Below is an excerpt from the Fast Women newsletter, posted with permission. Fast Women produces a high-quality, weekly newsletter, focused on women’s track & field, with an emphasis on distance running and women’s voices.
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From the Fast Women Newsletter
A record for Natalie Cook, and the pressure top young runners face
I tend not to focus on high school running too much here, because I think it’s important to keep running fun during the teen years. It’s not that hard to outtrain and often outperform one’s peers in high school, but I’ve seen too many top high school distance runners do that at the expense of their long-term success. (That’s not to say all the high school stars are overdoing it. Many aren’t.) And I also think it’s unhealthy for adults to get invested in kids’ high school athletic careers, unless they have some sort of connection to those kids. High school kids are already hyped enough. To me it feels unnecessary to add to that until they’re a bit older.
But I also don’t want to ignore major running news when it happens, and on Friday night, Natalie Cook, a senior from Flower Mound, Texas, produced one of those performances that is tough to ignore. Racing a 5,000m against pros and collegians at the Stanford Invitational, Cook held her own and finished third in 15:25.93. She took eight seconds off Jenna Hutchins’ U.S. high school record of 15:34.47, set in 2020. Cook also broke the U.S. U20 outdoor record.
As you might remember from when she won the RunningLane and Eastbay Cross Country Championships back-to-back in the fall, Cook is the daughter of Melissa (Gulli) Cook, who ran at the pro level until 2009. Cook also surpassed her mother’s personal best (15:34.41) on Friday night. She said after the race that she has increased her mileage to 20–22 miles per week this season, which is still very low for a top high school distance runner.
Katelyn Tuohy, who faced more pressure than most as a high school runner, because she was the dominant runner for several years, said on the Convos Over Cold Brew podcast last week that she was pretty oblivious about other people’s expectations until about halfway through her junior year. Once she became aware of the pressure, “I was a wreck all the time,” she told host Emma Abrahamson. “I felt like I was so stressed all the time. At one point, my parents were like, ‘Maybe you should just quit. It’s not worth it.’” (I get just a tiny glimpse of the attention Tuohy deals with when I post about her accomplishments on social media. She’s the only runner I’m aware of who has more than one fan account watching her every move. And while most people just seem happy for her, she attracts a disproportionate share of the clueless, judgmental comments as well.)
Some of the current high school stars benefit from sharing the spotlight. Because 800m standouts Roisin Willis, Juliette Whittaker, and Sophia Gorriaran are running so well at the same time, the attention is diluted. (Links go to the podcast interviews they did with Citius Mag, which were released last week.) Cook has quickly established herself as the best high school runner at the longer distances, and she’s getting more and more notice, but her reign won’t last too long before she’s off to Oklahoma State in the fall, where she’ll likely make an immediate impact, but she’ll also have plenty of competition.
