildup period for the Trials, and he might just pop a good one. Instead, he moved to a new state, picked up a new coach and training system, joined a spartan marathon camp of Kenyan runners, and didn't run a single tuneup race to find out if this new approach was working