Fast Women: Patience pays off for Fiona O'Keeffe
Exciting showdown set for Saturday's NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Issue 381, sponsored by Bakline
Fiona O’Keeffe’s steady rebuild leads to fourth in New York
On November 2, Fiona O’Keeffe, 27, finished fourth at the New York City Marathon in 2:22:49. Her time was the fastest an American woman has run on the course by nearly two minutes, and the ninth-fastest in race history. The performance was an important milestone in her return from the injury that forced her out of the Olympic marathon and validation of the patient approach she has taken over the past year.
Twenty-one months earlier, O’Keeffe won the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in her debut at the distance, and she was catapulted into the spotlight. “To suddenly have all of that attention was definitely an adjustment,” O’Keeffe told Fast Women. “And I think people could warn you about what it might be like, but unless you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to explain, really.”
After the Trials, O’Keeffe had six months to get ready for the Olympic marathon, so she decided to drop back down in distance and race a 10,000m race in May. It went well, but O’Keeffe thinks her problems began when she switched back to marathon training after racing in spikes. She developed pain in her right calf, but she thought it was something she could manage with treatment.
In hindsight, O’Keeffe sees that she was compensating throughout her entire marathon build, which led her to develop pain in her left hip about a week out from the Olympic Marathon. She got an MRI in Paris, which came back clear. That information gave her a sliver of hope that she might wake up on race day and be okay. She continued receiving treatment, and by the time she realized the problem was likely not going to go away, it was too late to sub in an alternate. She ran roughly one mile of the race before the pain forced her to drop out; it was a devastating end to her Olympic experience.
O’Keeffe learned after the fact that MRI machines have varying resolutions, and the one in Paris was lower resolution. When she returned to North Carolina, she got another MRI which showed that she had a stress fracture in her left femur. She spent the next couple of weeks on crutches, while dealing with the frustration of having an injury that struck at the worst possible time—and criticism over her decision to start the race.
“It was just really hard for a while,” she said. “And I just kind of accepted that to some extent that [that would be the case] for some period of time. I also disconnected from the sport for a little bit, which I think was necessary.”
Rebuilding post-Olympics
O’Keeffe went home to California, and then spent some time in Montana with friends. She also attended the leadership summit of Protect Our Winters, a climate advocacy organization. O’Keeffe has long been passionate about the environment, and her Trials win led to the opportunity to become a member of the organization’s Athlete Alliance.
Once she was healthy enough to cross train, she returned to her training base in North Carolina and did a deep dive into any underlying factors that might have contributed to the stress fracture. She worked with several doctors and a PT and focused on strength work to help offset any underlying biomechanical issues.
“Obviously it would have been better to make some smaller adjustments and not run through the pain that I did,” O’Keeffe said. “But at the same time, it’s hard when you’re in a marathon build and that date is circled on the calendar and you know it’s not moving. Being more patient in the overall approach was a big lesson, because I feel like with the turnaround from the Trials to the Olympics, I was putting a lot of additional pressure on [myself]... I guess I had the feeling that I had to outdo what I had done to qualify and almost prove that I’d earned my spot.”
When she was ready to start doing some running, O’Keeffe eased her way back in with the help of UNC’s Boost treadmill. She also worked extensively with a registered dietitian. “That was definitely helpful for injury recovery and hopefully laying a much stronger foundation for the years to come as well,” she said.
One of her big takeaways from that was the importance of being consistent with her fueling day in and day out, just like she is with her training. And that even though her appetite might take a hit after a hard training session, it’s still important to get in some sort of nutrition and not be particular about what it is. “Something is better than nothing,” she said.
O’Keeffe was able to start running outside in November, she started doing workouts in December, and she returned to racing in March with a strong runner-up performance behind Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi at the NYC Half Marathon. She initially considered running a spring marathon. “Part of me wanted to get back on the horse as soon as possible,” she said. “But I was very interested in taking the long view as well.”
Once her Puma Elite coaches, Amy and Alistair Cragg, explained that for her to be at her best for a marathon, they were going to need more time, she was on board. She considered running the World Championships marathon in September, but New York gave her more time. O’Keeffe felt that her fitness returned pretty quickly once she was able to run again, but she was missing a deeper level of aerobic and physical strength, and it took months to build that back.
She recorded some strong results throughout the year, but nothing that forecast what was to come in New York. In September, she went to Denmark to race the Copenhagen Half Marathon. Her goal was to put herself in the race and see how well she could compete. She knew the race would go out quickly, but it was even faster than she expected. She hit 5K in a blazing 15:24, unintentionally on pace to go well under the American record, but she was already 24 seconds behind the leader. She slowed throughout the race and finished in 1:08:35, but it ended up being an opportunity to practice running quickly while not feeling great.
At first, she was a bit discouraged, but she could also see the positives. “Alistair helped with some of the framing of it,” she said. “Like, okay, you went out there and still managed to keep it at no worse than marathon pace, even though the wheels kind of fell off.”
While she was in Copenhagen, she watched online as her Puma Elite teammate Dorcus Ewoi won an unexpected silver medal for Kenya in the 1500m at the world championships. “I wasn’t surprised after I saw the rounds,” O’Keeffe said. “It was definitely the best-case scenario, but I think that’s been in there for a while.” Ewoi and O’Keeffe don’t overlap a lot in training, but they will sometimes start a workout together before branching off and doing their own more event-specific training.
An unexpected mentor
After Copenhagen, O’Keeffe finished up her New York build at altitude, in Park City, Utah. She was joined there by fellow Puma runner Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya. Cheruiyot, 42, has amassed an extensive list of accolades that include winning Olympic gold in the 5,000m in 2016, four world titles on the track, and the 2018 London Marathon. She, too, was getting ready to run New York and she ended up hopping into almost all of O’Keeffe’s workouts.
The two had never met before, but they proved to be good training partners. “It was helpful to see her overall approach,” O’Keeffe said. “Like she’s not stressed about things that don’t matter, and she’s very confident in herself. It was just nice to be around someone who knows how to get it done at such a high level.”
O’Keeffe’s New York build was her most consistent yet. She was able to stack quality weeks back to back, and she spent more time hovering between 110 and 120 miles per week, the high end of her mileage range. She also found herself recovering faster coming off of her big long runs.
Because the field was so strong, O’Keeffe flew under the radar a bit going into New York. On the same day other pro athletes were attending the pre-race press conference, she was running around on the streets of New York City picking up trash as part of a plogging event hosted by New York Road Runners. She happy to combine two of her passions and stay out of the spotlight a bit.
Two days later, she lined up for her first mass marathon. Five kilometers into the race, O’Keeffe missed her first bottle because she realized too late that several other athletes had identical-looking ones. Cheruiyot shared what was left of hers, and it helped that O’Keeffe knew she was using a more concentrated version of the same thing. At the next aid station, O’Keeffe got her bottle, but Sara Vaughn missed hers, so O’Keeffe paid it forward and shared with Vaughn.
Cheruiyot unfortunately had to drop out mid-race due to Achilles pain, but she warned O’Keeffe ahead of time that there might be some surging in and out of the aid stations, and she was right. “It was a little bit hard to gauge sometimes whether it was just that pattern repeating or a real sustained move was being made,” O’Keeffe said. “And sometimes I think it was both.”
Going over the Queensboro Bridge, in the 16th mile, O’Keeffe fell off of the lead pack for the first time. She yo-yoed back up to the leaders a couple of times before dropping back for good around mile 19. The final miles were challenging as she tried to keep the lead trio as close as possible while fighting off some nausea. (Pardon the graphic detail, but we’re all runners here. There was no full-on vomiting, but she was throwing up into her mouth a bit and then spitting it out.)
“I was trying to stay engaged and not let the gap grow too big, while also knowing full well that if I did implode, there were a lot of strong women behind me who would happily chase me down,” she said.
O’Keeffe held onto fourth place and felt a lot of gratitude as she crossed the finish line. “Racing is the fun part of me,” she said. “So to have the opportunity to put it all out there and try to get the most out of myself on the day, it’s definitely not something that I take lightly.”
She’s still fine tuning her in-race fueling, and gradually working her way up to consuming more during her marathons. The nausea was a new problem for her; she wonders if she overcompensated a bit at the next couple of aid stations after missing her first bottle. Either way, it’s an area where she sees room for improvement.
O’Keeffe raced New York in Puma’s Deviate Elite 3, not the Fast-R 3, which has gotten more attention. And on her uniform, along with the Puma and Puma Elite logos, she had a Protect Our Winters logo, a new addition as of the Copenhagen Half. O’Keeffe knew that she could have a secondary sponsor on her uniform, and she went through the necessary steps to make sure the logo was compliant with World Athletics rules.
POW does not sponsor O’Keeffe, she’s an unpaid ambassador, but representing the organization in races gives her an opportunity to spread the word about something she is passionate about. Last December, when she was just getting back into running, she went on a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., with the organization. She’s feeling disheartened by the direction of climate policy these days, but at the time, she felt hopeful. “It was a really cool opportunity to [talk to] people who genuinely care and feel like we were really being listened to by those members of Congress,” she said.
With each big race O’Keeffe runs, her platform gets a little bigger. She uses her Instagram account to post about her races, her sponsors, and her work with POW, but she tries to limit the amount of time and energy she spends on the app. “I don’t know if I would really be on social media at all if this wasn’t my job,” she said. “At this point, I think of it as more of a tool and I try to be thoughtful about what I put out there. I’m certainly not a person who’s inclined to share everything; that’s just not my personality.”
O’Keeffe is still figuring out where she’ll be racing next, but the marathon will be her main focus for now. She hasn’t ruled out a return to the track, though. “I would like to get my track times down in theory,” she said. “But not at the expense of the marathon.”
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The fields are set for Saturday’s NCAA Cross Country Championships
I love NCAA cross country, and I think it’s underappreciated by many running fans. Admittedly, the regular season has become a little less thrilling as many teams race sparingly and some don’t show all of their cards, but the end of the season is finally here. And Saturday’s NCAA Cross Country Championships, which take place in Columbia, Missouri, will be good.
As has often been the case in recent years, BYU and NC State go in as the top-ranked teams, and for the first time this season, we will get to see Alabama’s Doris Lemngole race BYU’s star freshman Jane Hedengren. They seem to be the two to beat, but this meet is always full of surprises.
Friday’s NCAA regional meets determined Saturday’s fields. I try not to read too much into athletes’ regional performances, because you never know who’s holding back, and who’s resting runners because they’re injured versus who’s resting them simply so they’ll be fresh the following weekend.
BYU coach Diljeet Taylor’s post-race comments about Hedengren, which Hedengren’s dad posted to his YouTube channel, made me think we’ll see more front-running from her next week. “Some of the stuff that she’s doing in practice is pretty spectacular and exciting, and I’m looking forward to next week letting her showcase all of the hard work from the last couple months,” Taylor said. “We haven’t really had an opportunity with a ton of competition… I think she’ll have a little more competition maybe at NCAAs, but Jane’s gonna run Jane’s race and it’s been exciting to watch her develop into this high-level collegiate athlete.”
Lemngole has a lot more NCAA experience, she’s won four NCAA titles, and she’s coming off finishing fifth in the steeplechase at the world championships. Her challenge is the tough turnaround from worlds in September to the collegiate season. But until someone knocks her off, she remains the reigning distance queen of the NCAA. And though I’ve mentioned only two of the title contenders here, there are plenty of others who would be happy to chase them down, should they falter.
The race will air live on ESPNU and the ESPN App beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday. (For those who don’t have cable, I’m thrilled that Sling now has day passes, which allow 24-hour access to ESPNU for $5.99. But the NCAA usually posts the full race on YouTube soon after as well, if you don’t need to watch live.) The women race first, at 10:20. The results will be here and the list of the qualifiers is here.
Top Regional Finishers
South: Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, Caren Kiplagat, and Cynthia Jemutai went 1-2-3, but Florida took the team title. (Results | Race replay)
Mountain: BYU’s Jane Hedengren won by 42 seconds over New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei, but with BYU sitting out some of their runners, New Mexico nipped BYU for the team title, 45-47. (Results)
West: Washington State’s Rosemary Longisa won, and in her first race of the season, Stanford’s Amy Bunnage took fourth and led her team to a 66-75 win over Oregon. (Results)
Southeast: South Carolina’s Salma Elbadra won the race, and NC State won the team title. (Results)
Great Lakes: Notre Dame’s Amaya Aramini and Mary Bonner Dalton went 1-2 and led their team to a comfortable win. (Results)
Mid-Atlantic: West Virginia’s Joy Naukot and Mercy Kinyanjui went 1-2, and helped their team earn a six-point win over Georgetown. (Results)
Northeast: Army’s Charlotte Richman won a tight race, and Boston College won its first team title since 2006. (Results)
Midwest: Isca Chelangat and Maureen Rutoh went 1-2 in the Midwest and led Oklahoma State to a win. (Results | Race replay)
South Central: Elizabeth Khatevi of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi won and Texas A&M (College Station) won the team title. (Results) Update: I initially missed that Khatevi attends school at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, not Texas A&M, and I have corrected that here.
Other News
Elise Cranny has joined the M11 Track Club, based in Manchester, England. The team is coached by Trevor Painter and former pro Jenny Meadows and includes athletes like Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell, and Ireland’s Sarah Healy. I’ve enjoyed following M11’s Instagram account for a while now, and it will be even more fun now. It’s a big move, but there are a finite number of options in the U.S., and there have to be advantages to training with people you won’t be competing against to make teams.
Kellyn Taylor has joined the Marathon Project field. And Jess McClain will be pacing a group of women going after the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time of 2:37:00. The race takes place December 21 in Chandler, Arizona.
Maurten posted a 25-minute YouTube conversation between Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi and Molly Seidel, and I thought it was a nice use of the athletes they sponsor.
Emily Infeld expressed her frustration (TikTok link) with USATF after receiving word that she would not be receiving any funding from the organization, despite winning the 10,000m at the USATF Outdoor Championships this year. (There’s a second post as well.) You can read USATF’s tier funding criteria here.
Saucony announced last week that they have extended their partnership with Uruguay’s Julia Paternain. I hope it comes with a nice raise after she won a surprise bronze medal in the marathon at the world championships.
DyeStat wrote about two-time Paralympic medalist Liza Corso of Lipscomb, who recently became the first NCAA DI runner to race with a guide runner. She finished 23rd at Friday’s South Regional, leading the way for her team. She’s in her fifth year in the NCAA, but she only recently made the switch to having a guide runner, saying that she previously didn’t want anyone to have to accommodate her.
In addition to all the other records that went down at Tunnel Hill, Emily Hugo set a pending American 50-mile record for the 40-44 age group.
The Olympic schedule came out last week; for the first time, track & field will span the entire Games, July 15-30, with some off days near the end. And all three rounds of the women’s 100m will take place on day one of the Games. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe told reporters that they consulted athletes and coaches before making that decision, but fans have been less enthusiastic about the move, which has been packaged as “putting women first.” (The men’s event will still take place over two days.) Julien Alfred’s agent, Henry Rolle, sent a letter to World Athletics (Track & Field News link) outlining his concerns about the move. And separately Bobby Kersee is upset (paywall), because the schedule makes it next to impossible for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to do the 400m/400mH double.
Tomorrow evening, Kara Bazzi and Heather Caplan will be giving a free talk for Wildwood about how to talk to someone you care about when you’re worried about their relationship with food, body image, or exercise. It’s scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET, but if you’re unable to attend live and you sign up in advance, you will receive a recording of the session. You can register here. And while I’m on the topic of Wildwood Running, they’re also holding a coaching clinic in Portland, Oregon, December 12-13.
Former Athletic CEO Dan Bowdoin passed a USATF-ordered background check four months after he was charged with five counts of child sex abuse, Margaret Fleming reports for Front Office Sports.
Additional Results
Kenya’s Brenda Jepchirchir won France’s Urban Trail de Lille 10K in 30:04, and Célia Tabet of France won the 5K in 15:08. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Asmarech Anley edged out Kenya’s Esther Chebet to win the Seven Hills Run 15K in the Netherlands. Both were timed in 47:05. Great Britain’s Eilish McColgan set a British record in finishing fourth in 47:12. (Results)
Flanigan’s Rockin’ Rib Run 10K in Miramar, Florida, has prize money that goes 10 deep, so it attracted a solid field. Ethiopia’s Alem Nigus (who has also used the last name Nigussie) won the race in 31:30 and earned $8,000. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw won Spain’s Cross Internacional de Soria, running 27:25 for 8K. (Report and top finishers)
Casey Mulroy won the Richmond Marathon in 2:44:37, Adelyn Fairley won the half marathon in 1:14:54, and Jenna Magness won the 8K in 27:07. (Results)
Probably my favorite result of the week: Eight days after she ran a 13-minute PR of 2:36:10 and qualified for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, Macy McRowe ran the Franksgiving Day 5K in Canton, Ohio, dressed as a pickle, and won in 17:52. As long as you’re not opposed to the consumption of hot dogs, the race sounds pretty amusing. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
If you want to learn more about Elise Cranny’s new coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows were on the Podium Athletics podcast, and it was interesting to hear more of the behind-the-scenes details of the M11 Track Club. (This episode came out prior to Cranny’s announcement.)
Amanda Vestri was good on the Ali on the Run Show, and she shared that David Roche will be her coach going forward.
This has nothing to do with women’s competitive running, but Katie Couric was also on Ali on the Run, and it was lovely to see one of host Ali Feller’s dreams come to fruition. Running podcasts existed before Feller, but she has redefined what’s possible as far as making a career through them, and has helped create a bridge between the pros and the masses. And I can’t imagine any other running podcaster will ever convince Couric to go on their show. (I appreciated Couric’s comment on Feller’s post, telling her she did an excellent job.)
I appreciated Makenna Myler’s candor on the Road to the Trials podcast. Though she initially attributed her struggles at the Chicago Marathon to the accidental overconsumption of electrolytes, she said she now thinks her stomach troubles had more to do with the fact that she had a staph infection leading up to the race and had to go on antibiotics. She stopped them 10 days before the race, but has since learned that they can have more lasting effects. She also discussed her struggles with long Covid in 2024 and said she tried to quit professional running, but Asics’ Ben Cesar encouraged her to stick with it, and she’s glad she did.
For more on Fiona O’Keeffe, she was also on The Citius Mag Podcast, NYRR’s Set the Pace podcast (starting at the 7:30 mark, and there’s a transcript at the link), and LetsRun’s podcast.
It was nice to get an Annie Rodenfels update on C Tolle Run after her recent Dash to the Finish Line 5K win and her move to Boulder. And it was good to hear how well things are going with her new coach, Juli Benson.
For the Fast People podcast, Sarah Lorge Butler talked to Minnesota Distance Elite coach Chris Lundstrom about the team’s success at the New York City Marathon. I enjoyed some of the Annie Frisbie details, and Lundstrom’s thoughts on super shoes, bicarb, and training in general. I also appreciated his comment about the fact that there are great coaches at every level. And if you find yourself cramming for an upcoming turkey trot, he has some advice about that, too.
And Frisbie herself was on I’ll Have Another, talking about her great run in New York.
Australia’s Jess Hull is always a good podcast guest, so it was good to hear from her on the Inside Running Podcast. She said she has received half of what Grand Slam Track owed her (which we knew), and it sounds like there might be more coming in December.
I enjoyed hearing Canada’s Polly Cunes, 42, talk about running a PR of 2:41 at the Chicago Marathon on Runchats with @Ronrunsnyc.
Additional Episodes: Molly Seidel on The Trail Network Podcast | Alicia Vargo on The Steep Stuff Podcast | Kylie Mantz discussed winning the Two Cities Marathon in 2:43:50, paced by her American-record-holding husband, on The Citius Mag Podcast | Addie Bracy on Women of Distance | Deena Kastor on Starting Line 1928 | Vestri, Elena Hayday, Calli Hauger-Thackery, and Felicia Pasadyn on The Marathon Podcast (which isn’t available in all podcast players, but it is in Spotify and Apple Podcasts) | British 1500m champion Sarah Calvert on Fitter, Faster, and Happier | Rachel Rudel on Conversation Pace with FRE
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I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
Wow, her comments on adjusting to the spotlight trully hit home. So insightful.
The way O'Keeffe managed her rebuild after Paris really shows the importnce of patience in distance running. Taking that long view instead of rushing back from the stress fracture paid dividends in New York. Her willingness to disconnect from the sport for a bit and addres underlying biomechanical issues was probably just as cruical as the physical training. The detils about working with a dietitian on consistent fueling are also key for injury recovery.