Fast Women: Running could learn a thing or two from women's basketball

Sarah Chelangat and Emily Durgin score wins at Cherry Blossom.

Issue 286, sponsored by Bombas

L-R: Annie Frisbie, Emily Durgin, and Rachel Smith after taking the top three spots at the USATF 10 Mile Championships. (Photo by Clay Shaw/RunnersGazette.com)

Sarah Chelangat repeats, and Emily Durgin earns her first national title at Cherry Blossom

Most USATF championship races are open only to U.S. citizens, but the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, which hosted the USATF 10 Mile Championships for the second year in a row, does things differently. Cherry Blossom is open to international athletes as well, and there’s a race within the race for the national title. The top 10 women overall and the top 10 American women earn prize money. 

A group of eight athletes broke away during the first mile: Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat and Esther Chebet, Ethiopia’s Kasanesh Ayenew and Tegest Ymer, Kenya’s Sarah Naibei, and Emily Durgin, Annie Frisbie, and Rachel Smith of the U.S. During the second mile, Frisbie and Smith dropped back.

The race broadcast prioritized the U.S. championship race, along with showing the men, so it was not exactly clear what happened up front. But by 5K, Chelangat and Ayenew had opened up an eight-second lead. Durgin caught Ymer not long after 5K and Ymer latched on and stayed with her through eight miles. The duo must have caught Ayenew around 10K, when they moved into second and third. Chelangat, 22, who had finished sixth at the World Cross Country Championships eight days earlier, was alone out front, and she stayed there.

With two miles remaining, Durgin made a move and immediately dropped Ymer. In the closing stages, Durgin made up ground, but Chelangat’s lead was large enough that she won comfortably, in 51:14, a course record. She earned her second Cherry Blossom victory in a row, and ran 50 seconds faster this year. 

Durgin had a big race, taking second overall and winning her first national title, in 51:26, just three seconds off of Keira D’Amato’s American record for a women’s-only race. D’Amato was originally entered in this race, but her plans seemed to change well before race day.

Ayenew held strong in the closing miles and took third in 51:38. As usual, Smith closed well and finished fourth in 51:40, after going through 10K in seventh place. Frisbie held on to take fifth in 52:01. Chebet took sixth (52:05) and Ymer faded to seventh (53:03).

Durgin told USATF.tv after the race that in addition to racing for the win, she was gunning for a fast time. At last month’s 15K Championships, Smith chased Durgin down, and she knew that by going for it early, she was running the risk of having something like that happen again, but she thought she had the fitness to hang on. “The overall win would have been great, but having the international field, I think that is what pulled me to the quick time,” she said. “I had women behind me the whole time, and I had someone to chase. And I also knew that these great Americans were coming after me.”

Chelangat earned $6,000 for the win, plus another $1,000 for breaking 52 minutes. Durgin earned $10,000 for her U.S. championship, $3,000 for placing second overall, and $750 for being the second woman to break 52 minutes. (Results)

---

Thanks to Bombas for supporting Fast Women this month 

Bombas is also putting the spotlight on another fast (and strong) woman: Venus Williams. 

Venus is the ultimate competitor, so it makes sense her limited edition collection with Bombas is tough competition for all other workout socks. Not only are they the perfect mid-weight, not too thin or too thick, but they’re optimized for all sports. Whether I run in them or cross train in them, I know my arches will feel supported and my feet will stay cool and dry. 

Plus, this collection supports organizations that are changing young lives through tennis, like the Johnny Mac Tennis Project and Play Like a Girl. And with every Bombas item, one item purchased = one item donated to someone who needs it. 

While I have received products from Bombas, my opinions are solely my own. If you’re ready to run in champion-approved socks like these, use code FASTWOMEN21 to get 21% off at Bombas.com. One use per customer, offer expires 5/6/24. 

---

Other News and Links

• I really enjoyed reading Johanna Garton’s new book, All in Stride: A Journey in Running, Courage, and the Search for the American Dream, about married couple Elvin Kibet and Shadrack Kipchirchir. There is so much about Kibet’s story that I didn’t know, and once you hear it, it’s impossible not to root for her. I don’t want to include any spoilers, but the circumstances of her birth alone makes everything she has accomplished in her life incredible. And I especially appreciate that Kibet opened up about the challenges she faced in adjusting to a new culture, including the racism and sexism she has experienced since moving to the U.S. The book came out on Tuesday and it’s out of stock in several places, but Amazon has it, and there’s an audiobook version as well. It’s definitely worth a read. And Garton was on the Lactic Acid podcast last week, discussing her career and the book.

• As expected, I loved Allie Ostrander’s recap video from the World Cross Country Championships.

• Track: All-Access featured one of Weini Kelati’s workouts (5 x 2K with 3:00 rest) leading up to her 30:33 10,000m at the TEN. Kelati’s workout pacer is her boyfriend, Abraham Tsegay.

• Rebecca Mehra announced that after nearly seven years with Oiselle, she’s moving on. She hasn’t said where to yet, and I don’t know whether the fact that she’s been training with the Brooks Beasts is a massive clue or not. 

• On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was asking the New York City Marathon to pay about $750,000 a year to make up for the toll revenue they lose while the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is closed for the race. But the following day, Governor Kathy Hochul said she had ordered the MTA to “fix this mess and allow the marathon to move forward as it always has.” (Both links are gift links.)

• Athletics Kenya has narrowed its pool of potential Olympic marathoners down to six, and how the remaining women do in their spring marathons could be the deciding factor. Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi will be running Boston, and Ruth Chepngetich, Brigid Kosgei, and Peres Jepchirchir will be running London. Rosemary Wanjiru finished second in Tokyo in 2:16:14.

• Malindi Elmore has withdrawn from the Boston Marathon due to hamstring problems. Having already been selected for Canada’s Olympic marathon team, Elmore’s top priority is being healthy in August.

• Alex Millard, who helped Great Britain win a bronze medal in the mixed relay at the World Cross Country Championships, is heading to Boston College. She has run 4:09.07 for 1500m and 8:58.93 for 3,000m, so she should have an immediate impact.

• In February, Anna Rohrer Heiny announced that she had pulled out of the Olympic Marathon Trials due to muscle imbalances causing chronic pain. But she was also pregnant with her first child, which she announced last week. The baby is due in August. 

• The Lowell Sun featured UMass Lowell graduate student Kenzie Doyle, a 15:27 5,000m runner who is coming off her best season ever. Doyle plans to use her sixth year of NCAA eligibility next year, when she’ll be able to run everything except indoor track.

• The Detroit Free Press Marathon, which takes place in October, is making a push to become a more competitive race. They’re looking to attract 100 elite runners, though their definition of elite might be different from yours or mine. 

• Professional sprinter Brittany Brown has been opening up about her experience with endometriosis on Instagram.

Laura Galván wins the Carlsbad 5000. (Photo by David Daer)

Additional Results

• I’m not usually a huge fan of events shoe companies put on that feature only runners they sponsor, but the Asics Speed Race 10K and 5K were well executed. They were held in conjunction with the Paris Marathon and took place on a 2.5K loop that started and finished at Palais-Royal. The coverage was good, and the 10K came down to a sprint finish between Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw, who won in 29:56, and Kenya’s Loice Chemnung, who was second in 29:57. Makenna Myler was the lone American in the 10K, and she took eighth in 32:38. Kenya’s Caroline Nyaga dominated the 5K, winning by 23 seconds, in 14:40. And Grace Barnett (eighth, 15:45) was the top American. (Results)

• Also in Paris, two days later, Ethiopia’s Mestawut Fikir and Enatnesh Tirusew, both of whom were debuting in the marathon, went 1–2 in the Paris Marathon in 2:20:45 and 2:20:48, respectively. And 40-year-old Vivian Cheruiyot, the 2016 Olympic 5,000m champion, took third in 2:21:46. Paris was Cheruiyot’s first marathon in more than three years, partially because she took a break to have her second child in 2021. (Results)

• Ruti Aga of Ethiopia won the Daegu Marathon in 2:21:08.

• Ethiopia’s Tekle Muluat won the Berlin Half Marathon in 1:06:53. (Results)

• Ethiopia’s Gete Alemayechu Teklemichael overcame a mid-race deficit to win the Prague Half Marathon, 1:08:10 to 1:08:13, over Kenya’s Jesca Chelangat. (Results | Race replay)

• Mexico’s Laura Galván repeated as Carlsbad 5000 champion, in 15:19. Marissa Howard took second (15:39) and Carrie Verdon was third (15:49). Karley Rempel won the open women’s race in 16:37, and Meriah Earle, 45, won the masters race in 17:21. (Results)

• Kenya’s Sarah Naibei won the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K in Charleston, South Carolina, in 31:42. Bethany Hasz of the B.A.A. finished second in 32:02, and Betty Sigei of Kenya was third in 32:07. Naibei earned $10,000 for her win and—you don’t see this often—the following day, she also ran the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, where she finished eighth in 53:37 and earned $400. (Results)

• Great Britain’s Calli Hauger-Thackery, who has been training with U.S. 10 mile champion Emily Durgin, won the Sactown 10 miler in 52:06. (Results)

• Peighton Meske won the Knoxville Marathon in 2:44:40 and finished fourth overall. (Results)

• Claudia Hollingsworth, 18, ran an Australian U20 record of 4:02.96 to win the 1500m at last week’s Box Hill Classic. Last month, Hollingsworth ran 1:58.81 for 800m, also a U20 record. (Results)

• At Saturday’s Miramar Invitational, Shafiqua Maloney of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines led the 600m wire to wire and won in a national record of 1:23.80. Atlanta Track Club Elite’s Sadi Henderson finished second in 1:27.81. Ajee’ Wilson, who was racing for the first time since the USATF Outdoor Championships last July, took third in 1:27.86. (Race replay | Results)

• Alabama’s Doris Lemngole won the 1500m at the Crimson Tide Invitational in 4:11.90. Former Alabama runner Esther Gitahi took second in 4:12.08. (Results)

• Former University of Colorado runner Rachel McArthur won the 5,000m at Colonial Relays in 15:43.91, a PR. “First race since surgery and first pain-free race in three years,” she wrote in her Instagram stories. “Very happy to be enjoying racing again.” And Virginia Tech’s Lindsey Butler took second in 16:17.59—not bad for an 800m specialist. (Results)

• California high school junior Sadie Engelhardt ran the second-fastest U.S. high school mile ever outdoors to win the Arcadia Invitational mile in 4:34.31. (Katelyn Tuohy holds the outdoor record of 4:33.87, and Mary Cain holds the indoor/outright record of 4:28.25.) Engelhardt was challenged on the last lap by Utah junior Jane Hedengren, but Engelhardt was able to counter with a big move and win her third Arcadia title in a row. Hedengren took second in 4:37.17, and her teammate at Timpview High School, sophomore Lily Alder, took third in 4:40.82. Alder comes from a big running family; her mother represented Ecuador in the 3,000m at the 1992 Olympic Games, and her sister Carmen runs for BYU. Colorado senior Isabel Allori won the 3200m in 9:58.08, and Illinois senior Ali Ince won the 800m in 2:05.26. (Results—scroll down to Saturday Invitational Running Events | Race replays: mile, 800m, 3200m)

Correction: Last week, I misread Lauren Ryan’s post and mistakenly wrote that she won the Australian mile title. Abbey Caldwell was the actual winner, in 4:30.50, and Ryan finished second. The results are here.

Podcast Highlights

• Molly Seidel talked about her decision to run the Canyons 50K on The Freetrail Podcast, starting around the 53:00 mark. She said she wasn’t healthy enough to run a spring marathon—she has had trouble running pain-free on pavement on flat terrain—and she didn’t feel excited about racing on the track. She chose Canyons because she wants to get into UTMB’s OCC race (55K) down the road. She was hoping her participation in the race might fly under the radar a bit, because she hasn’t been able to train that much, and she isn’t sure how it’s going to go, but no such luck. Seidel was also on the Ali on the Run Show, where she discussed some of the same topics but many more lighthearted ones as well. She said that on the advice of one of her physios, she takes an edible before she does her strength and mobility work.

• I really enjoyed hearing from Olympian, coach, and new USATF employee Amy Yoder Begley on the Keeping Track podcast. She talked about the work she’s doing at USATF and the improvements she’s hoping to make, and she has a lot of interesting insights in general, because of the variety of ways she’s been involved in the sport.

Additional Episodes: Hellen Obiri on the Citius Mag podcast | Alysia Montaño on NYRR’s Set the Pace podcast | Olivia and Andrea Markezich on The Running Effect | Fiona O’Keeffe discussed environmental advocacy on Running for Real | High school standout Jane Hedengren on The Running Effect | Emma Grace Hurley on Relay | Michelle Wheeler talked about pro wheelchair racing on Women’s Running Stories | Kara Goucher discussed living with dystonia on the Doctors of Running Podcast | Trials qualifier Sara Lopez, who is running the Boston Marathon, was on Suite Run

Upcoming

The Bryan Clay Invitational, hosted by California’s Azusa Pacific University, has become one of the places for collegians in particular to run fast, and the entries for the meet, which begins on Thursday, reflect that. There are 806 women in the 1500m alone. I feel bad for anyone working the meet, but it’s bound to produce some fast times. The schedule of events is here, the live results can be accessed here, and the meet will stream live on FloTrack. The Boston Marathon is also a week from today, but I’ll put out another newsletter the morning of the race.

---

I tried to work on this newsletter while watching South Carolina and Iowa compete for the NCAA basketball title and the only time I got anything done was during the commercial breaks, because the competition and the coverage was so good. I’m a big fan of all women’s sports but I spend so much time following running that it doesn’t leave a lot of time for following anything else. (Case in point: I finished a middling 110th out of 269 participants in Keira D’Amato’s Buzzsaw Bracket Challenge.)

But it has been incredible to see so much love for women’s basketball during this tournament. And I loved how women-centric the tournament felt. Most of the people weighing in on the game in various forms during the broadcast were women. Both of the teams in the championship game are coached by women. (Roughly 65 percent of the NCAA DI women’s basketball teams are coached by women, compared to 18.2 percent for DI women’s outdoor track & field teams.) While Michelle Brooks-Thompson sang the national anthem, some of the women of NASA held the flag. The majority of the referees were women. And I’m sure there were many other details of that sort that I’m not even aware of.

It all made me think about what’s possible in track & field, how the NCAA could create more opportunities for women, and how much more they could be doing to enliven their T&F championships. I’m especially thinking about the NCAA Indoor Championships, where there was great competition but also a lot of downtime in the schedule. There were no victory laps, no dramatic introductions, and the facility had mostly emptied out by the time the team trophy was presented. In running, most events include both women and men. But in track, the NCAA has separate men’s and women’s sessions, which could be an opportunity.

I don’t have a lot of answers at the moment, and not everything needs to relate directly back to running. Right now, I’m mostly just appreciating the love that women’s sports are getting, and I hope some of this momentum continues.

---

Thanks to Bombas for sponsoring this newsletter, and to everyone who helps keep Fast Women going with your support via Venmo and Patreon. I hope you all have a great week.

Alison