Detours can derail a marathon runner, whose steps over long distances usually are well plotted.

But detours played a big part in Brian Sell's path to the Olympics. If not for a couple unexpected turns and delays, he wouldn't be heading to Beijing as one of three Americans in the Aug. 24 race.

After a good career as a distance runner at St. Francis, Pa., Sell had graduate school in mind. Not so much in his heart, though.

In summer 2001, he was headed to Wisconsin for an annual vacation to watch an air show. Not far off the route was Rochester, Mich., and Sell decided to make a stop.

"It kind of broke the trip in two," Sell recalled last week.

While the moniker Hanson brothers evokes images of zany hockey players around here, in suburban Detroit it means the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. Sell's coach at St. Francis, Kevin Donner (now at Bucknell), had told Sell about Keith and Kevin Hanson and their coaching, training, living outfit geared for post-college runners.

"I was more interested in the program just to get out of grad school for a year," said Sell, who moved to Michigan after that impromptu visit. "I kind of looked at it as a break from school."

Sell, 30, still hasn't made it to grad school. But he's going to the Olympics after finishing third at the United States marathon trials Nov. 3 in Central Park with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 40 seconds.

The native of Woodbury, Pa., and graduate of North Bedford County High School first attended Messiah College before making another of those fortuitous detours.

He transferred to St. Francis, where Donner's coaching and the hills around Loretto helped him improve. He won multiple Northeast Conference championships.

After joining the Hansons, Sell's career continued to blossom.

At the 2004 Olympic marathon trials, he took the lead early but couldn't hold on and finished fourth, one spot off the cutoff to make the team going to Athens.

He ran his personal best, 2:10:47, with a sixth-place finish in the 2006 Chicago Marathon. Also that year, he finished fourth, second among Americans, in the Boston Marathon.

This time around at the Olympic trials -- a race marred by the collapse and death of contender Ryan Shay -- Sell sat back a little and had the energy to overtake Dan Browne for third place nearly two hours into the race.

To celebrate, Sell and his wife, Sarah, also a former St. Francis runner, hung out in their hotel room with 14-month-old Lilly and ate pizza.

Sell finds the 26.2-mile race in Beijing a little difficult to gauge. He's seen a DVD of the course, which starts in Tiananmen Square and goes through the Forbidden City and Beijing's college district before ending in the stadium affectionately called the Bird's Nest.

"It is a big unknown, but it's an unknown that benefits a guy like me more than other guys," Sell said.

His training in the hills around St. Francis won't help; the course is flat. He considers himself a good runner in high heat and humidity, which is expected there, although he is going to Florida this week for some training in that type of weather before traveling overseas Aug. 12.

"I wouldn't mind having some hills, but I think the heat and humidity will be an equalizer," Sell said. "Guys at 2:08 who go out 1:05 [over the first half of the course] may be in for a surprise."

It's a good thing Sell put off retiring from the sport.

"Every year, I say I'm going to move on," he said. "I'm definitely at the doorway of moving on. I can tell."

Grad school might finally be on the horizon. But not before he makes that trip halfway around the world to test himself in the Olympics.