Molly Seidel second female at Speedgoat 28k today

This is a weird thread. 28Km in 3:49 is 13 min/mile. She was basically hiking fast. Completely different effort than running a 6K at 5 min/mile. When pros run these races, it is usually just to have fun, maybe she had some friend running. Good for her, I hope she enjoyed. It is not like jogging 17 miles is going to have a significant impact on the fitness of someone used to clock 110 Miles/week.

Oh spare me. 13min/mile with 5850' of elevation gain is not "hiking fast". Even Strava's very dubious grade adjusted pace formula (which falls apart on anything halfway technical) says it's the equivalent of 8:52/mile. It's a legit effort.

This is a running message board. The whole point of the site is to discus running, professional runners, professional races, etc. Most of us really want to see a successful American marathoner. She has shown us glimpses of that, but her training and behavior since Tokyo has been bizarre to say the least, and that is totally worth discussing.

If we can have a 70+ page thread criticizing some youtube goof's training methods and odd personal behavior, it's perfectly reasonable to spend a few pages talking about the same thing with regards to a professional runner and Olympic medalist.

Go do a run with 6k+ feet of gain, on technical trails, at 10k' elevation.

You won't walk for a week.

Whatever, 17 miles at 8:52 mile equivalent, unless the footing was utterly awful (and from the course description, it does not looks like the course was particularly difficult), is not an all-out effort for a professional marathoner.

Whatever, I have been doing this 6 days in a row just last week: between 8K and 13K feet, between 10 and 20 miles on pretty awful trails and usually between 3K and 6K elevation gain. A nice beer, a dip in the SPA and the next day I am ready to go again.
BTW, as a comparison, Courtney Dauwalter has been averaging 15 min/mile over 100 miles at the HardRock 100. Her first 15.4 miles with 7000+ feet elevation gain and a net gain of 2000+ feet were run in 3:44. No way Molly was going all-out.

Eh, I don't think doing a lower intensity trail race is that bad of an idea. I have been severely anemic (like, hemoglobin took a big hit) and iron deficient before. Doing lower intensity, longer activities was fine, doing middle distance/anaerobic stuff was impossible and demoralizing. When I was super anemic I was mostly too tired to do anything but once I started getting a bit better with supplements I found going on longer bike rides to be good. However if I encountered a steep hill, that was trouble since you can't take a steep hill easy on a bike. Power hiking was also fun the other time this happened (when I lived out west).

Doing road or track races where you have more ability to judge yourself based on your splits isn't great. A big part of being anemic/iron deficient is psychological... you get worried when you feel terrible and seeing bad splits can be stressful. Doing a race where you have no expectations because it's trail and an off-distance is a good way to get some work in without feeling like you're unfit/behind. You can also focus more on the effort itself and make sure you're staying within the bounds.

I never claimed she was going all out, only that your "hiking fast" comment is absurd. And that 8:52 equivalent would be assuming its on paved roads or similar. What part of the course description do you think is not particularly difficult?

Image:i.ibb.co/W59B6sc/Screenshot-Capture-20...

What part of this looks easy?

For a trail course, most of it looks fairly easy. I am talking about terrain, not elevation gain. As far as I can tell, the course runs mostly on dirt roads and on ski trails, so it does not look very challenging. As far as I can tell, there are no river crossings, exposed rocky ridges or areas where you need to use your hands. "Hiking fast" may be an overstatement, but up to 15 min/miles, you are still walking. Again, my point is that for Molly this was a fun run, not a serious racing effort, and I won't read too much into it.

You dont know what youre talking about. Sometimes the trail looks clear in terms of footing. However, while seemingly paved it is actually quite hard with big stones jutting out of the hard ground and many technical maneuvers required to go up a most basic incline. Youre not just running, youre almost jumping side to side as you run up.

Y'all comparing Molly to Lebron? Now she's hit the big time ...

Maybe a slow trail race is no big deal overall, but in light of anemia and her other common injuries not sure how it's helpful when she's trying to get into a major race in the fall.

Not so much side-to-side distance, but you lose a ton of the spring that give you (relatively) free speed on smooth surfaces because you need to brace for impact on the lumpy portions, your foot is planted awkwardly, cadence slows down, etc. At 0:33 in the video below everyone would be much slower compared to running on a smooth surface (unless you are a mountain goat).

On the less lumpy parts, on this course, it looks like loose gravel on the surface also causes shoe slip and a degree of insecurity on the downhills that slow things down.

So where is Mr. Pulmonary Emboli to chime in on this. Doctors still baffled? Ok.

There was a Spanish marathon runner banned for 6 months for a fake bib / bin swap / not running as themselves!

You're so awesome, super duper! Those meannie mods :(

Way to go Jan👏

Molly Shapiro on the elite list for the Chicago Marathon, Oct 2023.

Over/Under for DNF?

DNF? Molly would much more likely have a DNS

It'd be fun to watch Molly Seidel in top form shake it up with the rest of the field at the trials again. Hopefully she can figure it out.