Breaking: Shelby Houlihan's return to the sport will take place on ........ where she will run the .......

Over under is that she beats Tuohy's return time by 20 seconds.

Oh please. If Shelby runs 8:23 we will know she is doping still. Her lifetime ceiling was probably about 8:18, and that ceiling is now slower than it was, and it wasn’t clean either.

Yes, I think it will be a dilemma for her:

If she runs very fast for her return it will be obvious that she is still doping and took advantage of the 4 years to continue what she did before;

If she is slow on purpose (not to make the doping obvious), it will show that she is much slower now than when she will be doping. And any quick progress after this will look very suspicious.

So I suppose she will have to go for the first solution. Continue to dope and run fast. Anyway at her age she has very little to lose. The dopers doesn't have probably more than 5% chance to get caught. So better try before retiring.

You should actually do this, it'd be a fun community event. We can all enjoy some beef (or maybe boar meat?) burritos, support a local business and watch some racing.

In the past, official Letsrun articles have often referred to people convicted of doping offenses by adding “drug cheat” to their names. For example “drug cheat Justin Gatlin” or “drug cheat Mary Decker Slaney.”

The other post is asking for Houlihan to be treated the same way.

Wiley to pace? A who's who of Doyle Management favorites?

Got to thinking about who might be pacing Shelby, if anyone.

Shelby appears to be located in Phoenix or Flagstaff. Her best buddies are Cranny & Schweizer who are also her strongest supporters. Believe both are now training in Flagstaff. Neither are busy on Feb. 1st.

Logical to conclude Elise or Karissa would want to pitch in, help out their close friend for a mile or so, while also being part of the spectacle.

If Houlihan was in anywhere near 8:30 shape, would this this low-key meet really be a consideration? In 2024, Taylor Roe won the Razorback Invite 3000m by 15+ sec in 8:51. If Roe returns this year, her stout 1:08:48 half-marathon debut in Houston on Sun indicates 3k fitness close to 8:40. I expect Houlihan to clock something a few secs either way of this mark, and to depart Ark with the 2025 USATF Indoor Championships 3000m auto qualifying standard (8:45) in hand.

Everyone seems to think she's still doping. If she's been training and doping for the last 4 years, doesn't seem unlikely to me that she'd pr.

If you guys want to say she stopped doping and therefore will be far slower, I'm totally open to that argument.

Of course she is still doping. Why should she stop now? She passed 15 - 20 USADA tests per year for several years, and God knows how many AIU tests, until she screwed up once. Lesson learned: now she'll reduce the dosage once she got 2 missed tests (and have wild boar testicles in the freezer for emergencies)...

Still, I don't believe in a 1500 or 5000 m PR. 3000 m maybe, as it's weaker, but not right off in the first low-key meeting. 32 years old, 4 years without serious races and presumably less serious training will take their toll.

USADA has been testing her these past 4 years. Unlikely she’s been doping during that period, IMO.

Doping musings aside and regardless of how well Houlihan has taken care of herself throughout the past four yrs, it doesn't make sense to me that she would start the year showing sub-8:30 fitness rather than gradually building up that level with an eye on Tokyo 25. Even in 2019 when she dropped a 3:54.99 at World Champs in Oct, Houlihan opened with a 4:29 mile and 9:31 2-mi (8:50 3k equiv) in Feb. No need to overcook herself when the first order of business is simply to secure auto entry into USA Indoor Champs and further roll into an elite training regimen uninjured and fresh.

That's because LRC wouldn't say that about a white runner.

Not quite true, the OG example is Mary Decker Slaney. Suffice to say there's bias and favoritism.

Well, I picked the correct date but not the location. I thought she would go to UW that weekend.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=13258093

Her current work outs show 8:30 fitness. No doubt 2:50 per K if she so chooses.

That is like saying, "I posted on this thread to tell you that I am not interested in this thread." But doesn't posting mean you do care?

Authentic. Best of luck to Foolagain.

She is in a lose-lose situation.

If she runs fast, people will say, "See! She is still doping."

If she runs slow, people will say, "See! That is how she runs when she isn't able to dope anymore!"

There is nothing she can do to make the haters and doubters change their minds, so I don't know why she would even try.

Honestly, is there anything she could possibly do to get people to believe her? I doubt that.