Sell took hard road to success in the long run

Sell took hard road to success in the long run

Author: NATHAN DOMINITZ, From Savannah Now

Brian Sell didn't set the running world on fire while in high school. There was barely a spark. His time in the 2-mile run was 10 minutes, 10 seconds.

"That won't even get you a letter from a college, let alone a scholarship," Sell, now 31, said this week. "I worked my way up."

He didn't go to hotbeds for collegiate runners, either, attending Messiah and Saint Francis in his native Pennsylvania. But Sell worked hard, and not only collected conference titles but developed into an Olympic athlete, competing in the marathon at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

The same runner who once averaged 5:05 splits for the 2-mile averaged sub-5-minute miles for an entire 26.2-mile race.

"He is living proof that hard work and consistency in this particular sport can lead to great things," said Michael Sergi, cross country and track coach at the Savannah College of Art and Design. "A guy that had been a mediocre high school runner is now known as one of the best distance runners not only in America but in the world."

Sergi has arranged for Sell to speak to his team as well as other local teams and individual runners from 6-8 p.m. today on the SCAD campus, the tentative site being Alexander Hall on Indian Street. E-mail him at msergi@scad.edu for information.

"My big message is to keep your nose to the grindstone," Sell said by telephone from his home in Rochester Hills, a suburb of Detroit, Mich. "My main message to the college guys, the athletes, is just because you might not have the times of some of the faster guys out there doesn't mean you can't eventually do it."

Over the years, Sell compiled a gaudy track record in half-marathons and shorter races before making his marathon debut in Chicago and qualifying for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials.

In only his second marathon, Sell led for about 22 miles before inexperience caught up to him. He had neglected to take in enough fluids and refuel along the course.

"I ran into a brick wall. I ran out of energy," said Sell, who doesn't recall the last two or three miles of the race. "I walked in 13th."

He woke up in the medical tent, an IV in his arm. "It wasn't fun," he said. "It was a rough patch of running."

Career highlight

He chalks it up to a learning experience and a source of motivation. Four years later, Sell surged late in the race at the 2008 trials to move from fourth to third and qualify for the U.S. Olympic team with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 40 seconds.

While he yearned for a medal, his realistic goals at Beijing were a top-20 finish and a time of 2:13 or better. He placed 22nd in 2:16:07.

"Just outside of that - not enough to keep me awake at night," said Sell, who with his wife, Sarah, a nurse, has two young children to keep them awake: Lily, 2, and Levi, 4 months.

The family man with a degree in biology is cutting back on his elite running career as he prepares to attend dental school. He runs 60-80 miles a week, not the 165 during intense training. But he still represents Brooks shoes, which led to the Savannah appearance and an opportunity to pass along some hard-earned knowledge about achieving goals.

"A goal is a goal, whether it be to qualify for the Boston Marathon or for these college kids to place top 20 in the conference," Sell said. "If I can do it, anybody can do it."