Fast Women: Taylor Roe breaks world and American records
Grand Slam Track is off to a promising start.
Issue 344, sponsored by PUMA
Taylor Roe dominates the USATF 10 Mile Championships
Twenty minutes into the USATF 10 Mile Championships, hosted by the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile in Washington, DC, Taylor Roe began to pull away from her competitors. She took the drama out of the race, and then it was just Roe against the clock. She hit 5K in 15:32, 10K in 30:56 (15:24 5K split), and 15K in 46:24 (15:28 split), before crossing the finish line in 49:53.
She became the first American woman to break 50 minutes for 10 miles, averaged 4:59 per mile, and set a handful of pending records. Her time was a world record for a women’s-only race, and she broke the American 15K and 10 mile records. She also broke the women’s-only American record for 10K en route. Between prize money and bonuses, she earned $30,000.
I continue to enjoy Roe’s candid post-race interviews. “I was trying to hover around a certain pace, and let’s just say I was very off of that pace, but in I guess a good way,” she told Amy Begley after the race. “But that was not the plan.”
When Begley told Roe that she set an American 15K record along the way, Roe responded, “How far is 15K? I don’t even know.” And then when Begley asked her what she thought about setting so many records, Roe responded, “Wow?” before saying she looks up to the women whose records she broke.
Roe, 24, was a highly successful collegiate runner for Oklahoma State. She was the NCAA indoor 3,000m champion in 2022, and she graduated last spring as a 12-time All-American. She was expected to do well as a pro, but it would have been hard to predict that she would do this well. Her first two pro races were about what I would have expected—eighth at both the USATF 5K Championships and the Houston Half Marathon. But since last month, she’s been on a new level.
She won the USATF Half Marathon championships in 1:07:22, and set a women’s-only American record on a tough course. Last week at The TEN, she set a 78-second personal best, running 30:58.66 for 10,000m. And on Sunday, she split two seconds faster through 10K, and kept going. (Some people find running on the roads easier than running in circles. And it also helps that athletes are allowed to wear shoes with greater stack heights on the roads.)
Roe has been racing relatively frequently, and next up, she’s scheduled to run the Boston 5K on April 19.
Behind Roe, there was more stellar running happening, but most of it did not make the broadcast. Another young star, Ethiopia’s Adane Anmaw, 21, finished second in 51:00. She must have had a good battle with Emma Grace Hurley, who is also on a tear this year. Hurley was third overall and second in the national championship race, in 51:04. Roe’s Puma Elite teammate, Fiona O’Keeffe, who suffered a femoral stress fracture last year, continued her return with a solid fourth-place finish, in 51:49.
Aubrey Frentheway had a strong race to take fifth (51:58), and Annie Frisbie (sixth, 52:10), Carrie Ellwood (seventh, 52:23), Molly Bookmyer (eighth, 52:42), Emily Venters (ninth, 52:55), and Susanna Sullivan (53:01) rounded out the top 10.
USATF TV and RunnerSpace have parted ways as of this year, and Sunday was the first time USATF TV covered a road race on its own. While I wasn’t thrilled to shell out $12.99/month for yet another subscription service so I can follow the sport, the coverage was very similar quality-wise to past national championship coverage. There was a lot of freezing and then scrambled images at the start, but that improved as the race went on. I appreciated that they had a split screen most of the way. And everyone on the broadcast was very aware that Roe was on record pace.
The new USATF TV site, which forwards to this page, indicates that they’ll be covering many of the upcoming national championships. (Results)
Gabby Thomas, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Diribe Welteji, and Ejgayehu Taye are among first Grand Slam Track winners
Grand Slam Track got off to a strong start in Kingston, Jamaica, over the weekend. The event provided exciting matchups, many of the world’s best runners showed up, and the format gave fans a chance to see top athletes do something new.
At each Slam, everyone races twice over the course of three days. That means that some athletes are forced to do an event they don’t run often. There are eight competitors in each of six event groups (100m/200m, 100m/100mH, 200m/400m, 400m/400mH, 800m/1500m, 3,000m/5,000m). They are awarded points—with 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring—based on their finish places in the two events. After their second race, they are ranked based on their point totals, and awarded prize money ($100,000 for first, then $50,000, $30,000, $25,000, $20,000, $15,000, $12,500, and $10,000) for each Slam.
The “racers” in each event group, who commit to the entire season, also earn an undisclosed base salary, and challengers get $2,000 per Slam, just to show up. That means that as long as they finish, everyone who takes part gets at least $12,000 per Slam. No matter who you are, these are very big payouts by track standards.
The six Slam winners in Kingston were Gabby Thomas (1st in 200m, 22.62; 2nd in 400m, 49.14), Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (1st in the 400mH, 52.76, and 400m, 50.32), Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji (2nd in 800m, 1:58.29; 1st in 1500m, 4:04.51), Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye (1st in the 3,000m, 8:28.42, and 5,000m, 14:54.88), Jamaica’s Danielle Williams (2nd in 100mH, 12.70; 1st in 100m, 11.54), and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (1st in the 100m, 11.11, and 200m, 23.46).
My favorite moments of the weekend were watching Nikki Hiltz and Welteji battle for the win in the 800m (Hiltz won in a PR of 1:58.23) and seeing Thomas race Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain and Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republican in the 400m. Naser won in 48.67. (It would have been really fun if McLaughlin-Levrone had been in there as well.) I also enjoyed the men’s 5,000m and 1500m. Most of those moments were exciting because they featured an athlete running well in an “off” distance for them. And knowing that the financial stakes are high, and exactly what they are, makes it all the more dramatic.
Taye and Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich had good races in the 3,000m and 5,000m, but I fear this event group might wind up being only a two-woman battle up front, which takes some of the excitement out of it. And it will be interesting to see how racing the 3,000m/5,000m double four times affects the remainder of the racers’ seasons.
Grand Slam has set a high bar for itself out of the gate, promising it will be revolutionary. Judging the first Slam by regular track meet standards, it was a great event. And many of the pieces are in place for this to become revolutionary, but it’s going to take some time to get there.
Watching three hours of track & field three days in a row was a big time commitment, and I think the TV window could be shorter, or they could incorporate more storytelling between events. Though I’m a serious fan on the women’s side, at this point, I am just a casual fan on the men’s side. I want the broadcast to make me care about who wins the men’s sprint events.
The quality of the commentary was inconsistent. They had some good moments, and some spots where there was room for improvement. But they got better each day. While Athlos felt like a celebration where the outcome didn’t necessarily matter that much, this felt more like a track meet, which is not a bad thing. But I think I expected a little bit more theater.
There are clearly a lot of people putting a great deal of effort into making Grand Slam a success, and I think they can get there. It might just take a little time. (Results | Hiltz’s 800m win | Naser vs. Thomas vs. Paulino in the 400m)
Other Grand Slam Notes
I loved that the Grand Slam team had many high quality images available for media outlets to use. This is still relatively rare and it makes it so much easier for outlets to cover an event.
The day before the meet kicked off, a storm ripped through the stadium and members of the production staff suffered minor injuries. Thank goodness there weren’t more people in the stadium at the time.
Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the 2023 world champion in the 800m, finished a surprising last in the 800m on day one of the meet. She withdrew before her second race due to “a recurring medical condition” and said she hopes to bounce back in time for the next Slam, in Miami in early May.
Less than a week after racing at The TEN, Emily Infeld was a last-minute substitute for Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant. Infeld said on Instagram that she got the call Tuesday evening and flew out 13 hours later. Courtney-Bryant said she “felt her hamstring” in her last workout on Tuesday, and though the injury is minor, racing on it wouldn’t be a good idea. Infeld finished eighth in the 3,000m, but bounced back with a really nice fourth-place finish in the 5,000m. She earned $20,000 in prize money plus presumably a $2,000 appearance fee, and ended up being the top American in the long distance group.
Dalilah Muhammad announced at the pre-meet press conference that this is likely to be her last season of professional track & field.
Making a 35,000-seat stadium look full the first time out was always going to be a challenge. The crowd size on day one concerned me, but Saturday was better. It’s not clear how much of that was due to event organizers’ decision to let some people in for free. And even though the stadium wasn’t full, the fans brought incredible energy.
How a step back reignited Claire Benjamin’s passion for running
This feature is sponsored by PUMA.
By the time Claire Benjamin graduated from college in 2015, she needed a break from competitive running. She moved to Boulder, Colorado, for graduate school and began doing more climbing, biking, and backpacking.
For about six years, she still ran roughly 30–40 miles per week, but she didn’t think about trying to maximize her athletic potential. She ran with local run clubs, got more into trail running, and began coaching at a local high school, staying fit enough that she could hop into workouts to help the athletes out here and there.
But ever so slowly, her desire to see how good she could be returned. And things have moved quickly from there. She ran her first marathon at the end of 2023 and qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on the last possible day. And on April 21, Benjamin, 31, will line up as part of the professional field at the Boston Marathon.
Chasing big goals
Benjamin grew up around running because her father, who still runs today, coached the sport. In middle school, she mostly saw practice as an opportunity to hang out with her friends. When she was 15, her family moved to Midlothian, Virginia, and running cross country helped her establish a new friend group. At Midlothian High School, she was fortunate to run for the legendary Stan Morgan, who fostered a strong culture of mentorship and encouraged athletes to chase big goals together.
The 10:57 two mile she ran in high school enabled her to walk on to the cross country and track & field teams at Vanderbilt University. But despite coming from a good high school team, she found herself playing catch up her first two years, because the intensity of the training was new to her, and it was tough to keep up with her teammates. Her hard work eventually paid off, though, and as a senior, she led her team to a win at the NCAA South Region Cross Country Championships, and ran 16:29.07 for 5,000m on the track.
Benjamin looks back on her experience at Vanderbilt fondly, but between studying engineering, working in a lab, and running, she felt pretty stretched by the end. She graduated having accomplished more than she ever expected in running, while also feeling like she had more left in her. About a month after graduation, she remembers looking up the Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying standard, but a friend encouraged her to rest and reset before going after more goals.
“Part of why I stepped away from running after college was just to reexamine my relationship with running, and I needed a healthier relationship with my nutrition,” she told Fast Women. “It was definitely a factor in feeling tired and like I needed to explore other things and just kind of find joy in it again.”
Finding inspiration in coaching high school runners
During her second year in Colorado, Benjamin began coaching at Fairview High School in Boulder. She wanted to give back to the sport, and she remembered how transformative her own high school running experience had been.
Being around high school kids helped her remember what she loved about the sport. “Watching them compete, and remembering the types of relationships that running can bring, and what it feels like to pour yourself into something and start to see success after working hard with teammates—they were inspiring to me,” she said.
And when she tells the athletes she coaches that not every day is going to be an A+ workout and that’s okay, or to give themselves grace when they need to take a step back because their overall stress levels are high, it’s a good reminder to herself as well.
Four or five years into coaching, Benjamin began to feel the pull to go after some of her own running goals. In the fall of 2021, she put in some structured training leading up to the Richmond Half Marathon. At that point, she wasn’t so invested that she was willing to pay for super shoes, but without them, she ran 1:15:59. The following spring, she raced the Bolder Boulder 10K and surprised herself by finishing third in the citizens’ race, behind Laura Thweatt and Neely Gracey.
Becoming a marathoner
Benjamin began thinking about running a marathon and didn’t feel qualified to coach herself, so at the beginning of 2023, she began working with Ric Rojas. She set her sights on qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. She originally planned to run two marathons in 2023, but a non-running injury took her out of her June marathon. So in the end, she did two marathon buildups that year, but ran only the California International Marathon, which was held on the final weekend the Trials qualifying window was open.
She knocked her debut out of the park, running a chip time of 2:35:53 and qualifying for the Trials with 67 seconds to spare. Getting her qualifier in her first marathon, on the last possible day, was a dramatic way to do it, but Benjamin found that in a way, it took some of the pressure off. “I don't recommend it,” she said. “But I remember just being really at peace about it before the race. Like, I will feel good about it if I can do it, and I will feel good about it if I don't. I'm just proud of what I've put in to get here.”
The downside to saving her qualifier for the last minute was that she had less than nine weeks to recover and get ready for the Trials. “I kind of gaslit myself into thinking that the race was going to be okay, because the training felt decent, and then it was the hardest race I've ever done,” she said. “I was really proud of myself just for finishing. And I've never felt more like I wanted a finisher’s medal.”
On a warm day, Benjamin finished 93rd in 2:45:34. The experience was incredible, but once again, it left her wanting more.
Racing Boston as part of Project3
Benjamin has taken a break from marathons since the Trials, and she spent the summer focusing on racing shorter distances. Her husband, Ben Mow, first raised the idea of running Boston, and she was enthusiastic to join him. They both debuted at the 2023 California International Marathon, and they both qualified for Boston that day. (He, too, had plenty of room to spare, running 2:42:05.)
Benjamin works remotely as a user experience researcher for a human-centered research and design agency based in Seattle. Between her full-time job and her coaching, she ends up doing most of her training early in the day. She sometimes overlaps with Mow in training, but her most frequent training partners during her Boston buildup have been Kaitlyn Barthell, who previously ran for CU, and Kailie Hartman, who ran for Adams State.
In February, Benjamin was selected to be part of Puma’s Project3, which has provided a level of support beyond what she’s had going into her past marathons. As part of the project, Puma has selected 100 athletes running Boston and 100 athletes running the London Marathon. They get a taste of the elite experience, with access to the latest shoe technology, Puma gear, and the opportunity to earn cash bonuses.
Project3 has also given Benjamin a larger running community heading into Boston. She’s had the opportunity to take part in webinars that cover everything from mental strategies to training tips, round tables with elite athletes, and a community chat with all of the other Project3 participants. She’s looking forward to meeting them in person on race weekend.
She’ll also get VIP treatment in Boston as part of the women’s professional field. Her debut time made her eligible to race with the pros, which she views as a great honor. “I think I might just be fangirling runners the same way I was at the Trials,” she said. “But I'm excited to get to compete with those women.”
Other News and Links
Half marathon world record holder Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia announced the birth of her first child on Instagram.
Shawnti Jackson, who is a junior at the University of Arkansas, has accepted a public warning from the U.S. Anti Doping Agency after failing to get a Therapeutic Use Exemption before an iron infusion for a diagnosed medical condition. It’s cases like this one that make me glad there’s wiggle room when athletes make what USADA believes to be innocent mistakes.
I was glad to read in this Instagram update that Alicia Monson is making steady progress in her return from knee surgery.
I appreciated this Outside article from Alex Hutchinson about what science says about the effects of social media on athletic performance. He concludes, “The things we do—social media, yes, but also real-world socializing, reading a book, listening to music, working, commuting, daydreaming, and so on—affect our mental state and readiness to perform. We all respond to these things differently, so there’s no universal list of dos and don’ts. But it’s worth figuring out what gets you in the right headspace and leaves you mentally energized, so that you can replicate it when it matters.”
Paris Olympic 4x100m gold medalist TeeTee Terry has co-written a children’s book called TeeTee’s World Adventure. Unfortunately it seems to be available only via Amazon at this point.
Additional Results
Six days after running 31:02.73 and moving to second on the NCAA all-time list in the 10,000m, New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei won the Stanford Invitational steeplechase with lots of room to spare, running 9:15.93 and missing the collegiate record by 0.69 seconds. Washington’s Chloe Foerster dominated the 1500m (4:07.32) and then the following day won the 800m in 2:00.52. Both times were PRs. Stanford’s Roisin Willis won a separate section of the 800m in 2:01.72. Olympic medalist Courtney Frerichs ran 4:16.80 in the 1500m in her first race post-surgery. Oregon’s Diana Cherotich, who is new to the NCAA as of this semester, won the 10,000m in 31:45.22. And BYU’s Jenna Hutchins won the 5,000m in a personal best of 15:16.95. (Results)
North Florida’s Smilla Kolbe won the 800m at Florida Relays in 2:01.18. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay won the Berlin Half Marathon in a speedy 1:03:35. It wasn’t quite a PR, but it is one of the fastest half marathons of all time. (Results)
Kenya’s Lilian Kasait Rengeruk won the Prague Half Marathon in 1:05:27. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Lemlem Hailu won the Carlsbad 5000 in 15:13. (Results)
Kenya’s Sarah Naibei repeated as champion at the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K, running 31:50. South Africa’s Dom Scott finished second in 32:05. Stephanie Bruce won the masters race and took 10th overall in 33:20. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
I enjoyed hearing from Benita Willis, a four-time Olympian for Australia and a 2004 World Cross Country Champion, on the In the Beginning Podcast. Willis now coaches runners of all abilities.
NCAA Indoor 800m champion Makayla Paige made a brief appearance on the Carolina Insider podcast. She comes on around the 49:30 mark.
It was good to hear from Julie-Anne Staehli, who is back in Canada now, on the Lactic Acid Podcast.
This week’s Fast People podcast, featuring Ahmed Muhumed—our first male pro runner—will be out tomorrow morning. You can subscribe in your preferred podcast player if you want to make sure the episode ends up in your queue. I didn’t know much about him going in, but he’s now one of my favorite male runners and I’ll definitely be following him going forward.
Additional Episodes: Emma Coburn discussed fueling and her relationship with food on Fueling Forward | Sharada Maddox discussed co-founding the Crenshaw Mile, which took place for the first time over the weekend, on Unexpected Curves | Libbie Hickman, who represented the U.S. in the 10,000m at the 2000 Olympic Games, was on the Conversation Pace with FRE podcast
Thanks again to PUMA for sponsoring Fast Women this month and thank you, also, to all of you who help keep this newsletter going with your support via Patreon and Venmo. I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison