Fast Women: Dipping a toe back in

Catching up on the past two months.

Issue 410

While I was away, Switzerland’s Audrey Werro lowered her 800m personal best by more than two seconds, to 1:53.80. (Photo: Diamond League AG)

Getting back to work

First, I want to thank everyone who reached out following my husband Parker’s death two months ago. I am more grateful than I can say for the outpouring of support we received. Because it came all at once, while we were overwhelmed with so many other things, I was barely able to respond to any of it. But I appreciated all of it.

These days, when people ask how I’m doing, I often feel like they want to hear something brief and reassuring, like I’m making progress and feeling better. But that’s not really true, so I usually try to avoid answering the question.

The truth is that I feel about how you’d expect someone to feel if the person most central to their life disappeared in an instant. (To those of you who know what it feels like, I am so sorry.) I think that when I got the news, I went into shock, and my brain has allowed reality to sink in only a little bit at a time. I am well aware of what happened, but there is still part of me that can’t quite believe it.

The big picture questions—how to even attempt to fill Parker’s shoes on the parenting front, where we’re going to live, where our health insurance is ultimately going to come from, and whether I can afford to stay in the running industry—are scary. So instead, I just focus on the smaller items on my to-do list each day.

As much as I would have liked to curl up in a ball and just be sad, with this change came more responsibilities. I’ve been able to get a lot of stuff done because I haven’t really had a choice. I haven’t been taking time away from Fast Women because my grief has kept me from functioning; I’ve been taking time off because there has been so much other work to do. Our lives were built around having two available parents, and now I have to learn how to make everything work with just one.

For someone who believes in equal gender roles, there were quite a few household tasks I never learned to do because I always lived with someone who was very willing to take them on. So in some ways, I am finally growing up and becoming an adult. (Next up: figuring out how to vacuum all the smoke alarms and change the batteries without setting them off.)

And there have been countless small tasks to handle. Returning Parker’s computer to his workplace, unsubscribing him from email lists so I don’t miss something important, donating the food that the rest of us won’t eat before it expires, collecting photos, videos, and memories for our kids, convincing companies to move our accounts into my name (which is surprisingly hard at times) so I can pay our bills, giving our cat extra attention, because he has no idea what happened to his favorite person, and so on.

And LOL that I thought that I would automatically have access to the autopsy report because I had the power to make all sorts of major decisions at the end of his life. I was very naive about all of the ridiculous hoop jumping that goes into settling someone’s estate, even when they have a very straightforward will.

I still have plenty of work to do on that front, but because my schedule is less hectic starting today (fingers crossed), I am planning to return to work. My being back at work doesn’t mean I’m okay. It just means that I am attempting to carry on with my career and hoping this work feels like a nice break from the other work I’ve been doing recently.

In normal times, I’d have a lot of Fourth of July results for you this week, and I’d try to recap everything I’ve missed over the past couple months. Like Switzerland’s Audrey Werro running 1:53 in the 800m twice, the huge amount of attention that Rachel Entrekin’s Cocodona 250 win earned her, and the fact that Rachael Rudel finished only three seconds behind Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi at the Boston 10K. And, of course, I have been thinking about Jenny Simpson a lot and hoping that she has all the support, resources, and privacy that she needs as she recovers.

But things have been busy up until today, and I haven’t been paying close enough attention to do a thorough job of summarizing what I’ve missed. At the moment, I don’t feel particularly qualified to tell you much about what’s going on in the running world, but I am pretty confident in my ability to get back up to speed.

While I was out, I was struck by how much news I missed by just passively following the sport. I wished I had someone sending me updates about what was happening in women’s distance running, so I hope that means that this newsletter still serves a purpose.

But going forward, things might look a little different. When I had my kids, I was a college cross country and track & field coach. Having children is seen as a liability in a lot of professions, but that was particularly true in college coaching, where the hours are long and untraditional. (When I interviewed at Wellesley College, which in theory should have been a progressive place, the athletic director at the time, who was seen as a trailblazer in her field, asked me how on earth I was going to do the job with young twins at home.) As a result of those types of attitudes, I got used to trying to make my family as invisible as possible at work, and focused on getting stuff done regardless of what was happening at home.

That has carried over to my work with Fast Women as well. For more than seven years, I put out a weekly newsletter regardless of what ridiculous things were happening around us. Sometimes it felt like a minor miracle that the newsletter went out at all.

Going forward, I can’t afford to do that, so you will likely be able to tell that I have a family. And I’ll continue to do my best with the time I have, but sometimes, I’m going to have to drop some balls.

Because life is never all good or all bad, I can end this on a more positive note. The plan is for both of our kids to spend a lot of their summer in a wonderful place. And I already knew I was capable of learning new things, because I do so all the time. But these past two months have shown me that my capacity to do so is even greater than I realized.

Most of all, thank you to everyone who has supported our family during the past two months. And thank you to those of you who continued supporting Fast Women on Patreon and/or Venmo even when you knew I’d be taking time off. Your kindness has meant more than I can express.

Due to various circumstances, I don’t have any sponsors lined up for the rest of the year. If you or your company might be interested, I’d love to have a conversation and see whether it would be a good fit. I’m at alison (at) fast-women.org, or you can just reply to this message.

Now onto some running news. (The plan is for next week’s newsletter to be a lot more running-focused and less me-focused.)

A handful of things that have happened in the past two months

• What a thrill it was to watch Nikki Hiltz kick to a win in the mile at the Prefontaine Classic on the Fourth of July. In the 1500m at last month’s Rome Diamond League meet, Hiltz made their move with more than a lap to go and ended up third. This time out, they waited until the final strides and timed things just right. Afterward, in the mixed zone, they weighed in on on the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold state bans on trans women competing in women’s sports and joked that “a lot of people can’t really even insult me correctly” due to their lack of understanding about what it means to be nonbinary. The Athletic has an good article (gift link) that came from the same interview. (Results with detailed splits)

• Hiltz, 31, beat a stellar field, including Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, who hadn’t lost a 1500m/mile race in more than five years. Kipyegon, who is still only 32, was running her first middle-distance race of the season, and she said in an Instagram post yesterday that she has been dealing with a hamstring injury since May’s Shanghai Diamond League meet, where she won the 5,000m.

• Kenya’s Lilian Odira pulled off a minor upset to win the Pre Classic 800m over Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, 1:56.19 to 1:56.73. Odira is the reigning world champion, so a good run from her is no surprise, but Hodgkinson ran an impressive 1:54 in her season opener. But she revealed after the race that she took a bad fall during her cooldown the day before she traveled to the U.S. to race.

• I’ve appreciated all of the interviews Ireland’s Ciara Mageean has given while promoting her book, My Greatest Race, and her honesty about the realities of living with stage 4 colon cancer. It’s fun to root for athletes as they pursue their athletic goals, but now I’m rooting for Mageean more than ever.

• During my time away, five women earned new qualifiers for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Mattie Carter won the Bayshore Marathon in a PR of 2:36:38. Rachel Schilkowsky finished second to Kellyn Taylor at the Vermont City Marathon, running 2:35:51, former Colorado State runner Mary van Laarhoven finished fourth at Grandma’s Marathon in 2:32:40, repeat qualifier Annmarie Tuxbury ran 2:35:00 to finish sixth at Grandma’s, and Shalaya Kipp, a 2012 Olympian in the steeplechase, finished eighth at Grandma’s in 2:36:58.

• Gracie Morris, who was previously with Puma Elite, has joined Nike’s Swoosh TC. If anyone has specified which hub she’ll be a part of, I missed it.

• I appreciated this thoughtful Q&A Jason Suarez did with Marielle Hall.

• Both Dani Jones and Sage Hurta-Klecker have had to take a step back this season due to injury.

• I was impressed that in her first trail race, 42-year-old Steph Bruce finished ninth in the ascent (what was formerly known as the VK/vertical kilometer) at the Broken Arrow Skyrace and made the U.S. team for the WMRA Mountain Running World Cup. But Bruce isn’t the oldest team member. Kasie Enman, 46, made the Classic Mountain team and Alicia Vargo, 44, made the Long Distance Mountain team. The complete U.S. rosters are available here.

• Jess McClain won Saturday’s Crown City Classic in Coronado, California, running 39:17 (5:16/mile) for 12K. McClain’s in-laws live in Coronado, so she has run the race a handful of times, but this was her fastest result yet. (Results)

• Marisa Howard, who is 11 months postpartum with her second child, won the Independence Day Classic 5K in Newhall, California, running a speedy 15:20 (15:17 chip time) and finishing less than a second behind her husband. (Results)

• Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race had an exciting finish, with Ethiopians Tsigie Gebreselama and Melknat Wudu going 1-2 in 31:02 and 31:03. (Results)

Podcast Highlights

I’ve been listening to all of my usual running podcasts for the past two months, but I haven’t done a good job of remembering which ones are worth sharing or who said what. Here are some that I remember enjoying.

• We don’t get to hear Kenyan athletes tell their stories in much detail all that often, so I really appreciated hearing Agnes Ngetich discuss overcoming losing her father at age 10, and other challenges, on The Citius Mag Podcast.

• I also appreciated hearing Kenya’s Mercy Chelangat tell more of her story on C Tolle Run after her fourth-place finish at the Boston Marathon. Chelangat, who runs for HOKA NAZ Elite, was a standout runner for the University of Alabama, but the part of her story that didn’t get much attention at the time was the fact that she had her daughter in the middle of her NCAA career.

• I’ve also enjoyed the first seven episodes of Built to Last with Allyson Felix & Wes Felix. The best athletes in the world (understandably) rarely give us this kind of access when they’re at their peak, but it’s fun to have it as Felix gives pro track & field another shot at age 40. (And I was sorry to hear that she, too, is aware of and has been negatively affected by the LetsRun message boards.)

Also: Vanessa Fraser on The Fueling Forward Podcast | Kassie Parker on DIII Glory Days | Laura Thweatt on the Ali on the Run Show | Grace to the finish: A panel discussion on immigration advocacy on the Running Behind podcast | Emma Coburn (who lowered her steeple time to 9:15 on Saturday) and Parker Valby on the Ali on the Run Show | Emily Venters discussed her excellent run at the New York Mini 10K on C Tolle Run | Gracie Hyde and Courtney Frerichs on I’ll Have Another | Emma Grace Hurley on The Citius Mag Podcast | Grayson Murphy on The Eat for Endurance Podcast | Calli Hauger-Thackery on Run With It | Des Linden on Long Run Labs | Alisa Harvey on Women’s Running Stories | Makena Morley on The Sub Hub Podcast | Brett Clothier discussing catching dopers on Marathon Talk | Sports psychologist and former professional runner Lennie Waite on The Fueling Forward Podcast

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Thanks for bearing with me as I ease my way back into following the sport. I hope you all have the best week possible.

Alison