Fast Women: Gracie Hyde's breakout season
The high school mile record falls twice in one meet.
Issue 295, sponsored by Brooks
Gracie Hyde thought her collegiate career was over, and then she had her best season
Last summer, Gracie Hyde, 24, was done with collegiate running. Struggling with an eating disorder and her mental health, she and her doctors decided it was best that she forgo her remaining eligibility and medically retire from competing in the NCAA. That meant she would stay at the University of Arkansas, complete her masters degree, and keep her scholarship, but she would no longer be a part of the school’s cross country and track & field teams.
Sometimes plans change, however, and less than a year later, she’s a five-time Division II national champion for Adams State, and she holds DII records in the indoor 3,000m (8:58.33), DMR (11:08.94), 1500m (4:08.95), and steeplechase (9:28.17). She also has the fastest mile time ever by a DII runner (4:30.90 indoors, which doesn’t count as a record because it was on an oversized track).
Hyde started off her college career with two years at the University of Central Arkansas, before spending three years at Arkansas. (She had a sixth year of eligibility because all college athletes were granted an extra year due to the pandemic.) Initially, she improved quickly and had a lot of positive experiences at both schools. But that gradually began to change.
“In the sport of running, people talk about women’s bodies and the way they look,” Hyde told Fast Women. “Upon coming to college and comparing myself to other runners, I started picking up some pretty unhealthy habits on my own.”
Her eating disorder became particularly bad while she was at Arkansas, but she doesn’t blame anyone there for causing it. By January 2023, she couldn’t take it anymore. She confided in one of Arkansas’ athletic trainers. “I told him all of the unhealthy, terrible things I had been doing to my body,” she said. “It was a really emotional time, but I finally broke down and asked for the help I knew I had been needing for so long.”
Hyde gives tremendous credit to the athletic training staff at Arkansas for doing “absolutely everything they could possibly think of to help me,” she said. “They were wonderful.”
She struggled through her final season at Arkansas. Although she finished second in the steeplechase and seventh in the 5,000m at the SEC Championships, in what was her last race for Arkansas, Hyde placed 48th out of 48 runners in the steeplechase at the West Regional, running nearly a minute slower than her best time.
“When you’re not fueling, you can’t finish workouts,” she said. “When you can’t finish workouts, that’s really frustrating for you, and it’s frustrating for your coach, especially because I wasn’t super open with him about the struggles I was having. So it made it difficult for us to get along or make adjustments based on that. I dreaded going to practice. I had huge fears of going to starting lines. I would always get really panicky and sometimes even cry before the start of races. It just wasn’t enjoyable to me anymore.”
After her last race, Hyde took about three months entirely off from running. She did a short stint at an inpatient eating disorder treatment facility, but it wasn’t a good fit. When she left the facility, she had even more resolve to get better. And she thought she could stay healthy if she left behind the Arkansas program and collegiate competition.
“Once I stepped away, a ton of pressure was lifted off of me,” she said. “It wasn’t like I was trying to get fit or get back to a place I had been in 2021; I wasn’t trying to get back that fitness. The pressure of needing to earn my scholarship or be a leader was immediately lifted.”
Once she was in a better place, Hyde started going for short runs to test out whether she could participate in the sport in a healthy way. To her surprise, she was able to find joy in it, without the pressure.
Last September, a friend of Hyde’s took a job as the sprints coach at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. Hyde helped him move there, and it piqued her interest in the school. She was impressed by how Alamosa was a big running town. Her friend told her that if she was going to run anyway, maybe she should consider running for Adams State.
She entered the transfer portal and met with head coach Damon Martin in September. She would have understood if he didn’t want to work with an athlete who was recovering from an eating disorder. “I remember him telling me that he didn’t care if I ran 5:00 in the mile or 4:30 in the mile, that he just wanted me to find my love for it again and he would love to be a part of it,” Hyde said.
The transition to training at 7,500 feet above sea level wasn’t easy. She moved to Alamosa on October 1, began training with some local alums, and enrolled at Adams State in January. At first, she says, she was hanging on for dear life during workouts. And she had some reservations about returning to competition.
“I was nervous to reintroduce that part of my life,” she said. “But instead of the bad habits returning, I feel like coach, the team, and the environment here pushed me the other way and it continued my recovery.”
Once she started competing, the results came quickly. She set the DII 3,000m record in February and ran the 4:30 mile two weeks later. At the NCAA DII Indoor Track & Field Championships, Hyde won the mile, 3,000m, and was part of the winning distance medley relay. And after being part of two national championship winning teams indoors at Arkansas, she helped Adams State win an indoor title as well.
Hyde was running much faster than she ever had. Outdoors, the improvement continued. She lowered her 1500m time from 4:19.20 at Arkansas to 4:08.95. And her steeplechase time dropped from 9:57.88 to 9:28.17. At the recent NCAA DII Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she added national titles in the steeplechase and the 1500.
The move to Division II had taken some of the performance pressure off. And while Adams State doesn’t have the resources that the University of Arkansas did—few schools do—Hyde says those things aren’t necessary to run fast. “For me, personally, happiness and health have been more important than any other resources that could be provided,” she said.
And the coaching has been top notch. “I think the way [Coach Martin] believes in me and instills a lot of confidence and belief in me has been a huge, huge upside compared to any coaching I’ve ever had,” she said. He also makes sure she’s keeping it fun. The last part of her race plans from him is always: Have fun.
Until this year, Hyde never thought running professionally was in the cards for her, but thanks to her fantastic bonus year in the NCAA, she’s now looking at several pro teams. As she talks to coaches, she has been candid about her past struggles and the fact that while she’s in a great place now, she needs to be in an environment where that will continue. “That’s the biggest thing I’m looking for when I’m looking at groups,” she said. “Who is going to help me make my happiness and health be the first priority?”
There’s room for growth in Hyde’s training. Her mileage has always been on the lower side. As a high schooler in Arkansas, she thinks she ran 10–15 miles per week at most. Now she runs about 50 miles per week. Wherever she goes, she plans to finish her MBA in sports leadership at Adams State remotely.
She will continue racing this summer and will run the steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials later this month. She’s looking for more than just racking up experience. “Going into the Trials, the intent is to make the team,” she said. “I think that I have to bet on myself in order to do that, so I’m going to keep saying it and hope it happens.”
At the same time, Hyde is reminding herself to appreciate the ride she’s on, which she never could have imagined one year ago.
Thanks to Brooks for sponsoring Fast Women this month
I’m thrilled to be working with a new sponsor, Brooks Running, this month. They recently launched a new campaign—Let’s Run There—and it’s inspired by the evolving role that running plays throughout our lives. Everyone is working toward their own destination or “there,” whether it’s a performance goal, social time, alone time, a chance to clear their head, or something else. Country musician Morgan Wade, who runs to support her mental health and sobriety, is one of the faces of the campaign, and she recently shared her inspiring story.
I’ve been a runner for more than 30 years, and my relationship with running has changed dramatically throughout that time. Most of the time, it has been a love story, but we’ve been through some rocky periods as well. With Global Running Day coming up on Wednesday, this is the perfect time to reflect on your own “there” and what fuels you to keep going.
Also new at Brooks, the Ghost 16 recently launched, and it’s a great option if you’re looking for a comfortable and responsive neutral daily trainer.
One meet, two high school mile records
At the Hoka Festival of Miles, Virginia senior Allie Zealand won the high school mile in 4:30.38 and broke the national record Sadie Engelhardt set earlier this season (4:31.72). Zealand followed rabbit Layla Almasri through 809m in 2:18 before taking off with 600m to go. She dominated the race, covering the final lap in 64 seconds. (Watch the full race here.)
The run was a massive breakthrough for Zealand, who went in with a PR of 4:37.76 and improved by more than seven seconds. She will run for Liberty University in the fall, where she’ll be coached by her mother, Heather Zealand, who was a 2002 NCAA indoor mile champion for the school.
Zealand’s record did not last for long. Engelhardt was in the next heat, racing the pros. With a lap to go, she was in eighth place, but she had a great final 150m and finished second in 4:28.46. She became the first U.S. high school girl to break 4:30 outdoors. (Mary Cain holds the absolute high school record, having run 4:28.25 indoors. And Addy Wiley ran a 4:26.16 1600m, which converts to 4:27.72. I hope that one of these days, Engelhardt, or someone else, blows all of these times away, so we can quit including these caveats. Cain also ran 4:24.11 indoors as a high school senior, but she had turned pro by then.)
The Oregon Track Club’s Jenn Randall, who won the race, also had a big night. She took the lead with one lap to go and held everyone off to win in 4:28.23, a two-second PR. She broke 4:30 for the first time, a longtime goal for her.
In her post-race interview, Randall mentioned that she didn’t have opportunities like running at the Festival of Miles when she was in high school. That’s partly because there were nowhere near the same number of invitational/national racing opportunities for high school kids 15 years ago. And it’s partly because her fastest time in high school was 4:37.71, not for the mile but for 1500m.
Randall took an unconventional route to professional running, and I hope her story is a reminder to the kids of today that they don’t need to be running 4:30 miles now, have NIL deals, or even necessarily be running at all to be the pros of the future. (Pro race replay | Results)
Other News and Links
This is an excellent article, from Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times, about the 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials and the recent 40-year reunion event. It highlights Michele Davis, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Sister Marion Irvine’s stories and is a fun read.
Here’s another reason I appreciate the U.S.’s Trials system for selecting Olympic teams: There were six Australian women who met the Olympic marathon standard: Sinead Diver (2:21:34), Genevieve Gregson (2:23:08), Lisa Weightman (2:23:15), Izzi Batt-Doyle (2:23:27), Jess Stenson (2:24:01), and Eloise Wellings (2:25:47). When Athletics Australia announced that they had selected Stenson, the fifth-fastest runner, for the team last week, along with Diver and Gregson, the two fastest, things got tense. Weightman appealed the decision and you can read all of the details here, but Athletics Australia would not budge.
Emily Venters announced that she will not be competing at the Olympic Track & Field Trials and opened up about struggling with depression since turning pro. “I’ve fought these feelings for so long, thinking they were normal for professional athletes, but they shouldn’t have to be,” she wrote. “No one should have to fake happiness, feel a lack of enjoyment for their passion, have random panic attacks, or feel hopeless.” Venters will continue training, but she is taking a break from racing.
Some great news: Last week, Melinda Gates announced that she will be contributing $1 billion to people and organizations working on behalf of women and families around the world. And as part of that, she recently offered 12 people, including Allyson Felix, $20 million each, to distribute as they see fit. Felix wrote on Instagram that she plans to contribute to organizations dedicated to “urgent, impactful, and innovative efforts in women’s health and wellbeing.”
Alysia Montaño talked to Runner’s World’s Amanda Furrer about some of the emotional, professional, and financial ramifications of doping after learning nearly 12 years after the fact that she is an Olympic medalist.
Similarly, Lashinda Demus is being upgraded from silver to gold in the 400m hurdles at the 2012 Olympic Games. Her medal reallocation ceremony will take place in Paris this summer, and the IOC and USOPC are only partially funding her trip, so she has set up a GoFundMe so she can bring her family along.
In this FloTrack Workout Wednesday video, Elle St. Pierre runs a 1:59 800m in practice, and then continues on with the remainder of her workout. She’s scheduled to race an 800m at the Adrian Martinez Classic in Concord, Massachusetts, on Saturday. The meet will stream live on Bay State Running between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. ET.
World Athletics’ Inside Track published a nice video highlighting Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay. You need an account to watch, but registration is free.
Alexi Pappas wrote a thoughtful piece for Outside about her decision to freeze her eggs.
If you have 10 minutes, listen to the commencement speech that Keira D’Amato gave at a high school in Virginia. I thought she did a great job.
Additional Results
There were eight women still in contention at the bell of Thursday’s Oslo Diamond League 3,000m. Australia’s Georgia Griffith had the best closing speed, winning in an Oceanian record of 8:24.20. Griffith, who has specialized in the 1500m until now, PRed by 13 seconds. Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal (fifth, 8:27.02), Finland’s Nathalie Blomqvist (eighth, 8:32.23) and Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka (10th, 8:34.09) all set national records. South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso won the 800m in 1:58.66. (Results)
At Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Stockholm, Great Britain’s Laura Muir won the 1500m in 3:57.99. Dani Jones finished fifth in 4:00.64 and took 1.02 seconds off of her PR. And Cory McGee finished eighth in 4:02.64. Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie won the 800m, which wasn’t a Diamond League event, in 1:57.79. (Results)
Running her first 400m hurdles race in nearly two years, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the Edwin Moses Legends Meet, hosted by Morehouse College, in a world-leading 52.70. Because it had been so long, McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t have the Olympic standard, but she’s all set now. Heather MacLean narrowly won an exciting 1500m race, edging out Canada’s Lucia Stafford, 4:02.64 to 4:02.65, and Addy Wiley, who was racing for the first time in about a month, was right behind, in 4:02.78. Shafiqua Maloney of St. Vincent and the Grenadines won the 800m in 1:59.31. And Kate Grace closed well to take second in 2:00.68, 1.25 seconds faster than she ran two weeks earlier. She hasn’t quite hit the Trials auto qualifier yet, but she’s now ranked high enough that she should be safely in. (I enjoy her post-race recaps.) Ajee’ Wilson’s struggles continued as she finished last in the 800m in 2:06.13. (Results | 1500m video | 800m video | 400mH video)
Only two days after the Hoka Festival of Miles, many of the athletes in the pro field raced a 1500m at the Music City Track Festival, held near Nashville. This time Alexina Teubel, who was third on Thursday, won in 4:08.86. Jenn Randall finished second in 4:09.46 and broke 4:10 for the first time. And Sadie Engelhardt took fourth in 4:10.18. Allie Wilson won the 800m in 2:00.85, and Carmen Graves won Friday night’s steeplechase in 9:42.26. (Results)
Annie Rodenfels won the steeplechase at the Elliott Denman New Jersey International Track & Field Meet, running 9:29.36. Taryn Parks won the 1500m (4:10.67) and Michelle Rohl, 58, ran an impressive 5:23.30 to win the masters mile. (Results)
Kenya’s Grace Loibach Nawowuna won last Monday’s Bolder Boulder 10K in 32:45, and Ethiopia’s Siranesh Yirga finished second in 33:19. Emily Durgin was the top American, finishing fourth in 33:34. (Results) The citizens’ race (run earlier in the day, in cooler conditions) attracted an impressive crowd as well, with Molly Grabill winning in 33:39, Laura Thweatt finishing second (34:08), and Gwen Jorgensen finishing third (34:25). (Results)
Keira D’Amato won the Delightful Run for Women 5K—formerly known as the Freihofer’s Run for Women—in 15:41. She was followed by a trio of Hansons-Brooks runners: Amy Davis-Green (second, 15:45), Jessie Cardin (third, 15:51), and Anne-Marie Blaney (fourth, 15:57). (Results)
Podcast Highlights
Joan Benoit Samuelson has been doing more interviews than usual this year, and I particularly enjoyed her conversation with Deena Kastor on Marathon Talk. (It begins around the 27:30 mark.) She talked about the increasing role cross training plays in her marathon preparation, the challenges she faced going into the Berlin Marathon, and what motivates her to keep going. Next up, she’ll run the L.L. Bean Fourth of July 10K, where she has a streak that dates back to 1985.
It was good to hear from Emma Coburn during Ali Feller’s Brooklyn Half Marathon live show, including how she’s persevering after a major setback.
Kate Grace, who was on the Citius Mag podcast last week, always has novel ways of looking at the sport. She talked about her interest in coaching, and I would love to see her do that someday.
I’ve long enjoyed following Melissa Lodge’s FED Collaborative account on Instagram, so it was interesting to learn more about her and her research on the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast. Lodge is a 4:34 miler and a doctoral student whose own experience with REDs has inspired her research on the influence of low energy availability on health and performance.
Additional Episodes: Betsy Saina on A to Z Running (she comes on around the 13:00 mark) | Des Linden live at the Bayshore Marathon on I’ll Have Another | Ultrarunner Eszter Csillag on The Trail Network Podcast | Pole vaulter Sandi Morris on C Tolle Run | PUMA VP Erin Longin was good on Hurdle; definitely listen if you dream of working for a shoe company
Upcoming
This is going to be a big week. The Olympic Trials qualifying window closes on Sunday. The NCAA Championships begin on Wednesday, and the women will compete on Thursday and Saturday. This page has the schedule and broadcast information. And the start lists and results are here.
The New York Mini 10K takes place at 8:00 a.m. ET on Saturday. The field is strong and you can watch live on ESPN+, abc7ny.com, and NYRR’s digital channels.
The Portland Track Festival, on Saturday and Sunday nights, should be excellent. The entries are here, and Tracklandia will live stream the meet. Sunday’s USATF NYC Grand Prix will be live on Peacock from 1:00–3:30 p.m. ET. It’s more of a sprint meet, though, with the 800m being the longest women’s event.
Thanks again to Brooks for sponsoring Fast Women this month, and I’m also grateful to those of you who help keep Fast Women going with your support on Venmo and Patreon. Have a great week!
Alison