Eight months after placing 22nd in the Beijing Olympics men's marathon -- and celebrating with a Peking duck dinner -- Brian Sell will compete Monday in one of his favorite road races: the Boston Marathon.

Three years ago in Boston, Sell helped put the Rochester Hills-based Hansons-Brooks Distance Project on the map as one of the nation's premiere training bases. Led by his fourth-place finish, seven of the top 22 runners in the 2006 men's race from rural Hopkinton to Boston represented Hansons.

Six Hansons runners will toe the starting line Monday: Sell, Luke Humphrey, Todd Snyder, Kyle O'Brien, Fred Joslyn and Pat Rizzo.

Free Press sports writer Jo-Ann Barnas spoke by phone with Sell as he and his teammates were wrapping up a training segment in Orlando before flying to Boston. Here are excerpts of their conversation:

Question: This will be your....