Preisner

Everyone’s first marathon is filled with nerves, doubt and excitement. Regardless of the pace you hope to run, the question most people are confronted with as they step up to the starting line is: “Can I really do this?” For Benjamin Preisner, the answer was ‘yes’ and it proved to be his ticket to the Olympic Games.

Eager to prove his fitness and show the world that he belonged with the top marathoners, regardless of his age and experience, Preisner stepped on the start line of The Marathon Project on Dec. 20, 2020, to make his marathon debut. Despite back-to-back wins in the half marathon, Preisner was largely overshadowed by the more experienced runners in the field – such as fellow Canadians Cameron Levins, Rory Linkletter and Justin Kent – but he ended up beating all of them, running to a ninth-place finish in 2:10:17, well under the Olympic standard of 2:11:30.

Preisner went out as planned in the same, 2:09-pace group as Levins, Linkletter and Kent. His plan was to stick with the pack and see how long he could hold that pace. He was confident in his training and thought he could get through the first 32 kilometres, and then go on damage control for the final 10 kilometres.

This plan worked out perfectly, and while Preisner did not exactly run with the lead group for most of the race, he was never more then 20 or 30 metres behind them. He slowly picked off the runners ahead of him, including Linkletter who he passed around 29 kilometres in, and then Levins near the 32-kilometre mark. He closed out in tremendous fashion smashing the Olympic standard with the fifth-fastest marathon of all-time among Canadian men. Not bad for openers.

Preisner started hitting his stride right around the time the world shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A 1:03:08 half marathon in the fall of 2019 in Toronto got him a spot at the 2020 London Marathon, where he planned to make his marathon debut and hit the Olympic standard. When the race was postponed, Preisner decided to test his fitness the old-fashioned way, with a time trail. His solo 2:15:24 was an impressive ‘debut performance’ – it even turned a few heads – but he knew he held back and was capable of dipping well under 2:11:30.

He was also named to the ill-fated World Half Marathon Championships team, which was scheduled for March 29, 2020, in Gdynia, Poland. The event was eventually re-scheduled for Oct. 17, but Canada withdrew its team in the days leading up to the half marathon due to the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases and concerns for the health and safety of its athletes.

Preisner made his half marathon debut in Vancouver in 2019 where he made two decisive moves to win the race – one at the 17-kilometre mark and then on the steep climb over the Burrard Street Bridge to break away from the lead pack – crossing the finish line in a time 1:05:41. Four months later he posted a personal best (1:03:08) to win the half marathon in Toronto.

In high school, Preisner was a 3,000-metre steeplechaser and was recruited as such to the University of Tulsa where he earned a degree in chemical engineering in 2019. By his junior season he moved to the 10,000-metres outdoors and ran both the 3,000-metres and 5,000-metres indoors. In his senior year, Preisner was named to Canada’s 2019 World Cross Country Championships team, placing 77th in Aarhus, Denmark.