Aerial view of the gap Katelyn Tuohy closed!

Tuohy gave her a 12 second lead and ran her down. Valby can run at a very fast, steady pace without cracking. Tuohy can run at a very fast, steady pace, and then raise further it in the final 2k.

Tuohy is in the lower right of the picture. She could be in the middle coming from a left hand curve so would be taking the tangent. Valley in the upper left is clearly not taking the tangent.

Who knew running in a straight line was so challenging/

I think the issue with Valby may be her stride or maybe spatial awareness. Even when she tried to take the right line she did not hit it directly. Not sure she can.

So how does losing fit in with your notions of being super-talented? I guess there were runners further back in the field who must be even more "talented".

If Valby is talented it appears Tuohy is more talented. (Except on Letsrun, where Prefontaine was better than everyone who finished in front of him).

As hard as it is for Valby fans to admit, Tuohy mowed her down like it was a handicap race.

It takes more than that to be the best. The best runners are tactically smart.

That photo really shows how Valby didn’t bother running the tangents and how much distance that added to her run.

Let's hope they square up against each other in Boston!

Thats a beautiful shot. Valby fans should remember that Katelyn Tuohy is a front runner and Valby would not have put on this lead if not for Tuohy holding herself back and staying with the pack for her teammates.

There was nothing Valby could have done better that could change the outcome, she was not gonna beat Tuohy in that race plain and simple. Valby could have done better at common sense to save herself from Letsrun questioning her cognitive skills.

Valby should move up to 10k if she wants to win a national title.

The same effort that Parker used to pull away and then settle down, Katelyn used to go after her and did so at the right time. Mountain out of mole hill people, it's one race.

Valby's possible errors in order, my opinion anyway.

1) Not knowing exactly where the finish was, I think this was her biggest error

2) Not wearing socks, discussed numb feet, that couldn't have been helpful

3) Could have run tangents better although it's easier to key on someone when behind to gain some distance.

What she did right:

Gapped the field by 12 seconds and almost won it. This was almost a major error by Touhy. In hindsight she looks brilliant, but that could have gone the other way. It was a spectacular race all the same. I hope both can stay mostly injury free as no such thing as nothing hurting when training that hard.

She would be great at the 10k. Nico Young should move up also.

bottom line she lost because katelyn tuohy is faster and stronger .. no excuses needed

factssss

if katelyn can make up 12 seconds gap then she could totally gap pv by 12 seconds and more if she wanted to

what parker valby fans also dont want to talk about is how katelyn tuohy did not really redlined in this race, katelyn has more left in the tank !!!!!!

Actually, if you watch that part of the race (right after the 4km mark), it does help to highlight that tangent discussion. You can see Valby's positioning after having run a right turn and moving towards another right corner...but she has faded out to the middle and then has to come back in for the corner....Tuohy hugs the upcoming corner and stays on the inside as she gets to the next corner.

Tuohy is currently in the middle of the trail because they just went around a left hand corner before the aerial shot. So she was running the tangents well.

Is it a big difference for Valby....no. But it is a difference. And added up, each of those sections would have an impact.