SLO County high school coach to compete for spot on Olympic marathon team

An Arroyo Grande teacher and coach is set to compete in the USA Olympic Marathon Team Trials this weekend.

According to a Lucia Mar Unified School District newsletter, Phillip Reid is expected to run in the prestigious trials in Orlando on Saturday. Reid is the head coach of cross country at Arroyo Grande High School.

Reid will join the nearly 400 runners competing for the chance to represent the United States at the Paris games this summer. A maximum of three male and three female athletes could make it to Team USA, according to the Olympics website.

The downtown Orlando course will see runners take on a 2.2-mile loop, followed by three 8-mile loops to the finish line.

According to the Lucia Mar newsletter, Reid “has been a runner for most of his life, competing at the state level in high school then competing for Cal Poly.”

Currently he runs for the HOKA Aggies Running Club, the school district said.

In January 2023, Reid completed the Chevron Houston Marathon with a time of 2 hours, 16 minutes and 50 seconds — coming in 11th overall and fast enough to qualify him to compete in this year’s Olympic trials.

This will be Reid’s second time running in the trials. In 2016, he and four other former Cal Poly runners competed at the Olympic qualifiers in Los Angeles.

To help wish him good luck, Arroyo Grande High School staff bought “Team Reid” merchandise and gathered to cheer him before he left for the race this week, the district said.

The USA Marathon Team Trials will stream live on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, from 7 to 10:30 a.m. It will also be broadcast on NBC from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Live results will also be available on the USA Marathon Team Trials website at track.rtrt.me/e/ORLANDO-TRIALS-2024#/tracker.