Mary Cain Becomes a Pro Triathlete, Claims She Could Probably Have Been a D1 Swimmer

There is not a lot of depth in women's triathlon in the US. 18 min 5k is all you need to be pro level in a sprint. Question is whether she can build up her swim and bike fast enough to get those on par with pro times without getting hurt along the way. She may be a bit too late in the game to really be competitive internationally at the triathlon as it take a few years to acclimate to the demands of the bike and swim. Having a runner's VO2 max only goes so far when you do not put out enough watts on the bike and don't have much strength development in your shoulders.

My guess is she does not have the bike power and skills to make it as a pro.

Can someone explain the Paulo reference?

Someone in this thread is saying it's a slowtwitch meme actually not letsrun

She's a hateful person. She will soon add triathlon to her list of failures.

She needs a change of heart.

I am withholding judgement until she actually races a few times.

Personally, I would not announce that I was going to be a "pro" whatever, until I did it a few times, successfully. No ill will towards her, but to me it seems a bit like saying "I want to be a fireman when I grow up". Yes, she likely has a big engine, but it also requires skill and experience to be successful.

I hope that she does well, but then half of Letsrun will then say "see triathlons are easy" making the illogical leap that they too could be pro triathletes with their 4:57 "full mile" speed.

You wrote a blatantly false headline. Go pound sand.

Same here. I'm also not sure how somebody can get a pro card without race results.

Personally think she doesn't have it mentally in terms of resilience and all her talk of being part of a team is very nice for training but not much use for racing.

Anybody care to post some of Mary Cain's swimming times? either past or present

What disorder or character flaw do you have that makes you want to control other people?

Honestly if she doesn't have the requisite swim/bike strength she's just going to dig herself such a huge hole that she'll have nothing left for the run. She won't be even close to the best run time unless she takes it very easy on the swim/bike legs.

I've been looking for her times, but have not been able to find them yet. I did read an article that she continued on the swim team until 9th grade https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/sports/olympics/runner-mary-cain-16-relishes-her-time-at-olympic-trials.html . In this article: https://www.maxpreps.com/news/sqdu7M5DX0OxW5IezZ2acQ/theres-something-about-sophomore-mary-cain.htm there is this:

"Cain is no where close to the Olympic aspirations she had in 2008.
"I was dying to see Michael Phelps swim, because I used to be a butterflier; I had to see Phelps swim in all of eight of his events," Cain said. "That was the dream, to one day become an Olympic swimmer. What inspired me more was watching Michael Phelps win all these gold medals, I thought ‘Wow.'"
Swimming, by then, was ingrained into Cain. She started young and by the time she was 10, she was serious about it. But something interfered the spring of Cain's sixth grade year. Stickles runs a springtime after-school track program for fifth and sixth graders and the idea hit Cain.
"I thought it would be a fun thing to try and thought I could balance that with swimming," she recalled."

So while I would be very curious to see what her swim times were, if she was swimming competitively until she was 15 and had Olympic aspirations, she will likely have no problems getting out of the water with the lead pack in the swim!

First of all: Mary Cain is a person of interest, she earns money from sponsorships. So hell, yes we can make comments about her.

Could she have been a good swimmer? Maybe?

Will she be a good triathlon swimmer now? Maybe, maybe not. Swimming in triathlon competitions is not for the faint of the heart. This is tough business. I am not sure if she is up for that, not to mention the swimming technique she has to learn.

And than there is bicycling, another technical sport. I am sure she can ride a bicycle, but can she race a race bicycle under racing conditions? Probably not.

Will she win her towns Mini Triathlon? Absolutely.

So there are too many variables to make this a slam dunk.

Good luck for her but keep the critical posts coming.

Looks like, that she can swim. But that is also not in open water with a swim suit.

Again, two entirely different things.

Cain did not say that she is a triathlon pro, or that she is going pro. She was quoted as saying that she wants to go pro. And so the title of this thread is misleading -- still misleading even after 'correction' by Wejo.

Not even near Hobbs Kessler, who matches her running performances, AND was a world-class junior team rock climber. A way more impressive athletic combination, even if Mary had bothered to actually compete as a swimmer.

Hobbs the most talented all-around HS athlete of all time.

This.

Seems like a great move for her. Top triathletes training for the 70.3 distance typically run 40-50 miles/week. Training for Olympic & under, like she's currently doing, means less than that. You can do tons of swimming/biking with little injury risk. & she's only 25. Plenty of time to give this a real go & see if she can compete at the highest level of the sport.

Clermont is a great event for her. It usually attracts strong domestic talent & is the season opener for almost everyone there. Hope she does well. Dk if she can race twice this week but there's another race the week after in Sarasota. It really shouldn't shock people that she had a swimming background before running & was good at it. Sport gene, & all that. Interested to see how she does on the bike. But she should blow the doors off of everyone on the run. She's likely getting support from USAT like Morgan Pearson did. Triathlon is always looking to pull athletes in from one of the three main sports.

Sprint/Olympic racing is intense. You have to swim hard from the start & not get dropped or you're most likely out of contention thanks to drafting in whatever bike pack you end up in. 5k isn't a lot of time to catch people on the run but she'll still make up some time there. Still a lot of room for the front end of the sport to improve at running off of the bike.

TRIGGERED

One of Paulo’s athletes created a post on slowtwitch a long time ago (13+ years?) about quitting the message board because they felt it had become toxic. Thus, letting everyone know they were leaving. As if it was a big loss. They signed off the post that they would be in Kona and that Paulo would know where to find them. I remember thinking it was pretty narcissistic and funny.

Later this became a LRC meme to post anytime someone decides to post about leaving this forum because it suddenly is too toxic. The OP is usually oblivious to the fact that the forum has always been toxic and that they won’t be missed.

Coincidently, Mary has joined Paulo’s training group. The same Paulo from the meme.