Fast Women: Under great pressure, Faith Kipyegon delivers her fastest mile

Sky Webb’s unconventional path to professional running

Issue 357, sponsored by the Flagpole Hill Fund

Faith Kipyegon during her Breaking4 introduction. (Photo courtesy of Nike)

Reflections on Faith Kipyegon’s Breaking4 Run

On Thursday evening at Stade Charléty in Paris, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon ran a mile in 4:06.42—or 4:06.91, depending who you ask—faster than any woman ever has before. She ran 1.22 (or 0.73) seconds faster than her world record of 4:07.64. (More on the time discrepancy shortly.) It was an incredible run, but for a variety of reasons, including the fact that she used male pacesetters, it will not count as an official world record, which Nike knew when they set up the attempt.

According to the broadcast, Kipyegon hit 400m in 1:00.20, 800m in 2:00.75, and 1200m in 3:01.84. A mile is 1609.344 meters, slightly longer than four laps of a standard track. When timing companies aren’t able to give ¼ mile splits, they usually provide the 409m split first. Because the broadcast provided 400m splits for the first three laps, it made it look like Kipyegon was slightly more on pace throughout than she really was, and like she died a little more at the end than she really did. Kipyegon covered the last 409.344 meters in 64.58 seconds, but that’s about 63.11/400m pace. (I am assuming they were reporting her splits based on standard timing methods, which would mean the extra 0.49 seconds would be added to the last lap split.)

I have the utmost respect for Kipyegon. There’s no question that she’s the greatest female miler of all time. And I appreciate that Nike put a lot of resources into this attempt. But the event left me with mixed feelings. (Full event replay | Race replay)

The positive

• It was truly impressive seeing Kipyegon have the courage to go after such a big goal, and there’s no question that it inspired a lot of people.

• She ran faster than any woman ever has.

• The attempt got a lot of people who wouldn’t normally follow track on this level invested. It’s rare that a track event causes so many people to stop what they’re doing and take notice. And a much wider audience was able to appreciate Kipyegon’s greatness.

• It was touching seeing superstars team up with Kipyegon to make this happen. We rarely see that level of teamwork in the sport.

• Eight years after Nike made a big investment in Breaking2, it was nice to see the company invest in a moonshot project for a woman for the first time. It is clear that many people within the company put a lot of thought and work into this project.

• I appreciate how easy it was to watch this event, and because it wasn’t owned by a network, a variety of outlets could share the footage. It wasn’t possible to see how many people were tuned in to the livestream, but I’d love to see those numbers, because I imagine they were impressive.

The negative

• The time discrepancy: Using standard timing methods, Kipyegon ran 4:06.91, the time originally reported on the broadcast. (Therefore, any time I’m tempted to compare this performance to anything in the future, this is the time I will use.) But soon after, Nike adjusted the time down by 0.49  seconds. A number of people questioned this and Nike confirmed to Runner’s World that they essentially used her “flying” time, subtracting the time it took her to react to the gun. I wouldn’t have really cared if she ran across the starting line and got a true flying start. That would have been obvious, and Nike never claimed they were playing by normal track rules. But I wish they had been transparent about what they were doing up front. Quietly using an unconventional method to time the event without saying so feels misleading. And any kind of flying start undermines comparison with past times, because you’re no longer measuring the same thing.

• I wish it didn’t take a gimmick to get so many people interested and invested in finding out how fast Kipyegon can run. Nike knew that framing this as a sub-4:00 attempt would get more people’s attention. So it’s not a big surprise that they chose to take advantage of that. But it led to some people feeling disappointed when Kipyegon didn’t come particularly close, even though she ran faster than her own world record. Some outlets used words like “fails” and “falls short” in their headlines, which was inevitable from the moment Nike announced this. (Unless they went to more extreme measures and broke more rules to make it happen. For instance, I’m sure Kipyegon could break 4:00 running downhill.)

• On the flip side, the outlets and fans saying she was “so close” demonstrate just how much people don’t understand about the difference between a 4:06 mile and a 3:59. Even some outlets that probably know better (FloTrack, for one) went with the “so close” narrative in their headlines, perhaps because it’s good for clicks. It might not be helpful to compare progressions from such different eras, but for context, it took the men about 17 years to go from 4:06.4 to sub-4:00.

• The over-the-top positivity surrounding all aspects of this attempt felt like gaslighting at times. From Ego Nwodim saying, “It’s gotta be the first time in history that a track event feels like a Beyoncé concert,” while standing in a mostly-empty stadium to Nike’s press release claiming Kipyegon reshaped running history with her run. It felt a bit like Grand Slam Track telling us they successfully achieved their objectives this season.

• For all the effort Nike put into other aspects of the event, it doesn’t seem like they did a great job of publicizing the fact that anyone could attend for free. Maybe the publicity was better in France, and maybe they didn’t want to deal with tens of thousands of attendees. The modest crowd was certainly loud and enthusiastic, but having watched packed stadiums practically will athletes to victory, I think it’s possible they left a little time on the table there. If Kipyegon makes another attempt at this, I’d like to see Nike work to get a bigger crowd, or hold it in conjunction with a popular existing event.

• Nike really did make me believe early on in this project that it was possible they might have something up their sleeve that would give Kipyegon a shot at running 3:59–4:03. But in the end…they didn’t? When Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:00:25 in his Breaking2 attempt, he did so thanks in part to a breakthrough in shoe technology. It doesn’t seem that Kipyegon was set up for success in the same way, thanks in part to forcing a bigger goal. But also, there are a lot more things to optimize in a marathon. (I think there are a number of non-sub-4:00 outcomes here that could have been considered a great success. But as far as bringing the record down, especially when you consider that the 1500m record is stronger than the official mile record, this wasn’t a big leap.)

• I get that I might not be their target audience, but I did not enjoy the way Nike chose to cover the event. They had some great people involved, but it wasn’t for me.

Some of Faith Kipyegon’s pacers urge her on in the final meters of the race. (Photo courtesy of Nike)

Other Breaking4 Thoughts

• If members of the Nike team truly believed sub-4:00 was possible this time out, I’m curious if they have a sense of what caused them to be so far off in their calculations. 

• From the outside, it seems impossible to quantify which things helped (or hurt) and by how much. And one reason for that is that we have no way of knowing if Kipyegon's fitness is similar to what it has been in the past. Maybe the drafting and her attire really did help take a couple seconds off, because she was “only” ready to run 4:09 without aid that day. I imagine we’ll never know. 

• Whoever selected Kipyegon’s target splits seemed to be hedging their bets. The splits were fast enough that they didn’t completely rule out sub-4:00 (for the right person), but slow enough that if she wasn’t really in sub-4:00 shape, she wouldn’t fade as much as she would have if she tried to run 60 seconds per quarter from the start. But in retrospect, she probably could have run faster if she went out at 4:05–4:06 pace and then tried to kick.

• The day after the event, Kipyegon told The Guardian that she believes that she can run under 4:05 in a race with female pacesetters. And that’s something I can imagine. She also said, “Absolutely there will be a woman running a mile in under four minutes, and I think it will take less than 10 years. If it doesn’t come my way, it will be someone else doing it.”

• Kipyegon also told The Guardian that there are no plans yet for her to take another shot at sub-4:00. But at the post-event press conference Kipyegon told reporters, “I will say that this was the first trial. We learned many lessons from this race. And I think going forward, I will go back to the drawing board and see where I can still improve.” Apparently she told Georgia Hunter Bell, who was part of the pacing team, that she likely won’t try again this year, but she probably will next year. (Hunter Bell also thinks that holding the attempt in a full stadium would help.)

• Nike, or another company, could potentially use this sub-4:00 storyline for years to come. It’s clearly effective with a certain audience. But they will have to be careful in how they frame it and pick their moments, because you can only tell people she, or someone else, might break 4:00 so many times.

• The attempt did little to convince me that improved aerodynamic drafting is a major untapped source for performance enhancement. I thought it was hard to tell exactly what the pacers were going for, but Nike’s Brett Kirby, the performance integration lead for the project, told reporters afterwards, “It was really close to what we wanted; in fact, I would say it was ideal.”

• It’s interesting that though drafting was theoretically such an important part of the attempt, the pacing team only came together for the first time a few days before. So I imagine they didn’t get much of an opportunity to practice with Kipyegon near race pace. 

• Breaking4 gave me even more respect for the 3:49.04 1500m world record Kipyegon ran on the same track at last year’s Paris Diamond League meet, without nearly as much assistance. I think it’s still her most impressive 1500m/mile performance to date.

• Reuters reported last week that Nike is making a push to win back women runners. I don’t know if people’s awe will translate into purchases, but I’ve interacted with many women who were blown away and inspired by Kipyegon’s performance. Breaking4 introduced Kipyegon to a new audience. The average person probably does not care how Nike timed the event, nor are they aware of most of the nitpicky details I’ve mentioned above. Industry insiders have been more critical, but I think this played quite well with the general population, as far as I’ve seen.

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Thanks to the Flagpole Hill Fund for supporting Fast Women this month

This month, Flagpole Hill Fund is proud to recognize individuals and organizations that are using running to improve lives and improving lives for runners. 

Project RED-S is a global, athlete-led initiative tackling one of sport’s most misunderstood health issues: Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). Founded by former Team GB runner and NCAA Division I athlete Pippa Woolven, the project grew from her personal experience of under-fueling in pursuit of performance, and the toll it took on her body and mind.

REDs can silently derail athletes, impacting both physical and mental health, delaying recovery, impairing performance, and causing long-term harm to bone density, heart health, and fertility. Yet it remains overlooked, misdiagnosed, or ignored altogether.

Project RED-S works alongside researchers and health professionals aiming to change that. Through free educational toolkits, athlete-to-athlete mentoring, and open advocacy, the initiative challenges harmful norms and redefines what success in sport truly means.

By raising awareness and amplifying lived experiences, Project RED-S empowers athletes, coaches, and support teams to prove that nothing beats sustainable performance.

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Abby Hall finishes the Western States 100. (Photo by Kirk Reynolds)

Abby Hall wins the Western States 100

Two years after suffering a serious knee injury, Abby Hall earned the biggest victory of her career, winning the Western States 100 in 16:37:16. Hall, 34, took the lead for good a bit past halfway and went on to run the fourth-fastest time in race history. 

Hall’s 2023 injury required surgery, and the road back was a long one. Last November, she won the Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB 100K, which earned her a return trip to UTMB. But securing her spot at Western States was tougher. In February, she finished fifth, one spot away from a golden ticket, at the Black Canyon 100K. And in March, she finished fourth at the Chianti by UTMB 100K, missing a ticket by two spots.

But a few weeks after Chianti, EmKay Sullivan reached out to let Hall know she was pregnant and deferring her WSER entry. Because Sullivan finished ahead of Hall at Black Canyon, her golden ticket rolled down to Hall. And Hall made the most of the opportunity.

Seventy-eight miles into the race, Sweden’s Ida Nilsson cut Hall’s lead to about four and a half minutes, but that was as close as anyone would get the rest of the way. China’s Fuzhao Xiang closed well to finish second, for the second year in a row, in 16:47:09. And Canada’s Marianne Hogan (16:50:58) rounded out the top three. Nilsson, 43, lost some ground over the last 10 miles, but she held on to take fourth (17:00:48) and was the first masters runner to finish. 

And I loved seeing Hau Ha become the first Vietnamese finisher in race history. She took sixth in 17:23:47. (Results | Hall’s post-race interview with iRunFar)

Sky Webb races at the 2025 Bryan Clay Invitational. (Photo by Gregorio Denny)

After setbacks, loss, and a seven-year pursuit, Sky Webb achieves a major milestone

In only her second season of running the open 800m, Sky Webb won the event at the 2018 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, in 2:02.47. Having rapidly lowered her personal best by nine seconds, she began to think about breaking 2:00 someday. Little did she know it would take seven more years.

Since then, Webb, 30, has struggled with injuries, experienced the sudden loss of her father, and had four different pro coaches. But on June 8, at a tiny meet at the University of Delaware, Webb chased reigning U.S. champion Nia Akins to the finish and took second in 1:59.32, shaving 2.15 seconds off of her personal best.

The milestone meant a lot to her. “There were a lot of roadblocks, and I think there were a few times that I was in physical shape to do it, but I just wasn’t there mentally,” Webb told Fast Women. “So it took those two things coming together to finally get it done.”

While some young athletes seem destined to become professional runners, it took a long time for Webb to discover that was where she was headed. Growing up in Delta, Colorado, she played basketball, volleyball, and soccer. She also did track her last two years of high school, mostly to help her train for basketball, her favorite sport at the time.

She focused on the 100m and 200m, but her senior year, she was put in the 4x800m relay. Because it wasn’t something she had specifically trained for, it hurt, but she held her own. She had the passing thought that maybe she could be good at the 800m if she made it her event.

Webb attended Fort Lewis College, a Division II school in Durango, Colorado, where she played basketball her first two years. She struggled there, and coped by partying a lot. She got into trouble for possessing alcohol and lost her basketball scholarship. She earned her undergraduate degree in three years, and in her final year at the school, wanting to remain active without basketball, she went out for the track team. She ran 55.60 in the 400m and 2:11.53 in the 800m, at altitude, in her first season of running the open event.

Then she graduated and that could have easily been the end of her track career. Webb went to Sri Lanka to do a mental health internship, traveled, and just ran enough to maintain some fitness. After a year off from school, she decided she wanted to get her master’s in clinical psychology, so she applied to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She reached out to the track coach to see if they could give her some sort of scholarship. They did, and that was when her running career really took off. 

In less than a year, she won her first NCAA DII national title, running 2:02.47, which would remain her college PR. That qualified her for the 2018 USATF Outdoor Championships, where she made the semifinals and realized that maybe she could become a professional runner. In her second and final year of graduate school, she won the 2019 NCAA DII indoor and outdoor 800m titles and graduated a three-time national champion.

That wasn’t enough for shoe companies to seek her out, but agent Paul Doyle helped her get a deal with Saucony. She joined the brand’s Boston-based Freedom Track Club, which was coached by Tim Broe at the time. 

Webb moved to Boston in the fall of 2019 and struggled to adjust to the training. Though she and Broe tried to increase her mileage into the 40s and 50s gradually, it proved to be too much. She came at the 800m from the sprint side, and ran maybe 20–25 miles per week during college. When she signed with Saucony, the longest continuous run she had ever done was about six miles. 

And it wasn’t long before the pandemic halted nearly everything, including racing. At the start of 2021, Broe left the team, and Kurt Benninger stepped in to help coach them for a stretch. But by the spring of that year, with the team dissolving, Webb moved back to Colorado. 

Later that year, she began working with Chad Noelle, who has since been temporarily suspended by SafeSport due to allegations of misconduct. He was also coaching fellow 800m runner Kaela Edwards at the time. Webb and Edwards became training partners, and Webb worked with Noelle for roughly a year and a half and left before his suspension began.

At the end of July 2022, Webb was on her way home from racing at the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis when she learned that her father had been in an accident. He died from his injuries a week later.

“You don’t know how grief is going to hit you until it does,” she said. “I didn’t know if I had it in me to keep running. But also, running makes me feel better and helps me process things. So I went out for runs and didn’t have a lot of parameters on them and just allowed grief to move through at its natural pace. Running has always grounded me. So it did through that, too.”

Sports had always bonded Webb and her father. He coached her youth teams, and she told him about her sub-2:00 goal. “He was always like, “Oh yeah, you can do that, no doubt,’” she said. “So afterwards, I was really wishing I could tell him.” 

Webb had some high moments, like her 4:06.73 1500m PR in 2023, but she continued to struggle with injuries. Midway through 2023, she knew it was time for a change, and she began working with Juli Benson, her current coach. Webb missed the 2024 Olympic Trials after developing IT band syndrome, but Benson helped her through it, and they’ve since honed in on a system that is working for her.

“We’ve found our way to this happy medium between sprint training and endurance training,” she said. “I’m staying healthy and feeling fast. I always knew I had more in me, it was just a matter of being resilient long enough for that to be realized.”

Webb has also joined Meridia, a newly-formed team spearheaded by Olympian Colleen Quigley that launched earlier this month. Quigley has big plans for the kinds of support Meridia will be able to provide its athletes in the future, but Webb is already benefitting from being part of a team again.

“I’d missed that sense of camaraderie that comes with it,” she said. “Growing up, being on teams was one of my favorite things, and it makes going to practice so much more fun. Having teammates has changed everything for me this season. I feel like I am finally home, with Juli and Meridia.”

Webb, who lives in Boulder, balances her running with her work as a therapist. She can mostly schedule her clients around her training and racing schedule. But it can be tough to go straight from a race weekend into the work week. Between her two jobs, she sometimes doesn’t get a lot of down time.

Webb is also preparing to get married at the end of the track season, though she says her partner, Maggie Foster, has done most of the work planning the wedding. Foster is a former professional dancer turned choreographer and dance teacher. She’s also a licensed massage therapist, which has been beneficial to Webb’s running. 

Being an openly queer athlete has been tough for Webb at times, but the hate she sometimes encounters bothers her less now. “I’ve just built a lot of confidence and released that shame,” she said. “So at this point, it’s something I’m proud to represent.”

Next up, Webb plans to race at Sound Running’s Sunset Tour meet on July 12 in Los Angeles. As for the rest of the season, she’s learned from past experience what approach works best for her. “I’m trying to not hold too tightly onto outcomes,” she said. “I think that's stressed me out before. Like when I run 1:59, and then it becomes can I do it again? Or run 1:58? And you can get trapped in that cycle. So I just want to feel confident, know that I’m in that shape, and then just try to focus on racing.”

Other News

• Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands headlines the Sydney Marathon field, which means she almost certainly won’t be running the World Championships, according to her management team.

• In a Facebook post, the Ethiopian Athletics Federation said they conducted age checks for the athletes who were to represent the country at the African U18/U20 Championships in July, and only 22 out of the 76 athletes passed.

• Sportico reported last week that chief content officer Rick Qualliotine and chief live event officer John Porco have left Grand Slam Track. 

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Additional Results

• At the Ostrava Golden Spike meet, South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso won the 800m in 1:57.16. (Results | Race replay)

• Division 1 winners at the European Team Championships included France’s Anaïs Bourgoin (800m, 1:58.60), France’s Agathe Guillemot (1500m, 4:08.72), Italy’s Nadia Battocletti (5,000m, 15:56.01—last lap: 57.60), and Finland’s Ilona Mononen (steeplechase, 9:49.21).  Slovenia’s Klara Lukan won the Division 2 5,000m in 15:09.56. (Results)

• Great Britain’s Alex Bell won the Chase the Sun Battersea Park 5K in 15:41. Gabi Rooker finished second in 15:57, taking a minute off of her PR. (Results)

• Lauren Gregory won Mexico’s Tepec Trail 34K, which is part of the Golden Trail World Series, in 3:26:28. (Results)

• Courtney Dauwalter won Italy’s Lavaredo 120K in 14:14:40. (Results)

Podcast Highlights

• It was nice to get an update from Nikki Hiltz on NYRR’s Set the Pace podcast. (They come on at the 6:00 mark.) Hiltz said they were disappointed to hear about the cancellation of Grand Slam Track’s LA stop, but “it’s hard to be mad at them or frustrated, because I’m so grateful for the first three (slams).” On the subject of pacing lights, they said, “I don’t want my biggest competitor to be a lightbulb.” (Faith Kipyegon got a laugh in her post-Breaking4 press conference when she said, “The wavelights gave everything and I think it was the wavelights’ time today.”)

• Kara Goucher had interesting takes on a number of topics on Long Run Labs. I appreciated what she had to say about athletes not needing brands to put more pressure on them to perform well. Distance runners are generally pretty driven people, and they’re already putting plenty of pressure on themselves. 

• I appreciate that Podium Athletics is a well-rounded track & field podcast. Last week, they featured Italian long jumper Larissa Iapichino, who was entertaining.

Additional Episodes: On The Running Effect, Lexy Halladay-Lowry said the first round at USAs will be her last race in her BYU uniform. I expect her to sign with Nike and stick with coach Diljeet Taylor, anything else would surprise me | Steph Bruce was on The Fueling Forward Podcast | Great Britain’s Alex Bell, who recently signed with Mizuno, discussed her move from the track to the roads on The Runna Podcast | Great Britain’s Charlotte Purdue on the Puma Go Wild Podcast | Cocodona 250 champion Rachel Entrekin on I’ll Have Another

Upcoming

Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic should be fantastic. I’m particularly looking forward to watching Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet race the 5,000m, and seeing how Faith Kipyegon bounces back in the 1500m after an intense experience at Breaking4. It will be interesting to see how the Americans stack up against each other in the 1500m at this point in the season as well.

Athing Mu-Nikolayev is set to run the 800m, her first high-level race since the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, but unfortnately Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who is returning from injury, is no longer on the start lists. And we’ll get to see if Kenya’s Faith Cherotich can keep her winning streak alive as she faces a stellar field in the steeplechase. You can find the full list of entrants here. The meet will be on NBC and Peacock from 4:00–6:00 p.m. ET. There are more details about how to watch here.

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I am so grateful to the Flagpole Hill Fund for their support this month, and for the wonderful work they do in the sport. It’s been fun to highlight some of the organizations they work with this month.

Thank you, also, to everyone who helps keep this newsletter going with your contributions via Venmo and Patreon. Every little bit makes a difference, and Fast Women would not be possible without you.

I hope you all have the best week possible.

Alison