Fast Women: Elise Cranny gets a base hit at The TEN
Yared Nuguse comes out, and sex testing coming soon.
Issue 343, sponsored by Grand Slam Track
Elise Cranny falls short of her goal, but earns another win at The TEN
Every time Elise Cranny has raced The TEN, she has won it. On Saturday night, she earned her third victory at the event, running 30:35.56, but she walked away disappointed with the outcome. She was hoping to break 30 minutes, which would have been an American record. Cranny won’t have much time to dwell on her performance, however, as she’s set to race a 3,000m on Friday and a 5,000m Sunday, as Grand Slam Track kicks off in Jamaica.
Cranny’s former teammate, Shelby Houlihan, rabbited the race through 5800m and hit the halfway point right around 15:00, as planned. Cranny and Weini Kelati went with her, but the pace proved to be too ambitious. Houlihan was still running strong when she exited the race. She hasn’t run an official 10,000m on the track before, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her run a quick 10K down the line, if she chooses to focus on the event.
Over the next nine laps, Cranny and Kelati’s pace slipped. As it became clear they weren’t going to break 30, they tried to hang on to the 30:20 pace lights, which would give them the world championships standard. But those slipped away as well. Cranny kicked with just over 200 to go for the win. “Sometimes the full send gets you a base hit when the goal was a grand slam,” she later wrote in an Instagram post.
Kelati finished second in 30:38.60, less than five seconds away from the personal best she set at this race a year ago. This was her first race back after a tough outing at the USATF Half Marathon Championships four weeks earlier, so it was good to see her have a solid race.
Alicia Monson’s American record of 30:03.82, which she set at this event in 2023, lived to see another day. Even as Monson works her way back from the medial meniscus root tear she suffered a year ago, she has a presence at events like this one, as competitors chase her mark.
Behind the lead duo, there were many success stories. Great Britain’s Calli Hauger-Thackery, whose main goal right now is the Boston Marathon, finished third in 30:53.73. She had never run the event seriously before, so she took more than three and a half minutes off of her personal best.
The next four runners across the line were tightly bunched. Coming off her half marathon breakthrough earlier this month, Puma Elite’s Taylor Roe took fourth in a 78-second PR of 30:58.66. Australia’s Lauren Ryan took fifth in 30:58.69, her second-fastest time. (She set the Australian record of 30:35.66 here a year ago.)
Emily Infeld has talked about moving to the roads and gradually taking on longer distances. But she’s also said (Runner’s World) she isn’t done on the track, and she showed that on Saturday night. Coming off a frustrating year of racing, she had a big performance, finishing sixth in 30:59.38. Eight days after turning 35, she took nine seconds off of her personal best, which she set in 2021. Fellow Brooks athlete Jess McClain also had a great race. In the midst of her Boston Marathon buildup, she took seventh in a 35-second personal best of 30:59.71.
South Africa’s Dom Scott, a member of Team Boss, finished eighth in a near-PR of 31:02.32. And Pamela Kosgei of the University of New Mexico and Kenya finished ninth in 31:02.73. That moves her to second on the collegiate all-time list, behind only Parker Valby’s 30:50.43 from last year. This was Kosgei’s first 10,000m race since coming to the U.S., and I was surprised to see her set out at 30:00 pace, with Cranny and Kelati. She dropped back around 4K and hung on admirably, but I imagine she can run faster with different pacing.
If Cranny wants to run the 10,000m at the World Championships, she might need to find another race. That won’t be easy considering that she has already committed to eight Grand Slam Track races before the USATF Outdoor Championships. Alternatively, she could hope that her world ranking winds up being good enough to get her in (or just go for it from the gun at USAs). The auto qualifying standards are getting tougher, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the time it will take to get into Worlds is faster, as much of the field is selected based on the rankings.
It was fun watching Katie Camarena and the Peninsula Distance Club’s Claire Green battle in an earlier heat of the 10,000m (rabbited by Colleen Quigley, who wore bunny ears on the starting line). Camarena produced a big kick to win in a personal best of 31:45.79, and Green ran 31:49.29 in her debut at the distance. NAZ Elite’s Abby Nichols also helped pace that heat after winning the 1500m in 4:11.91. (Results | 10,000m replay | 1500m replay)
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Yared Nuguse comes out
Paris Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Yared Nuguse came out as gay on Friday. While I imagine that’s not a major surprise to anyone who knows him or spent much time thinking about it, it’s a big deal because there are still relatively few out gay male professional athletes in general.
When I started this newsletter in 2019, I think I could name only two pro runners who were openly LGBTQIA+. The list is longer now, but, as Annie Rodenfels and Heather Caplan discussed on The Lane 9 Podcast last week, prior to Nuguse’s post, queer representation is still lagging in track & field. (More on that episode below.)
“Even though I’ve been out for years now, representation like this still helps me,” Nikki Hiltz wrote in an Instagram story, in response to Nuguse’s news. “It makes me feel less alone and I know it does for so many others as well!”
I think it’s possible to exist in certain bubbles where someone coming out doesn’t seem like a big deal, but one need not go far to find spaces where people are far less accepting. And the current political climate in the U.S. makes being out tougher. I really appreciated Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who broke Nuguse’s indoor mile world record last month, showing his support by commenting “Congrats! ♥️” on Nuguse’s post.
The return of sex testing
I’ve written about the potential return of sex testing to track & field recently, and early last week, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe announced (scroll down after clicking) that they will indeed be bringing it back. They are hoping to have it in place by the World Athletics Championships in September. Anyone who wants to compete in the women’s category will have to undergo a one-time test, but it is not yet clear which competitions this will apply to.
This is the most informative article I’ve seen so far, yet it doesn’t contain that many details. World Athletics will be looking for the SRY gene which, according to the article, can be detected via a cheek swab. But the article mentions a dried blood spot test could also be used to determine testosterone levels.
Every time I bring the topic of sex testing up, I recommend the Tested podcast. This quote from host Rose Eveleth, from episode one, sums up the problem: “Sports organizations have been on a century-long pursuit to find a singular, fool-proof exam or test that can determine without a doubt whether an athlete is female. And over and over they have failed, with disastrous, career-destroying results because of one very important fact: Sports are binary, but human bodies are not.”
And for a quick history of sex testing in sports, listen to episode three. From 1968 to 1999, women had to undergo a chromosome test to compete at the Olympics (though track & field had its own sex testing prior to that). Athletes, doctors, and ethicists worked hard to end the testing, but because of Coe and company, it’s back.
Under current rules, which were adopted two years ago today, on International Trans Day of Visibility, trans women who have been through “male puberty” are excluded from the world rankings. At the moment, as far as I know, there are zero trans women included in the world rankings. But this move will presumably lead to the exclusion of any future trans women this might apply to. World Athletics also announced last week that they are merging the regulations for trans and intersex athletes, so this will apply to intersex athletes as well.
I’ve seen very few of the athletes who will be affected by this say anything publicly thus far, but a reporter asked Australia’s Linden Hall about it and she said (fourth slide), “I definitely have some concerns over athlete welfare in that space. It seems a bit too close to medical information and things like that… I just hope it’s done appropriately and with care, and respects the athletes’ privacy, because I think that’s a really tricky space that you’re wandering into. If someone’s all of a sudden no longer allowed to compete, that’s basically putting their medical information out there. And I don’t think that is amazing for an athlete. I hope it doesn’t have impact for really any athletes, but I guess we’ll see.”
And of course World Athletics making this move clears the path for other sports and levels of track & field to follow. More to come on this, I’m sure.
Other News and Links
Continuing with the unplanned LGBTQIA+ theme throughout this week’s newsletter, David Alm wrote an excellent feature for Runner’s World on nonbinary running star Sofia Camacho, who is a 2:29 marathoner. The article covers some very heavy topics, but in the current political climate, I really appreciate Camacho being willing to share their story and Runner’s World featuring it prominently in the magazine and online.
Last June, Great Britain’s Jess Warner-Judd shared that she had been diagnosed with focal epilepsy after suffering a seizure mid race. She’s back to racing now, and Ben Bloom wrote a good article for The Guardian about what Warner-Judd’s journey back has looked like.
Here’s some good material for your race anxiety dreams. The start of the men’s 10,000m race at The TEN was delayed slightly. Due to some miscommunication, that meant that when the gun went off, Ethiopia’s Telahun Haile Bekele and France’s Simon Bédard were at the top of the homestretch, nearly 100m from the starting line. You can see them in the distance at the start here. Bekele gradually worked his way up to the front of the race and incredibly ran 26:52.79 to take fourth. He dipped under the world standard despite running about 90m extra. Bédard had a tougher time and finished 21st.
Makayla Paige’s hometown paper wrote about her NCAA indoor 800m win.
If you haven’t been keeping up with all the running podcasts, this, from Citius Mag, is a helpful Courtney Frerichs update. On opting to be coached by Ed Eyestone, she said, “I decided to go down the path of building a relationship with someone who didn’t know me as a person or an athlete before this injury, and I feel very confident that was a really good move because there’s so much less room for comparison.”
Stephanie Bruce has signed with Tracksmith.
Gonzaga graduate Rosina Machu, a 15:37 5,000m runner, has signed with Hoka.
Savannah Shaw has joined the Union Athletics Club. She said she had hoped Tinman Elite’s women’s team would grow, but it “stayed quite small until it was just me.”
Vogue wrote about Gabby Thomas’ engagement.
Sydney Leiher, a 2:41 marathoner who runs for the Georgetown Running Club, made it into this ABC News article, but not for her running accomplishments. She was a Department of Education employee who was told to vacate her office by 6:00 on March 11, and soon after, she received an email indicating that her entire office was eliminated, put on administrative leave, and locked out of all of their work. She and her office kept track of education data, made sure the data was high quality and useful, and ensured the agency was making decisions based on evidence. “I believe in public service,” Leiher told ABC News. “I believe in a nonpartisan civil service. We’re important, we matter.” Leiher wrote in a message to Fast Women that she hopes to find another job and remain in DC, even though it’s not an easy place to be right now, as so many people are bracing for job cuts. She plans to run the Berlin Marathon in the fall and chase an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time next year. Until it’s time to start marathon training, she’s training a bit easier for a while. “Once everything happened, it was a deep personal loss,” she wrote. “It’s getting a little better now, mainly due to my coach reiterating to me and my teammates that we don’t need to be running 70 miles per week plus fighting on the front lines of democracy.”
This DyeStat article did a good job of laying out how the upcoming House vs. NCAA ruling could affect track & field. Runner’s World also published a helpful piece on the same topic last week.
Additional Results
Scotland’s Eilish McColgan raced at the low key McKirdy Micro 10K, held at New York’s Rockland Lake State Park on Sunday morning. She dominated the women’s race and finished second overall in 31:03. In the marathon, Julia Paternain knocked her debut out of the park, winning in 2:27:09 (2:27:04 chip time). The former University of Arkansas runner, 25, previously represented Great Britain, but as of January, she represents Uruguay. Paternain was a good collegiate runner, with a 5,000m personal best of 16:00, but it looks like the longer distances are going to be her thing. Erin Del Giudice took second (2:38:51), Maria Lindberg, 42, was third (2:39:22), and Isabel Hebner was fourth (2:39:55). The previous day, Jessica Donohue won the event’s other marathon race in 2:40:54. (Results)
As usual, Raleigh Relays, hosted by NC State, produced some fast early-season times. On her home track, paced by Gracie Morris for the first nine laps, Grace Hartman ran 31:20.60 to win the 10,000m. The time was a 68-second personal best and at the time, it moved her to third on the collegiate all-time list. But following Kosgei’s run at The TEN, Hartman is now fourth. Virginia’s Margot Appleton won the 1500m in 4:05.68 and moved to fourth on the collegiate all-time list, but I suspect that list will be completely rewritten this season, just as the indoor mile list was. NC State’s Angelina Napoleon won the steeplechase in 9:34.22, a 20-second personal best, and Providence College’s Alex Millard won the 5,000m in 15:27.02. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Fantaye Belayneh, 24, won the 3,000m at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, Australia, running 8:34.30. And Australia’s Claudia Hollingsworth, 19, won the 1500m in 4:05.97. (Results)
I didn’t have the time I would have liked to follow the World Masters Athletics Indoor World Championships, but USATF has some recaps from days one and two, days three and four, and day five and you can view the results here.
Podcast Highlights
This week’s guest on the Fast People podcast is 1996 1500m Olympian and coach Juli Benson. (I put this one out a little early, too, so you can listen now.) Benson has been in the sport for decades, but she’s getting a little more attention recently after Nikki Hiltz announced that Benson will be coaching them going forward. But Hiltz isn’t Benson’s only star athlete. Benson discusses her lineup of pros, some of the challenges (and upsides) of being a pro coach without the backing of a shoe company, how she handles the fact that female coaches are generally given less room for error, and what it’s going to take for the U.S. women to be competitive with the world’s best in the mid-distances and up. I also appreciated hearing some of Benson’s own story, and her concerns about the decreasing opportunities for developmental athletes. Colleen Quigley mentioned in her latest newsletter that she and Benson are working on an exciting project together in Boulder, and Benson mentioned potentially hiring an assistant coach there in the episode. So I look forward to hearing more about what they have up their sleeves. Benson was also on Citius Mag last week. The conversations have a little overlap, but also cover many different topics. For as long as I’ve been following the sport, Benson has been doing big things in it. So I love seeing her get this little flurry of attention.
In addition to the discussion of queer representation in track & field mentioned above, Annie Rodenfels talked about what has contributed to her mostly healthy relationship with food on The Lane 9 Podcast. I also appreciated her sharing that she has had two periods a month for the past three years—something she’s looking into.
On Women’s Running Stories, Stephanie Bruce discussed signing with both Tracksmith and Pro Compression. Of Tracksmith, she said, “It’s exciting that I’m one of their first professional athletes that they’re signing, and the hope is that we can kind of grow together.” She said that as part of the partnership, she’ll be helping support up-and-coming athletes Tracksmith works with.
I appreciated that Matt Chittim had Sarah Crouch on The Rambling Runner Podcast, because I was truly curious how she went from being an elite runner to being a bestselling novelist. Her book is called Middletide.
It was interesting to hear Rose Harvey discuss some of the pros (free housing) and cons (the price of coffee) of training in the U.S. with Puma Elite, compared to training in London, on 5 Miles Easy.
It was good to hear from Paris Olympic 200m bronze medalist Brittany Brown on I’ll Have Another. She talked about her struggles with endometriosis, and I appreciated her briefly mentioning that when contracts are protected by NDAs, that tends to hurt Black women especially.
I really enjoyed hearing about Nicole Ver Kuilen’s efforts to create equitable access to prosthetics for physical activity on The Trail Network Podcast. The work she has done through So Every Body Can Move is incredible.
I’m really excited to follow Grand Slam Track beginning on Friday—all of the details on how to do that are above. And I'll also be keeping an eye on Sunday’s USATF 10 Mile Championships. From the results page, I can see that Fiona O’Keeffe, Annie Frisbie, Emily Venters, Susanna Sullivan, Emma Grace Hurley, Sara Hall, and Taylor Roe are among the entrants.
Thanks to all of you who help keep this newsletter going with your support via Patreon and Venmo. I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison