London Marathon runner-up Sara Hall, Scott Fauble and Britain’s Sarah Inglis among athletes in action in Arizona

Marathon opportunities have been few and far between in this pandemic-affected year but some fast times are on the cards on Sunday (December 20) as a number of athletes return to racing at the specially-organised Marathon Project event in Arizona.

While the Virgin Money London Marathon did take place as an elite-only event on an adapted loop course in October, all three of the US-based World Marathon Majors races – Boston, Chicago and New York – were cancelled, and the only other event in the prestigious series to take place in 2020 was Tokyo in March.

The US Olympic trial marathon was held on a challenging hilly course in Atlanta in February prior to Games postponement and a number of the entries for Arizona were among the top finishers there. Now athletes are hoping to make their mark on a flat and fast 4.3-mile loop route on the streets surrounding the Rawhide Events Center in the Gila River Indian Reservation.

The event is the brainchild of agent Josh Cox of BOOM Management, Big River Race Management’s Matt Helbig and HOKA NAZ Elite coach Ben Rosario and will see Sara Hall (pictured above) attacking Deena Kastor’s US women’s record of 2:19:36.

In October, Hall was runner-up to Brigid Kosgei in the Virgin Money London Marathon after a dramatic and strong surge in the closing stages to clock 2:22:01 in damp, cool conditions. Kastor’s record dates back to 2006 when she won in London and made the cover of AW in the process.

Firstly Hall will be trying to win the race, though, and on Sunday she will face four of the top 10 finishers in the US Olympic trials from earlier this year – Stephanie Bruce, Emma Bates, Kellyn Taylor and Julia Kohnen – plus the improving Keira D’Amato.

Inglis (pictured below) is from Scotland but is currently a PE teacher who lives near Vancouver in Canada and the 29-year-old is making her marathon debut here with Olympic selection for Britain in her mind.

In the men’s race Scott Fauble, whose best is 2:09:09, faces fellow American Jared Ward, whose best is only slightly slower with 2:09:25. They are up against Augustus Maiyo, Martin Hehir, CJ Albertson, Jonas Hampton, Colin Bennie and Matt McDonald – all of whom finished in the top 10 at the US Olympic trials.

Ryan Vail and Shadrack Biwott add to the strong US-dominated field, while Canadian Cam Levins, whose national record is 2:09:25, adds to the quality.

Amanuel Mesel of Eritrea is also on the entry list. He has a best of 2:08:17 but it was set seven years ago. Similarly Jose Antonio Uribe of Mexico has run 2:08:55 but hasn’t shown that kind of form lately.

“We wanted to create a flat, fast course for professional athletes so they could showcase their talents,” said Cox, a former elite marathoner himself and US 50km record-holder. “We wanted to look back at 2020 and know that we did everything within our power to help not only the athletes, but also the sport.”

The race will begin at 8am local time (10am EST, 3pm UK time) on December 20.

Live coverage will be shown on USATF.TV+ (subscription required), with leaderboard results available here.