Fast Women: An epic weekend of racing for all ages
Wins for Kelati, Morris, Born, Hedengren, Jepkosgei, and more.
Issue 384
What an incredible weekend of racing. Truly. As I sit here on Sunday afternoon, getting ready to write about some of it, I know there’s no way I’m going to do it justice. This weekend was a fantastic demonstration of the strength of women’s distance running at many levels. The thing that strikes me the most isn’t that the top runners are running quicker than ever. There is certainly some of that, too. But where I see the biggest difference is in the depth of the results.
These days, it doesn’t always matter who the big names are going into a race, because there are many people right behind them, nipping at their heels. We saw it at CIM, where debut marathoners took first and third. We saw it at the USATF Cross Country Championships where there were some surprises in who did and didn’t make the team. And we saw it at BU, where an already deep meet became even deeper.
When I made the decision seven years ago to put this newsletter out first thing on Monday mornings, it made it much harder for me to actually attend events. This weekend, I spent all of Saturday at Boston University, where many of the NCAA’s top runners were racing. It was a great opportunity to get photos I can use in the year to come. But it didn’t get me any closer to a finished newsletter (and it left me with thousands of photos to edit). So if I miss things or if the coverage seems lopsided, that might be because some of it was written earlier in the week and some of it was written in a rush. But I’ve done the best I could with the time I had.
Weini Kelati, Gracie Morris will lead Team USA to Tallahassee
I spent Saturday afternoon trying to ignore what was happening at the USATF Cross Country Championships as much as possible so that I could be surprised when I watched the coverage. And the race was a bit surprising. This team was always going to be hard to guess, because you never know where anyone’s fitness is going to be in December. But had I guessed, I would have been wrong.
Fourteen minutes into the 10K race, Weini Kelati made a move that only Katie Izzo and Ednah Kurgat could match. In the sixth kilometer, they dropped Kurgat, and in the seventh kilometer, Kelati pulled away from Izzo for good. On the extremely muddy Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon, Kelati ran 33:45.5 for 10K, Izzo took second in 34:00.9, and Kurgat was third in 34:09.9.
Karissa Schweizer was the strongest of the chasers, taking fourth in 34:16.2. Emily Venters was fifth (34:20.7). And NC State’s Grace Hartman took sixth in 34:25.7 and grabbed the final spot on the World Championship team.
It was not a surprise that Kelati ran well. But at the end of a year that had some trying moments for Kelati, it was great to see her lead the way and earn another national title. She finished 14th at World Cross in 2024, and she knows how to compete well at that level. I was really impressed by Izzo here. I think this was the best race of her pro career. It was already clear that she had a knack for cross country, but it was fun to see her have a really big race when it counted.
Kurgat has won national titles in cross country at the pro and NCAA level, so we knew she was good at cross country, too. She has just raced sparingly the past two years, so I didn’t know what to expect from her. It was no surprise to see Schweizer make another team. And after a tough fall, including her challenging marathon debut in Chicago, Venters had a strong day. And it didn’t surprise me in the least that Hartman, who was coming off a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, made the team. But it was fun to see.
Elise Stearns (seventh, 34:33.1) and Allie Ostrander (eighth, 34:34.4) ran well but just missed out on the team. There were a number of people who I thought could make the team but didn’t. The most surprising was Shelby Houlihan who finished 20th in 35:34.5. It sounds like she didn’t have a lot of time to get ready after taking a decent break after Worlds, but also, some people’s strides do better in mud than others. So in the case of people who struggled, I’m not reading too far into it. Also, it’s December.
If I had more time and space, I’d say more about the 2K. This was the first time the U.S. held a Trials race to select the team for the mixed relay at World Cross, and I hope they’ll keep doing so, because it was fun to watch. After winning the Fifth Avenue Mile at the end of last season, Gracie Morris started off the season with another win, running 6:19.4. And Sage Hurta Klecker kept the good vibes from last season rolling, making her second-consecutive U.S. team and running 6:22.9. I was also impressed by Annika Reiss, who finished third. She missed the team by 0.2 seconds, but she also ran really well.
Duke’s Victoria Garces won the U20 6K and will lead the U.S. team at worlds. Michigan high school sophomore Natasza Dudek won NXN in 16:50.1. Her sister, Zofia, won Foot Locker in 2019. Along with the top five in the U20 race, Dudek will represent the U.S. in the U20 race at Worlds. Update: Dudek represents Poland, so runner-up Blair Bartlett will actually get the U.S. world cross spot.
And on Sunday, Renee Metivier won the masters 6K race in 22:58.9. I thought it was great having everything from NXN to masters nationals in the same place, and the coverage was good.
(USATF XC Results | NXN Results | 10K Replay | 2K Replay | U20 6K Replay | Masters 6K Replay | NXN Replay | Post-race Interviews)
Molly Born finds her distance, wins her debut marathon at CIM
Fifteen miles into Sunday’s California International Marathon, Megan Sailor of the B.A.A. High Performance Team moved to the front of the pack, and the field quickly went from six to four. Also up front were Puma Elite’s Molly Born, Biruktayit Degefa, and Sara Hall.
In the 18th mile, Degefa dropped back, in the 19th mile, Hall dropped back slightly, and in the 20th mile, Born made a big move and left everyone, including the men in the pack, behind. Born, 26, ran solo for the final six-plus miles. But with about a mile to go, she began to struggle. She kept moving at a decent pace though, until, within 15 seconds of the finish line, she fell to the ground. She got up quickly and, on wobbly legs, won her debut marathon and first national title in a course record of 2:24:09.
Hall, 42, closed well in the last 2.2K, passing Sailor, cutting into Born’s lead, and finishing second in 2:24:36. Sailor, 28, had a strong debut, finishing third in 2:25:16. Degefa, 35, dropped back to 11th place, but she ran 2:30:38 and earned her Trials qualifier.
Born’s win was a little reminiscent of her teammate Fiona O’Keeffe’s victory in her marathon debut at the 2024 Olympic Trials. “I’m really grateful to have such great coaches and teammates. I think that’s what has propelled me to this level right away,” Born told USATF TV afterward. “[They have] figured it out, and they tell me what to do, and I just do what they say.”
The race up front was exciting, but the most emotional part of the day was watching all the women finishing under 2:37:00 and celebrating qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
In addition to the top three the following athletes qualified for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials: Lindsey Bradley (2:28:41), Maya Weigel (2:28:44), Rebecca Schmitt (2:28:46), Madey Dickson (2:28:55), Kodi Kleven (2:29:17), Anne-Marie Blaney (2:29:21), Tessa Barrett (2:30:10), Biruktayit Degefa (2:30:38), Annie Heffernan (2:38:51), Hannah Branch (2:30:55), Jessa Hanson (2:31:21), Kathryn Fluehr (2:31:58), Sara Lopez (2:32:18), Sarah Reiter (2:32:37), Erin McDonald (2:32:50), Jenny Grimshaw (2:32:50), Breanna Sieracki (2:32:51), Elizabeth Chikotas (2:33:55), Camila Noe (2:34:10), Sara Passani (2:34:19), Clara Mayfield (2:34:25), Dani Barrett (2:34:27), Claire Benjamin (2:35:36), Morgan Jensen (2:35:40), Rachel Hyland (2:35:41), Heather Kampf (2:35:41), Jennifer Pope (2:35:47), Sophie Payne (2:35:47), Jen Odenheimer (2:35:48), Leigh Sharek (2:35:48), Katie Kellner (2:35:51), Julia Giguere (2:35:56), Melissa Berry (2:35:57), Abigail Morro (2:36:03), Stephanie Rouse (2:36:05), Keelah Barger (2:36:06), Izzi Gengaro (2:36:07), Caitlin Phillips (2:36:07), Alosha Southern (2:36:10), Theresa Hailey (2:36:11), Andrea Masterson (2:36:14), Madeline Block (2:36:25), Courtney Alama (2:36:27), Hannah Chau (2:36:27), Margaret Vido (2:36:28), Amanda Beach-Theodore (2:36:31), Molly Maksin (2:36:38), Bridget Blum (2:36:41), Lisa Goodin (2:36:46), Diane Neubauer (2:36:48), and Sarah Czuprynski (2:36:52).
There were 54 qualifiers in total, plus Canada’s Carolyn Buchanan, who ran 2:32:51. And right behind them, there were more incredibly fast women, including Courtney Dauwalter, who PRed by 11 minutes and ran 2:38:54. (I think these are all chip times, for the record, so some of the official times might be slightly slower.)
And I was particularly happy to see Tessa Barrett get her qualifier. She’s the runner who won October’s Marine Corps Marathon in an event record of 2:34:11, but her time didn’t count because the race is not USATF sanctioned. So she kept training, ran 2:30:10, took four minutes off of her PR, and now she’s officially an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier.
The depth in the women’s field was amazing; 105 athletes broke 2:45, and 255 broke 3:00. (Leaderboard | Complete results, which have been very slow to load, in my experience)
In her first college track race, Jane Hedengren takes down the collegiate 5,000m record
For the third year in a row, the collegiate indoor 5,000m record has fallen at Boston University’s Sharon Colyear Danville Season Opener. The timing is appealing for many athletes. They can use their cross country fitness to run a fast 5,000m the first weekend in December, get their nationals qualifier out of the way, take a break in the coming weeks, and then not run the event again until championship season.
And when you put the top athletes in the NCAA on a track together, records tend to fall. NCAA cross country champion Doris Lemngole of Alabama opted to pass on the BU meet this year, and in her absence, BYU freshman Jane Hedengren won the 5,000m in 14:44.79 and took 7.78 seconds off of the record Lemngole set last year. Her time also puts her second on the U.S. all-time list indoors. Hedengren’s teammate, Riley Chamberlain, finished second in a big PR of 14:58.97, which puts her sixth on the collegiate all-time indoor list.
Hedengren followed pacer Ellie Leather through 1800m before striking out on her own. New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei went with Hedengren, but dropped off after two miles. After hitting 3,000m in 8:59.01, roughly 3:00 per kilometer, Hedengren ran her last two kilometers in 2:56.03 and 2:49.75. Kosgei finished third in 15:05.41.
Also impressive in the 5,000m were Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi (fourth, 15:08.61), Notre Dame’s Mary Bonner Dalton (who was fifth in 15:11.31 and broke Molly Seidel’s school record), West Virginia’s Joy Naukot (sixth, 15:11.91, breaking her own school record), Florida’s Judy Chepkoech (15:12.57), North Dakota’s Jadyn Keeler (eighth, 15:14.76, improving her own school record). Sixty women broke 16:00 in the 5,000m, which is 10 more than last year.
South Carolina’s Salma Elbadra won the 3,000m in 8:41.76, which puts her fifth on the collegiate all-time indoor list. And I’ve kind of buried the lede here because also in the 3,000m, Michelle Rohl, 60, set a world 60-64 age-group record of 10:41.68. Rohl is a three-time Olympian in the race walk, and I love watching her hold her own at college meets.
This is mostly a distance-focused meet. There will be more depth in the middle distances later in the season. But I was impressed by Penn State’s Tayissa Buchanan who ran 2:02.67, a big PR, to win the 800m. And Helen Braybrook of CSU-Pueblo, who ran an NCAA Division II indoor record of 4:30.03 in winning the mile. (Results)
In Valencia, Jepkosgei and Jepchirchir move to fourth and sixth all-time, and race raises questions about the use of pacers
Early Sunday morning, Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei won the Valencia Marathon in 2:14:00 (5:06/mile), which moved her fourth on the world all-time list, behind only Ruth Chepngetich, Tigst Assefa, and Sifan Hassan.
Jepkosgei had a good battle with world champion Peres Jepchirchir, also of Kenya, for nearly 40K, before breaking away. Jepchirchir finished second in 2:14:43, a 93-second personal best that moves her to sixth all time. It’s also the fastest non-winning time in history.
About 5K earlier, it looked like it was going to be Jepchirchir’s day. Shortly before 35K, she began to pull away, but she quickly seemed to think better of it, and she went back to run with Jepkosgei and her pacer.
Much of the time, pacers are hired by race organizers, so the pacer will go with whomever is leading the race. But in this case, it sounds like each athlete had brought her own pacer. And Jepchirchir’s pacer dropped out shortly after 30K, so when she made her move, the only remaining pacer stayed back with Jepkosgei. It’s not clear if Jepchirchir was aware that was what would happen when she took off, or how much that factored into her decision to ultimately hang back. But this did seem like a situation where the presence of a pacer (and the absence of another) may have affected the outcome of the race.
Everything that happened was completely within the rules, and it’s entirely likely Jepkosgei was going to win either way. It just raises questions about whether there’s a better way to do things.
Jepkosgei went through halfway in 1:06:34 and ran the second half in 1:07:26. She took 2:24 off of her personal best and earned €75,000 for the win (about $87,000), plus an additional €30,000 (about $35,000) for breaking the course record.
Behind the lead duo, a number of national records went down. Chloé Herbiet took third and set a Belgian record of 2:20:38. Alisa Vainio took fourth in a Finnish record of 2:20:48, Jess Stenson was fifth in an Australian record of 2:21:24, Julia Mayer was 14th in an Austrian record of 2:26:08, and Santoshi Shrestha improved her Nepalese record to 2:40:23. (Thanks to Marathon News for sharing that last one; I would have missed it.) Update: Race organizers sent out an email today that indicated that Chad’s Bibiro Ali Taher also set a national record of 2:46:41.
Emma Bates, who was managing her expectations going in, after her hemochromatosis diagnosis, finished 13th in 2:25:51. “Really proud of this one,” she wrote in an Instagram story after the race. Keira D’Amato was the next U.S. runner across the line, finishing 21st in 2:28:14. Neither of them had a qualifier for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials yet, so they got that out of the way.
Joining them in qualifying for the Trials were Kidan Kidane (2:33:05), Maddie Offstein (2:33:27), and Allie Schaich (2:35:51).
I was also impressed by Canada’s Malindi Elmore, who finished 12th in 2:24:53. She ran her third-fastest time ever at age 45. (Results)
A call for submissions: Shout out someone amazing in the running community
It’s been a tough year in so many ways, and partially to offset that, I want to highlight some of the people doing great things in the sport in an upcoming issue of Fast Women. Whether it’s your running partner, your coach, a volunteer, a race director, someone who works in the industry, or someone else, I’d love to hear who you think deserves some recognition for who they are or what they do, for reasons both big and small.
I will share some of the submissions, in your words. Nominees (and nominators) can be any gender, but preference will be given to those who do at least some of their work with women and/or nonbinary athletes. To nominate someone, please fill out this form. And if you’re on the fence because you think your nominee won’t make the cut, or that someone else already nominated them, please go for it anyway. Thank you. I think this could be fun.
Other News
In the past two weeks I have learned that 1) Skimo is a new Olympic sport, 2) Track and trail star Anna Gibson is really good at it, and 3) Team USA’s hopes of going to the Olympics were partially riding on Gibson. Gibson and her skimo partner Cam Smith had to beat Canada in the mixed relay at a World Cup race on Saturday. And not only did they do that, but they also won the whole race. (You can watch it here.) And now they’ll go into the Olympics as medal contenders. For most people, this would sound like something out of a wild dream—realizing you were good at an Olympic sport that wasn’t even your primary sport and Team USA needed you—but for Gibson, it’s reality. And almost everything I know about this and skimo comes from Max Valverde’s reels. This one explains what happened on Saturday, and this one explains how Gibson ended up in this position.
The Athletic published a nice article (paywall) about record-breaking ultra runner Anne Flower, who also works as an ER doctor.
The full Marathon Project field is out now. It includes Kellyn Taylor, Paige Wood, Germany’s Blanka Dörfel, Molly Grabill, Jane Bareikis, Sweden’s Hanna Lindholm, and Peru’s Mica Wood. The race takes place December 21.
Eight months after she was hit head-on by a car while riding her bike, Furman’s Camryn Wennersten returned to the track on Friday, winning the mile at the Clemson Opener in 4:49.87.
The Broken Arrow Skyrace announced last week that its 2026 edition will offer $150,000 in prize money, one of the biggest prize purses in the sport, thanks to a sponsorship from Nike. That includes $30,000 for each of the winners of the 23K race. The increased investment is a step forward and it’s nice to see athletes get paid, but the more money that comes in, the more important it is for the sport to have strong anti-doping measures. With so few of the competitors being tested out of competition, large prize purses make trail running more vulnerable to cheating. But also, I really appreciate everything the race is doing to encourage adaptive, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and nonbinary runners to participate, details at the link. The race takes place June 18-21.
USATF announced the 17 events that will make up the inaugural USATF Tour in 2026. The meets are independently operated, but USATF will provide support for the events.
I appreciate the good work Under Armour does in sponsoring and employing some great people in the sport. But I’m also scratching my head at last week’s announcement that they are partnering with IMG Academy to hold another high school national meet, which will be held the last weekend of May. If it enables kids who otherwise couldn’t get to a national meet to compete, cool. But the more companies that hold national championships, the more diluted the fields become.
It’s been apparent for a while, but last week, UA Mission Run Baltimore 800 announced that they’ve added Kassidy Johnson, who has run 2:00.78, to the team.
Alex Carlson, formerly of Rutgers and NAU, announced that she has signed with Adidas, and she’ll remain in Flagstaff and be coached by Terrence Mahon and Jen Rhines.
From this piece, I learned that Penn State’s Florence Caron was previously a cheerleader and she didn’t take up running until the pandemic. Now she’s a 15:25 5,000m runner.
Podcast Highlights
I really enjoyed hearing from longtime NC State coach Laurie Henes on Fast People after the team won its fourth NCAA cross country title in five years. And I appreciated her advice for working with young girls who love to run. “My biggest advice is really try to let them go through puberty before they train at a really high level, because sometimes that just delays it.” (I also appreciated Diljeet Taylor reposting the second image in this post, saying she agrees 100 percent. Among the NCAA’s top two coaches, it’s unanimous.) Her comments are worth listening to in context, and she had many other good things to say as well. I particularly appreciate NC State’s emphasis on the fact that everyone, not just the top seven runners, contributes to the team’s performance. The best coaches I worked with over the years fully understood that and knew how to convey it well.
Sara Hall was good on C Tolle Run.
I continue to appreciate the Mangonada podcast tremendously. In the latest episode, hosts Carolina Rubio-MacWright and Vanessa Chavarriaga Podada talked about the latest immigration policy changes and Rubio-MacWright’s frustration over the lack of intersectionality in many of the conversations that took place at The Running Event last week. It made me emotional listening to Rubio-MacWright, who is an immigration lawyer, speak so matter-of-factly about the danger they are putting themselves in by continuing to speak out and do the work they do.
I appreciated agent Kelly Newlon’s insights about athlete sponsorship on Second Nature. She works with trail runners, but much of the discussion is relevant across the board.
I appreciated Elise Cranny saying on The Zone 2 Podcast that when athletes are injury-free and they’re running well, it can be easy to overlook REDs. She said that was her experience at the start of college, but she wasn’t getting regular periods and it caught up to her eventually.
The IAU 50K World Championships were supposed to take place over the weekend in Delhi, India, but the race was postponed until March 14, 2026 a couple weeks out, due to poor air quality. Four of the six team members and the team leaders went on Women of Distance to discuss how the change affects them, share some of the challenges of representing the U.S. in these events (including the fact that many of their travel costs aren’t covered), and express their concern about the event regularly being held India, which they say has endangered the participants.
Additional Episodes: I was interested to hear on The Shakeout Podcast that Canada’s Ceili McCabe is still training in West Virginia under her college coach, Sean Cleary | Canada’s Natasha Wodak was on an episode of Now or Never titled, “So you screwed up. Now what?” Her segment comes around the 31:30 mark | Emily Mackay on The Running Effect | Anne-Marie Blaney on Conversation Pace with FRE | NCAA DIII XC champion Audrey MacLean of Middlebury on D3 Glory Days (She’s studying abroad in the coming semester. It happens in all divisions, but I’ve long appreciated the balance Division III often offers.) | Canada’s Jade Belzberg on Women of Distance | Notre Dame’s Sophie Novak on The Kick: A Runner’s Podcast | On her podcast, Spiked and Psyched, Val Constien said she pulled out of the USATF XC Championships because she missed a couple weeks of training due to a viral infection that caused her ankles and knees to swell up. She’s back at it now, but the timing of the setback affected her decision.
I woke up to watch the Valencia Marathon around 3:30 a.m. (live is always more fun) and I never went back to sleep, so it’s been a long day at the end of a long weekend. I love having so many things to follow, but I’m also glad the competition calendar is going to be a little quieter for a while now.
Thanks to all of you who help keep this newsletter going with your support via Venmo or Patreon. I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
Thank you for sharing the names and times of all the amazing women who got their OTQ at CIM; it was awesome to read through the whole, wonderfully long list! And three cheers for CIM for really focusing on making this opportunity available every Olympic cycle. But most of all, congrats to the badass women who just keep getting faster every time the bar is raised!
You are amazing and we so appreciate you! Thank you for all that you do at Fast Women and also at Fast People! 👏