Fast Women, July 1, 2019, Issue 26
Karissa Schweizer was among the athletes who competed at Sunday's Prefontaine Classic in Palo Alto, California.
A fantastic race at Western States, and the growing popularity of ultrarunning
When I was getting into running in the 1990s, ultrarunning was a fringe sport. I was aware of it—the editors of Ultrarunning Magazine were from my area and would get local newspaper coverage—but to my high school self, ultrarunning seemed like a sport for eccentric older white men, plus Ann Trason (who was and is amazing).
It remained that way for quite a while, but at some point, that began to shift. Younger people are getting into ultrarunning in larger numbers, sponsors are putting money into ultrarunning, companies are making more trail-specific gear, and more media outlets are covering ultrarunning. While women and minorities are still underrepresented, the women at the top of the races are grabbing their share of the headlines, especially when they’re able to challenge or beat the top men.
Fan interest in the Western States Endurance Run has been growing each year, as running Twitter comes together to follow iRunFar’s updates, and watch the live results refresh. And the more that the media does to get the event out to the masses—imagine being able to watch even just parts of the race on a major TV network—the more popular the event, and ultrarunning, will become.
For most of the race, it looked like Courtney Dauwalter might lead most of the way, break the course record, and win by a large margin. But around mile 66, having built a 42-minute lead, Dauwalter started having problems with her hip. She said she spent the next 13 miles troubleshooting, but the pain persisted, and she had to end her race about 79 miles in. When Dauwalter could go no more, she sat and cheered on her competitors as they went by her.
The first woman to go by Dauwalter was Clare Gallagher, who, until then, thought she was racing for second. When she took over the lead with about 21 miles to go, Gallagher led Brittany Peterson by only 11 minutes. If they were running 21 miles on fresh legs, that would be a big lead, but 79 miles in, it’s not much of a cushion.
By 94.3 miles, that cushion was gone, and after running for 16 hours and 32 minutes, they were right back where they started—dead even. It doesn’t get more dramatic than that. Conventional wisdom might suggest that the runner (Peterson) who had just made up the 11-minute gap over the last 15 miles might have momentum on her side. But instead, it was more like Gallagher said, “Oh, we’re kicking now?” And she proceeded to run the next 1.5 miles at 7:36 pace, and crushed any hope, probably in the nicest way possible, because ultrarunners are so kind and supportive of one another, Peterson might have had of winning the race. (This interview came out after I wrote this, but this is a good post-race interview with Gallagher that fills in many of the gaps.)
Gallagher won in the second-fastest time ever run by a woman at Western States, 17:23:25, with Peterson just over 11 minutes back, and Kaci Lickteig third in 17:55:55. It was a race worthy of national attention, and every major outlet that covers sports in the U.S. should have been there. Instead, I’m just piecing this all together from race splits and social media posts.
From a spectator’s viewpoint, two of the most appealing aspects of ultrarunning (aside from the whole accomplishing seemingly impossible feats part) are the camaraderie among the competitors, and how much of a team sport it is. The runners are responsible for getting their own bodies from start to finish, but they also have an entire crew there doing everything in their power to will that runner across the finish line.
Ladia Albertson-Junkans, Gabe Grunewald’s best friend and former collegiate teammate, dedicated her race to Grunewald and asked others to join her in virtually donating their miles. She finished 31st in the race.
Fast times at the Stanford Prefontaine Classic
After following the slowly-unfolding Western States race on Saturday it was almost jarring to shift over to the fast-paced action of Sunday’s Prefontaine Classic, where there was little down time. While both great, the two events couldn’t have been more different.
Due to construction at Hayward Field, the event was held at Stanford University this year, on a track known for producing fast times in distance races. And most of the races provided a look at what would happen if everyone went hard right from the gun, which is somewhat unusual at this level.
The steeplechase went out quickly, and no one was able to sustain the early pace. Beatrice Chepkoech did the best job of hanging on, dominated the race, and finished in a meet record of 8:55.58. Emma Coburn went with the early pace, going through 1,000m in 2:56.59. Around 1900 meters into the race, she took a hard fall over a barrier, but she fought back well to take second in 9:04.90. She also pointed out post-race that it’s the third time she’s fallen in a race this year.
The other U.S. runners in the race didn’t go with the early pace, but they ran solid early-season times. Courtney Frerichs was fifth in 9:09.75, Colleen Quigley was seventh in 9:11.41, Allie Ostrander ran a personal best of 9:31.44 and Mel Lawrence ran 9:33.48.
In the 800m, Caster Semenya dominated, as expected, running a meet record of 1:55.70. Behind her, a trio of U.S. runners ran well. Ajee’ Wilson was second in 1:58.36, Raevyn Rogers was third in 1:58.65, and Hanna Green, whose name I spelled incorrectly in last week’s newsletter, had a breakthrough to finish fourth in 1:58.75, which puts her under the Olympic standard.
It’s rare that a meet has a 3,000m steeplechase and a flat 3,000m, but this one did, and it, too, was fast. Nike Oregon Project teammates Sifan Hassan (of the Netherlands) and Konstanze Klosterhalfen (of Germany) went 1–2 in 8:18.49 and 8:20.07, both under the European record. Karissa Schweizer was the lone U.S. runner in the field. She ran a personal best of 8:42.15, but finished well back, in 14th. World and Olympic 10,000m champion Almaz Ayana finished 18th of 18 runners in the field, in 8:57.16, one spot behind the University of New Mexico’s Weini Kelati (8:53.89).
The 1500m was a great showdown among some of the world’s best. Because of a maternity break, Faith Kipyegon hadn’t raced in two years, and Shelby Houlihan hadn’t raced since being diagnosed with a navicular stress reaction during the indoor season, but neither looked particularly rusty. Kipyegon won the race in 3:59.04, Laura Muir was second in 3:59.47, and Houlihan ran 3:59.64, which makes her the new U.S. leader, 0.19 seconds faster than Jenny Simpson ran two weeks ago. And both Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher had something to say about Kipyegon’s strong return from pregnancy.
Behind them, Jessica Hull, of the University of Oregon and Australia, had a fantastic race and ran a 3+ second personal best of 4:02.62 to finish seventh. Kate Grace ran a personal best of 4:02.99 for eighth. Alexa Efraimson ran 4:06.77, and Dani Jones of the University of Colorado ran a personal best of 4:07.28. (Results)
USATF botches Pan Am Games team selection
USA Track & Field announced the U.S. teams for the Pan American Games last week, and this should have been a one-sentence news item, but now it’s turned into quite the debacle. The event takes place in Lima, Peru, with the marathon on July 27 and everything else August 4–11.
Normally the rosters for such an event, minus the marathon squad, would be decided at the USATF Championships. But the Championships are too late this year, so USATF had to rely on descending order lists instead.
The selection criteria seemed straightforward, but the team initially announced did not adhere to the selection criteria. When that was pointed out to USATF, they changed who was on the team and updated their press release, almost as if they were hoping no one would notice. But people did notice, of course, especially the affected athletes, who weren’t all notified in advance of the change. Eric Avila, who was initially selected for the 1500m team, found out he was off the team via social media.
The story has only gotten more complicated since then, and LetsRun is on it. (Because I criticize them when they deserve it, I must also give credit where credit is due. I appreciate LetsRun making noise about this issue, because it’s important that our governing body have some accountability.)
The latest update from LetsRun focuses entirely on the men’s roster. A previous article from included a message from steeplechaser Marissa Howard, who would have been selected for the team, had USATF stuck to its originally published criteria.
Either the women’s side is less affected, they’ve decided not to fight it, or they’re just not communicating with LetsRun about it. When I asked about this on Twitter, Howard responded that she has decided not to pursue it. “It’s not fair but it is what it is. I don’t have the funds to pursue legal action, nor do I want to. It’s not how we should have to get on a team,” she tweeted.
USATF also botched the selection of the Pan Am Games team in 2015, and USATF CEO Max Siegel assured Tyler McCandless that the organization was putting policies in place that would prevent such a thing from happening again.
Oregon-based writer Ken Goe says maybe it’s time for different leadership at USATF, but I think there’s no maybe about it at this point. And thank goodness that we normally select our teams through a trials process.
Jenny Simpson shares the lessons she’s learned
In recent weeks, Jenny Simpson has doubled the number of podcasts she’s ever been on (to six, total, over a long career). I was very happy to see that she was on Lindsey Hein’s podcast last week, and she was great, as always.
Simpson’s professionalism and maturity stood out in her conversation with Hein. She doesn’t always have it all figured out and things don’t always go her way, but she has seemed to learn from her experiences and use those lessons going forward. She’s meticulous in her planning but also seems to know how to relax, have fun, and adapt.
I remember talking to her at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 2003 and 2004, when she was 17 and 18. I don’t remember a thing she said, and she didn’t win either race, but I do remember thinking she was headed for more success. It was something about her attitude, poise, maturity, and outlook on the sport, and I’m sure many others would have predicted it as well after spending a few minutes with her. And in looking to see if I could quickly find proof of how poised she was back then, I found this and thought it was interesting that she and Allie Kieffer were Foot Locker roommates in 2003.
And speaking of being able to predict Simpson’s future success, she was on another podcast last week as well. She comes in around the 14:20 mark, and one of the hosts knew her as a child. She briefly talks about people who say they saw her potential when she was little and that she was destined for greatness (and rolling her eyes when she hears that), but sorry, Jenny, you probably hear that a lot because we knew.
Other results
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Grayson Murphy of HOKA NAZ Elite hopped in her first trail race on Saturday and she finished second, between accomplished trail runners Morgan Arritola and Anna Mae Flynn.
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At the Princeton Qualifier on Sunday night, Olivia Baker won the 800m in 2:01.21 and Lindsey Butterworth, Heather MacLean, and Julia Rizk all ran under 2:02 as well. Laura Rose Donegan of the Battle Road Track Club ran a solo 9:38.75 steeple and dipped under the World Championships standard. And Lauren Johnson won the 1500m in 4:09.81, ahead of Josette Norris (4:10.82). (Results)
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University of Colorado All-American Makena Morley won the Missoula Half Marathon for the fourth year in a row and set a new course record of 1:14:29. (This race preview reviews her year at CU.)
Other news
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Brenda Martinez had an emergency appendectomy last week, with doctor’s orders not to run for two weeks, but she appears to be recovering well.
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I’ve written about the overemphasis on fast high school girls who burn out. In focusing on that, we forget about the many runners who ran very well in high school and continue to do so as pros. Sara Hall, Jordan Hasay, Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson, Shalane Flanagan, Emily Infeld, Shelby Houlihan, Ajee’ Wilson...the list goes on. It’s not always a straight path to success, but that is nearly universally true in running. That’s why I really appreciated this story that Fast Women editor Sarah Lorge Butler wrote for Runner’s World last week about Alexa Efraimson. She went pro five years ago, at age 17, and she’s doing well. Let’s talk about that.
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Former University of Arizona runner Addi Zerrenner, 23, ran 2:37:51 in her first marathon at Grandma’s Marathon last weekend. Zerrenner qualified for the Olympic Trials, and raised money for cancer research in honor of Gabe Grunewald.
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In trying to quickly look for Jenny Simpson, then Barringer, content from 2003-4, I went way down a rabbit hole and started looking at fast-women interviews on archive.org. It was fun to look back with knowledge of the future and interesting just to see who was included in there. We had an all-star lineup of writers conducting the interviews (which would now probably just be a mixed zone interview on Flotrack or a podcast episode). And speaking of podcast episodes, I’m bummed that Gordon Bakoulis’ audio interview with Joan Benoit Samuelson linked on that page isn’t archived there (though who knows, maybe it’s on a hard drive somewhere). I guess we were too far ahead of our time with the whole podcasting thing.
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This is sponsored content but also an interesting Allie Kieffer video. (But I can't be the only person to watch this and wonder about reflective gear and a helmet.)
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I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that Clare Elms set a pending world record in the women's 55–59 mile on June 21, running 5:12.64. The following day, Ireland's Anne Gilshinan bettered her own 1500m WR in the same age group, running 4:41.46.
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Tina Muir had good timing in having newly-crowned Western States champion Clare Gallagher as a guest on her podcast last week. They mostly talked about Gallagher’s environmental activism, and not as much about her running, but the episode was evidence of how well Gallagher uses her platform to make the world a better place.
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Nell Rojas says she’ll try to make the 2020 Olympic team in the marathon, but she’s placing more of her hope on 2024. And she’s just thankful that her marathon success means she doesn’t have to focus on triathlon anymore.
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Agent Dan Lilot tweeted that the IAAF is open to granting Olympic Trials races Gold Label status. It’s not clear if this will happen in the U.S., but if it were to happen, it would mean that the top three runners from our Olympic Marathon Trials would make the Olympic team, which is the most desirable outcome. As things currently stand, someone could theoretically finish in the top three at the Trials and not make the team, because he or she does not have the Olympic standard of 2:11:30 for men or 2:29:30 for women. This is less likely to happen on the women’s side, because more U.S. women have the Olympic standard. But right now, all anyone can do is run fast and wait and see how it all plays out.
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I haven’t seen an official announcement of anything, but Danny Mackey, coach of the Brooks Beasts, has been posting content in his Instagram stories with 2017 NCAA Indoor mile champion Karisa Nelson working out with the team.
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Erin Finn has a new website and she wrote about learning to trust and listen to her body.
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Johanna Gretschel writes that coming out made Nikki Hiltz the runner she is today. Hiltz addresses the negativity she has encountered on social media. “You know how basketball players or other athletes always say, ‘Thank you to my haters, you’re the ones who motivate me’? I never got that. And now, oh shit, I get it. I’m so fired up...I feel like I’m on a whole new level of motivation to change the world.”
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Kathrine Switzer’s memoir, Marathon Woman, is being turned into a movie, which will be released some time in the next five years. It should be interesting to see who plays her. (Runner’s World)
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As of last week, there are officially 341 women qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials, which is far more than have ever competed at a U.S. Trials race, and we still have 5+ months to go, with another CIM in there (the event that traditionally produces the most qualifiers).
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When I posted this article about the importance of photographing women in sports, I expected it to get maybe five likes on Twitter, but instead it got 300+, so clearly something about it resonated it with people.
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The women’s mile race at the Herculis meeting in Monaco July 12 will be called the Brave Like Gabe Mile, in honor of Gabe Grunewald. The IAAF announced last week that Genzebe Dibaba, Beatrice Chepkoech, and Sifan Hassan will all take part.
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She only just graduated from high school, but I became a big Maya Stovall fan after reading her piece about growth and performance back in January. (If you haven’t read it, I recommend it.) Last week, she published another essay, about overcoming burnout, which is also good.
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Chris Miltenberg is leaving his position as director of cross country and track & field at Stanford to take on the same role at the UNC. This could have a ripple effect as Stanford now has a major position to fill.
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Taylor Dutch writes about Pat Smythe-Conill, who was the first women’s winner of the Western States Endurance Run, in 1978 (Runner’s World)
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Caster Semenya competed in the 800m at the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday, but last week, the IAAF submitted its case to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, explaining why our sport’s governing body doesn’t believe she should be allowed to compete without lowering her testosterone level.
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Merrell put out this 15-minute video about ultrarunner Anna Frost transitioning into motherhood. And that, sponsors, is how you can celebrate a pregnant athlete, instead of treating her as a liability.
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Josette Norris is seeking a pro contract after finishing fourth in the 5,000m at NCAAs.
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Lyndy Davis got pregnant a month after she qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials. In this post on the Oiselle blog, she opens up about her struggle with postpartum depression.
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You may have seen lots of articles last week about a microbe found in the gut of Boston Marathoners that could put the performance-enhancing capabilities of the Vaporflys to shame. My go-to what-does-this-actually-mean source for such things is Alex Hutchinson, and here’s what he had to say on the subject.
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Johanna Gretschel wrote an article with some good follow-up from Allie Ostrander, regarding her Instagram post about TV (and in-stadium) commentary that focuses on her appearance.
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The U.S. team for the WMRA International U18 Mountain Running Cup was announced last week, and I mostly just love that this opportunity exists for young runners.
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The parents of Lauren McCluskey, the University of Utah track & field athlete who was murdered on campus last year, are suing the school, saying campus officials should have done more to protect her after she expressed concern about her safety.
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Alison
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