Why wouldn't Cain just do some road races?!

She should do a ultramarathon.

She ran there before and has friends or relatives there if I recall.

She should have done something that was not streamed or taped. Look at all of the threads here because we saw her. Had we heard that she ran a road 5k in 17 minutes, we wouldn’t have known if she had done a tempo or really raced. It would have been nearly as dramatic.

She should have started with a lower level meet. Cork isn't the highest level meet out there, but it's still fairly competitive. Start with something youre guaranteed to be in the mix and make it a success. This race went out basically at her PR pace. That is never what you want in your second or third comeback attempt.

Do any of these Pros have it in their contracts that they have to race in Europe or they get dropped? She's still under Nike and probably because her agent got her a great deal when she turned Pro. Anyone else but her would be dropped by now

Gad wrote:

Do any of these Pros have it in their contracts that they have to race in Europe or they get dropped? She's still under Nike and probably because her agent got her a great deal when she turned Pro. Anyone else but her would be dropped by now

Calling it now that once her Nike contract ends she is going to Hoka.

Because when I drop out of a track race, the furthest I am from the exit is 200 meters. When I drop out of a road race, I could be a few miles away and then what would I do?

I think Cain is burned out like Denise Kimetto. She is still young and has her whole life ahead of her though. She should now focus on her grades and do well in school. Maybe she will find another sport. Running was not meant to be.

Banana Bread wrote:

I think Cain is burned out like Denise Kimetto. She is still young and has her whole life ahead of her though. She should now focus on her grades and do well in school. Maybe she will find another sport. Running was not meant to be.

Same goes for Bekele and the ‘thon. He should just run his hotels already.

If she has any hope of trying to be a relevant again the very 1st thing she needs to do is drop her coach

Bekele has much more to offer. He literally destroyed the field in Bern with his 10 miller. That should give us a taster of what to expect in his thon wr and olympic gold thon.

Banana Bread wrote:

I think Cain is burned out like Denise Kimetto. She is still young and has her whole life ahead of her though. She should now focus on her grades and do well in school. Maybe she will find another sport. Running was not meant to be.

I don't think she'll be dominant on the track but I think she can be an asset to the sport. In the late 70's to the 80's more "famous" distance runners ran more road races.

Some of these guys were racing almost weekly- some of the races were glorified tempo runs with prize money.

The point is- the athletes were accessible. They were hanging out after the race. They mingled and talked to the runners.

The sport was more popular more people knew their names.

So why not have someone like Mary Cain (and there are many others) do this?

Here's what I think: I think she's been training really well and getting confident again. The biggest issue Mary Cain has is saying "no" or deciding something for herself. She was told, "let's go to Europe for the summer and race some events, it'll be like a vacation." She jumps on board: "Sure, a vacation sounds great and I'll get to do some fun races." She's not thinking that she's going to get absolutely destroyed in her first race back. I agree that a better option would have been something less "visible" but I don't think she really thinks any of this through.

But does she have to? Mary is still very young and has the right to try to make her dream come true up until it happens or really is too late. What pains me is that most naysayers here, who are generally middle-aged as i am, are attacking Cain as if they earned that privilege. So Mary Cain did 3:01 in 1000m then did a DNF. So what? It was Cain's choice to enter, her coach 's choice to work with her and her decision to pull out when she did. Furthermore, who in the scheme of the Track world do you think you are centralizing so negatively on a young lady like Mary Cain. If you chose to become ogres, that is up to you, but it should not be Mary's problem and is certainly not her fault. Remember, this is someone's daughter you are bashing.

Moby Dick wrote:

Here's what I think: I think she's been training really well and getting confident again. The biggest issue Mary Cain has is saying "no" or deciding something for herself. She was told, "let's go to Europe for the summer and race some events, it'll be like a vacation." She jumps on board: "Sure, a vacation sounds great and I'll get to do some fun races." She's not thinking that she's going to get absolutely destroyed in her first race back. I agree that a better option would have been something less "visible" but I don't think she really thinks any of this through.

Cain has always had good speed. She should start with 800m races and work her way back up to the 3000m.

Stoppit Smith wrote:

What pains me is that most naysayers here, who are generally middle-aged as i am, are attacking Cain as if they earned that privilege.

You're so creepy. You fixate on the supposed vulnerability of every female athlete. Mary Cain is a freaking adult and a professional. She doesn't need you to protect her.

This is a message board for track and field fans. There's nothing wrong with this thread. People would be saying the same thing about a 30-year old male athlete in a similar situation. Nobody is "attacking" her. They're questioning her comeback strategy. There are threads all the time questioning athletes for their decisions about which races to run.

Mary is just too young to count her out at this point. Jordan Hasay was also supposed to be a 1500 phenom after she ran as a high schooler at Pre with the pros. She was terrible at the 1500 in college and got into a bad injury cycle when she tried to run 5/10k on the track as a pro. But she was still young and came back to become one of the best US marathoners.

Cainiack wrote:

She ran there before and has friends or relatives there if I recall.

I agree, she should have done lower profile event; no matter how well your training is going, the first race after a long layoff is slow.

I would also assume the at the very least, the sponsor paid all of her expenses.

Banana Bread wrote:

I think Cain is burned out like Denise Kimetto. She is still young and has her whole life ahead of her though. She should now focus on her grades and do well in school. Maybe she will find another sport. Running was not meant to be.

I would not say she is done because she would not have traveled that far unless her training indicated she was ready to compete. Also, she a few pounds over her fighting weight which will come down as her training continues and your race back from injury rarely goes well. I would not be surprised to see her race again soon with a better result.