When Ramiro “Curly” Guillen III slammed onto the pavement at the sixth mile of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, he didn’t even take a 10 count. He rolled over, got up, and resumed running. He was hurting, his right ankle and hip swelling grotesquely, but he soldiered on for 20 more miles.
“Every step I took was painful,” the 37-year-old Goleta native reported. “I wanted to drop but didn’t come this far to not finish what I started. I was overcome with emotion in the final few miles because my grandfather helped carry me when I couldn’t go on further.”
His grandfather, Ramiro Guillen Sr., died five days before the race to select six U.S. marathoners for the Tokyo Olympics took place on a hilly course in Atlanta.