Molly Seidel runs 28k trail race (SpeedGoat)

Who knows the reasons, but the runner in that event was definitely her. My guess is she was never injured.

Why do you label this "mental illness" when it's just Seidel telling more lies? Did you also say Shelby Houlihan's doping was just "mental illness" along with her burrito lies? Why hate Houlihan but give Seidel a pass for telling lies?

doing an incline isnt as much force as going downhill..6x times your body weight force. As for effort wise, some 2:5x marathoners ran slower than her. So it was definitely an effort

Eh, not on that course at 8500+ altitude. The inclined are tough, but the declines are brutal.

This is far from an “easy trail run”.

The lies... or more just like stories that don't add up when you think about them... are just random. They don't add up to anything unless you are a "it's always sunny meme" conspiracy theorist. They just seem like someone with mental health issues who tends to make up little white lies when put in stressful situations

The amount of ridiculous conjecture and outright misinformation on this thread has reached the theater of the absurd. Most of you should be ashamed of yourselves (yet I know you have no shame).

Molly didn't just start walking. She posted a 90 minute 12% incline treadmill walk on IG 5 days ago and said that it's something she has been doing as she returns to weight-bearing activity because apparently it's good for strength building. The implication is that it wasn't the first day (duh, doing 90 minutes!). She has prior posts showing her out walking the dog, etc, so not like she has been in a body cast until 5 days ago.

And she didn't have a full-blown stress fracture in the first place. She had a "stress-reaction" (I realize that there are some who don't think there's a difference other than perhaps that a "reaction" is an early-stage, relatively minor stress fracture). She withdrew from the World Champs because she couldn't do the hard marathon training necessary without risking injury, and wanted to give the alternate (D'Amato) a chance to go.

I can think of any number of reasons she decided not to register under her own name, and it's not like she truly tried to keep it on the DL. She registered as Molly Shapiro, using her boyfriend's last name, who was there to take photos. Maybe she didn't want people to see her name on the entry list and freak out. She clearly did it as a "fun walk" / training exercise consistent with her treadmill work that seems to have been going on a while now. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she checked it with her PT/doctor first. If not, then maybe it was dumb but it's not sinister. The poles would have helped keep weight off too if she was using them in that way.

Anyway, how about y'all get a life and stop with this nonsense.

To be clear, I also realize that the adderall TUE situation was another factor in withdrawing from the World Champs, but it became moot with the stress reaction.

Honestly don't think she would have done any better than the 3 women we had on the line last week, so it wouldn't have made a difference. She wasn't going to medal and our team did just fine without her.

Maybe she's a Seth James Demoor stan?

The race Molly was in (sure looks like her) was not part of the UTMB series, and so was not subject to the Quartz rules.

There's maybe one climb in that race that's kinda gnarly, especially with cheater sticks, and Molly lives at nearly the same altitude as the race. Not that bad.

You might be right. Seems like Speedgoat is owned by UTMB that runs Quartz anti-doping but it might not even monitor all it's own races. So it's true that ultras have none or very little drug testing. Molly should have invited Houlihan as a courtesy of peers.

I've done the Speedgoat 50km course 5 times....I've won it 3 times. Is it "harder" than running a 2:20 road marathon? Nah. I'd say the quad pounding can be about the same. If you're altitude trained and have done some steep hills it's actually not overly technical as a lot of the course ski access roads and mountain bike trails. Trails can be a lot more forgiving compared to pavement...especially when you're going at a much slower pace and have to navigate rocks side to side.

Don't get me wrong...it is steep, with a lot of climbing, and there are some off trail sections and rocky places though! For a road marathoner not used to over 10%-15% hill grades it can be pretty rough.

As far as the PED talk goes: Well it is interesting how I've seen QUARTZ evolve. This year they decided to ban pain bills, IV iron infusions and all asthma inhalers. It does not follow WADA code or penalty at all and I've yet to see a race actually pull out any testing whatsoever. Granted I haven't won or podiumed for awhile.

They'll probably run a few "tests" at UTMB (simple blood draws) and maybe a few people will get DQed for being loaded up on Advil or something. Last time I had my blood drawn before UTMB they didn't even wear gloves. That year a guy in the top 10 also eventually got caught for EPO....but initially it was swept under the rug for about 6 months.

Through the Golden Trail Series the "QUARTZ" program also "tested" us at Pikes Peak the year I got 2nd to Kilian. Instead of bringing in the local USADA they used some crappy 3rd party to run the "Tests". Night and day difference in quality and control from when I got tested by USADA after winning the Pikes Ascent in 2014 at the World Champs.

Basically with "QUARTZ" you have a "health monitoring program" that isn't actually sophisticated or real PED testing (From what I've seen/experienced) that seems to pretend it is super strict...banning iron infusions 2 months before a race etc. But it's seemingly all a facade.

Meanwhile in ultras you're going to have runners loaded up on actual PEDs like EPO, HGH and testosterone and they'll likely never get a real PED test. I just wish "QUARTZ" instead followed WADA rules and penalties and testing procedures to a T instead of trying to be their own thing. Even a couple random tests like 6-8 weeks before UTMB could probably pop a few runners IMO.

I don't mean to get off topic from what Molly did or didn't do...but I thought I'd share some info based on my direct experience on the Speedgoat course and with QUARTZ.

Like it or not, Molly Seidel is a freaking bronze medalist in the Olympic marathon. If she wants to be a professional runner and have that kind of success, she is going to be in the spotlight. Every single person involved in the US running community knows who she is now. There are many non-runners who now know her from her Olympic performance too. She needs to understand that she has to handle this scrutiny and she can't be acting as flaky as she has this year. Didn't finish in Boston. Has a weird battle about a TUE for Adderall. Pulls out of Worlds. I'm sorry, but she deserves scrutiny. I say this as a big fan of hers too.

Not true. You’ve got the 4600ft climb through to the top, the tunnel, as well as that last ball busting long climb. Downhills are the worst, especially on that loose junk in the Wasatch.

I truly don’t understand why people think Molly owes them some kind of explanation.

‘She needs to understand’ - seriously who the f**k are you to say this?

Molly has an OLYMPIC MEDAL and there are men on here trying to dictate how she should live her life and where and when she should run.

I don't know it's not like she's a professional athlete. Imagine any professional athlete in the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB going in the dark like this. We want to be taken seriously, but don't want to treat professional runners like professional athletes. Like when they get scrutinized like professional athletes do in other sports. Like seriously watch or listen to any sports show, sports radio show or podcast covering any major sport.

Professional (male) athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB are paid MILLIONS of dollars per season under contract. It’s a different stratosphere.

‘We want to be taken seriously but don’t want to PAY professional runners like professional athletes.’

^^^ fixed it for you