http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/sports/sub-elite-runners-chase-improvement.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&
Everyone keeps sending around this article about the sketchy doctor who is diagnosing a shockingly high number of elite runners with hypothyroidism, which may be helping them to win lots of medals. But, I just keep thinking ‘OH NO, what if I really have that and now no one will believe me?!’ One of my major fears is also being wrongly convicted for a crime I didn’t commit.
I can’t get this video to embed, but you should watch the 3,000m final from the Indoor Champs the other night. The finish (around 1:45 into the clip) is brutal. I didn’t know you could bruise your face in track.
I’m always fascinated by stories of what it’s really like to be a top athlete, so in that vein here is: What is was like to be coached by Alberto Salazar
Sacramento Running Association and Elite Runners
I wrote this article for Freeplay Magazine about the Sacramento Running Association’s elite program. It’s a female-focused magazine, based here in Northern California, and, while it’s new, I really think it’s coming along.
But, the article topic, itself, is also something I find fascinating. SRA realized there is a gap between when runners graduate college and when they’re able to make money as runners, make the Olympics, break records, etc. How do you encourage people to keep running in the full-time way necessary if they can’t afford it or if there simply isn’t an option to make it possible?
Obviously, other groups are doing similar things, getting sponsorships, paying the small things that make a difference at that point: flights, entry fees, shoes. But, still, I think it’s a more complicated question than most people acknowledge. If we have certain demands on athletes and expectations, but give them no resources, how do we expect those to be met?
Kelly O'Mara 