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Telander wrote:

Back when I met her, Favor stood 5-3 and weighed 105 pounds. She was pretty and courteous, but there was a glint of ferocity in her eyes, of suppressed danger.

I saw the look in many of the Wisconsin middle-distance and long-distance female runners. In my book, I made special note of them, of their lapses into near insanity, of their successes and crashes and eating disorders and dependence on their controlling German head coach, Peter Tegen.

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Telander wrote:
How crazy were the UW runners? One told me how, because of anorexia and bulimia, she had not had her period in nine years. One ran until her bones started breaking. Stephanie Herbst, a national champion, won an NCAA 10,000-meter title race in Bloomington, Ind., in which another obsessed young woman, a dean’s-list pre-med student from North Carolina State who had set a U.S. collegiate record six weeks earlier, ran off the track in mid-race, climbed a seven-foot fence, sprinted down a city road and then flung herself off a 35-foot high bridge. The runner survived but was paralyzed for life.

The thing is, Herbst didn’t even notice. Or much care. Indeed, as she told reporters later, the attempted suicide was ‘‘a typical situation’’ and ‘‘not really so unusual.’’ Herbst, who stood 5-7, weighed 95 pounds. The girl who tried to kill herself wasn’t much different: 5-8, 108 pounds.

This is not to say all female distance runners have eating disorders or other serious issues. But many members of that Wisconsin team did. And maybe it has taken them a lifetime to work things out.

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SFDuke wrote:

1986
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/06/sports/runner-quits-race-leaps-from-bridge.html

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LetsRun.com wrote:

The Chicago Sun-Time Rick Telander has written a column on SFH entiteld:

Suzy Favor Hamilton not alone, it seems, in going off track

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/17142109-452/suzy-favor-hamilton-not-alone-it-seems-in-going-off-track.html

B]Telander wrote:
How crazy were the UW runners? One told me how, because of anorexia and bulimia, she had not had her period in nine years. One ran until her bones started breaking. Stephanie Herbst, a national champion, won an NCAA 10,000-meter title race in Bloomington, Ind., in which another obsessed young woman, a dean’s-list pre-med student from North Carolina State who had set a U.S. collegiate record six weeks earlier, ran off the track in mid-race, climbed a seven-foot fence, sprinted down a city road and then flung herself off a 35-foot high bridge. The runner survived but was paralyzed for life.

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witness wrote:

It is true....I was at the meet. We all saw her run around the track and then just trot out of the stadium. Didn't realize what had actually happened for awhile. It was Indianapolis. 1986 I think.

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Dr. Love wrote:

Is the story of the N.C. State runner true? What year was this?

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hookers r fun wrote:

Mental illness plus hormonal imbalances that can arise from eating disorders and elite training is bound to breed some crazies

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Stiffler2 wrote:

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-29/sports/sp-117_1_pills

Worth reading too

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