Congrats to Elle Purrier St. Pierre! First at the 2022 Milrose Wanamaker Mile in 4:19.3!!

Hey Flagpole! Thanks for the note - I appreciate it. It is like a time capsule, isn't it? Also, very prescient (and thoughtful, too - thank you) of you to understand that seeing me on here may not be the greatest (simply because it is a change). Things are OK. :). I primarily got back to lurking at first because this kid I coached who is now doing well collegiately (yay!) was talking about all these new runners, and I wasn't really sure who all was who... It was weird! Then, I decided to lose a few pounds and started running a bit more intentionally. And, then just naturally kind of found my way back. I'm very happy now to have learned mostly about who's doing what in the upper levels, and I have enjoyed myriad of reading a lot of takes on various topics of the day. As a whole, I think the board is a really good microcosm of the prevailing thoughts that are out there. (Well, I think the contentiousness of forums (with different layers of anonymity) will lean somewhat towards being a little aggressive and maybe a little more male-dominated (but maybe I'm behind the times with that opinion). Regardless, it's been cool to see you still hashing it out with a lot of rational / logical thought. And, from what I've seen, it sounds like you and yours are doing awesome, and I am very happy / hopeful to see that.)

But, I need to try to get too sucked up into the forum. I can tell it is not always the best for me as it can serve as an avenue towards escapism (for me). A little bit is ok. :)

Now, as for the topic at hand, I can certainly understand getting hyped about young prodigies who have already done so exceptionally well. And, while I myself prefer more of an "innocent until proven guilty" approach towards PEDs and all that, I get the skepticism (which, to be fair, would almost need to apply towards everyone doing well (unfortunately). BUT, I like seeing runners who have been in it for years training well with their head down and letting their performances do the talking. Also, while I absolutely respect the excellent running of the great runners from other countries, I am going to root for the USA! So, while it's totally cool with me for runners breaking into the scene to get a lot of attention (it IS fun to speculate on what they may do down the road!), if I see winners of a big race not getting any message board "love" (lol), I plan to highlight it.

With that, I'll close down this thread by noting what a terrific run it was by Elle Purrier St. Pierre (and I also thought Josette Norris really gamely hung in there as well)! I am for all the competitors to continue running and racing well!

Ha - TLDR, I agree!

Glad to hear that things are fine. Cool that you have an athlete doing well in college. I'll be posting my nonsense for a while yet. It is escapism for sure.