What I can't wrap my head around with Nuguse:
• On the bowling team to burnish his college applications
• Off no training, runs a 5:30 mile in gym to be first in line at McDonald's for lunch
• HS coach had to convince him to join track
• Now he's an Olympic bronze medalist
Sydney McLaughlin said she goes off Instagram for 2-3 weeks before every competition because it gives her anxiety. She doesn’t miss it. Feels so much better when she’s off it. (And if she’s a world record holder, how does your average teen feel?)
The No. 1 and No. 8 women's cross country programs in the country in 2022 have said to hell with body composition testing—it's not accurate, it's actively harmful, and it's not making anyone faster.
@cindykuzma
reports:
Yesterday
@GoSydGo
said she goes off of Instagram for 2-3 weeks before every competition. Asked her why she goes back on…and what she would say to high school kids about social media.
I ran a marathon! It did not go well. But it was a total blast. I’m so grateful my body let me do this, 17 years after my last marathon. Indulge me in a thread. I have some wisdom to share!
Jake Wightman’s mother, Susan, who was a 2:31 marathoner and her son’s first coach when he was in grade school, talks about being too nervous to watch the end of the race.
Says she's as good as she ever has been:
@des_linden
mixes it up in her 19th marathon, and then offers her typical insightful analysis...within minutes of crossing the finish line. (With quotes from
@kellyn_taylor
and
@JoshCox
).
Katelyn Tuohy won her first individual NCAA title and said she could "rant for a while" about her advice for fast high school girls. (I'd love to hear that rant some time.) My story for
@runnersworld
:
Had hoped women's 10K/men's 5K might be free for spectators. Maybe local high school xc teams could get in and fill the stands. Nope. Need a ticket. When I looked for tix for Monday night, cheapest ones were $114. Out of reach for families. Missed opportunity to grow the sport.
Statement from Molly Seidel after withdrawing from the 126th Boston Marathon at mile 16.6: I’ve been dealing with a hip impingement on and off through the build. It was feeling good the last few weeks and no indication that it would hurt today. I went out aggressively...
Feel like I learn something about racing every time I talk to
@des_linden
, and we have been talking for, um, some years now. Here's her Trials post-mortem. And she doesn't say no to coming back in 4 years.
One last photo from this morning,
@SaraHall3
thanking pacer Eric Finan of Eugene. Even in Eugene it is tough to find a dude who can run 1:08 on no notice. Eric got the call 2 weeks ago and hadn’t been doing any workouts. He put in 5x1 mile last week, 6x1 this week and nailed it.
Kenneth Rooks came through the mixed zone after medal ceremony and let the media pass around his silver. I can report - it’s got some heft to it! Said he slept 5 hours last night and ran about 5 minutes today.
My 17-year-old had a 7 am practice with her XC team today and she said thoughts of
@ByGollyMolly12
helped get her through 7 miles. (My work is done here.)
A little video. I think the whole no-rooting-from-the-press-box rule goes out the window under circumstances like these. Seems weird not to mutter something.
Good update from NYRR on Daniel Do Nascimento of Brazil, who led the race for 21 miles and then collapsed. He's okay. He did not have to go to the hospital, and he's back at the hotel. Those were scary moments.
Heather MacLean didn't grow up in a household where it was expected that kids go to college. She filled out her own financial aid forms and got herself to UMass. Now a pro, she's figuring out she belongs. In some ways she's just getting started.
Now that Elle St. Pierre has said she's having a baby in early March, this all makes a lot more sense. She seemed so happy not to be feeling like herself! Incredible athlete to make it to World semis.
At NCAA championships,
@annaahalll
of Florida is running the 400 hurdles and doing the heptathlon. If she makes the 400-hurdle final, it goes off 16 minutes before the final event of heptathlon, the 800 meters. Then she might be in the 4x400 after that? Incredible.
Okay I’m alive. This was before the race. Super fun! I think I ran about 3:25 and now I have track cough. Total shock to the system! Thanks for all your hilarious tweets.
Applications for the Boston Marathon were down about 4,000 runners (14.7 percent) from pre-pandemic levels. Everyone gets in—no cutoff—for the second year in a row. Runners are taking their sweet time getting back to road racing. Even Boston is not immune.
Final dispatch from
#Des50K
week: I spoke to Charlie Lawrence,
@lawrence_char
, pacer for
@des_linden
, during her record-setting 50K run. He had as much fun as anyone could have running 31 miles!
Last time Taliyah Brooks was at Hayward Field she left in an ambulance. She later filed suit against USATF for conducting the heptathlon in extreme heat. Today, she was second.
Teacher/2:24 marathoner Susanna Sullivan signs a deal with Brooks. This allows her to give up her evening tutoring, which eases her hectic schedule somewhat.
For elite runners, there's no standard formula where you run X time and get Y dollars. Money flows to the fast, sure, but it also helps to be young and to want to train in a group. Thanks to those who shared their finances with me for this piece.
The Miracle at Mile 8: When Meghan Roth suffered cardiac arrest at the Boston Marathon, an anonymous bystander and three runners stopped to give her CPR. As an ambulance driver noted, the running community was at its best that day.
TV coverage of the Chicago Marathon was frustrating at the end. No running clock on the screen, so couldn't tell how close Chepngetich was to the WR. Same for Sisson with AR. The angle is from the side, so you can't see clock at finish. Commentators didn’t add meaningful info.
As part of a criminal investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has asked for documents detailing the financial relationship between USATF and Nike.
Galen Rupp plans to run the marathon at next summer's World Championships in Eugene, according to his agent. Men's marathon is July 17, women's is July 18. Both races start at 6:15 am.
Marielle Hall spoke about her struggles with overtraining in the Bowerman system. She's moving to Rhode Island and
@MollyHuddle
's husband, Kurt Benninger, will be her coach.
Five-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman, 47, confirms he'll be on the starting line in Orlando for his sixth Olympic Trials, his third in the marathon. He's currently training in Ethiopia and will return to Tucson a week before the race.
Sean Hartnett's mapping of marathon routes is phenomenal. Here's his latest work on the hilly section of the Paris Olympic course. I don't know that it has sunk in with viewers yet how grueling it will be. Downhills as punishing as uphills.
Emma Bates says she might take a crack at the American record at a flat marathon in the fall. She considers herself a 2:18, 2:19 runner. Emily Sisson's AR is 2:18:29 from Chicago 2022.
Spoke to
@des_linden
and her coach, Walt Drenth, about the ways they're shifting her training as she approaches the big 4-0. They're approaching it with curiosity & an eagerness to learn, even though she's been marathoning for 16 years. Interesting stuff.
She calls 'em as she sees 'em. Always enjoy talking to
@des_linden
, and amazing calm yesterday as dozens of media set up inches from her face. I forgot to box out.
Whatever happens tonight at the Ten, give a thought for
@MollyHuddle
's amazing American record, 30:13.17, which she ran in August 2016 to finish sixth in Rio. No super shoes, no pacers, first 5K split of 14:57.
Silly thing to say, but Craig Engels builds up a big well of goodwill from the media by being open and fun in the mixed zone. Started out by saying, "I miss you guys, miss seeing you in person." I think he would have talked all day.
My story for
@runnersworld
from the woods of Oregon, where earlier today
@SaraHall3
took 40 seconds off her half marathon PR on a certified course. Then, as quickly as this little race came together, it was gone. This is racing in the Covid era.
Official attendance at USAs:
Thursday: 2,751
Friday: 3,314
Saturday: 3,664
Sunday 3,577
Pretty sparse. Blame the heat? The expense of getting to Eugene? Other?
Amazing news from
@AliphineT
. She announces she's pregnant and plans to compete at the Games six months after her baby arrives. "I talk to her while I'm running and ask her if she is enjoying it as much as her mother is," she told
@runnersworld
.
Annie Frisbee set a new half marathon PR by 3+ minutes in the first half of the
#NYCMarathon
. Her previous best was 1:15:48 from Houston in 2020. Today she runs 1:12:43.
The USATF board of directors voted unanimously to recommend Chattanooga for the 2024 Marathon Trials. The national office instead selected Orlando as the host city. What happened?
That’s Ian Dobson of Eugene Marathon giving last final instructions to Sara Hall, her two pacers, and her two eldest daughters. They went off at 5:52 am. Service is spotty here. Will try to get a split or two.