Allie O Leaves Brooks, Takes Step Back from Pro Running

Tyler Hamilton never said his practice was a good one. It is what he did. An is is not an ought to be. But it is the reality of professional cycling.

Kobbs Hessler wrote:

She's done. Too bad because she was such a great little story from her high school days in Alaska. Tough as nails. She'll always have Doha. Best wishes to her.

I wish her the best, I always thought that eventually she would be a good Marathon runner, but it seems like she is fairly fragile. I am not sure she can handle the rigors of 80-100 miles per week. Hopefully we will see her again competing in the future.

Good for her, and nice to see positive posts on LRC.

I'm dealing with some ITB issues and taking time off running but that physical injury pales in comparison to what those dealing with ED have to go through. Empathy is a real thing.

callinguout wrote:

notabully wrote:

She also never looked like a world champion.

She actually is a World Champion.

https://www.wmra.ch/results/world-trophy-championships?id=574&year=2015&discode=3181&cat=i

I saw her at that race and was really shocked at how tiny she was, she wasn't much bigger than my daughter who was in grade one at the time. One of her teammates also mentioned she had a lot of food allergies, those were two massive red flags of an ED. She now says she engaged in extremely restrictive eating habits before, during, and after puberty, don't underestimate the amount of damage that has done to her bones, hormones, etc.

She absolutely has to step away and get healthy if she wants to run again or pursue other interests in life. It's a shame no coaches or adults were able to intervene earlier imho.

I'm failing to do that LetsRun math that because we have an obesity epidemic we can't also have Allie O suffering from an eating disorder. The former doesn't preclude the later.

She has always looked way too small to me and that, combined with the injury frequency, sure seems to point towards malnourishment. I've been running almost 3 decades and have never missed more than a few weeks due to a minor injury. It isn't normal to be hurt as often as she was.

juri wrote:

callinguout wrote:

She actually is a World Champion.

https://www.wmra.ch/results/world-trophy-championships?id=574&year=2015&discode=3181&cat=i

I saw her at that race and was really shocked at how tiny she was, she wasn't much bigger than my daughter who was in grade one at the time. One of her teammates also mentioned she had a lot of food allergies, those were two massive red flags of an ED. She now says she engaged in extremely restrictive eating habits before, during, and after puberty, don't underestimate the amount of damage that has done to her bones, hormones, etc.

She absolutely has to step away and get healthy if she wants to run again or pursue other interests in life. It's a shame no coaches or adults were able to intervene earlier imho.

Exactly right. I dated a competitive female runner who had gone through a bout of anorexia in college that hospitalized her. By the time I knew her, she had every sign of orthorexia, including a claimed digestive condition. She engaged in super restrictive intake with the cover of eating only raw, whole, non-animal foods. It was the elimination of entire classes of foods to enact firm control. I saw through it when she tearfully complained to me that having dessert once when we went out to eat had made her "fat." She was pretty prone to injury even though she rarely ran ball-buster workouts. I saw her get much worse with it after we split with her selfies on SM clearly showing diminishing body fat, could clearly see her shoulder blades and spine while she was standing still. I'd guess she's permanently damaged internal organs and hormonal systems from the extremes she pushed her body for at least a decade to achieve a look. All this is to say that you can pick up on tell-tale signs pretty easily if you're around a person enough and you know what you're looking for. College coaches like Greg Metcalf and Corey Ihmels have no good reason to not know and do better.

Running obsession is like alcohol. Some can drink a few drinks here or there but others are either sober or raging alcoholics. There’s no healthy in between.

Mentalities like her are either sober or alcoholic in their approach to running. Obsessing over every calorie you consume and it’s impact on your running is equivalent to alcoholism. It’s the genetic makeup in her mind.

Stepping away from the sport completely is certainly best. I doubt there will ever be a “comeback.” And for her overall health there probably shouldn’t be. She should explore non competitive jobs and activities in her life.

Ashley Brasovan also comes to mind as someone who stepped away to get healthy and came back to the sport. Won footlocker in 2007 (and second to Hasay in 2008), then sort of disappeared at Duke, then after taking time away has emerged as a successful pro ultra/trail runner, also running somewhere around 2:40 for the marathon (obviously not pro level at that distance but seems happy)

Da Bears wrote:

Running obsession is like alcohol. Some can drink a few drinks here or there but others are either sober or raging alcoholics. There’s no healthy in between.

Mentalities like her are either sober or alcoholic in their approach to running. Obsessing over every calorie you consume and it’s impact on your running is equivalent to alcoholism. It’s the genetic makeup in her mind.

Stepping away from the sport completely is certainly best. I doubt there will ever be a “comeback.” And for her overall health there probably shouldn’t be. She should explore non competitive jobs and activities in her life.

To a degree. While there's certainly some strong innate underpinnings, obsession like perfectionism can have good if not great outcomes if channeled the right way. See Tom Brady or Meb. It often goes the other way and shortens careers, we've all see it. It can be nurtured to be beneficial. But that's just it, it takes really intentional work, support, and boundaries from your biggest proponents. If everyone around you feels awkward to confront you about even small things then it's all going to slide down a slippery slope until you hit your bottom and have to cry for help.

Eating disorder? Probably. Injured all of her pro career? Yes.

But no one has connected her boyfriend’s YouTube stint with the Beasts coming to an end and her leaving a month later 🤔

Chiming in to say the dude defending Tyler Hamilton is absolutely deranged. That guy was disordered on MANY levels.

If anything he’s a perfect example of what NOT to do as a pro endurance athlete, like.. you cannot be serious with that. Yikes.

I've seen better advice and perspectives on dieting and weight-related health concerns discussed by people who are involuntarily committed for their eating disorder than I have on LRC. This place is toxic in general, but it's particularly bad where RED-S and EDs are concerned, doubly so for female athletes.

... I'm trying to say this nicely... what the deuce?

Allie has a raging eating disorder which most (mainly females ) seem to deal or grow out of it when they reach their college years ( not 25 or 26 )

What? Do you think Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey have eating disorders too? Because they had to trim to be underweight for specific movie roles in the past.

Hope she can get the help she needs.

Surprised no one has mentioned anything about Boise State… rumors of a toxic team culture and eating disorders for years.

After failing to make nationals this year it doesn’t look like the eating issues and toxic team culture are bringing them much success. Wonder what Allie O could have done in her professional career if she went somewhere else.