Fast Women: Taylor Roe pulls off major upset to win her first U.S. title
Heather MacLean runs a 4:17.01 mile.
Issue 339
An unexpected podium at the USATF Half Marathon Championships
At first, I thought I’d be writing a somewhat dull race recap about Sunday’s USATF Half Marathon Championships, hosted by the Atlanta Track Club. Something like Weini Kelati pulled away from the field in the sixth mile of the race, there was a good battle for the other two spots on the team that will represent the U.S. at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in September, and so on. Except that wasn’t how it went at all.
Kelati did pull away from the field in the sixth mile, and she opened a gap so large that it became difficult to identify her competitors in the distance. At 10K, she led Taylor Roe, Emma Grace Hurley, Amanda Vestri, and Emily Venters by eight seconds, and the gap probably got a little bigger after that. As the chase pack went after Kelati, they began to spread out, with Roe and Hurley pulling away, and Vestri running in fourth.
The race coverage was good by road racing standards, but because there was so much happening, the broadcast missed some of the key moments while showing just the men’s race. When the cameras went back to the women’s race roughly 8.1 miles in, Kelati’s lead had shrunk considerably, and Roe and Hurley were closing in. Around 8.4 miles into the race, Roe and Hurley caught Kelati. And roughly 90 seconds later, around 8.7 miles into the race, they began to pull away from Kelati for good.
At first, Hurley was the more aggressive of the two, opening up a lead over Roe, but Roe closed the gap twice before beginning to open up her own lead for the first time, roughly 10.3 miles in. But the next time we saw the women, roughly 10.9 miles in, Hurley had once again opened up a lead over Roe.
Around 11.1 miles in, it looked like Roe was about to close up the gap again. The next time we saw them, around 11.5 miles, Roe had opened up a gap on Hurley, and that was the one that finally stuck. At the 15K (9.3 miles) split, Vestri was still in fourth, trailing Kelati by nine seconds. But when we got a shot of her 2.5 miles later, at the 11.8-mile mark, she had taken over third and Kelati was out of sight.
The last mile and a half of the race was relatively uneventful, as the top three spots had already been decided. After not really paying much attention to the clock for most of the race—I appreciated that the commentary focused on the race and not the time—it was impressive to see Roe, 24 and a first-year pro, round the final corner of the course and break the tape in 1:07:22. Her time was a whopping 86 seconds faster than she ran in her debut at the distance, on a faster course in Houston, six weeks earlier. And it moves her to fifth on the U.S. all-time list.
Hurley, who was also running only her second half marathon, finished second in 1:07:35, which ties her for ninth on the U.S. all-time list. Like Roe, she PRed on the hilly course, running 51 seconds faster than she did in her debut back in November.
And Vestri, 25, finished third in 1:08:17. She, too, is new to the half marathon. This was her third time racing the distance, but she debuted in December. Hurley represented the U.S. at last year’s World Cross Country Championships, but Roe and Vestri will be representing the U.S. for the first time.
For the third time in 13 months with a Team USA spot on the line, Jess McClain finished fourth, in 1:08:37, missing the team by one place. And while it would be understandable if McClain was beginning to get tired of finishing fourth, she was upbeat after the race. She told Allison Mercer (who kindly got some post-race videos for Fast Women) that she was thrilled when she saw Vestri, her Brooks teammate, move into third place, and it took her a moment to realize that that meant she was battling for fourth once again.
“I’ve been here before,” McClain said. “I know how to deal with it. I’ll be a great alternate if I’m needed.” If there was a separate category for athletes who are in the midst of marathon training, McClain would have won that. She’s running next month’s Boston Marathon.
Venters, who said on Instagram that she bonked and started seeing stars, still finished a respectable fifth place, in 1:09:03. And Kelati hung on to take sixth in 1:09:07. Despite having a very rough day, Kelati made sure to congratulate all of the top finishers before exiting the finish area. She did not stick around for post-race interviews, and I have not seen any updates.
Kelati could still make the U.S. team for this event, and in fact, she is currently in position to do so. Each country gets four entries in the half marathon at the World Athletics Road Running Championships, and the U.S. selected three-fourths of the team here, but the fourth spot will go to the U.S. athlete with the highest road running half marathon–10K world ranking as of May 6. Right now, Kelati tops the list, and fittingly, McClain is the next athlete behind her.
Roe’s post-race comments made me think she’s going to be a fun athlete to follow as she starts racing on bigger stages. “It’s good news it went well, bad news this means I have another half marathon,” she told Carrie Tollefson on the broadcast immediately after the race. Apparently Roe is still warming up to distance.
“I train with some of the best people—best in the U.S., best in the world,” she told Tollefson. “I came in confident that what my competitors are going to do to me today is nothing I haven’t faced in practice.” Roe’s win was reminiscent of her Puma Elite teammate Fiona O’Keeffe’s win at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. In both cases, a young athlete who was new to the distance pulled off an upset and won with room to spare.
When Mercer asked Roe what she was thinking when she took the lead, the first thing out of Roe’s mouth was, “Am I being dumb right now?”
When I spoke to Hurley back in November, she said she had been thinking about going for a spot on this team for several years. She trained at altitude for the first time leading up to the race and talked about leaving no stone unturned. She ran three 90-mile weeks for the first time, and it was gratifying to see it all pay off for her.
Vestri, too, was thrilled to make her first U.S. team. While Roe got a shoe deal right out of college, Vestri and Hurley did not. I’d love for everyone to get the support that comes with a shoe deal immediately, but it’s also good to see athletes showing that it’s possible to work one’s way up. They all earned some extra cash on Sunday, with Roe winning $20,000, Hurley winning $12,000, and Vestri earning $7,500.
Kudos to the Atlanta Track Club for putting on such a stellar event with quality fields, and for producing their own free-to-access race broadcast. They really outdid themselves with this one, and what a race.
(Race broadcast | Results | Mercer sent me more post-race videos than I could quickly post on Instagram, so I hastily started a Fast Women YouTube channel, and it already has a whopping 28 subscribers)
Heather MacLean breaks the American indoor 1500m record
Ideally, I would have spent my Sunday afternoon watching people run fast at Boston University, but I was busy writing this newsletter. Instead, I watched online as Heather MacLean ran a 4:17.01 mile at the BU Last Chance National Qualifier, which moves her to second on the U.S. all-time list indoors, behind only her teammate Elle St. Pierre, who holds the American record of 4:16.41.
Update: It was later revealed that McLean’s en route 1500m split was 3:59.60, which means she broke the 22-year-old American record. (Early Monday morning, the results still have not be updated to include the 1500m times.) The record was previously 3:59.98, set by Regina Jacobs in 2003. Later that year, Jacobs tested positive for a designer steroid and was revealed to be part of the BALCO doping scandal. MacLean’s coach, Mark Coogan, confirmed that she’ll be getting drug tested on Monday, which will allow the mark to be ratified.
MacLean followed her New Balance Boston teammate, Kate Mitchell, for about 1,000m, before running the last three laps solo. She raced here because she had only been in tactical races so far this season, so she didn’t have the World Championships standard of 4:22.50. Her ranking likely would have gotten her into Worlds, but now she’s in for sure. Running an American record wasn’t intentional.
She shaved more than six seconds off her indoor mile best and is now the fourth-fastest woman ever to run a mile indoors. You can watch a replay of the race here.
Josette Andrews was already the second-fastest U.S. woman of all time in the indoor 5,000m, with her 14:46.51 from last year. (Elise Cranny holds the American record of 14:33.17.) But on Sunday evening, Andrews improved her time to 14:44.80. Emily Mackay finished close behind her, in 14:45.81, 28 seconds faster than her outdoor personal best. Both dipped under the World standard, so now they will not have to worry about that during the outdoor season.
Earlier in the meet, Sage Hurta-Klecker won the 1,000m in 2:36.13 and Mitchell won the 800m in 2:01.66, before rabbiting the mile. (Results)
Can Faith Kipyegon become the first woman to break 4:00 in the mile?
Last week, Royal Society Open Science published a study in which researchers Rodger Kram, Edson Soares da Silva, Wouter Hoogkamer, and Shalaya Kipp speculated whether a woman—specifically Faith Kipyegon—could run a sub-4:00 mile with improved aerodynamic drafting.
I heard about this via this New York Times article (gift link) which, at the time, was one of the top stories on the NYT homepage. My first thought was that if the NYT was going to give the Kenyan star coverage, there are so many more interesting things one could write about her. I feel like we only ever get surface details about Kipyegon, so I would appreciate any kind of deep dive, and the NYT has the resources to make that happen.
Plus, she has three Olympic gold medals in the 1500m, has won four world titles on the track, and holds the mile (4:07.64) and 1500m (3:49.04) world records. I don’t think the success of her career is going to hinge on whether she can break 4:00 in the mile. (Kipyegon’s 1500m time is worth a 4:06.5 mile, so I think that can be considered the starting point when discussing sub-4:00.)
The following day, Outside published this article from Alex Hutchinson, which does a much better job of breaking down the study and providing context. Given the way technological advances have changed the sport in recent years, plus the fact that women still do not have equal access to sports worldwide, I think it’s quite likely that women will eventually be breaking 4:00 in the mile. There’s so much untapped potential out there, and thanks to changes in technology, times don’t really mean the same thing they used to. And hopefully the first woman to do it will not be doping.
Who am I to argue with science? But based on years of following the sport, I’m feeling skeptical that having the right pacers, both in front of her and behind her, would make a 6.5+ second difference. Plus all of this assumes that Kipyegon is healthy, her fitness is just as good or better than it was for her 1500m world record last summer, the weather is just as favorable, there’s a crowd full of people helping provide the same level of excitement in the stadium, and so on.
At the end of Hutchinson’s article, he writes, “There’s really only one way to find out for sure though: we need a Breaking4 Project.” And according to this press release, Kram sent a copy of the paper to Kipyegon, her coaches, and Nike proposing the idea. I’d be more excited about talk of sub-4:00 if the world record was already in the 4:02 to 4:04 range, but maybe if they broke enough rules, like they did with the Breaking2 project, it would turn out she’s already closer than I think.
Either way, I would definitely watch any attempts. And if she did break 4:00, maybe then we could finally get some in-depth reporting on her.
Other News and Links
Nikki Hiltz announced last week that they’ve re-signed with Lululemon, which means they can no longer be coached by Mike Smith. (Smith is becoming a Nike coach, and as Runner’s World has reported, part of the deal was that his non-Nike athletes would only be “grandfathered in” for the life of their current contracts.) It was one or the other—Smith or Lululemon—and Hiltz chose the latter. Going forward, Hiltz will be coached by 1996 Olympian Juli Benson, who coached Jenny Simpson to 1500m gold at the 2011 World Athletics Championships. (Coincidentally, Benson is one of the experts with whom you can do a one-on-one consultation via last week’s sponsor, The Sport Specialist.) Hiltz said they’d have more to say about all of it on YouTube soon.
I enjoyed Hiltz’s YouTube recap of their two wins at the USATF Indoor Championships, and all the cameos from other pros are great.
Speaking of Benson, she used to be part of the Reebok Enclave, a Washington, D.C.-based professional running team, back in the 1990s. A group of Georgetown alums has just announced a revival of The Enclave (with no Reebok involvement). They do not currently have any women on their roster, but I’m told they will be announcing a couple soon.
On Friday, Jonathan Gault broke the news (LetsRun.com) that Kenya’s Caroline Jeptanui, a 25-year-old freshman at Tulane, finished 12th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships while provisionally suspended for an anti-doping violation. Gault said that the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya confirmed to him that she has been provisionally suspended since September 28, after avoiding a drug test at a half marathon in March of 2024. Jeptanui came to the U.S. via Scholarbook Premier, a recruiting service that has helped many top international athletes connect with NCAA teams. This is a developing story, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Jeptanui was scheduled to compete at the American Athletic Conference Championships over the weekend, but she did not.
Kaela Edwards indicated in an Instagram post that she is now being coached by Brian Kula. She previously worked with Chad Noelle, who was temporarily suspended by SafeSport last April over allegations of misconduct.
Laura Muir said in an Instagram post that she suffered a tear in her soleus muscle during the 3,000m at the British Indoor Championships, which means she will be unable to run for the next few weeks.
Abbey Cooper shared that she is pregnant with her second child, who is due on June 5.
Mechelle Lewis Freeman indicated on Instagram that she is no longer the USATF head women’s relays coach.
Are you an American-born Black woman who has run 3:30 in the marathon or faster? Or do you know someone who qualifies? The Theodore Corbitt Institute for Running History Research is expanding “The List” of American-born Black female marathoners, which currently recognizes sub-3:00 performances, to include recognition for sub-3:15 and sub-3:30 performances. If you have names to add to the list, please message @tedcorbittinstitute on Instagram or email theodorecorbittinstitute@gmail.com.
College Conference Meet Highlights
It was conference meet weekend for all of the major college conferences, and I’m still getting used to the fact that Oregon is in the Big Ten, BYU is in the Big 12, and Stanford is in the ACC. For the top distance runners, conference meet weekend tends to be a balance between scoring as many points as possible, while not doing anything that will set anyone back too much heading into NCAAs in two weeks.
Most of the weekend’s middle-distance and distance races were tactical ones, but in the SEC 5,000m, Arkansas’ Paityn Noe went hard from the start. She used the race as an opportunity to guarantee her spot at NCAAs, and she ran an impressive solo 15:11.27 for the win. Two days later, she followed that up with a third-place finish in the 3,000m, won by Alabama’s Doris Lemngole in 8:55.27.
LSU’s Michaela Rose won the SEC 800m in a season’s best of 2:00.25, with Arkansas’ Sanu Jallow (2:00.61) not far behind. Rose and her LSU teammates wore black ribbons to honor their teammate Dillon Reidenauer, who was killed in a car crash on the LSU campus last week. The 18-year-old was a first-year student and a pole vaulter for the team.
And also at the SEC meet, Georgia’s Aaliyah Butler won the 400m in a meet record of 49.78 seconds, and Arkansas’ Bella Whittaker was second in 49.90. That makes them the second- and third-fastest American women of all time indoors, behind only Britton Wilson’s collegiate record of 49.48 seconds.
At the Big Ten Championships, Washington’s Amanda Moll broke her own collegiate record in the pole vault, clearing 4.91 meters. She’s now ranked eighth on the world all-time list. Her twin sister, Hana Moll, finished second, clearing 4.81 meters and moving to second on the collegiate all-time list. This includes a nice, brief writeup on their battle.
I expect that there will be some exciting results to come from the ACC meet as well, but today is the last day of the event (schedule/results here), so many of the finals are still to come. (SEC Results | Big Ten Results)
Additional Results
I watched Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon while working on this newsletter, and normally I’d give a World Marathon Major race a lot of coverage here. But I am so tired of Tokyo’s women’s race getting such poor coverage year after year. The commentary on the world feed was fine, but the women get so much less air time in general, which makes the race hard to follow. Honestly, I wish there were certain standards for coverage, if a race is to be considered a Major. Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede repeated as champion, running 2:16:31, after going through halfway in an ambitious 1:06:20. Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner won the wheelchair race in 1:35:56, and Susannah Scaroni finished second in 1:36:28. For a more detailed recap, Brett Larner has one here. (Results | Video highlights from the last kilometer)
For the first time in 30 years, Saturday’s Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Florida, did not serve as the USATF 15K Championships, but the race joined the Professional Road Running Organization (PRRO) Circuit this year and still attracted a high quality field. Great Britain’s Calli Hauger-Thackery pulled away from her competitors mid race and won in 47:24, which is the fastest any woman has run at Gate River since Shalane Flanagan set the event record of 47:00 in 2014. NAZ Elite’s Wesley Kiptoo won the equalizer race, but it took breaking a 30-year-old event record to do so. Hauger-Thackery earned $7,000 for the win, Uganda’s Rachel Zena Chebet took second (48:15), and Jessa Hanson (who is no longer with Puma) took fifth in 50:20, and earned $1,000 for her overall finish and another $3,000 for being the top American. (Results)
Caroline Garcia won the Napa Valley Marathon in 2:43:24 and Abbie McNulty won the half marathon in 1:13:30. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
I’m not going to be able to be objective about how our podcast, Fast People, compares to the other episodes that come out in any given week, but I am excited about tomorrow’s episode, with Heather MacLean. Search for Fast People in your podcast player of choice, subscribe, and it should show up in your queue relatively early on Tuesday. I particularly appreciated MacLean talking extensively about her less typical path to professional running, and the independence she developed growing up in a large, single-parent family. She also discussed how she dealt with the major injury setback she suffered in 2023, and her proposal story is great. I was already quite familiar with MacLean’s story, but I’d never heard her tell it in the detail that she did during this episode. I got choked up a couple times while listening, and I can’t imagine anyone not being a fan after hearing what she has to say.
Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi was really good on NYRR’s Set the Pace podcast, and I appreciated her willingness to discuss how the 2007–08 post-election violence in Kenya, which happened when she was a teenager, affected her. She also answered a question about gender-based violence in Kenya, in addition to discussing many lighter topics. She comes on around the 13:30 mark.
I appreciated Riley Brady’s comments about sponsorship in trail running at the end of The Freetrail Podcast. Brady is currently unsponsored, and they said that they’ve had some small opportunities in the past, but they want to partner with a brand only if the sponsorship meaningfully supports their ability to train and race. They said they think it’s important that athletes don’t settle for just gear sponsorships, as long as they can afford to pass them up, because taking such deals sets a low bar for companies. “You kind of have an obligation to the sport to raise the bar for everyone, if you are in a position to do so,” they said.
Kellyn Taylor spoke candidly on a variety of topics on I’ll Have Another. She said she was coming off a stomach virus going into the USATF Half Marathon Championships. (She finished 15th in 1:11:25 and said she needed a bathroom stop.) She said she hasn’t heard a word from Hoka since they decided not to renew her contract, other than when they threatened her with a lawsuit. (That’s all she said on that topic.) She’s being coached by Ben Bruce. She said she’s going to do some trail racing after the Boston Marathon, she’s looking at the Golden Trail Series, and she plans to return to marathoning in the fall.
Additional Episodes: Emily Mackay on The Running Effect Podcast | I appreciated Amelia Boone discussing eating disorder recovery in her 40s on The Lane 9 Podcast | Professional trail runner Helen Mino Faukner on Women of Distance
Thanks to Karen Mitchell for braving the cold in Atlanta on Sunday to get the photos at the top of this newsletter, and to Allison Mercer for the post-race interviews. And thanks to my editor Sarah Lorge Butler, for always working on Sundays to help me put out this newsletter. And finally thanks to all of you who keep Fast Women going with your support via Patreon and Venmo. I’ve been working extremely long hours recently with less support than usual, so I really appreciate your contributions.
I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison