Tuohy finishes second in pro 6k race!!

Kev2 wrote:

Dudek deserves more recognition. She ran 5th in the European Junior Champs last week for Poland and came back to win Foot Locker. Like Touhy, whe is undefeated this season and has achieved similar speed ratings. On any given day, she is probably closest to Touhy in fitness--though she is running a breakthrough year--never being close to this level as an underclassman.

undefeated if you do not count FL MW. But yes running very well, a lot of lift in those legs to close in FL.

I would hope so. Per the announcer she ran 4:31 last year and was 5th in the European U30.

yes I am being sarcastic in this last statement.

Dudek not unbeaten, lost to VanderKoooi at FL Midwest.

Not true--Ewert has a better chance of making the Oympics than these other athletes--in the 20 K rw. However, she is also one our fastest scholastic steeplechasers ever.

She lost to VanderKooi in the FL regional. Had speed ratings up to 159.

Mary Cain ran right around 22 min for 4 miles in may, not 21:20. I think this is a good sign. Cross was never her thing and the course looked buddy which I feel like affects miler/speed types more. Remember she lost to Baxter in the mud when she would go on to run amazing on the track that spring

I stand corrected--I guess part of the point is that these top 5 runners are fairly close to each other with Touhy somewhat better than the others whereas last year she was way ahead of the field.

Tuohy's last cross country loss before Cuffe today was the 2016 NXN where she was 13th as a 9th grader. You may know this but Cuffe is about 27, she is also from NY, was the 2010 Foot Locker Champ (had fastest recent time, not record, prior to today) graduated from Stanford, where she had a decent career in XC, 5k and 10k. She has battled injuries over the years, but has been healthy since last summer, and running well. Good stuff, not really a loss for Tuohy, more a step up in competition.

Kev2 wrote:

I stand corrected--I guess part of the point is that these top 5 runners are fairly close to each other with Touhy somewhat better than the others whereas last year she was way ahead of the field.

Dudek can close strong - see Brooks 1 mile this year

good post. All true. The important thing for Mary is to get her health and confidence back. Mary was a classic 800/1500 runner with excellent high end closing speed. It may take baby steps, but if she is happy and having fun, we might see some decent track running in the spring. No rush to get back to her PRs though.

Kev2 wrote:

I stand corrected--I guess part of the point is that these top 5 runners are fairly close to each other with Touhy somewhat better than the others whereas last year she was way ahead of the field.

Tuohy's biggest advantage over the other HS runners is her ability to hold a higher speed longer. She has always been able to go out fast and hold the speed. If you consider todays 2 races (Club Nats and FL), Dudek and Starliper ran a great race, both finishing well under 17min for 5km on a course in good condition. Tuohy's time on a 6km course, in muddy conditions, averaged the same per km pace as Dudek and Starliper. But she held that pace for another full km.

This is not a Tuohy vs anybody else post...it simply is meant to highlight what has made Tuohy so strong for the last 3 years. It's nice to see after her bad day at NXN that Tuohy is back in solid form.

Was nice to see her smiling and having fun in the video.

Why didn’t Touhy just run footlocker ?

This is true. wrote:

Back in the day ...... wrote:

Back in the day a lot of people did XC races as part of their base training.

+1

When did a park run (5kish) become “crazy” just because you raced the weekend before? Doing a cross country race at that distance every week is not a big deal. (We also have no idea what actual effort she put in the race). But, if a 6k race is going to destroy an American runner they can not hold up much hope for competing internationally.

It's not just one race. It's the race in the context of an entire season behind it, 2 seasons coming after, and presumably 4 years of college running around the corner and a pro career to follow. Would you recommend she goes out and races a fast track 5k next weekend since it's only just "one 5k"?

We've all seen it happen tons of times. Cheserek ran a fast mile indoors then was garbage outdoors. Kejelcha same thing this year, chases the world record indoors by adding one last race and then has a mediocre outdoor season. Shelby Houlihan went extra hard a couple summers ago and then had a late start to this past outdoor season because of injuries.

It even happened to Tuohy last year. She burned out by the end.

bartwas wrote:

Why didn’t Touhy just run footlocker ?

because she was a co captain of a team that wanted to run at NXR NY....and they finished 3rd

long career wrote:

Tuohy's last cross country loss before Cuffe today was the 2016 NXN where she was 13th as a 9th grader. You may know this but Cuffe is about 27, she is also from NY, was the 2010 Foot Locker Champ (had fastest recent time, not record, prior to today) graduated from Stanford, where she had a decent career in XC, 5k and 10k. She has battled injuries over the years, but has been healthy since last summer, and running well. Good stuff, not really a loss for Tuohy, more a step up in competition.

Of course I am familiar with Cuffe's career, it just struck me how it took a mature runner of that caliber to put an end to Tuohy's overall win streak like that. Interesting that they are both from upstate New York and as I recall Tuohy took down at least one of Cuffe's HS course records.

fastTuohy wrote:

Kev2 wrote:

I stand corrected--I guess part of the point is that these top 5 runners are fairly close to each other with Touhy somewhat better than the others whereas last year she was way ahead of the field.

Dudek can close strong - see Brooks 1 mile this year

https://brooks-pr-invitational.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=5619&do=videos&video_id=278342

Dudek also used a huge kick to take the Euro 3000 title:

She isn't pretty down the straight but sure can scrap like a tiger!

And it was Tuohy's first competitive 6k race and a week after nationals. I thought Tuohy had really good fitness going into nationals and this race confirmed it. I think Tuohy broke two of Cuffe's records. I know she broke her Sunken Meadow record by 50 seconds.

Can the races be watched anywhere for free? I can't believe one has to pay for a Runnerspace Plus+ to watch these races.

When it was first uploaded it was free. Then it got paywalled.

It's about the effort and workouts leading into those races that matters. You can race a lot, if you don't go all out all the time.