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
News and Links
- Rachel (Schneider) Smith shared the sad news that a month ago, she had a miscarriage, about 15 weeks into her pregnancy. “I wanted to share this because I’ve realized this type of heartbreak is unfortunately all too common, not commonly shared, and can leave people with feelings of isolation and deep despair,” she wrote. Around 10–20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, and the topic is rarely discussed in the elite running community.
- Just when you thought the indoor season was over… On Friday night at New Balance’s brand new indoor track in Boston, Heather MacLean (1200m), Sydney McLaughlin (400m), Roisin Willis (800m), and Elle Purrier St. Pierre (1600m) will go after the distance medley relay world best. A New Balance team, which included high school McLaughlin before she signed with New Balance, previously held the record, until the Union Athletics Club broke it earlier this season. The event is free and open to the public, more information here. If you can’t make it, there will be a free livestream on RunnerSpace. The DMR isn’t the only event of the night, and hopefully more information about the schedule and lineup will become available later this week.
- The good news: Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh, a 1:04:31 half marathoner and 2:20:51 marathoner, has been added to the Boston Marathon field, as has 2:20:16 marathoner Etagegn Woldu. The bad news: Sara Hall, Kellyn Taylor, Roza Dereje, Tigist Girma, and Zeineba Yimer have withdrawn. Hall’s knee is still bothering her as a result of the fall she took in February, and Taylor said she’s dealing with mechanical issues, including a torn plantar. Even with the changes, the field is still stacked.
- CBS Boston did a news segment on Nell Rojas and it’s worth watching to see her father, Ric Rojas, get choked up at the end while discussing her accomplishments. Rojas was also featured by Boulder Weekly. As the top U.S. finisher in last fall’s race, Rojas is getting some nice attention heading into this year’s race.
- Aliphine Tuliamuk announced that she’ll be running her first race since the Olympic marathon at the Pittsburgh Half Marathon on May 1. And like Linden, her training might be coming around just in time. She tweeted last week that she finally had her first workout where she felt like her pre-baby self.
- Kenya named its World Championships marathon team last week. Ruth Chepngetich got a wild card entry as the defending champion, and she leads the group with a 2:17:08 personal best. Judith Jeptum Korir, who just won the Paris Marathon in a PR of 2:19:48, Angela Tanui, who won the 2021 Amsterdam Marathon in 2:17:57, and Maureen Jepkemoi, who finished second in that race in 2:20:18, will also run. It may not quite be their A team—some athletes turned down spots for bigger paydays at major marathons—but it’s a pretty darn good team.
- Steeplechase world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech battled an Achilles injury leading up to the Tokyo Olympic Games, where she finished seventh in the steeple. She says she’s feeling “good and fit” now and plans to run some Diamond League meets before competing at the World Championships.
- Camille Herron ran the 100,000th mile of her running career last week (assuming no margin of error either way) and she talked to Amby Burfoot about how she has stayed healthy enough to get there.
- Cool fact: When BYU’s Carmen Alder ran 4:16.30 for 1500m at the Stanford Invitational, she broke her mother’s Ecuadorian record of 4:17.70, which had stood since 1990.
- Amory Rowe wrote a nice piece about Amanda Phillips, who recently qualified for her second U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials at the L.A. Marathon. Phillips excelled as a collegiate runner at Lewis & Clark, despite dealing with the challenges of being a first generation college student, and now she works as a middle school teacher. She ran a 2:35:06 PR in L.A. despite making two pit stops.
- Amy Schumer and Christy Turlington Burns have a new book out, Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, and Alysia Montaño is one of the women featured.
