Fast Women: Happy Marathon Monday
Jane Hedengren runs 14:57.93, destroys the U.S. high school 5,000m record.
Issue 346, sponsored by PUMA
To avoid covering the Boston Marathon a week after it happens, I’m planning to send out an extra issue of Fast Women, hopefully by tomorrow. This newsletter will return to its regular once-a-week schedule after that.
Mixed feelings on Marathon Monday
It’s Marathon Monday here in the Boston area. If you are running today’s Boston Marathon, I wish you a wonderful, well-paced race, and regardless of how it goes, I hope you have fun and feel welcome in Boston and the surrounding towns.
I usually use this space to write something relatively cheerful about the Boston Marathon, but I have mixed feelings this year.
I love that for this one weekend, Boston becomes the center of the running universe. I’m excited to follow the pro races. I’m excited to see who among the masses can surprise themselves. I look forward to hearing about the strange and fun stories that emerge post-race. I am proud of people who have qualified for their first Boston. I am proud of people who are keeping their long streaks alive. And I am proud of people who have raised thousands of dollars for important causes, especially as so many organizations are in danger of losing their federal funding. Boston needs charity runners more than ever.
I am sad that this is a race where not everyone feels welcome. I appreciate fast runners as much as anyone, but I also feel sad that partially because spots on the starting line are so coveted, Boston tends to be a race that brings out people’s elitism. And I’m sad that some people will cover all 26.2 miles of the race today, but if they don’t make it to the finish line by 5:30 p.m., their finishes won’t be official. (I’m glad the cutoff is more clear this year, but I also wish Boston would do more to make it possible for everyone’s finish to count.)
And I’m disgusted that a clothing brand, which seems to have been built on excluding trans people, held a shakeout run in Boston on Saturday called the Real Women Run. But the comments on the Instagram post about it were good. (I have no idea what the turnout was like. Hopefully no one showed.) And I loved Nikki Hiltz’s response to a video the brand posted.
Kathrine Switzer is famously quoted as saying, “If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” So I could really use a marathon right now.
Mass 50501 is encouraging spectators to simultaneously support the runners and democracy. I hope there will be some great signs along the way. If I had an extra set of hands, I would definitely have a sign. Fittingly, this year’s race takes place as Boston celebrates 250 years since the start of the American Revolution.
I plan to take photos just before halfway, as usual, for as long as I can.
How to follow today’s race
There will be national coverage on ESPN2 from 9:00–12:30. WCVB will have local coverage, and you can get more information about how to watch the race here.
Helpful links: Live results (also available in the B.A.A. Racing app) | The leaders’ mile splits | Start lists | Uniform guide
Select start times:
9:06 a.m. ET Men’s wheelchair
9:09 Women’s wheelchair
9:37 Professional men
9:47 Professional women
9:50 Para athletics division
10:00 Wave 1
10:25 Wave 2
10:50 Wave 3
11:15 Wave 4
Additional Boston notes
This year’s event marks 50 years of wheelchair racing at the Boston Marathon. In 1975, Bob Hall became Boston’s first official wheelchair race finisher. And the first woman to finish the wheelchair race was Sharon Rahn, in 1977. I imagine the racing chair technology has changed even more than shoe technology during that time.
It has also been 50 years since Marilyn Bevans became the first U.S.-born Black woman to break 3:00, with her 2:55:52 at the 1975 Boston Marathon. On Friday night, Tracksmith hosted an event to celebrate athletes on The List of American-born Black women who have broken 3:00 in the marathon. Bevans was among the attendees and you can read more about it in this post.
Former marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, 51, is running Boston, after running 2:57:22 at the Tokyo Marathon last month. This Boston Globe article (probably behind a paywall) pointed out that this is only the second time she has raced in Boston. The first time was when she won the junior race at the 1992 World Cross Country Championships, held at Franklin Park. She and her family visited the park last week, so she could relive the memory.
The Boston Globe published a nice article (likely behind a paywall) about 26.TRUE, an alternate Boston Marathon designed to celebrate the neighborhoods that make up the city. Most of today’s race takes place outside of Boston. The field was capped at 250 this year, and 100 of the spots in the race were reserved for first-time marathoners. Last year, Molly Seidel ran some of the race. This year, Aliphine Tuliamuk was among those who cheered on the runners.
Jane Hedengren becomes the first U.S. high school girl to break 15:00 in the 5,000m
At the Bryan Clay Invitational on Thursday night, Jane Hedengren, 18, became the first U.S. high school girl to break 15:00 in the 5,000m, running 14:57.93. The senior at Timpview High School in Provo, Utah, destroyed both the high school record (previously 15:25.27 by Elizabeth Leachman, set last year) and the American U20 record. Hedengren also set the indoor U.S. high school record in the 5,000m last month, running 15:13.26.
Competing against collegians and pros, Hedengren got out quickly and tucked in behind pacer Lucy Jenks, who led through 2600m. That left Hedengren in the lead when Jenks exited the race, and she controlled the pace the next four laps before New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei and BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry went by her in the kick, with two laps to go.
Kosgei won the race in 14:52.45, just 0.27 seconds off of the collegiate record that Parker Valby set last year, and Halladay-Lowry was a close second in 14:52.93. They moved to second and third on the NCAA all-time list outdoors, and if Hedengren was a collegiate athlete, she would be fourth on the list. Kosgei has raced three times this season, and each time, she has run a time that ranked her second on the NCAA all-time list. (But she just moved down to third on the steeple list.)
After the race, Hedengren said that she slowed down, hoping someone else would take the lead, but it turned out Kosgei had no idea who Hedengren was, and she thought she might be one of the pacers.
I’ve seen some outlets and people calling Hedengren the fastest high school girl of all time, and U.S. is an important modifier there. I don’t know which athletes on the world U20 list were attending high school at the time of their performances, but Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa was a few days younger than Hedengren when she ran the world U20 record of 14:16.54 in the summer of 2023.
Hedengren’s senior year has been incredible, and it has put her in a class of her own among U.S. high schoolers. She is headed to BYU next fall, and though she’s already capable of competing with the NCAA’s best, racing them regularly will give her the opportunity to hone her tactics. Plus the level of competition in the NCAA continues to rise. (Race replay | Results)
Doris Lemngole breaks the collegiate steeplechase record and the college season heats up
Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, who has already won two NCAA titles this academic year, soloed a collegiate record in the steeplechase at the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday, running 9:10.13. She lowered her own mark by five seconds. She set the previous record in a good battle with Olivia Markezich at the NCAA Championships last June. In contrast, she won Friday’s race by 17 seconds.
Behind her, Sophie Novak (9:27.97) and NC State’s Angelina Napoleon (9:29.20) ran PRs. Novak is a student at Notre Dame, but she is redshirting the outdoor season, and Napoleon is ranked third on the NCAA performance list. (Results)
Harvard’s Victoria Bossong (who signed an NIL deal with Brooks last week) had a good 800m battle with Olympian Shafiqua Maloney at Florida’s Tom Jones Memorial. Maloney earned the win (1:59.23), but Bossong finished a close second in 1:59.48. She broke 2:00 for the first time and took over the NCAA lead. Clemson’s Gladys Chepngetich was close behind her, running 1:59.68. You can watch some highlights from the race in this post. (Tom Jones Memorial results)
At the Bryan Clay Invitational, LSU’s Michaela Rose won a tight race in the 800m (video here), running 2:00.22. NAU’s Maggi Congdon (2:00.27), Washington’s Sophie O’Sullivan (2:00.61), and Stanford’s Juliette Whittaker (2:00.76) took the next three spots.
Washington’s Chloe Foerster, who has been on a tear, won the following day’s 1500m in 4:05.75, just off the NCAA lead. Behind her was a fun rematch among some of the previous day’s 800m runners. Congdon took second again (4:07.23), O’Sullivan was third (4:08.69), and Rose was sixth (4:10.38). Georgetown’s Melissa Riggins (fourth, 4:09.80) and Nike’s Val Constien (4:10.22) were also in there. Oklahoma’s Leah Jeruto won the steeplechase in 9:34.71, and BYU’s Jenna Hutchins won the 10,000m in 32:22.98. (Bryan Clay results)
Also at Wake Forest, South Carolina’s Salma Elbadra won the 1500m in a PR of 4:05.85 and moved to third in the NCAA rankings. And NCAA indoor 800m champion Makayla Paige won the 800m (2:01.11).
Last summer, Oregon’s Klaudia Kazimierska was on a high. Representing Poland, she made the Olympic 1500m final. And then she ran 3:59.95. She returned to Oregon and ran three cross country races, and then she got injured. In her first race back after her injury, she won the 800m at Friday’s Oregon Open, running 2:02.80. The following day, she won the 1500m at the Oregon Team Invitational, running 4:07.28. She discussed the injury with Lori Shontz, saying her hip isn’t 100 percent yet.
Katie McMenamin’s excellent marathon debut
I’m a week late in reporting this, but the extra time gave me a chance to get some additional information. In her debut at the distance, Boston’s Katie McMenamin won the Jersey City Marathon on April 13, running 2:37:21. McMenamin is an internal medicine resident at Boston Medical Center, and when she initially signed up for the race, she hoped to run 6:00 pace, but she told Fast Women that her training was “all over the place” due to work, so she questioned whether that was a good plan.
But she focused on going out at a relaxed pace, and she was surprised by how quick her splits were. Halfway through the race, she was in third place. On an out-and-back section of the course, she saw the race leader way ahead of her and the thought of winning the race didn’t cross her mind. But over the second half, she worked her way into the lead and ultimately averaged 6:00 pace exactly.
McMenamin, 30, ran collegiately for Swarthmore, and in her last college meet, she won the 2016 NCAA Division III title in the 1500m. She was a member of the Boulder-based Roots Running Project for a year and initially began a Ph.D. program in aerospace engineering before changing course and going to medical school. She said that running has taken a back seat to her education and work in recent years, and the marathon appealed in part because she didn’t want to compare her performance to what she had done in the past.
McMenamin has found a balance that is working. She tries to do one or two hard, long workouts every week. On the other days, she does what easy mileage she can fit into her schedule, and she doesn’t worry about the total too much. (Jersey City Marathon results)
Other News and Links
Rachel Bachman wrote about USA Track & Field’s financial struggles for The Wall Street Journal, reporting that late last year, the USOPC instructed USATF to hire an outside law firm to do an independent review, which is ongoing.
Marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya has withdrawn from Sunday’s London Marathon. She said she wasn’t in the right place mentally or physically to run. Reigning London champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya has also withdrawn, due to an ankle injury. The field, headlined by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, is still strong, though.
Puma’s latest super shoe, the Fast-R Nitro Elite 3, launched last week and (Puma-funded) research suggests that it could be another game changer for the sport. Alex Hutchinson wrote an interesting piece about the shoe for Outside. Athletes who have had early access have raved about them. The data is impressive, but the thing that has made me believe the hype is hearing praise for the shoes from people who aren’t affiliated with Puma in any way.
Sinclaire Johnson said on Instagram that she pulled out of the Bryan Clay 800m and the USATF 1 Mile Championships due to a flare up of tendinitis in her knee.
Karissa Schweizer will be opening her season at the 1 Mile Championships, which take place tomorrow. She said in the pre-event press conference that a hiccup prevented her from racing indoors this year. This isn’t the first time Schweizer has had an early season setback, but she said she's glad it happened a bit earlier this year, because she’s feeling good now.
Annie Rodenfels, who I featured in January, has signed with Salomon. And Abbe Goldstein, who I featured in February, has signed with Saucony.
Lauren Gregory moved to Boulder last week. Prior to that, she was based in New Hampshire.
I learned from this pre-Boston interview that Keira D’Amato has sold her house in Virginia, so it sounds like she’s all in on Utah.
EmKay Sullivan announced that she is pregnant with her first child last week, and it was interesting to hear her discuss the Western States and UTMB pregnancy policies on her podcast, The Sub Hub, last week. Early in her pregnancy, she earned a golden ticket for the Western States 100, and she will now be able to use that any year. UTMB’s pregnancy policy isn’t quite as flexible, but she’ll still have five years to use her entry.
Ethiopians Lemlem Hailu (29:59.15 PR) and Asayech Ayichew (29:43 on the roads), as well as Great Britain’s Jess Warner-Judd (30:35.93) headline the Save the 10,000 with Des and Kara field. I’ll be interested to see who else lines up. Emily Infeld said on this week’s Fast People podcast that she would have liked to run, but the timing just didn’t work out for her.
She Runs the World, a documentary about Allyson Felix, will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
I enjoyed this story from Taylor Dutch about Kylie Mantz, Conner Mantz’s wife, joining the BYU track team this spring. When they got married at the end of 2022, she wasn’t a runner yet. But now she’s running her first and final season of track for BYU, and she has already run 34:57 for 10,000m. (Runner’s World story, might require a subscription.)
Art and Linda Kranick have stepped down from their roles as cross country and track & field coaches at New York’s Saratoga Springs High School due to Art’s medical conditions. They coached in the district for 40 years and were, on paper, very successful. Last year, the Saratoga Springs school board hired a law firm to investigate allegations against the Kranicks. The firm found that the district repeatedly rehired the pair despite regular complaints over decades about overtraining and mistreatment of athletes.
Additional Results
At the top of Boylston Street, Puma Elite’s Taylor Roe led the Boston 5K, but Ethiopia's Gela Hambese, 22, and Kenya’s Grace Loibach, 21, caught her in the kick. Hambese won in 14:53, and Loibach (14:55) and Roe (14:57) took second and third. Ethiopians Tsige Gebreselama (15:01) and Lemlem Hailu (15:02) rounded out the top five. Reilly Kiernan pulled off what I thought was one of the more impressive performances of the day, running 19:36 more than eight months into her pregnancy. (The Boston Globe has more details here, but again, paywall.) Kara Goucher won the 45–49 age group, running 19:18. Great Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the wheelchair race in 12:08, and Tatyana McFadden finished one second back. (Results)
Later the same day, Puma Elite’s Dorcus Ewoi kicked to a 4:43 win in a tight race at the B.A.A. Invitational Mile. Laurie Barton of Atlanta Track Club Elite took second (4:44), and New Balance Boston’s Kate Mitchell took third (4:45). (Results)
Emilly Sisson won Ireland’s Streets of Kilkenny 5K on Thursday, running an impressive 14:58. Next up, she will race the Great Manchester Run 10K on May 18. (Results)
Michigan high school senior Emmry Ross, who will attend the University of Michigan next year, dominated her 800m race at Hillsdale College’s Gina Relays, running 2:01.42. That makes her the 10th-fastest U.S. high school girl of all time, indoors or out. (Results)
Athing Mu-Nikolayev raced for the first time this year, running 3,000m of the 5,000m at the Mt. SAC Relays before dropping out. I saw some non-running outlets framing her DNF as some sort of failure, when that was the plan all along. She ran 9:41.75 for 3,000m and said it was more fun doing it in a race than doing it in practice. After the race, she signed autographs. Sammy Watson won the 800m in 2:03.20. Iowa’s Alli Bookin-Nosbisch was second (2:03.60), and Raevyn Rogers was third (2:05.14). (Results)
Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred is off to a blazing start this season. At the Tom Jones Memorial, she ran 21.88 for 200m (0.2m/s wind).
Podcast Highlights
Emily Infeld is this week’s guest on the Fast People podcast, and the episode will be available by the time you read this. I enjoyed hearing her talk about her Grand Slam Track call-up, how her training has changed and what’s working well this year, and her upcoming racing plans. I also really enjoyed hearing from her on Unexpected Curves last week. That episode was very different and mostly focused on the complex feelings she had after winning bronze in the 10,000m at the 2015 World Championships.
I’ve been wanting to hear more of Alexa Efraimson’s story for a while now, so I enjoyed her appearance on the Lane 9 Podcast. It was really disheartening to hear her say the coach she was with for most of her career had her do regular weigh-ins. When she signed her first contract with Nike, at age 17, she hadn’t gone through puberty yet. She’ll become a registered dietitian later this year, so she can help young athletes avoid some of the challenges she dealt with.
Aisha Praught Leer discussed life after pro running on the Ali on the Run Show.
These episodes will be a little less timely post-race but Jackie Gaughan, Sara Hall, Keira D’Amato, and Nell Rojas (who is not running Boston) were on NBC Sports Boston’s On Her Mark podcast in advance of the Boston Marathon. And it was good to get a Dakotah Popehn update on Citius Mag as well.
It was interesting to hear Lisa Rainsberger, who won the Boston Marathon 40 years ago, discuss her career on Running–State of the Sport. She joins the episode around seven minutes in.
Grayson Murphy discussed coming to terms with her Crohn’s disease diagnosis on the Hurdle podcast.
It’s not specifically a running podcast, but the hosts of Burn It All Down (tagline: the feminist sports podcast you need) put out their first episode in 2.5 years, and it reminded me how important that podcast was and how much I miss it. And the Lord Sebastian Coe discussion made me laugh.
UND’s Jadyn Keeler, who has made a massive performance leap this year, was on the Prairie Track & Field Podcast (she comes on around the 20:30 mark).
Whether you’re in Boston or not, I hope you have a great Monday. Thanks to PUMA for sponsoring this issue of Fast Women, and to all of you whose contributions via Venmo and Patreon help keep this newsletter going.
Alison