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Issue 318, sponsored by Topo Athletic
Molly Bookmyer, Natosha Rogers come out on top in the Twin Cities
For the past couple of years, Molly Bookmyer’s marathons have hovered in the 2:30–2:32 range, so it was great to see her finally crack the 2:30 barrier on Sunday and win the Twin Cities Marathon in 2:28:52. Bookmyer, 33, led the race from gun to tape and PRed by 84 seconds. She earned $10,000 for the win and as a resident of Columbus, Ohio, she earned another $4,000 in the “Best of the Midwest” race within a race.
As a senior at Ohio State in 2013, Bookmyer was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor and in 2015, she underwent surgery to remove it. Due to complications, she needed a second emergency surgery three months later. In November of that year, Bookmyer had a seizure while running on a treadmill and though she wasn’t seriously injured, she had to start taking anti-seizure medication, which initially caused some side effects.
Shortly after marrying her husband, Eric Bookmyer, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but he has been cancer-free since 2018. With their biggest health challenges behind them, Bookmyer began taking her training more seriously in 2018, and she has been improving steadily ever since.
After having to drop out of February’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials around 11 miles, Bookmyer set her previous marathon PR of 2:30:16 at Grandma’s Marathon, in June. She dedicated Sunday’s race to her father-in-law, who passed away about two weeks prior. “Today was to honor him,” she said on the TV broadcast after the race. “So I’m really happy that [it] went well and that I was running with him during the race.”
Jessica Watychowicz, the 2022 Twin Cities Marathon champion, finished second in 2:33:02, Ashlee Powers took third in 2:33:40, and Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project teammates Megan O’Neil (2:34:55) and Maddie Offstein (2:36:07) rounded out the top five.
Puma Elite’s Natosha Rogers ran with a pair of recent NCAA standouts, Kenya’s Mercy Chelangat and Everlyn Kemboi, early on in the Twin Cities 10 Mile, but she pulled away mid-race and won comfortably, in 52:29. Kemboi, who won the 2023 NCAA 10,000m, title took second in 52:52, and NAZ Elite’s Chelangat, the 2022 NCAA 10,000m champion, took third in 53:07. (Rogers is the 2012 NCAA 10,000m champ, so this was a battle of the 10K champs, past and more recent.)
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve won a race; it’s really hard these days to get the win and I’m just so happy to get the big W today,” Rogers told Carrie Tollefson afterward. Rogers earned $6,000 for taking the top spot.
After last year’s Twin Cities Marathon and 10 Mile were canceled due to heat, this year’s races were windy but otherwise beautiful for racing. (Marathon results | 10 Mile results)
Savannah Berry, Kodi Klevan earn St. George wins
Savannah Berry won Utah’s St. George Half Marathon on Saturday, flying to a 1:08:06 finish. The race is held on a point-to-point course that loses 1,892 feet of elevation along the way. On the other hand, the race begins at 4,572 feet above sea level, which makes things tougher. Berry finished second overall, and Great Britain’s Ellie Stevens, 40, was the second woman and third overall, running 1:10:18.
Kodi Kleven won the marathon in 2:30:43 and took 2:02 off of her own course record from 2021. Libby Bigelow was second (2:39:32), and Grace Clements was third (2:41:00). The marathon has a net elevation loss of 2,517 feet. (Results)
Jenny Simpson tunes up for the New York City Marathon
Jenny Simpson won the Wineglass Half Marathon in Corning, New York, running a course record of 1:10:50. Her husband, Jason Simpson, finished right behind. Simpson is preparing to run the New York City Marathon on November 3. After dropping out of the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in her debut, Simpson finished 18th at the Boston Marathon in April, running 2:31:39.
“I wasn’t sure after Boston if I could put myself through another marathon training block,” Simpson wrote on Instagram after the race. “Maybe that’s how most people feel after a big marathon. But then, like most people, here I am training for another one despite the doubts… Brick by brick I’m back building something I’m really proud of.”
Diane Neubauer won the Wineglass Marathon in 2:42:46, and Mary Connacher took second in 2:43:42. Like St. George, the marathon and the half are run on point-to-point, net downhill courses, but the drop is much more subtle. (Results)
Thanks to Topo Athletic for supporting Fast Women this month
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Emmaculate Anyango Achol, who ran a 28:57 10K, is provisionally suspended
The Athletics Integrity Unit announced on Friday that they have provisionally suspended Kenya’s Emmaculate Anyango Achol, 24, who tested positive for EPO and testosterone. In January, Anyango (the last name that most frequently appears in results) became the second-fastest woman ever over 10K, when she finished second behind Agnes Ngetich’s world record at the 10K Valencia Ibercaja, running 28:57.
Anyango has made an eyebrow-raising performance jump in the past year, and in March, she finished fourth at the World Cross Country Championships and helped Kenya to the team title. She also raced in the U.S. a handful of times this spring and summer, finishing second at the B.A.A. 5K, sixth in the 10,000m at the Prefontaine Classic (which served as the Kenyan Olympic Trials), fourth at the Peachtree Road Race, and second at the Boilermaker 15K.
An alarming number of Kenyan athletes have received doping suspensions in recent years, and it’s hard to say whether that’s because doping is worse than it’s ever been in Kenya, there’s more testing happening in Kenya, or some combination of both. If Anyango’s positive test stands and it happened out of competition in the past couple of months, she would likely get to keep all of her prize money and none of her results would be disqualified.
Other News and Links
The Brooks Beasts are hiring an assistant coach to help out with their women’s team.
Sinclaire Johnson talked to Sarah Lorge Butler about her decision to stay in Portland, Oregon, and leave the Union Athletics Club. (Runner’s World) Johnson is encouraged by the fact that she was able to get into 3:56 1500m shape so soon after an injury, but discouraged by the number of injuries she has had to deal with in recent years. Moving forward, her main goal is to be able to put in consistent training. For more, Johnson was also on The Running Effect podcast last week.
Because of damage from Hurricane Helene, most of the ZAP Endurance team, based in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, will spend the next several weeks training elsewhere. They said in an Instagram post that several of the athletes’ residences flooded, plus their training venus have been “significantly compromised.” In a separate post, Tristin Van Ord described how she and her husband, Andrew Colley, were affected, while reiterating that they were extremely lucky to fare as well as they did. “Bodies are being found on the sides of washed away roads and people are being told they don’t have time to even identify bodies because they’re too busy saving those still alive,” she wrote. “Appalachia has a history of being left behind. Seen as poor, backwoods, and uneducated. People are suffering and the death count is rising.” Van Ord dedicated her race at the Twin Cities 10 Mile to Western North Carolina. At the end of a rough week, she finished 11th in 54:42.
Matthew Centrowitz will pace Keira D’Amato and other women, during Sunday’s Chicago Marathon. (Runner’s World) Centrowitz and D’Amato go way back because D’Amato’s college coach at American University was Centrowitz’s father, who has the same name.
Much of this Glamour article about Allyson Felix is review, but I appreciated some of the smaller details. For one, she’s writing a memoir. And no, there wasn’t space to pump when she attended the Olympic opening ceremony, so she did so in a porta potty. When she delivered her son, Trey, in April, she had the vaginal birth after cesarean she had hoped for. But she joked that midway through, she thought, “Did I really want this?”
I appreciated Keely Hodgkinson telling The Times that she never fell in love with running; she just knew she was good at it. “I enjoy winning and being competitive, I love thinking I’m going to win,” she said. “But running itself is horrible, let’s be honest.” I’d argue that running can be quite pleasant, but racing the 800m is another story. At the end, she’s quoted saying she thinks women are paid more than men in track.
I received many responses after writing about Camille Herron last week. My main takeaway from all of it is that a lot of people, myself included at first, trusted Canadian Running to report on the Wikipedia data in a responsible manner. In my opinion, they did not. But once the narrative has been established and practically every running outlet, plus the New York Post and Daily Mail, is reporting on it without checking the facts, the damage is done. I noticed that the Daily Mail mentioned that Temporun73 made edits to Tegla Loroupe’s Wikipedia page. They left out the fact that the edits corrected an error (Loroupe never won the Boston Marathon) and added that she was the first African woman to hold the marathon world record. Yes, technically Temporun73 removed Loroupe’s Boston Marathon win from her Wikipedia page, but that’s a good thing, because it never happened. When looking at edits, context matters. I am in no way saying that Temporun73 and Rundbowie’s conduct was above reproach, just that if you’re going to write an article that’s going to have a life-altering impact, it’s important to get the facts straight.
Additional Results
BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry won Notre Dame’s Joe Piane Invitational, running 15:57.5 for 5K. Texas Tech’s Juliet Cherubet took second in 16:03.5. NAU, currently the top-ranked team in the country, won the team title with 52 points, No. 5 BYU was second (65), and No. 3 Notre Dame was third (70). (Results)
Reigning NCAA steeplechase champion Doris Lemngole of Alabama won the Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational, running 18:48.2 for 6K. Tulane’s Caroline Jeptanui, who is new to the NCAA, finished second in 19:04.9, and No. 15 Alabama went 1–3–5 to pull off an upset and win the team title over No. 1 NC State. (NC State and NAU were tied in the latest poll.) While women from Kenya have excelled in the NCAA for years, the depth of talent is clearly growing. Seven of the top 10 finishers at this meet were Kenyan and five of them are in their first season of collegiate cross country. (Results)
Running her first race since representing Canada in the steeplechase at the Olympic Games, West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe won the Live in Lou Cross Country Classic, running 16:06.0 for 5K. Clemson’s Silvia Jelego took second in 16:14.2. (Results)
UConn’s Chloe Thomas had the fastest time of the day at the Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh University, running 19:23.8 for 6K in the gold race. (Results)
Wilmington College’s Faith Duncan, who won the 5,000m at the NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Championships in May, won DIII Pre Nationals, running 21:02.8 for 6K in Terre Haute, Indiana. Jane Hedengren of Utah had the fastest high school time of the day, running 16:50.6 on the 5,000m course, despite dealing with an unknown health issue. (DIII results | High school results)
On Saturday, Courtney Dauwalter won the Nice Côte d’Azur 100 miler, which qualifies her to run UTMB in 2025, if she chooses to do so. She covered the course in 21 hours, 35 minutes, and 57 seconds and finished second overall, only 13:43 behind the men’s winner. (Results)
Kenya’s Miriam Chebet won the Cardiff Half Marathon in 1:06:43. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Yalemget Yaregal won Italy’s Trento Half Marathon in 1:07:56. (Results)
Stephanie Brucewon the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon in 1:12:45 andDiana Bogantes Gonzalesof Costa Rica finished second, seven seconds back.Lindsey Bradleyrounded out the top three, running 1:13:22.Update: Per David Monti, there was no lead vehicle for the women, the top two went off course, and they were therefore DQed. Bradley is now the official winner.Kassie Parker won the Blazing 5K in Des Moines, Iowa, running 15:46. (Results)
Update: Last week, I wrote that Kerstin Fiebig and Sylvia Reuß of Germany won the 55–59 age group at the Berlin Marathon, and they appeared to have finished together, in 2:50:10. But thanks to the reader who pointed out that their splits are suspicious. They seem to have hit 5K in 45:35 before missing all of the other chip mats until the finish line. Hopefully whatever happened, it was an honest mistake. It appears that Great Britain’s Susan McDonald, who ran 2:55:38, was the true winner of the 55–59 age group, even though the results haven’t been corrected yet.
Correction: I wrote that Nick Johnson initially coached Addy Wiley at Huntington University, but that is not true. Johnson was fired in December 2020 and Wiley didn’t start at Huntington until the summer of 2022. She was initially coached by Lauren Johnson, until she was fired by the school. Lauren continues to coach Wiley as a pro.
Podcast Highlights
If you’re interested in the training that went into Jessica Hull’s breakthrough season, she went into a fair amount of depth on the Inside Running Podcast. She said that after World Indoors, she and her dad, who coaches her, realized that the missing piece was her last 200m. So they started doing “total raw speed development.” She said that some of her workouts didn’t get much faster this year, but she was able to do a lot of the same paces with much shorter recovery. She also said she ran fewer miles overall this year.
I enjoyed getting a pre-NYC Marathon update from Jess McClain on The Rambling Runner Podcast. It was funny to hear her say that when she got a call from USATF saying she might be needed as the Olympic alternate in Paris, she booked her flights before realizing she didn’t know which event they were talking about, because she was the alternate in both the marathon and the 10,000m.
It was interesting to hear Gabi Rooker talk about her buildup to the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, which was hampered by her first major running injury, on The Citius Mag Podcast. Rooker finished 19th at the Trials and didn’t have her best day, but she said that working at a hospital helps keep things in perspective. Rooker is running Sunday’s Chicago Marathon, which will be her first race since the Trials, and she’s hoping to improve upon the 2:24:35 personal best she set there last year.
Additional Episodes: Erika Kemp talked about her fourth-place finish at the USATF 10K Championships on Women’s Running Stories | Alexi Pappas on C Tolle Run | Tara Dower on The Freetrail Podcast | Romanian trail running standout Madalina Florea on The Sub Hub Podcast
Upcoming
The Chicago Marathon will take place on Sunday. The women’s wheelchair race is scheduled to start at 8:21 a.m. ET and the runners will go off at 8:30. The race will air live on NBC 5 Chicago and you can see more broadcast details here. The start lists, as of October 1, are here. Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich, the 2021 and 2022 Chicago Marathon champion and last year’s runner-up, is the favorite going in. And many of the top American women are running, with Keira D’Amato, Betsy Saina, Sara Hall, and Emma Bates going in with the fastest seed times.
Thanks again to Topo Athletic for sponsoring Fast Women this month and remember to use the code FASTWTOPO for 15% off full-price items at topoathletic.com. Thank you, also, to all of you who help keep Fast Women going with your contributions via Venmo and Patreon.
I hope you all have a good week.
Alison
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