About to find out if Molly Siedel is an ultramarathoner

Yeah I might have overstated the point about her being in her prime.

But I think we’re mostly saying the same thing. The things that make a person, and perhaps especially a woman, capable of covering 26.2 miles on a road as fast as possible are not necessarily the same things that lead to success covering 62 miles on a trail. Lots of crossover, sure, but definitely not a one-to-one mapping.

At the end of the day, super stoked to see Molly continue to find success. Good day for her and a good day for the sport.

Fair point. I just checked the date: WS100 is scheduled for June 27-28, 2026.
I forgot that this race was so early in Summer.

There have been dozens of great marathoners that bonked in their first longer (50mile+) ultra. I think this is actually a great result for her first go around at a somewhat difficult course. Congrats to her, curious to see how she does at WSER.

Once you tackle a 100k (finish strong) you pretty much have everything dialed in in training and race execution to take it to 100 mile distance. She can complete 100 at WS. You just have to endure another 38 miles of the same sh×t. To win the WS takes a bit something more, more luck, more perfection, look at walmsley he was in shape to win it his first year, he did not.

Say hi to your parents as you obviously still live with them.

Really happy for Molly. Could tell by her reaction at the finish race clearly meant a lot to her and excited to see what she does with her golden ticket. Hope she finds a lot of success on the trails.

How did Des do in the 50k? I know that 50k is just an extended marathon but still wondering if she won?

She got 1st in her age group. She's one of us now.

No way Seidel is in 232 shape.

has taken a couple years off completely from running and it shows.She’s doing ultras because there is no competition in them.

her Alma mater Notre dame would have more competition in a practice or dual meet than any national ultra

There's always at least one moron in the ultra threads.

Anyway, Molly ran 1:13:15 through the halfway in New York in November before dropping out with knee pain a few miles later. I said 2:30-2:32 as a conservative estimate, figuring her NYC pace might also have been a little too hot for her fitness though Molly has a great track record of gritting it out and solid pacing. So she might be high 2:20s on a fast course, who knows.

If there was no competition, why didn't she win easily?

"Don't feed the trolls...don't feed the trolls...don't feed the trolls..."

Ah screw it. Like has been pointed out, she literally split a 73 low HM three months ago. But that's really not the point. This is kind of a continuation of what I was trying to express earlier. Whether she's in 2:22 or 2:32 or 2:42 shape, that fitness is not the limiting factor of her success in an event like Black Canyon or WSER. A certain level of marathon capability is probably necessary to be a top level ultra athlete (and probably there could be a healthy debate around exactly what that level is), but there's no marathon fitness that is sufficient to guarantee success.

Christian Allen is literally a 2:09 guy, and while he is a very very successful sub ultra guy, he isn't dominating. If he pops a 2:07 in Boston in a couple months, I don't know that it appreciably raises his ceiling on the trail side of things. Or, if he lessens his focus on road fitness and is "only" a 2:12 or 2:13 guy, I don't think that really lowers his ceiling.

You're putting the em-PHA-sis on the wrong SY-lable, or however that phrase translates to written form.

haha, now I'm going to take the other side. Marathon fitness matters. Clearly it's not the only thing that matters by a long shot, but it still matters. If Molly were in 2:22 shape, her margin for error is that much greater since she'd be a TON better pure runner than the other women in the field. No, it wouldn't guarantee victory, but it would be that much "easier" (for lack of a better word) for her to be able to translate her fitness onto long trails and would give her a little more room to slightly (only slightly) have her fueling, heat management and trail muscles not dialed in.

Put another way, the exact same Molly of yesterday in 2:22 fitness wins the race. I know this isn't provable either way, but being a great runner still trumps everything else assuming some appropriate prep for the trail race. Right now, as I've said I don't think Molly is actually THAT much better than the field.

loss of fitness. she lost to girls who were able to get OTQ when it was just 2:45

I know you're probably just trolling, but Anne Flower recently ran 5:18 for 50 miles. Pretty much literally consecutive 2:46-7 marathons

Not even mentioning Jenn Lichter means you don't know shiz about ultra running.

Ultramarathon doesnt care about your elitist opinion. it literally starts at anything more than a marathon, my guy.

Funny how you didn't even mention Jen prior to the race and she broke the course record. Your analysis is weak and you should feel bad.

In other words, Sage was never particularly good at ultras -- he just got transitioned from the marathon at a time before people started running them as well as they do now.