Nice article-thanks for posting.
She's a terrific lady, hope she does well in China.
Excellent!
She is one tough athlete. I must say I hope Richie's and Magda's kid got the running gene!
I love how they USATF doesn't care bout "the clowns in the back." This "clown," was ranked 39th and made the team! Way to go Magdalena, I hope you get a contract and keep it going!
Also of note, she ran 31:03 at Wharf to Wharf! I think she is going to do great in August at the games!!!
"One was the fifteenth-place performance in New York in 2006 that qualified her for this Boston race with a time of 2 hours, 42 minutes. But that barely made her the 39th-fastest woman running on this day. Her only other finish since 2004 was a marathon she completed later that year in Oregon, a race she finished eight minutes slower than the one in New York."
Oh give me a break. She was fifth at the USOT marathon in 2004. She's not some Jill Come Lately or "emerging elite" like those guys in the 10k.
Space Cowboy wrote:
I love how they USATF doesn't care bout "the clowns in the back." This "clown," was ranked 39th and made the team! Way to go Magdalena, I hope you get a contract and keep it going!
Never met Tony Sandoval but he sounds like a great guy and coach: "Magda was a winner here at Berkeley, and would have been even if she had never won a race."
And Lewy Boulet's story is pretty inspiring.
Like Tera Moody, Christian Smith, 1996 Jenny Spangler, and many others.
This whole idea that they didn't know who was in the lead is not true. I know Deena said it in the post-race interview, but according to two different people I've talked to who were in the race, they knew who it was. One of them was running right behind Deena until mile 6 or 7 and they were given constant updates by coaches along the course, saying "Boulet has 40 seconds" and stuff like that. Deena may not have realized who it was when she first pulled away, but she couldn't have gone more than a half mile without knowing.
I have to agree with this. Everyone in the mix would (in all likelihood) immediately know who Magdalena LB was, she has a good pedigree and was "on the radar" at the Trials. Blake just raced her at the Cardinal Invite. Also with a multi-loop course and personal coaches watching the race like a hawk, they would be quick to update the runners about Magda's bold move.
Still, the fact that a reasonably widespread local publication found sufficient fascination with a *distance runner* to devote this much ink to and elaboarate on high-level running in such great detail is a small victory in the PR war for distance runners in an attention-starved sport. Magdalena Lewy Boulet deserves the recognition--and so do many others who aren't properly acknowledged.
whatever man wrote:
Still, the fact that a reasonably widespread local publication found sufficient fascination with a *distance runner* to devote this much ink to and elaboarate on high-level running in such great detail is a small victory in the PR war for distance runners in an attention-starved sport. Magdalena Lewy Boulet deserves the recognition--and so do many others who aren't properly acknowledged.
I know people here won't want to hear it, but if it weren't for a certain Dean K, Magdalena might have gotten just a little bit less of that attention.
This publication has never done an article on running as far as I know. Comparing Magdalena Lewy Boulet to Dean K. is just so ... wrong. Go wash your mouth out with soap! :)
I'll go a step further. Dean is better at promoting himself than anyone who's ever been associated with USATF. Since the organization appears to have minimal regard for the level of integrity of its constituents, they might as well award Dean K. the title of USATF Promotions and Marketing Director and see where the hell it goes.
FYI, she made the cover of the East Bay Express for this story.
Go Magda!
True and thanks for pointing it out. Usually that publication has some tatted up faux-tree hippie on its cover, but not this week. I'm in Berkeley so I saw the great cover photo--was the only reason I picked up the mag. It was an insightful read overall.
I'm not a fan of Dean K. but it is a fact that he has generated more awareness of distance running, especially in the Bay Area. That's all I'm saying. I'm nowhere near as talented as Magdalena, nor do I have the training discipline she has, but I'm a fairly decent marathon runner and most people can't make a meaningful distinction between me and someone who ran in the Trials (a distinction of roughly 5 minutes, as it were.) They also can't make a distinction between me and a certain self-promoting ultra runner, and when confronted with his example in social settings I'm sometimes compelled to point out that I smoke him by half an hour in a marathon. While I may feel a slight indignation at being compared to Dean K, I think that's better than having those people be completely ignorant about the sacrifices you make to be a distance runner. Face it, one thing people do know about Dean is that he spends a LOT of time running.
So all I'm saying is that without Dean's celebrity, this local publication might just have carried a shorter article about Magdelena - or maybe not, but fewer people might have read it. Nothing wrong with a silver lining.