Just read the competitor article.
.
Some weird stuff in there. For example:
"Though she was disappointed, there was still some sass left in this 33-year-old from Boston’s north shore. As I introduced the later-confirmed drug cheat Rita Jeptoo to the crowd of Boston finishers as the day’s champion, I could hear Flanagan pipe up from among the other top-10 finishers on stage.
“You’re welcome,” she called out tartly, a message to Jeptoo that Flanagan knew very well the significant role she played in the fastest Boston Marathon in history."
Really? Keep in mind that Shalane didn't know Jeptoo was doping at the time. You would make a comment like that to the winner of the race, as she's introduced? Just bad sportsmanship.
After she found out Jeptoo was doping:
“Initially I was really angry because she had stolen a really important day last year,” Flanagan says. “And then, in a way, it fueled me, and I decided that since she’s not gonna be in Boston (this) year, that opens up a window. Because this was a woman I had no idea how to beat, and I felt so frustrated. I felt l ran two different styles against her—one slow and tactical with a fast finish [Boston 2013: Jeptoo first in 2:26:25; Flanagan fourth in 2:27:08] and the other really aggressive, trying to ditch her early [Boston 2014: Jeptoo first in 2:18:57; Flanagan seventh in 2:22:02]—and neither worked."
If the editor didn't insert the results of the 2 races, one might think that Jeptoo was the only one standing in the way of Flanagan and victory, with the 2 of them going head to head until the bitter end. Hey, Shalane, what about the 5 other women that beat you last year? Do you have any idea how to beat them?
Then this:
“The races I’m most proud of, even if I don’t win, are the ones I feel are like pieces of artwork, a performance for myself and my family,” she says. “Sometimes they yield moments of brilliance, and sometimes it seems not so brilliant an idea to some people. But it depends on how you want to look at it.”
I'm not exactly sure how to articulate what's wrong with what she said here, other than to say that it's not the sort of thing that would come out of anyone that has even a moderate amount of humility. Try to imagine Molly Huddle saying that. You can't.
I'd like to support Flanagan because it would really be something if she won Boston, but I have to say that I find her personality off-putting. That whole article reeks of arrogance and a sense of entitlement. It's almost as if she thinks she deserves to win Boston more than her competitors and then resents them for beating her.