Athing Mu added to 3rd section of 1500 at Sound Running Track Fest on Saturday

No, she wouldn't have ended up 5th. She was dying big time. That's why she dropped out.

All these posts ? Isn’t it obvious she just doesn’t want to run anymore. She is fulfilling the letter of her contract to get paid —- Nike has prob decided it’s not worth the fight , it’s not enough money , they have plenty of other problems — look at their stock - why risk a public battle over a small amount of money. Mu runs these oddball races to hide her decline / moderate training / etc——-who cares ? it’a all for the money at this point —

if she actually runs Pre it’s because her contract has a specific clause in it

LR posters: Rocky Hansen entering and dropping out 3200m into a conference championship 5000m is savvy way to get in a workout.

Also LR posters: Athing Mu racing a 1500 with an entry based on her seed time confuses me.

🤡

The field is respectable. Competing in a 1500 with 10 athletes in 4:09 - 4:13 shape should actually provide good practice running a reasonable pace in a race without super high pressure. If she can show reasonable tactics and beat these atheltes that would be a big step in the right direction. She has only run sub 4:09 once in her life if I remember correctly. She is probably in quite good shape if she wins this race. This as a workout makes way more sense than the other runs.

Athing Mu - 4:03.44
Gabrielle Wilkinson - 4:09.28
Sadie Sargent - 4:09.65
Melissa Tanaka - 4:09.66
Kayley DeLay - 4:11.20
Hollie Parker - 4:12.22
Maddie Mooney - 4:12.70
Casey Monoszlay - 4:12.19
Sadie-Jane Hickson - 4:13.81
Nikita Moore - 4:13.83

i decide to look on the positive aspects possibilities

are we seeing a lydiard, prep for the 8?

is Mu running some 25 sec 200m repeats along the way?

is Mu getting back in the saddle like boxers that have been gun shy with a series of lower ranked fighters to get their mind back in the game, and dust off the cobwebs.

i doubt that the 1500 is in the plan seriously.

the 1500 is for aerobic monsters on PEDs

lets wait and see

Okay, I see some value in improving aerobic power for an 800m runner, but you race the top seeds to see where you are, not the 117th heat of the meet. What are they getting at? This is going to kill her open 400m speed.

4:03 is pretty good for someone who only tried it a few times. She can certainly go sub 4:00 if she wants to train a bit for the 1500.

She is a natural 400/800 athlete. It would be a mistake to try to convert her to an 800/1500m runner.

She no longer runs the 400 so her "open 400 speed" doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is her time in the 800.

4:10.70 for second

It's 7 seconds off her best (which was close to winning USATF that year). Long way to go, but it's also a long way from a disaster. She should gain some fitness from that...

A few quick thoughts:

-The field basically deferred to Mu early and let her have the lead; she didn't go with the rabbit at all and was only 51.96 at 300 (4:19 pace). I suspect she wanted someone else to take the lead so she could work on running in a pack.
-If the goal was to practice running in a pack, Mu got far more experience doing that than either of her first two races this season.
-She clearly still feels uncomfortable running near the rail...she swung way wide when she took the lead at the end of the final turn and had no urgency to cut back inside once she had the lead. This was an issue for Mu even when she was at her best but she obviously still produced some pretty stellar results while doing it.
-Sadie Sargent ran Mu down in the home straight, 4:10.01 to 4:10.70. Mu had no response when Sargent passed her.

I'm not going to make any sweeping judgments about the time. The goal of the race was obviously not to run as fast as possible, otherwise Mu would have been in the top heat. I'm sure Mu would have liked to have won, but I don't think losing a race in May is the worst thing for her -- hopefully it shows that you can get beaten and the world is not going to end.

IMHO she is practicing to run slow. This served no purpose. Maybe Kersee will prove to be a genius in the end but I doubt it.

Its the second fastest she's ever run at the distance. If we look at her historic 1500/800 season best it looks like this

2017 - 4:33.04 - 2:07.18 (ran the 1500 twice that year, the other was 4:37)
2018 - 4:38.78 - 2:04.51 (ran the 1500 twice that year, the other was 4:40)
2019 - ?:??.?? - 2:01.17
2021 - 4:16.06 - 1:55.04
2023 - 4:03.44 - 1:54.97
2024 - ?:??.?? - 1:58.84
2025 - 4:10.70 - ?:??.??

From this table its pretty clear she's getting back into form.

And from a pure fitness standpoint…she ran loads of extra distance, as her tactics are what they are. Running constantly wide, making passes on the turn not the straight, not securing a pass and running extra distance etc. So she ran 4:10 but probably 1520 meters almost. Not amazing but I’d say maybe she’s in 1:59 shape right now and if she’s healthy by Pre perhaps she’s in 1:57 shape which would be competitive.

Is there any anecdotal evidence (or otherwise) as to why she runs so wide all the time? Has she always run like this?

Yes, this is why the inside pass is always available against her. However, I didn't see this race decision as quixotic at all. It was a natural step for a 4:03 runner just getting back into shape after running a pretty slow 3k and then a 4:22 solo. She dropped 12 seconds from last time out, even if that was just a workout. She is getting back into it. 4:10 on May 25 in a season where the women's 800m final is not until the last day of the World Champs on September 21. She is working on her overdistance strength four months out from when it really counts. I'd say that the prognosis right now is really good. And if she runs another 1500m or two this summer, she's probably going to hit 4 or better and consider the double.