I find it extremely frustrating that so many people are saying that this must be fictional and that there is no way those parents are real.
Sadly, I believe both of those aspects to be only slightly exaggerated, if at all.
When I began reading this, I immediately wondered if it was a former teammate of mine doing the writing. This is our story. The past four years I have dealt with a coach who talks with you when you run well, gives you nick names when he's happy with you, doesn't talk with you when you are injured or not performing, makes horrible weight comments, does not coach the mental aspect of running, etc. Oh, and guess what? Our men's team (who has the same coach) has just as many eating disorders and competitive issues as the women's team does.
So, why didn't I transfer? Because the first three years I was on the right side. I was getting the nicknames, the attention, etc. I always found a way to justify the way my teammates were treated by believing our coach has our best interests in mind. No, he doesn't. He has told plenty of us that his job is safe no matter how well we do. He doesn't care. We're just replaceable parts with a 5 year warranty.
As other women have posted, mixed messages about eating have always been his MO. Some athletes need to get serious and lose weight, then all of a sudden he's "disgusted" with them for being "stupid enough" to develop an eating disorder. He gossips about how much weight an athlete has gained to other athletes on the team. Same can be said about gossiping about eating disorders.
Also, once a team member has an eating disorder, it's vicious and pulls in even the seemingly most healthy girls. Why? Because we want to be the best. When a girl gets so into running that she stops eating, that sends to us a signal that she wants it more than we do. So what do we do? We try and beat her at her game. Because that's the way it works. I want to run the most miles, at the highest intensity, lift the most, stretch the longest, do the most core, and eat the best out of any girl on my team. If someone is doing something I am not, then I am a failure. It's also an issue of control. When my workouts aren't going well, when my races aren't going well, when life seems out of control, I at least have that. Sick? Stupid? Irrational? Counter intuitive? Yes, I never said it wasn't. It's just the TRUTH.
As for parents- I had a teammate who was fairly successful in college. All conference, all region in xc, regional qualifier in track. She was built sturdier than your typical distance runner, but by no means overweight or even had a couple spare pounds to lose. She just was built differently, plain and simple. Her parents constantly told her she needed to lose weight, shouldn't wear buns, was a disappointment because of her weight (something they said she could control), and finally said they would stop coming to meets if she didn't lose weight. Obviously you can see where this went.
So, unfortunately this ended up being a novel, but I could really talk about it all day.
OH, also, I don't think the blogger is so ridiculous for having her 75 second rule. I do a version of the same thing. I know there are certainly more people who check to see what their first mile is and make a decision on how the run is going based on that.
A lot of guys on letsrun pretend they are superior to women because they don't understand them. Check yourself. You have stupid, ridiculous, toxic quirks, too. Just because you are unable to understand the way SOME women internalize pressure does not make you better or worse than them. Don't forget a lot of the issues that face women, face men too. Eating disorders are rampant among male distance runners, yet receive little attention. No one says the sick things about males with disorders that are said about women. I fully anticipate the things I have said to be torn apart, but please remember that we are all driven by the same passion, it just manifests itself in different ways among us.