Fast Women: Annie Rodenfels is ready for her next chapter
Marta Alemayo, 16, runs a world U18 best in the 3,000m.
Issue 334, sponsored by PUMA
Annie Rodenfels prepares for change in 2025
As a professional runner, Annie Rodenfels is always looking ahead to her next goal. But every once in a while, it’s helpful for her to take a look back and see how far she has come. Nine years ago, she was an average Division III runner who was just starting to train consistently for the first time. Now she’s one of the country’s fastest distance runners and a three-time national champion on the roads.
“I never thought that I would be where I am running now, running the times that I am,” she told Fast Women. “So it’s good to put that into perspective.”
The most common path to professional running involves being a high school standout, excelling in the NCAA, and then signing a contract right out of college. But when Rodenfels, now 28, was in high school, she was mainly a soccer player. She did two seasons of track as a junior and senior, but she didn’t run cross country until her first year at Centre College in Kentucky. And she was new enough to the sport that it didn’t occur to her to train over the summer heading into that first season.
The signs of talent were there—she ran 5:22 for 1600m and 11:33 for 3200m off of not much training in high school—but at the time, she never could have imagined becoming a professional runner. In her first season of cross country, in the fall of 2015, her fastest 5K was a 20:02. But the following year, she began to understand the importance of putting in the work, and she improved rapidly.
By the time she graduated in 2019, Rodenfels was a seven-time All-American and three-time national champion on the track, as well as the first DIII woman to break 10:00 in the steeplechase, with a 9:58.83. “Centre gave me the perfect transition from being someone who didn’t know anything about running to being someone who cared about running to being someone who really cared about running,” she told DIII Glory Days in 2019.
Rodenfels graduated from college knowing she had a lot more in her, but it was difficult convincing any professional teams to give her a shot. She joined Greenville Track Club-Elite in South Carolina, which gave her some structure as she continued to pursue her goals, but it wasn’t until midway through 2021, when she joined the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) High Performance Team, that she became the kind of professional runner that makes a living off of the sport.
Because of her later start in the sport, Rodenfels’ “training age” lags behind that of most professional runners her age. And that has contributed to her dramatic improvement. In the five-plus years since she graduated, Rodenfels has lowered her 5,000m time from 16:35.40 to 15:03.97, her steeplechase time from 9:58.83 to 9:22.66, and her 1500m time from 4:27.89 to 4:07.33. On November 2, she earned her second consecutive win at the USATF 5K Championships, adding to the 6K title that she earned in July.
Though Rodenfels says she enjoyed many aspects of running for the B.A.A. and felt well supported by the organization, she recently announced that she has moved on. Right after her eighth-place finish in the steeplechase at the Olympic Trials at the end of June, she said she had a disagreement with the B.A.A. High Performance Team coach, Mark Carroll. Rodenfels said he suggested that she find a new coach.
Rodenfels felt caught off guard and hurt, but after thinking it through, she told the B.A.A. she would like to continue to run for them through the end of the year, when her contract ended, but she would not be moving forward with Carroll as her coach. Knowing that she might be joining a new training group in 2025, it didn’t make sense for her to hire a new coach for such a short period of time, so Rodenfels has been coaching herself and mainly training on her own since then.
With Rodenfels’ departure, only five athletes remain on the B.A.A. High Performance Team’s roster, and Bethany and Megan Hasz are the only women. Erika Kemp, who chose not to re-sign with the team when her contract expired at the end of 2022, is another high-profile athlete who has left the team relatively recently.
Rodenfels felt confident coaching herself through her summer and fall road races, but it’s been a little harder for her to figure out her training for the indoor season when so much of her future is uncertain. Getting access to indoor facilities has also been difficult at times, but the Battle Road Track Club, a local elite, post-collegiate racing team, has let her share their track time, which has also meant sometimes having company during workouts. Most of the time, she’s on her own, training through the frigid Boston winter.
For the past couple of years, Rodenfels has been a full-time runner, but once she knew she would be losing her income source, she found a job working 20 hours a week as an office manager for Wellness in Motion Boston, where many local athletes go for chiropractic care, physical therapy, and other forms of treatment. She’s been working there since August, and it has helped replace the community that she lost when she left the B.A.A. It also helped her pick up some practical skills. “Now I understand insurance pretty well,” she said.
As far as her running career, Rodenfels still doesn’t know what her next move will be. She’s open to going anywhere for the right training situation, and she’s focusing on being patient as she waits for the details to be sorted out. Until now, she has gone without an agent, but she recently hired Josh Cox to help her figure out her next steps.
“Coming from Division III, everything has been so hard. I was like, ‘For once, I just want someone else to do this for me, and help figure out my options,’” she said. “If you’re good at the end of college, you have a huge jump start if you ran Division I. I just try to be consistent, show up, and put out the best results that I can and hope that people recognize that. That’s all I can control, so that’s what I try to focus on.”
Thanks to PUMA to supporting Fast Women in January
Today is the final day to apply to be part of PUMA’s Project3, which will give participants of this year’s Boston and London Marathons the opportunity to experience many of the perks of being a professional athlete, including being eligible to earn performance-based cash prizes.
Anyone who has run 3:10 or faster and is registered to run this year’s Boston or London Marathon is eligible to apply, and PUMA will be selecting roughly equal numbers of women and men to be part of the project.
Project3 will allow 100 runners participating in each race the opportunity to prepare for race day in the same way PUMA’s elite athletes do, with exclusive access to the brand’s most innovative running products that will revolutionize the race day experience.
Other News and Links
Aliphine Tuliamuk, 35, and Emily Infeld, 34, have both signed with Brooks, and I appreciate that the company has not shied away from supporting athletes in their mid 30s and beyond. This Runner’s World article, from Sarah Lorge Butler, provides a great update on both athletes. I was interested to hear that Infeld is working with her college coach, Chris Miltenberg, again and Tuliamuk might have former NAZ Elite coach Alan Culpepper help with her training. Tuliamuk said that she wished she had been more proactive about getting help for the hamstring injury that has plagued her for more than two years. “If I had been advocating for myself all along, I probably would not be injured today,” she told Lorge Butler. “I should have taken matters into my own hands from a long time ago.”
Following her 2:22:56 marathon breakthrough in Houston, Erika Kemp went on a mini (virtual) PR tour last week. She made podcast appearances on the Ali on the Run Show, Citius Mag, and Kofuzi Run Club, and if you prefer written content, Taylor Dutch wrote about her for Runner’s World. All three podcasts were good, but here are some things that stuck with me: Kemp talked to Ali Feller about all of the good omens she encountered leading up to the race. She talked to Citius host Chris Chavez about some of her key workouts, and with Kofuzi host Michael Ko, she discussed the fact that she had a lower mileage buildup, usually hovering in the mid 80s, and just focused on making sure she got all of her key training sessions in.
Great Britain’s Laura Muir announced last week that she is now being coached by Steve Cram and Laura Weightman. Though if you read this article, it sounds like those names should be reversed. She was previously coached by Steven Vernon.
This is a good update from Muir’s former training partner, Jemma Reekie, also of Great Britain. She discussed working with her new(ish) coach, Jon Bigg, the disappointment of not making the Olympic final, and her relief when she set an 800m personal best of 1:55.61 last year.
Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede and Tigist Ketema and Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei and Rosemary Wanjiru headline the field for March 2’s Tokyo Marathon. There are no American runners in the pro field; you can see the full list on page 14 of this document.
Marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya is scheduled to run April’s London Marathon, but it seems like she’s had a bit of a rough year so far. On New Year’s Eve, she finished second to Spain’s Marta Garcia at the San Silvestre Vallecana 10K in Madrid, running 31:32. And at the Athletics Kenya Prisons Cross Country Championships on January 18, she finished fourth. She later told Mozzart Sport that she was recovering from malaria.
Emily Venters’ 1:08:48 half marathon debut is all the more impressive when you consider how bad her fall at the start of the race was.
I’m enjoying Nikki Hiltz’s return to YouTube.
I assumed so after seeing her racing attire in Houston, but Jessica Gockley-Day, who improved her half marathon personal best to 1:09:37, confirmed that she is now sponsored by Saucony.
Apparently Railroad Athletics founder Hayden Cox is now coaching Krissy Gear.
Gatorade named Utah high school senior Jane Hedengren its “Player” of the Year for girls cross country.
Jenny Simpson is now an ultramarathoner. Less than two weeks after finishing the Dopey Challenge, she ran the Mountain Mist 50K Trail Run.
NAZ Elite is hiring a director of operations, who will be based in Flagstaff, Arizona.
At noon ET today (Monday, January 27), former pro runner Victoria Jackson will be talking to Rose Eveleth, whose fantastic podcast, Tested, focused on elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women. The event takes place online and you can register to take part here.
Sarah Franklin wrote an interesting piece about Erica Stanley-Dottin, who ran a 2:52 marathon at age 48 after being a top sprinter in college, for A Mile. A Minute. If you haven’t heard of the outlet, it’s because it’s relatively new. I started seeing their social media posts a while back and wondered if I had missed an announcement, but it turns out they’re still ramping up their content. The outlet describes itself as “a premier source of inclusive running media,” so I was curious to learn more. I learned that AMAM’s founder is Frank Reneau, a journalist for The New York Times and a fixture in the New York City running scene. Marielle Hall, Ashley Mateo, Michael Dougherty, and Franklin are among the others involved. Reneau says the biggest goal for AMAM is quality storytelling. You can follow them on most social media platforms at @runamileaminute; for more links, click on the above piece and then scroll all the way to the bottom.
Additional Results
Ethiopia’s Marta Alemayo, 16, set a world U18 best of 8:39.80 in winning the 3,000m at the Astana Indoor Meet in Kazakhstan. She outkicked 17-year-old Shito Gumi, also of Ethiopia, who finished second in 8:40.00. Gotytom Gebreslase previously held the U18 3,000m mark of 8:46.01. Alemayo has already run 14:39.61 for 5,000m. (Results)
Katelyn Tuohy held off Oregon’s Wilma Nielsen to win the mile at the Dr. Sander Scorcher in NYC, 4:25.54 to 4:25.89. Tuohy followed the pacesetters through halfway before taking over the lead during the second half of the race. Nielsen sat right on Tuohy, who towed her to a big personal best. Nielsen now leads the NCAA, and sits third on the collegiate all-time list, behind only Tuohy and Maia Ramsden. Tuohy has been racing at the Armory since she was 12; her parents and grandmother were at the meet, and her brother competed in the race that immediately followed hers. She said on the broadcast that she’s been training with Elly Henes, who finished fifth and has moved back to Raleigh from Flagstaff. Still wearing an unbranded kit, Nia Akins held off a late challenge from Olivia Baker to win the 800m, 2:01.03 to 2:01.23. Akins said she has a sponsor announcement coming in a few weeks, and that she’s trying to take some of the pressure off of her performance this year. “It’s really just about having fun,” she said. “I think I lost sight of that. Once that happens, I think we’re gonna fly.“ (Results | Mile replay | 800m replay | Tuohy post-race interview | Nielsen interview)
At the Dr. Martin Luther King Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei won the mile in 4:36.70, which converts to a 4:30.68 on the NCAA performance lists, because of the altitude. Valery Tobias of the Brooks Beasts won the 800m in 2:03.31. (Results | Full mile replay)
At Sunday night’s Fast Is Flat Invite, NC State’s Grace Hartman won the 5,000m in 15:19.72. She had pacing help but was the race’s only finisher. The time is the sixth-fastest in the NCAA so far this season, but her converted mark (15:12.73) puts her fifth in the rankings, because she raced on an unbanked track. (Results)
At Clemson’s Orange and Purple Invitational, NCAA Cross Country champion Doris Lemngole of Alabama won the 3,000m by 13 seconds, running 8:54.65. (She also won the mile the day before, in 4:43.96.) Clemson’s Gladys Chepngetich won the 800m in 2:02.69, which ranks her third in the NCAA. (Results)
Virginia’s Tatum David won the mile at the Penn 10 Team Elite meet, running a personal best of 4:33.27. (Results)
At the RADD Sports College Invitational, North Florida’s Smilla Kolbe won the 800m by eight seconds, running 2:03.22. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Workenesh Edesa won the Osaka Women’s Marathon for the second year in row, running 2:21:00. Japanese runners went 2–3 with Kana Kobayashi running 2:21:19 and taking 3:40 off her PR, and Yuka Suzuki running 2:21:33 and improving her PR by 2:29. (Recap | Results)
Uganda’s Rebecca Chelangat won the Sevilla Half Marathon in a course record of 1:07:18. (Results)
Japan’s Yuka Ando won the Osaka Half Marathon in 1:08:57. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
On The Fueling Forward Podcast, Laura Thweatt talked about how her college running experience negatively affected her relationship with food, and how she recovered from that.
Dani Jones discussed her decision to leave Team Boss and join the Very Nice Track Club on I’ll Have Another. She had many positive things to say about her former team, but she said she made the change because when it’s time to walk away from the sport, she wants to know that she did everything she could to get the most out of her athletic potential. She said she did consider New Balance Boston but Ann Arbor won out.
I enjoyed getting a Josette Andrews update on the Citius Mag podcast.
Five-time U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier Gordon Bakoulis had some good insights on the Run Farther and Faster podcast. Bakoulis has worn many hats in the running community, and she’s still chasing athletic goals, even though her fastest days are behind her. “I know I’m going to reach the point, God willing, if I live long enough, where I might not be able to run anymore, but I can still move,” she said. “Running, to me, the definition has broadened over the years. It used to just mean running fast, racing, going all out, trying to be the best, trying to break the tape. It’s been a long time since running was that, and I haven’t lost my enjoyment of it. I haven’t stopped embracing just the feeling of running and the feeling of being part of the running community. So as long as I can continue to move, I will still be a runner, and I just think everyone should embrace that mindset.” (She comes on around the 12:15 mark.)
After seeing Fiona O’Keeffe’s Instagram posts about meeting with members of Congress, I appreciated hearing more about her advocacy work with Protect Our Winters on the Lactic Acid Podcast.
The latest episode of Nobody Asked Us, hosted by Des Linden and Kara Goucher, was a recording of their Houston Marathon live show. It mainly focused on their experiences at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, which took place in Houston, but at the end, Goucher said that the 10,000m race they plan to host will take place on May 3 at Mt. San Antonio College, in Walnut, California.
I’ve avoided going on podcasts for the past couple years because you tell your story once and then it starts to feel redundant. And Fast Women really isn’t about me. But Ten Junk Miles host Scotty Kummer asked nicely and was persistent. Plus I appreciate how supportive he is of this newsletter. Warning: The episode is nearly two hours long.
Additional Episodes: Stanford’s Amy Bunnage was on For the Kudos (Spiked Up #39). She’s another top athlete who is having success with lower mileage | Columbia’s Phoebe Anderson, who runs for Great Britain and recently won the European U23 cross country title, was on Fitter, Faster, and Happier | Pro trail runner (and Sub Hub podcast host) EmKay Sullivan on Women of Distance | 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier Cate Barrett discussed her postpartum struggles and her changing relationship with running on The Lane 9 Podcast | Jasmijn Lau, a Dutch runner with a 10K personal best of 31:53, was on Fitter, Faster, and Happier
Upcoming
The coming week is going to be a busy one on the track. One of Boston University’s bigger meets, the John Thomas Terrier Classic, begins on Friday. Here are some of the top entrants, and the full entry lists will come out later today. The meet will stream live on FloTrack. (Meet info, and results will be on this page)
On Saturday, the Razorback Invitational will take place in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Shelby Houlihan has indicated that she will run the 3,000m as her first race back post-ban. The rest of the entries aren’t out yet. (Meet info, results will be accessible from here)
And the biggest meet of the weekend, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, will take place on Sunday afternoon in Boston. You can get more information and eventually access the results here. And the meet will air on NBC and Peacock from 4:00–6:00 p.m. ET.
Thank you to PUMA for sponsoring Fast Women this month, and to all of you who help keep Fast Women going with your support via Patreon and Venmo. I appreciate you so much! I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
Somehow missed that Dani Jones is now in Ann Arbor. Thrilled about this!