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Running

Ruth Chepngetich does something no other woman has done before in Chicago Marathon

October 17, 2024 by Tara S

Ruth Chepngetich did something no other female marathoner has ever done before and set an unofficial world record with her finish in the 2024 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Her historic finish marks the first women’s marathon time under 2 hours and 10 minutes — the previous world record was 2 hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds, set by Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa at the 2023 Berlin Marathon. Chepngetich finished with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 9 minutes and 56 seconds.

“I feel so great. I’m proud of myself and I thank God for the victory and the world record,” she told NBC Chicago at the finish line moments after her stunning finish. “This is my dream that has come true. I fight a lot thinking about world record and I have fulfilled it and I’m much grateful.”

Chepngetich, the 2021 and 2022 Bank of American Chicago Marathon winner and runner-up in 2023, returned to the course in 2024 to try and reclaim her title. And she did more than that.


Ruth Chepngetich makes history with likely world record in women’s marathon as she cruises to Chicago Marathon title.
“This woman is on pace to do something that I never really thought I would see in a lifetime,” fellow marathoner and NBC commentator Carrie Tollefson said during the live broadcast as Chepngetich raced closer to the finish line.

“It’s almost like seeing someone land on the moon,” Tollefson added.


Experts likened the finish to the world record set in the men’s race in 2023, which saw the late Kelvin Kiptum become the first man to run a marathon in under 2 hours and 1 minute.

Chepngetich said she dedicated her race to Kiptum.

It’s not Chepngetich’s first time making Chicago Marathon history.

Chepngetich not only won the 2022 Chicago Marathon, but she ran the fourth-fastest women’s marathon time in history during that race, running 2:14:18.

Since making her marathon debut in 2017, she has won Chicago (twice), Nagoya (twice), Istanbul (twice), Dubai and the 2019 World Championships.

Recently, she finished ninth at the 2024 London Marathon with a 2:24:36 finish. In her most recent race, she won the Buenos Aires Half Marathon in 1:05:58.

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Running

USA’s Elle St. Pierre Wins 3000m World Indoor Gold in Huge Upset Over Gudaf Tsegay

March 5, 2024 by Tara S

By: LetsRun

The US had never won world indoor 3000 gold until tonight

GLASGOW, Scotland – Elle St. Pierre, world champion.

Those are not words many thought would ever come together, but they did on Saturday night as the American sprinted by heavy pre-race favorite Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia down the homestretch to win the 2024 World Indoor 3000m title in an American and championship record time of 8:20.87.

The time shattered the previous American record of 8:25.05 that Alicia Monson set last year and moved St. Pierre to #3 on the all-time world indoor list.

Tsegay, who ran 8:17.11 earlier this winter to just miss the 8:16.60 world record, got the silver in 8:21.13, as steeplechase wolrd record holder Beatrice Chepkoech got the bronze in a Kenyan record of 8:22.68. Jess Hull of Australia didn’t medal but she did take home an Australian record of 8:24.39 as a nice consolation price in fourth. Hometown hero Laura Muir surprisingly was never a factor in the medals and settled for 5th in a season’s best of 8:29.76.

The Race

The race started out extremely fast as Beatrice Chepkoech did her customary thing and took it out hard. Her first 400 split of 65.07 was faster than all but one of the opening 400m splits for the men’s 3000m finalists, which took place after this event. The pace then slowed a bit and at 1k (2:48.83), Gudaf Tsegay went to the lead to keep the pace honest. She increased the pace and would lead all the way until the closing meters.

Tsegay hit 1600 in 4:28 and eight women were still in the lead pack with Muir in 8th just hanging on at the back. With six laps remaining, the top 5 women – the eventual top four finishers plus defending champ Lemlem Hailu of Ethiopia – startedd to separate as Tsegay hit 2k in 5:35.78 (2:49.01, 2:46.77 for Tsegay).

With four laps to go, Hailu had been dropped and Muir was ten meters behind the lead four-woman pack. Muir never gave up but she’d never be a factor the rest of the way.

The post-race splits reveal that Tsegay gathered herself for the finishing kick during the penultimate 400, which she covered in 69.15, with the 100 between 2500 and 2600 being the slowest of the night (17.69). Tsegay then surged and opened up a small gap with 300 meters remaining but her chasers responded and did not give up.

St. Pierre, who had been in fourth the entire race since the 1k mark, moved into third just before the bell and she moved into second on the backstretch. The battle for gold was now on. In the end, shockingly it was the American who ended up winning thanks to a final 200 of 29.76 and final 100 of 14.69.

“It’s definitely really emotional. It’s a dream come true,” said St. Pierre, who said the race played out exaclty how she anticipated (fast) and she thought that was to her benefit. “I knew it would be a fast race. I knew there was amazing athletes that I was going up against and I think that I was confident that that would work to my benefit. And so I just tried to get myself into a good position and hang on to the pace and close as fast as I could. It was nice to not to be thinking about pace that much and just to be competing out there.

“I just hung on to the pace and I was like, OK, OK, I think you can do a few more laps at this pace as long as it doesn’t pick up too much. And then next thing I knew there was 400 to go. And I was like, OK, I can run a fast 400. And so I just hung on and, you know, I believed in myself because, you know, I’m a miler,” added St. Pierre, who said she believes giving birth in March 2023 has made her stronger.

Video of the finish, results and analysis appear below.

In other women’s action, Femke Bol won the women’s 400 in a world record of 49.17, former Texas star Julien Alfred captured the women’s 60 in a co-world leading time of 6.98, as Molly Caudery earned Britain’s first female gold at the 2024 World Indoors as she won the pole vault with a 4.80 clearance. WA recap of those events is here.

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Running, Track and Field

Fiona O’Keeffe Reigns Supreme at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Historic Debut

February 5, 2024 by Tara S

By: Emilia Benton | Run O

On a hot and humid morning, the 25-year-old former Stanford star set a U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon record of 2:22:10. Emily Sisson and Dakotah Lindwurm went 2-3 to earn the final Olympic berths.

It’s no secret that Saturday’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials had one of its most stacked fields in history. In a field full of American legends, past Olympians and emerging stars, there were about a dozen women that made their way into fan and media predictions, with top athletes such as Emily Sisson, Keira D’Amato and Betsy Saina being popular picks as the race got closer.

It’s safe to say not many people had 25-year-old Puma-sponsored athlete Fiona O’Keeffe on their list, mostly because she had never run a marathon before. But it was O’Keeffe, running boldly amid the more experienced runners around her, who took the win in 2:22:10, setting a new U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon record. It’s the first time in history that a woman has won the event in her debut.

New Balance athlete Sisson, 32, the American record-holder in the marathon, took second in 2:22:42 to make her second Olympic team (she placed 10th in the 10,000 meters in Tokyo in 2021), and Dakotah Lindwurm, 28, also a Puma athlete, was third in 2:25:21 after quite the battle for that third Olympic spot. All three will run the marathon in the Paris Olympics on August 11.

A Big Risk with a Big Reward

O’Keeffe, 25, who trains with Puma Elite, a Cary, North Carolina-based team led by former professional athletes Alistair and Amy Cragg, noted that it wasn’t necessarily the plan to have her run her first marathon in such a high-stakes event, but rather just how her training worked out after she debuted in the half marathon only two years ago (which was notable in that her 1:07:32 clocking at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon, was the fastest debut by an American woman at the time.)

O’Keeffe went on to place sixth in the 5,000 meters at the 2022 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. She missed time in 2023 after ankle surgery to recover from a staph infection, and finally earned her ticket to the U.S. Olympic Trials last December at the Raleigh Half Marathon (1:09:34) just a day before the qualifying deadline.

“[Debuting at the Trials] just naturally made sense in the progression of my training,” O’Keeffe said in the post-race press conference.

The women's field runs down the street at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon.
About 150 of the best women runners in the country. started the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon on February 3 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo: Joe Hale)

As the front pack that started with about 14 women got smaller as the miles ticked off, Lindwurm was one of the first athletes to take the lead. O’Keeffe, meanwhile, didn’t make a significant move until mile 18, which was also still rather early considering how much distance the women still had left to cover. She eventually put in a 30- to 40-second gap on Sisson after mile 20, never looking back as she grinded to the finish.

“I just really didn’t want to have any regrets today, and I wasn’t sure at that point if it would be a mistake or if it would pay off,” O’Keeffe said. “I just wanted to go for it, see what happens, and trust the training and preparation.”

“Fiona was great, and I just tried to keep my eyes on her, thinking as long as I kept running my pace I could reel her back in and maybe pick it up in the last two miles, but I also just kept telling myself ‘Top three, top three, just make this team,’” Sisson added.

A New Era of American Distance Running

Several athletes had expressed concern about the late-morning start time, which was pushed up to 10 A.M. from an originally planned noon start. While starting line temperatures were mild in the high 50s, it warmed up quickly and clearly took its toll as several top athletes eventually dropped out, including D’Amato, Saina, and 2020 Olympic Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk, who had been recovering from a torn hamstring.

Hall, 40, dealt with the simultaneous heartbreak of missing another Olympic team in her eighth overall Trials, but expressed pride in achieving her highest placement with her fifth-place finish (2:26:06) in Orlando. Des Linden, 40, a two-time Olympian running in her fifth U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, finished 11th in 2:28:04; Stephanie Bruce, 40, competing less than five months after giving birth to a baby girl, finished 101st in 2:47:42. Jenny Simpson, 37, a former world champion in the 1,500 meters, who was competing in her first marathon, was among the top 20 women early but but eventually succumbed to the heat and the pace and stepped off the course after Mile 18.

Emily Sisson, Fiona O'Keeffe, and Dakota Lindwurm stand at the finish of the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon with American flags draped over their shoulders.
Emily Sission (second, 2:22:42), Fiona O’Keeffe (first, 2:22:10), Dakotah Lindwurm (third, 2:25:31)  (Photo: Joe Hale)

O’Keeffe noted that although she’s been told as early as when she was in high school that the marathon might be her event, she didn’t really start to believe it until about two years ago, when she began training with her current team. She highlighted her coaches’ experience as being pivotal in her preparation, particularly Amy’s, as she won the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles on an equally hot and humid February day.

“It’s been super valuable to have Amy with her personal experience on everything from the little details like decorating bottles to the bigger stuff like race strategy and making a commitment at the point in the race where it does start to hurt,” O’Keeffe said.

Lindwurm’s third-place finish was also a significant breakthrough after running a personal best of 2:24:40 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, which was preceded by a few difficult performances in Boston over the last few years, as well as dropping out at the 2022 New York City Marathon. After initially taking the lead, Lindwurm at one point fell back to seventh place before moving back up to battle for third with Caroline Rotich, the 2015 Boston Marathon champion, in the final miles.

“When it opened up and felt like the team was running away from me, I just reminded myself it wasn’t over, there was a lot of race left,” Lindwurm said. “I’ve done so many marathons that I know not everyone is going to close really hard, so I just held on tight and when I passed those women like Betsy [Saina] and Sara Hall, I reminded myself it wasn’t over.”

Fiona O'Keeffe receives a hug from Dakota Lindwurm.
(Photo: Joe Hale)

2024 Women’s U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Results

1. Fiona O’Keeffe, Cary, North Carolina, 2:22:10, $80,000*
2. Emily Sisson, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:22:42, $65,000*
3. Dakotah Lindwurm, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2:25:31, $55,000*
4. Jessica McClain, Phoenix, Arizona, 2:25:46, $9,000
5. Sara Hall, Crested Butte, Colorado, 2:26:06, $9,000
6. Caroline Rotich, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:26:10, $9,000
7. Makenna Myler, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:26:14, $9,000
8. Lindsay Flanagan, Boulder, Colorado, 2:26:25, $9,000
9. Emily Durgin, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2:27:56, $9,000
10. Annie Frisbie, Edina, Minnesota, 2:27:56, $7,000
* = Secured 2024 U.S. Olympic Team berth for the marathon in the Paris Olympics

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Olympics, Running

CATARINA MACARIO, CHLOE KIM AND MORE: 20 FEMALE ATHLETES TO KNOW IN 2022

December 21, 2021 by Tara S

Top 22 Female Athletes of 2022

As 2021 comes to an end, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead in sports.

With the Winter Olympics in February, March Madness on the calendar and a landmark NWSL season to come, women’s sports fans are in store for an exciting year.

Here are the 20 athletes to know or get reacquainted with in 2022: 

[Read more…] about CATARINA MACARIO, CHLOE KIM AND MORE: 20 FEMALE ATHLETES TO KNOW IN 2022

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey, Lacrosse, Olympics, Paralympics, Racing, Running, Skiing, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Team USA, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball, Women in Sports, Women's Basketball, Women's Golf, Women's Hockey, Women's Soccer, Women's Sports, Women's Tennis, Women's Wrestling

Paralympic ambition: Susana Rodriguez on a mission to succeed in Tokyo

January 7, 2021 by Tara S

by Courtney Akrigg on 07 Jan, 2021 05:19 •  Español

Susana Rodriguez was born with albinism. In 2013, the Spanish Para Triathletes was acknowledged as Athlete of the Year by the city of Vigo in Spain and in 2016 she represented Spain at the Paralympic Games, the year the sport of para triathlon made its Paralympic debut.
Susana started her para triathlon career in 2010, earning the World Para Triathlon Championship gold medal in London and then again the following year in Madrid. After representing at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games, where she placed 5th, Susana Rodriguez went on to earn back-to-back world titles at the 2018 World Championship Series on the Gold Coast and 2019 in Lausanne.

“Trust is a must for visual impaired training and racing, it is the only thing that will allow you to push the hardest.”
“I would like to race my second Paralympic Games this year in Tokyo and try to win a medal although it will be very difficult. What I have no doubt is that I will do my best.”
“When you love something you don’t care about the effort you put on it or the hard it is, you just go for it.”

Susana Rodriguez shares career highlights, discusses how para triathlon has developed and shaped her life, her ambition to medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo this year and being the first blind woman to become a medical doctor in Spain.

WT: Your career is impressive, you won gold in London 2010 and again in Madrid in 2011. You represented Spain at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games and earnt back-to-back world para triathlon titles at the on the Gold Coast (2018) and Lausanne (2019).
What is it about the sport of para triathlon that keeps you motivated to train and compete?
SR: I have done different sports all my life even though my family is not at all from a sporting background. I started to compete when I was 10 in athletics attending a Spanish Championship for visually impaired children in Madrid and I really enjoyed and had some nice results without training. Then I did swimming and some more sprint track racing where I had my first international racing experience as a teenager. In 2008 I had the MQS for participating in Beijing Paralympics at 100m but Spain had 6 female slots and we were 7 woman with qualifying times, so I had to stay at home. I was very disappointed so I stopped doing sports for a couple of years but in 2010 I found para triathlon.

For me it was a challenge to do my first duathlon race. I had never completed that distance before, had never done tandem racing and I wanted to try just to finish one. I liked it so much that I decided to have a go in a super sprint triathlon at Casa de Campo in Madrid. I bought a tandem bike and as soon as we crossed the finish line a woman from World Triathlon called Sarah Spingmann told my guide and I that she would like us to race in London as triathlon was after the bid of making its Paralympic debut in Rio 2016. We put the tandem inside a cardboard box and left to London. I really enjoyed the triathlon atmosphere and never left the sport since then.

Going faster and being stronger is what keeps me motivated and also working hard for a long time in the sport while it keeps growing and the level gets higher in para triathlon.

WT: Where/how do you currently train and how important is the relationship and trust with your guide?
SR: I train in Vigo, where I was born in. Several times a year we leave the city looking for training camps in better weather conditions, as the winter here is very wet and rainy and we also relocate for altitude training in southern Spain. I do 5 swimming sessions, 5/6 bike sessions (some on the tandem some on the turbo), 5 running plus some gym, physiotherapy and stretching. Except for the turbo sessions I do the whole training with a guide (triathlon guide Sara or track guide Celso) or some other great friends that help me all the year.
Trust is a must for visual impaired training and racing, it is the only thing that will allow you to push the hardest.

WT: Race highlights?
SR: I think there are three races that stand out as highlights over others. The first one was 2012 Auckland because it was my first time competing at the Para Triathlon World Championships and my guide in those times (Mayalen) and I travelled so far without any kind of help and we did a great job there,
The second one it is 2014 Kitbuhel Paratriathlon European Championships because it was my first continental title and I had a great 400m finish battling against Melissa Reid from GBR who is a good friend and has been in the sport for a long time like me. The third I would choose Gold Coast 2018 Grand Final because I love Australia and I had worked very hard after Rio 2016 to try to get back on the podium.

WT: How do you think para triathlon has developed since you’ve been competing?
SR: It has progressed a lot. If I compare my first World Championships in 2012 with last years in Lausanne, it is a different world. We have a ranking system for entering races, which means that you have to work hard to have a spot on each important competition, national teams have developed structures now that help the para triathletes get to the races in the best conditions as the elite athletes we are. There has also been many competition rules changes and the sports level is much higher. One example of this, my first World Championships was won running 4.30 min/km while my last world title was won running 3.51 min/km.

WT: You also have another very important career, in the medical industry, outside of your professional one in para triathlon?
SR: I studied Medicine at Santiago de Compostela University from 2009 to 2015 and then did the exam for becoming an intern in 2016. I was studying quite hard before Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. And the last four years I have been working on physical medicine and rehabilitation department to become a specialist in this area. 2020 was a surprise with the COVID-19 pandemic and during some months, like many medical professionals in Spain, we left our daily work to join the battle against coronavirus. It was a quite hard year and still is even now I have stopped my medical job until I am back from Tokyo Paralympic Games. I am the first blind woman to become a medical doctor in Spain and I am very pleased because I love my work.

WT: How did you find the balance with your medical job and para triathlon training and competing?
SR: It was very hard. Now that I am just training I realised how crazy my life was trying to balance it all. I worked from 8am to 3pm got home at 5pm because of public transport schedule and then did my whole training from 6 pm until I finished. I used my holidays for competing which means I did not have any rest time since Rio 2016 until 2020. But I say that when you love something you don’t care about the effort you put on it or the hard it is, you just go for it.

WT: How have you coped/adapted with the challenges presented during 2019 and the ongoing pandemic?
SR: As I said 2020 has been a challenge for me since the beginning. In January I was diagnosed with a heart condition and there were some weeks when I was waiting for some genetic tests that I did not know If I could keep doing para triathlon because of swimming. Luckily all the final assessment results were quite fast and I am so pleased with my cardiologist Dr Maria Alvarez who explained things clearly and made it easier for me to make decisions. I was cleared to train and compete, started medication, created a security plan and later in the year had a little surgery to getting a cardiac monitor device implanted which is now inside my chest. It is all a bit weird but now I am very happy because all the data is transferred each night to the hospital and if there is any further concerns, I will know. I am now able to push hard again in each training session which was something that I missed for months. The sensation of doing something you love and doubting if you are at the correct place or you should be at home was not nice.
In between all the races were cancelled, training venues closed for a long time but I have tried to keep positive and enjoyed training at home every day. When I was back from work and I feel pleased that I could help in the health industry in Spain.
I have learnt a lot from this ongoing situation: there is nothing as important as health and life goes first and before anything.

WT: If you had advice for other aspiring athletes who may want to get into triathlon or para triathlon, what would it be?
SR: I would say that it is a very inclusive sport and that is not for super heroes as people think. You can start with shorter distances to see if you like it but I always say that if you do one you will repeat. I am absolutely in love with this sport because you never get bored and you can always do new things in training to improve.

WT: What else would you like to achieve in the sport?
SR: First of all I would like to race my second Paralympic games in Tokyo and try to win a medal although it will be very difficult. What I have no doubt is that I will do my best!
I also would like to work across clean sport initiatives and to acknowledge young athletes and coaches of the importance of knowing how to act in case of a sudden cardiac arrest with CPR and how to use an AED.

WT: Who has been your greatest influence?
SR: My family and especially my sister, she has been my best role model to follow. 

Find out more about World Para Triathlon.

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, Inclusive Sports, Paralympics, Running

Teaching Gratitude Without Comparison

November 23, 2020 by Tara S

Two girls in Girls who Run shirts running

By: Julia Pelly | Girls Who Run

Gratitude, or the simple practice of noticing and appreciating the good things around us, is something that’s often at the forefront of parents’ and caregivers’ minds this time of year. Most adults want to help their girl develop a solid sense of gratitude because they know how beneficial noticing and appreciating the things in our lives can be. According to Harvard Health, those who practice gratitude tend to have lower levels of stress, report higher levels of life satisfaction, and enjoy better relationships with their family and friends.  

While the evidence is clear that practicing gratitude can be beneficial, the way that many well-meaning parents aim to teach their girls gratitude can be problematic. When parents and caregivers begin talking to their girl about gratitude, many start by comparing her life to someone else’s in order to point out exactly what she should be grateful for. For example, being grateful for physical health because others are sick, being grateful for a supportive person in their life because not everyone has one, being grateful for food or material things because others don’t have what you have. Comparison-based gratitude may seem like an easy way to help a girl become mindful of the good in her life, but, in practice, it often serves only to reinforce the idea that she should be comparing herself and her life to others.  

[Read more…] about Teaching Gratitude Without Comparison

Filed Under: General, Nonprofit, Running, Women's Sports

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