Gwen J.: The Saga Continues

nina_sjl wrote:

I'm all for people doing what they love, but 1:15:21, on a course where the winner ran 1:07 high, come on. It's time to run the sub-elite races.

The reason I get frustrated is that she's an over-hyper and just this ages version of a snake oil sales person. It started at the beginning of claiming she'd be a gold medal winner. Next, using her connections to be on BTC and when that didn't go according to the plan, pivoting again.

For example, her recent video is a training run of a pro-runner and Olympic gold medialist. She isn't a gold medalist in running but uses it to promote her self in runnning...its false advertising.

I wouldn't be against her being an influencer but it's the way she presents herself. She might be a pro runner but has never protrayed her running in a realistic view. Only to save face.

jecht wrote:

Elite-opolous wrote:

What are you talking about? Elite women marathoners are a lot slower than that. I saw an Olympian and national record holder run 3:19:32 at New York City this year. Anything under 3:20 is definitely elite for women, maybe under 3:25.

I ran the Columbus marathon in 3:20:01 and 37 women beat that time--I think anything under 3:25 is definitely elite, although the OT B standard for women is 2:45 I think.

3:25 for elite? You must be kidding me.. In the US the standard must be higher, in my country (alot smaller) 3:25 is far from elite.

Last time i checked that Gwen IG she was talking extensively about womens underwear that could, according to the hobbyjogger, prevent stain from periods. I mean, say what? She is an influencer, not a runner.

How is she not a top athlete again? You mean at everything? If you win a gold medal in the swim bike run, I think that qualifies you to talk about diet and exercise and mindset or whatever sage canaday and every other you tuber is talking about. We only have a problem with her talking about it? Thats weird.

bigmig19 wrote:

How is she not a top athlete again? You mean at everything? If you win a gold medal in the swim bike run, I think that qualifies you to talk about diet and exercise and mindset or whatever sage canaday and every other you tuber is talking about. We only have a problem with her talking about it? Thats weird.

It’s a bit of an unwritten rule in pro running to draw excess attention to yourself. It’s even worse when you talk a big game and don’t have the results to back it up. Also, even though she competed in college, she’s seen as an outsider because of the triathlon.

Honestly she should have stayed in the triathlon. She’s leaving medals and possibly a triathlon dynasty on the table.

RuningManJumpSuit wrote:

Rough rough outing today again

I don’t really understand her poor running performance - she has pretty much all the fastest triathlon 5k and 10k splits ever!

Maybe her body just can’t handle the training load from running alone - her aerobic system might have benefited from the extra aerobic stuff on the bike with no extra load.

Really would’ve expected here to be sub 31 focusing on running alone. Just baffled really.

theRanMan wrote:

jecht wrote:

I ran the Columbus marathon in 3:20:01 and 37 women beat that time--I think anything under 3:25 is definitely elite, although the OT B standard for women is 2:45 I think.

3:25 for elite? You must be kidding me.. In the US the standard must be higher, in my country (alot smaller) 3:25 is far from elite.

Last time i checked that Gwen IG she was talking extensively about womens underwear that could, according to the hobbyjogger, prevent stain from periods. I mean, say what? She is an influencer, not a runner.

I agree, 3:25 is NOT elite. I'm a recreational runner and I've run a couple 3:18-3:32 marathons and I am NOT elite. I think anyone who I ran with/around wouldn't consider themselves elite either. I don't think there are official elite standards but in my opinion it would be sub 3 for women.

hehdhd wrote:

RuningManJumpSuit wrote:

Rough rough outing today again

I don’t really understand her poor running performance - she has pretty much all the fastest triathlon 5k and 10k splits ever!

Maybe her body just can’t handle the training load from running alone - her aerobic system might have benefited from the extra aerobic stuff on the bike with no extra load.

Really would’ve expected here to be sub 31 focusing on running alone. Just baffled really.

On second thoughts, maybe she’s maxed out her aerobic system through triathlon or running training. The reason she’s not really quicker might be that she just has atrocious running economy that she’s unable to improve. i.e her tendon stiffness isn’t very responsive.

100% this!

runinthewind wrote:

theRanMan wrote:

3:25 for elite? You must be kidding me.. In the US the standard must be higher, in my country (alot smaller) 3:25 is far from elite.

Last time i checked that Gwen IG she was talking extensively about womens underwear that could, according to the hobbyjogger, prevent stain from periods. I mean, say what? She is an influencer, not a runner.

I agree, 3:25 is NOT elite. I'm a recreational runner and I've run a couple 3:18-3:32 marathons and I am NOT elite. I think anyone who I ran with/around wouldn't consider themselves elite either. I don't think there are official elite standards but in my opinion it would be sub 3 for women.

You have completely missed the point of this Alexi Pappas joke. Hate when you have to explain it....

still on the train wrote:

nina_sjl wrote:

I'm all for people doing what they love, but 1:15:21, on a course where the winner ran 1:07 high, come on. It's time to run the sub-elite races.

The reason I get frustrated is that she's an over-hyper and just this ages version of a snake oil sales person. It started at the beginning of claiming she'd be a gold medal winner.

Well when you’re lying from the start I am not surprised you’d feel odd.

As usual, Letsrun shows itself to be a sexist cesspool. She shouldn't "draw attention to herself?" Ugh. Live and let live. She's able to put together a living running (even if she hasn't been performing well), why shouldn't she keep doing it? Who cares if she is schilling things on social media? That's good marketing.

I think most of the posters on this thread are just jealous that she is able to run for a living.

bigmig19 wrote:

How is she not a top athlete again? You mean at everything? If you win a gold medal in the swim bike run, I think that qualifies you to talk about diet and exercise and mindset or whatever sage canaday and every other you tuber is talking about. We only have a problem with her talking about it? Thats weird.

The difference between running social media influencers like Sage and Gwen these days is that Gwen continues to talk a big game, as someone else here mentioned, with absolutely unrealistic, narcissistic, out-of-touch, pie-in-the-sky aspirations and predictions for her own performance, which have fallen short nearly 100% of the time. People continue to reference her proclamation that she'd gold medal in the Olympic marathon for good reason--it was downright disrespectful and absurd, and her performances since then have not even come close to medaling in anything. Yet she continues to talk a big game without the evidence to back it up. Say what you will about Sage, but he hasn't produced much lately in terms of performance (understandably so given the not insignificant life events he's been through lately), but he doesn't talk himself up. His channel is 100% focused on discussing the sport of trail/mountain/ultra running, training philosophy, etc without the extraneous and unbacked self promotion and hype that Gwen produces. There's a lack of humility in Gwen that is off-putting. I get it that you medaled in the Olympic triathlon, and that is awesome, but it gives you no right to go galavanting around the sport of running, talking your mouth off, without actually producing. Contrast this to a triathlete like Morgan Pearson who has run some impressive events lately (USATF Half Marathon Championships) who does not do this--just keeps his head down and works hard, and produces results.

Also, someone mentioned that they don't understand how she is not a top athlete in the sport of running, given that she holds some of the fastest 5k and 10k splits off the bike from her triathlon days. A couple of thoughts: 1) (as already mentioned here) perhaps she responded better to the stimulus of high volume triathlon training with lots of nonimpact bike/swim base; and 2) the occam's razor explanation: she's getting older. She's 35 now, and medaled in Rio 5 years ago.

I agree that she left a potential triathlon dynasty on the table, which is a shame for her sporting legacy--but she made the choice she did to explore her potential as a pure runner +/- have more family time. At age 35, she could still be crushing it in long course tri, but we'll never know what could have been possible with her in that regard.

crumbly ice chips wrote:

Dr No.. wrote:

She had the unreal ability to run a super great running leg after the first two legs of a triathlon.

Very astute point actually. Maybe she would thrive in ultras? She seems to have a massive aerobic engine while fatigued, but somehow hasn't put that together to do well in any pure running event.

That would have made her a good marathoner though. And it seems the longer the distance goes the worse she gets.

Also I think the obsession with Gwen on these boards comes from that tweet she put up right after switching to running which said that her next goal is "gold in the olympic marathon in 2020". And anyone who knew sth. about running felt that was incredibly insulting to the pros who did this their whole life & that to win an Olympic gold you had to have the talent of a Kipchoge or comparable. To say that as someone who had at the time a 2:40 PR was just ridiculous. So now we watch her fall from these high dreams and many on this forum seem to like seeing it. I just think its not all that interesting anymore. Let's move on.

For triathletes changing to running how about Nell Rojas incredible ascend into being a contender in Boston?

Tin cups wrote:

As usual, Letsrun shows itself to be a sexist cesspool. She shouldn't "draw attention to herself?" Ugh. Live and let live. She's able to put together a living running (even if she hasn't been performing well), why shouldn't she keep doing it? Who cares if she is schilling things on social media? That's good marketing.

I think most of the posters on this thread are just jealous that she is able to run for a living.

There’s a small pocket of dullards that think marketing yourself is bad and that it’s somehow noble to train in anonymity. They are clueless.

Tin cups wrote:

As usual, Letsrun shows itself to be a sexist cesspool. She shouldn't "draw attention to herself?" Ugh. Live and let live. She's able to put together a living running (even if she hasn't been performing well), why shouldn't she keep doing it? Who cares if she is schilling things on social media? That's good marketing.

I think most of the posters on this thread are just jealous that she is able to run for a living.

Simping hard bro. Simp on!!!

the beagle wrote:

Tin cups wrote:

As usual, Letsrun shows itself to be a sexist cesspool. She shouldn't "draw attention to herself?" Ugh. Live and let live. She's able to put together a living running (even if she hasn't been performing well), why shouldn't she keep doing it? Who cares if she is schilling things on social media? That's good marketing.

I think most of the posters on this thread are just jealous that she is able to run for a living.

There’s a small pocket of dullards that think marketing yourself is bad and that it’s somehow noble to train in anonymity. They are clueless.

"dullard"

guys who choose to use this word are often not very bright, but pretend to be

Charles Bukowski wrote:

the beagle wrote:

There’s a small pocket of dullards that think marketing yourself is bad and that it’s somehow noble to train in anonymity. They are clueless.

"dullard"

guys who choose to use this word are often not very bright, but pretend to be

Sweet burn.

Free Britney wrote:

She is adamant about not returning to triathlon because she is unwilling to put in the volume and time of training that it requires. She has said herself that she finds the pro running lifestyle far more family-friendly, and that she wants to have multiple additional kids in the future.

Uhhhh... Then she needs to accept the fact that she will never be as good a distance runner as a triathlete. I think she thought that the transition was going to be easy. Can't have your cake and eat it.

the beagle wrote:

Tin cups wrote:

As usual, Letsrun shows itself to be a sexist cesspool. She shouldn't "draw attention to herself?" Ugh. Live and let live. She's able to put together a living running (even if she hasn't been performing well), why shouldn't she keep doing it? Who cares if she is schilling things on social media? That's good marketing.

I think most of the posters on this thread are just jealous that she is able to run for a living.

There’s a small pocket of dullards that think marketing yourself is bad and that it’s somehow noble to train in anonymity. They are clueless.

They need to shut up and run, not post on social media trying to sell me stuff.

I wish they would just make their accounts private and just talk to their friends, not the public.