Matt Llano will be 27 when he lines up for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles in February 2016. Defending Boston Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi will be 40, while 2013’s fastest American marathoner, Dathan Ritzenhein, will be 33.
With Father Time creeping up on some of the biggest faces of American marathoning, Llano believes he could be on track for a breakthrough to the Olympics.
“If everything goes as well as we anticipate for Chicago, I see myself as a legitimate contender there,” Llano said. “I truly believe that I have a chance of making that team and punching my ticket to Rio.”
And if he does make the team, he would be the first, out marathoner representing the United States at the Olympics. And while his family has known he was gay since he was 21, he told CNN that coming out prior to the trials just made sense.
“The feeling of being able to be authentic with someone was really special,” Llano told CNN.
He had built up the courage during his final years at Richmond University to tell his parents. He was nervous, and they knew something was bothering him.
“They knew I had something on my mind that I wanted to talk about,” Llano said. “They kept pressing me for it, and I kept resisting. Ultimately, words just fell kind of out.”
Llano dated another male student at Richmond for three and a half years, but never felt the need to go public about his relationship. Over time, fellow students began finding out and he eventually came out to his teammates.
“People were really positive,” Llano said. “Most of them were like, ‘OK, that doesn’t really matter.’ That’s always nice to hear because you don’t always expect it to go that way. Anyone who’s struggled with the process will tell you that’s what they want to hear.”
Llano breaks down his decision to come out into two tiers: coming out and coming out publicly.
He grew up questioning who he was for the first 19 years of his life. There was pain and torment in trying to meet his own expectations and those of society. He didn’t find his way to the other side of that pain until he was 26. He acknowledged who he was and stopped apologizing.
“Coming out was not just a way for me to acknowledge and embrace who I really am, but also to try and mend all of the fractures that my life had built up over time,” Llano said. “It wasn’t easy to do.”
He decided to go public with his announcement with a blog post titled “It’s Time” on his personal website. The moment he clicked “publish,” a weight was lifted off his shoulders and he’s been a different runner ever since.
“I owe a lot of my recent success to releasing this shame,” Llano said. “I do think it was always something holding me back. As a person, I was never that confident because I had this conflict about who I was. That just carried straight across into my running.”
People within and outside of the running community have reached out to Llano through Facebook, Twitter and email, voicing their support, sharing their own stories and confiding in Llano for inspiration.
“It’s a very humbling experience to think I’m making a difference in these people’s lives because ultimately I draw off of them for my own inspiration,” Llano said. “They’re the reason I try to be a voice and tell my story. It puts me at a loss for words.”
Since his freshman and sophomore years in college, Llano knew he was a future marathoner. The realization that he was ready to finally make the move came this past January, when Llano finished fifth at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in 61:47. He went on to represent the United States at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in March.
In early October, he completed the 26.2 miles in Chicago and is now focused on his training geared toward the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Four other athletes of the Northern Arizona Elite team are training for fall marathons. Only three men will represent the United States in Brazil. While some expect a competitive nature among the group, the relationship among the runners is cohesive.
But as the first openly gay professional distance runner, Llano already feels his impact in a niche community.
“To be reaching a different community and knowing from my Facebook or email inbox that I’m making a difference in at least one person’s life gives me a special meaning,” Llano said.
