Fast Women: Distance running, disordered eating, and young runners
Ruth Chepngetich's ban, and all eyes on NYC this weekend.
Issue 378, sponsored by Bakline
Knowledge about disordered eating has grown, but so have the pressures on young runners
Recently I’ve been thinking about how often distance running and disordered eating intersect, and this week, I wanted to address some of what’s been on my mind. When I started running in the 1990s, I was fortunate to know that getting regular periods was important. But because of the consistent messaging about eating a low-fat diet and other misguided trends, I didn’t really understand how to fuel properly.
Coming from a gymnastics background, I had already been exposed to a lot of messages about puberty being the kiss of death for athletic performance, and that continued when I moved over to running as well. I read articles like this 1993 New York Times piece that discussed how injury-prone young female runners were (while also providing each one’s height and weight). And 10 years later, the heights and weights were gone, but the same writer was still telling the cautionary tales of young former stars.
Hoping for inspiration, I read books like The Silence of Great Distance: Women Running Long, and I’m sure I got some, but it was also full of more warnings about the fates that could befall female distance runners. At the time, it kind of seemed like an unavoidable fact of life—that many of the biggest stars were destined to burn out. In retrospect, I think it had a lot to do with which stories were being told, along with a lack of widespread knowledge about what was healthy and how best to support young runners.
We all knew runners who were fast when they were young but even faster when they were older, and there were plenty of examples at the professional level. But I don’t remember hearing many of those stories in detail. With time, the attitudes and messaging began to change. People began to realize that being strong and well-fueled was more important than being as light as possible. But I don’t think a critical mass of people started to talk about systemic change within the sport until 2019, when Mary Cain shared her story in The New York Times about the abusive coaching she was subject to as a member of the Nike Oregon Project.
Soon after, Lauren Fleshman wrote this important opinion piece, which laid the groundwork for her book. The following year, Melody Fairchild, one of the athletes featured in that 1993 Times article, published the book Girls Running with her co-author, Elizabeth Carey. And many athletes began to open up about their negative experiences on college and pro teams.
While the Lane 9 Project already existed, organizations like Wildwood Running, Project RED-S, and Voice in Sport launched around the same time. Many different people and outlets contributed to the conversation—there are now too many to make a comprehensive list—and it became easier than ever to get good information about adequate fueling, REDs, women’s health, and longevity in the sport. (And outside of the running world, I appreciate that there’s now more conversation around how to approach all of this from a neurodiversity-affirming angle, when applicable.)
I wish we were making faster progress, but it’s helpful for me to remember that we’ve come a long way and many of these positive changes have occurred only in the past five to six years. Because of my work, I am constantly surrounded by messages about taking a healthy, long-term approach to running. It sometimes feels like everyone should know all of this by now. But, as we all know, one need not go far these days to find someone whose social media and news feeds look entirely different. Plus knowledge alone won’t fix this.
It’s hard to watch some of the same cycles repeat. People often reach out to me to express their concern about certain high-profile runners, and I usually share their concerns. I’ve been getting such messages for years. It’s important to remember that people of all sizes experience eating disorders and disordered eating and it’s impossible to tell what’s going on with someone just by looking at them. But one particular message I received recently got me thinking about some of the additional pressures today’s young athletes face, along with what, if anything, people can do when they’re concerned about an athlete.
With roster limits at many NCAA Division I schools, increased international recruiting, and NIL money on the line, young runners have many incentives to be fast as soon as possible. As one coach said to me recently, “No one’s getting a contract for eating all of their protein.” The NIL deals are generally going to the fastest kids. And brands and media outlets appear to be spending freely in the promotion of young athletes. But for many girls, it’s coming at an age where the healthiest thing they can do is to let puberty run its course.
I hope that with all of the information available now, even though the pull toward immediate results is strong, more girls are waiting out any temporary performance dips that come as they adjust to their changing bodies. They might not be the most visible young runners at the moment, but hopefully their patience will help them become the stars of the future. Because every time I hear another story about a runner who found early success despite underfueling, eventually hit a wall, and then clawed her way back, I think how good U.S. women’s distance running would be—and how much more these athletes could enjoy the sport—if athletes were well-fueled throughout their careers.
The rise of social media has also had a major impact on running. Young stars have more eyes on them than ever before and the fixation on young talent in running seems unhealthy at times. Boys are subject to it as well, but I’ve never seen them face as much discussion about their bodies or how attractive they are. A well-timed post about a phenom can rack up tens of thousands of likes, which gives media outlets plenty of incentive to continue highlighting the most popular young athletes, regardless of how it affects them.
I was floored when I recently came across a photo of a star runner online that had hundreds of comments from strangers expressing concerns about her body. First, where was the moderator? I don’t fault people for their concern, but if it’s genuine, that didn’t seem like the most constructive way to channel it. As someone who often posts photos of runners online, I never want to attempt to determine what is or isn’t healthy based solely on a photo, but I also try to avoid posting photos that are likely to set athletes up for that level of scrutiny and outrage.
I reached out to Kara Bazzi, the clinical director and co-founder of Opal: Food+Body Wisdom, to get her thoughts on what people can do when they are concerned about an athlete, especially one they don’t know.
Bazzi said that in her experience, it’s most helpful to reach out through someone who already has a relationship with the athlete, such as a school counselor or coach, and to approach the situation with humility and curiosity. She described how she might share specific observations—like noticing a visible decrease in body weight during puberty, a stage when weight loss is generally not expected—while also acknowledging that there may be other explanations for these changes, such as illness.
If the athlete is struggling with REDs or an eating disorder, Bazzi recognizes that they may already be receiving treatment and working through recovery. If the person Bazzi contacts shares her concern and is open to learning more, she offers her expertise and provides appropriate resources.
“[This] would probably be best received [coming from] an expert in the field of eating disorders in sport,” she wrote. “That way, hopefully the intent could land—coming from a place of concern for the athlete and as someone who cares about the sport in general and the systemic impact it can have on fellow adolescent runners.”
In general, Bazzi says, concerned adults can help young athletes get a good education around performance and underfueling, encourage them to have more diverse representation of athlete bodies in their social media feeds, and develop skills to manage their natural tendency to compare themselves to others.
“As a parent, I’ve had open conversations with my girls when we’ve watched athletes on other teams lose weight and potentially get faster,” Bazzi wrote. “I use the conversation as an opportunity to, one, reaffirm what we know about REDs and sport performance—that early performance improvements don’t last in the long-term, and two, to nurture their empathy and awareness of others. For example, maybe it will help them keep this athlete in mind during a post-race cool down where they might find an opportunity to be friendly and talk with them.”
Bazzi said these kinds of conversations are common in her household, part of a family culture that represents a shift from affirming weight loss, as diet culture often does, to recognizing it as something that may signal concern.
Despite all the competing forces, it does feel like we’re making progress. I can’t point to a study, but I can see that more top high school cross country runners go on to become successful professional runners now compared to 20-30 years ago. And I am so thankful to the coaches, parents, organizations, researchers, and individuals who continue to work to make a difference.
On a related note, former professional runner Alexa (Efraimson) Gusman, RDN, is doing a Wildwood EDU talk titled “Your Body is Your Teammate, Not Your Competition” at 8:30 p.m. ET today. Registration for all Wildwood EDU talks is free and you can sign up here.
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Could a three-year ban just be the beginning of Ruth Chepngetich’s problems?
In July, the AIU provisionally suspended marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya after she tested positive for Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ). Normally that comes with a two-year ban, but last week, the AIU announced that she has been banned for three years, beginning April 19, 2025. Her results since March 14, 2025, the date of her positive test, have been disqualified, which does nothing, because she hasn’t raced since then.
Chepngetich will keep her marathon world record of 2:09:56 (for now at least), because she didn’t test positive for anything until five months later. But one of the more interesting parts of the case is that the AIU found potentially incriminating evidence on her phone, and it sounds like that has kicked off another investigation. The full report includes the line, “The conclusion of the current case does not preclude further investigation into whether other anti-doping rule violations were committed by the athlete and/or other persons.” And the press release confirms that the AIU plans to continue to investigate the suspicious material found on Chepngetich’s phone. More on that later.
HCTZ, a diuretic, is not a performance-enhancing substance, but it’s banned because it’s commonly used as a masking agent. It can dilute the concentration of banned substances in athletes’ urine, which makes them harder to detect. Because it is a relatively common contaminant in non-banned drugs, only HCTZ levels of 20 ng/ML or higher are reported as adverse analytical findings. The estimated concentration of HCTZ in Chepngetich’s urine was 3,800 ng/mL, 190 times the allowable limit, so it seemed unlikely she’d be able to argue the contamination was accidental.
Here’s an overview of some key events:
March 14, 2025, positive test
April 16, the AIU interviews Chepngetich and she has no explanation for the positive test. The AIU acquires a copy of the data on her phone and takes all of the medications and supplements she has in her possession, to check for HCTZ contamination.
April 18, Chepngetich withdraws from the London Marathon, nine days out from the race, and the following day, she opts to take a voluntary provisional suspension.
July 11, the AIU confronts Chepngetich with the suspicious evidence they found on her phone, and tells her they had ruled out contamination from the medications and supplements she provided. She still has no explanation for any of it.
July 31, Chengetich writes to the AIU to say she now remembers that she had gotten sick two days before her positive test and she took her housemaid’s medication as treatment, without verifying whether it contained a prohibited substance. She sends a photo of this medication, which—what are the odds—is clearly labeled as HCTZ. The AIU suspects Chepngetich has come up with this new explanation to distract from what they found on her phone.
The AIU does not find the explanation to be credible, but because told them she had taken HCTZ, they take that information at face value and use it to show that her violation was intentional, which means she is now eligible for a four-year ban. (So yes, that backfired.)
August 22, the AIU tells Chepngetich they’re extending her ban to four years. But if an athlete admits to a violation, it can be reduced by a year. In September, Chepngetich owns up to the violation, and that is how she ends up with a three-year ban.
As for the incriminating evidence found on her phone, on April 14, 2024, six months before her world record run, Chepngetich allegedly took a screenshot of a WhatsApp message she received. It was from an athlete she corresponded with regularly, it included a photo of two testosterone vials, and the message read, “[Name] was told about it, so he asked me to ask you how it works.” Presumably both the unnamed athlete and the unnamed man are now part of the AIU’s investigation too. Chepngetich denied using testosterone or knowing why she received the message, but at this point, I think we’ve established that she might not be a reliable source.
The AIU also found messages and conversations from 2022, 2023, and 2025 related to “unidentified third parties working on ‘programs’ that, on their face, are possibly related to doping.” Chepngetich said the messages were either forwarded unintentionally, unsolicited, or misunderstood.
She also had a photo of a vial and box of Anavar, a steroid, on her phone. She denied searching for Anavar and said it may have been an image sent in a WhatsApp group chat that had been automatically saved to her photo gallery. Apparently this is something WhatsApp does, so this seems more credible than some of her other explanations. But if it’s true, why is Anavar coming up in her group chat?
I saw a lot of comments last week saying it was disgraceful that the AIU didn’t ban Chepngetich for four years (or life), or strip her of her marathon world record. I agree that the evidence is damning, but they can’t ban an athlete because someone texted her about doping. They have established rules, and they need to follow them. It sounds like the AIU is already onto part two in this investigation, but if they want any further sanctions to actually stick, they’re going to need more evidence than what they’ve already made public.
It’s going to be interesting to see if more comes of this. In the meantime, Chepngetich, who is 31, will be out of the sport for the next 2.5 years. A woman breaking the 2:10 barrier for the first time should have been such a celebratory moment for the sport, but sadly, it has become a scandal.
Compelling showdown set to take place in New York on Sunday
We’re six days out from the New York City Marathon, and this is shaping up to be one of the best races of the fall. Locally, Sunday’s race will air on ABC7NY.com and nationally, the race will air on ESPN2 from 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. ET. As has been the case in the past, the uninterrupted media feeds of the pro races will be available in the NYRR App. And you can find more information about how to follow the race here.
The men’s wheelchair division goes off at 8:00 a.m. ET, and the women follow at 8:02. The pro women’s race starts at 8:35, the men go at 9:05, and wave one follows five minutes later.
The race was already exciting when it looked like it was going to be a rematch between Kenyans Sharon Lokedi and Hellen Obiri, and then in September, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, the reigning Olympic champion who won the Sydney Marathon on August 31, joined the field. And we can’t forget the defending champion, Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya.
It’s wild that Margaret Okayo’s 2:22:31 course record from 2003 still stands, and I think that’s only because this race usually winds up being tactical. Lokedi obliterated the Boston Marathon course record in April, but she had Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso and Yalemzerf Yehualaw to chase for much of the race. In New York, I’m not sure who might want to set a relatively quick pace early, unless Susanna Sullivan repeats her world championships tactics and the pack decides to go with her this time.
It will be interesting to see which of the Americans lead the way. Sullivan has only had seven weeks to recover from worlds, but athletes are bouncing back faster than ever these days. Emily Sisson looked great in her tuneup race, and it’ll be fun to see how she fares in her first marathon since the Olympics. Annie Frisbie had a breakthrough day in Boston, running 2:23:31, and she will look to continue that momentum.
Fiona O’Keeffe has not raced a marathon since winning the Olympic Trials in February 2024, but she has raced well at shorter distances. And Molly Seidel’s last marathon was Chicago in 2023. It’s tough to make predictions in this race, because we don’t have a lot of data points. I’ll be interested to see how Amanda Vestri fares in her debut. Sara Vaughn is coming off a sixth-place finish in New York last year, but she had a tougher spring, finishing 20th in Boston. And Kellyn Taylor has a history of running well in New York.
Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot, who was third at New York last year, leads the masters contenders, but Sara Hall, Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack (who was ninth in the marathon at the worlds), and Stephanie Bruce could also challenge. Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat has unfortunately scratched from the race due to the death of her mother.
I can’t overlook Gotytom Gebreslase, the lone Ethiopian in the field. She hasn’t been quite as competitive recently as she was in 2022, but she still finished seventh at the Tokyo Marathon in March, running 2:20:25. It will be fun to see how Great Britain’s Jess Warner-Judd performs in her debut. Eilish McColgan, also of Great Britain, has scratched, as has Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf. (Media guide | Results)
I’m also excited to watch Saturday morning’s Dash to the Finish Line 5K. The event is not the U.S. championship this year, and the field has only 12 runners, but it’s an interesting collection of people. Weini Kelati didn’t quite have the summer of racing she wanted, so it will be good to see how she bounces back. Taylor Roe is coming off a breakthrough year—can she continue that momentum? Elle St. Pierre will be running her first postpartum race, and Parker Valby will be running her second race of her pro career after an injury took her out for most of the year.
Alicia Monson, Katelyn Tuohy, Elly Henes, Courtney Frerichs, and defending champion Annie Rodenfels are also in the field. The race will be livestreamed on NYRR’s YouTube channel beginning at 8:20 a.m. ET on Saturday.
Other News
Molly Seidel had all kinds of updates on the Ali on the Run Show this week; I highly recommend listening to the full episode. She said she originally planned to run a trail race this fall, or the Sydney Marathon, but things just didn’t come together in time. When New York sent her a small offer, she decided to take it. She wishes she had another month to prepare, but this will be a good stepping stone towards the longer races she plans to do next year. She is no longer working with Jon Green, who had coached her since the fall of 2019, and is now coached by Cliff Pittman, who is helping her through her transition to ultrarunning. And I appreciated her casual mention of her girlfriend. For more on her new coaching setup and how she’s training, this TrainingPeaks article has additional details. Seidel is hoping to run the Black Canyon 100K in February.
Great Britain’s Jess Warner-Judd talked to Athletics Weekly (paywalled) about her decision to race the New York City Marathon. After she had a seizure-induced DNF in the 10,000m at the 2024 European Championships, racing on the track became more complicated. At Save the 10,000 with Des and Kara back in May, she began to hyperventilate and had to drop out of the race. She later learned that it was a trauma-induced psychological response. The article goes into more detail, but basically, on the roads, that is less likely to happen.
Dodge City Community College and its cross country coaches are under fire after they held cross country practice in 102 degree weather back in August and Delia Montes suffered exertional heat stroke, collapsed in a corn field, lost consciousness, was missing for hours, and had to spend three weeks in intensive care. One of her teammates ended up in the ER that day as well.
I appreciated Emily Infeld posting this reel about a man who worked for her telling her, “You’re not hot. You’re cute, but companies don’t want cute,” after she won a bronze medal at the world championships in 2015 at age 25. I am disappointed but not surprised.
Sara Hall told her hometown paper that she hasn’t ruled out trying to make the 2028 Olympic team in the marathon. She also said that she doesn’t plan to retire from the sport, but she will transition to trail and ultra running, and do it professionally or recreationally. With a handful of former pro and/or former pros headed to the longer distances, it will be interesting to see if any of them can compete with the best.
Minnesota Distance Elite has brought on Ellie Waddle as a volunteer assistant coach, and they’re hoping it will become a paid position down the road.
Maggie Donahue has joined the B.A.A. High Performance Team and their roster is now back up to three women.
According to various tweets and this Runner’s World article (which is in Spanish), Likina Amebaw, who has been living in Spain for five years, got tired of waiting to get her citizenship, so she’s hoping to represent Qatar going forward. Representing Ethiopia, the 27-year-old ran 29:40 for 10K and 1:04:44 in the half marathon.
NBC News published a piece about how hard it is to get into the top marathons these days, due to the current running boom.
Results Highlights
Making her debut at last year’s Valencia Half Marathon, Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich ran the second-fastest time ever, 1:03:04, which is 12 seconds off the world record. It was natural that she wanted to take another crack at it in Valencia this year. She went out well under world record pace, but she couldn’t quite hang on to it. In humid and windy conditions, she ran 1:03:08, the third-fastest time ever run. Ethiopia’s Foyten Tesfay took second in 1:05:11. There were two Americans in the field: Emma Grace Hurley (sixth, 1:08:02) and Katie Izzo (13th, 1:09:37). Hurley said she took a big swing and didn’t quite hit the time she wanted. (She went through 5K at 5:01 pace and averaged 5:11 pace in the end.) Even if no one has quite knocked it out of the park yet, it’s been fun to see a bunch of Americans try to run really fast half marathons this fall. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Buze Diriba won the Frankfurt Marathon in a PR of 2:19:34. Liz Romo (22nd in 2:40:14) was the top American in the race. (Results)
Leanne Pompeani won the Burnie 10, which served as the Australian 10K Championships, in 31:46. (Results)
I featured Tessa Barrett last year, after she won the Marine Corps Marathon, and on Sunday, she won the race again. But this time, she broke the 35-year-old event record, ran 2:34:11, and qualified for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Meghan Sevcik took second in 2:43:18. The race went ahead despite the government shutdown. (Results) Update on 10/29: I learned after the fact that the Marine Corps Marathon is not a USATF sanctioned race, which means that even though Barrett ran well under the Olympic Trials standard on a challenging course, her performance does not count as a qualifier. She has proved she is capable of going well under 2:37:00, but if she wants to compete at the 2028 Trials, she will unfortunately need to run under the standard again.
Tara Dower won the Javelina Jundred, a 100-mile race, in an event record of 13:31:47. Beth McKenzie, 45, took second (14:31:14), and Addie Bracy was third (14:45:02). Because McKenzie is ineligible to run the Western States 100 (this is her version of the story), Dower and Bracy earned golden tickets. Katie Asmuth won the 100K in 8:32:18. (Results)
Jenn Randall won the Run with the Duck 5K in 15:34. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Eebbissee Addunya, who didn’t have a World Athletics profile until yesterday, won the Dublin Marathon in 2:26:28. Ava Crean, 19, was sixth overall and won the Irish national title in a 9+ minute PR of 2:34:12. She’s getting a lot of attention for this. Some of the coverage is making it sound like she just started running this year, but she’s been running since the pandemic, she had just never raced until this year.
Maurine Chebor won the senior women’s 10K race at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships. The race served as a selection event for the World Cross Country Championships, which will take place in Florida in January. (Report)
Additional Podcast Highlights
I’ve heard from Susannah Scaroni on a number of podcasts, but her appearance on Sports in America with David Greene was particularly good.
I enjoyed getting a quick update from Emily Sisson on Fast People, as she prepares to race the New York City Marathon.
I appreciated how candidly Kara Goucher spoke about her experience with dystonia on Unstoppable Strides.
Speaking of people moving to the trails and longer distances… On Women’s Running Stories, Ari Hendrix discussed her move to ultrarunning after she ran the Olympic Marathon Trials and wasn’t sure what was next.
Erin McDonald told some of her story on The Lane 9 Podcast. She struggled with restrictive eating and overtraining during college, took four years away from the sport, and now she’s running better than ever. Over the summer, she ran a 4:31 road mile, and last year at CIM, she ran 2:36:53.
It was nice to hear from Great Britain’s Laura Muir on Paula’s Run Club and I enjoyed hearing how she thinks Femke Bol will fare in the 800m. She joins the show around the 18:30 mark.
Additional Episodes: South African ultrarunner Toni McCann on Running Long, hosted by Francesco Puppi | Keira D’Amato on both The Running Wine Mom and Another Mother Runner (she joins 12:00 in) | Sara Hall on For the Long Run | Aubrey Frentheway on I’ll Have Another | Sprinter Brittney Brown on Voice in Sport | Canadian trail runner Jazmine Lowther on The Shakeout Podcast
Last week’s Amazon Web Services outage affected Substack, so last week’s newsletter went out about an hour late. And if you tried to contact me by replying to the message, chances are I did not receive it. But things seem to be working now.
Thanks again to Bakline for their support, which helps make this newsletter possible. And thanks to all of you who collectively make a big difference with your support via Venmo and Patreon.
This should be an exciting week in running, and I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
"I think how good U.S. women’s distance running would be—and how much more these athletes could enjoy the sport—if athletes were well-fueled throughout their careers."
OOOF this line is going to stick with me for a while. How many women's accomplishments (across so many fields) have been stolen from the world because of shitty gendered pressures and exclusion?
Such an inspiring, well-crafted, informative read as always. I’m so grateful for your journalism. I bookmarked this to read when I had time to sit down and really enjoy it / take it in and am so glad I did. Excited to see what takes place in NYC tomorrow!