We merged two Mary Cain threads into 1. The 2nd one was entitled, "Update: Mary Cain makes another sexual allegation - Alberto Salazar looked at her exposed breasts while she was sleeping"
If you've had enough interactions with Salazar, you know that checking on her altitude tent three times during the night is the more logical explanation than anything sexually creepy. Total obsessive, controlling type, which contributed to both his success and downfall (as a runner and a coach).
We don't know if that actually happened.
True. Cain comes off more and more as one of those nuts who deludes themselves into believing everyone wants her sexually.
As someone who ran back in the m90s, I can attest to male coaches (and gun teachers) being creepy to women that would def not fly today. But am I writing a book about it or blaming these behaviors on however my current life turned out? Nope. If I was raped or assaulted, that’s a different story.
2. There isn't much new about Alberto and NOP in the book, except that she alleges he came into her bedroom three times at night when she was staying at his house. Darren Treasure was, as has been previously reported, not a psychologist, was unprofessional in his behavior and lacking in compassion.
I was shocked at what she wrote about Pete Julian. Extremely unkind and gratuitous.
Why would Mary and her parents agree to having her live with her coach? This sounds very unprofessional and a recipe for potential problems.
What did she write about Julian?
In Chapter 37: (I don't have page #s on my Kindle): She wrote, "The man's name is Pete. He isn't friendly. But he is weird. And petulant..." "Now he's Alberto's assistant coach". Then, quoting Alberto, "But Pete's not a very good coach. He's just loyal. which is good for the team," Alberto says.
Chapter 61: About Alberto and Pete asking Mary's father if they could ship Pete's cancer medication to Dr. Cain's house and have him deliver the medication to Pete in Russia when Dr. Cain went to watch Mary race. They (Alberto, Pete, Mary and the rest of the team) were staying and training in Switzerland at the time, prior to going to Russia to race. Dr. Cain told them this was illegal. She wrote, "And Pete, well, he's just a loser."
Julian was out of cancer medication (we didn’t learn why, but as a cancer survivor myself, this happens more than one would think with insurance and such, it’s scary)when he was in Europe and heading to Moscow for the world champs. Allegedly, Alberto asked Mary’s dad if he could help get Julian’s medication to him. Dr Cains response was highly cruel and unusual, more or less berating Julian for not having enough medicine. One would hope a physician would have more compassion. Mary then calls Julian “a loser” for it and the chapter ends. We never learned what happened and if Julian had to return back to the States.
This one chapter was enough to turn me on Mary and her book. It revealed who she and her parents are. I can’t believe she’s going to be a doctor.
Full disclosure I haven't read the book yet, but as a healthcare professional licensed to prescribe, I can tell you that you can't just get drugs for anyone, anytime. Not good medicine, unethical and illegal in most states and definitely across state lines and country borders. When someone asks, especially when it is a friend that you feel is taking advantage of your friendship, we call that emotional blackmail. Someone is literally asking you to risk you medical license and your livelihood. So I could see someone reacting strongly to the ask, especially when we are talking about cancer drugs. It was probably triggering, and someone should have been enough of a grown-up to be sure they had the drugs they needed before they left.
That’s an extraordinary overreach. It’s not emotional blackmail to ask for assistance from a medical provider to help a person figure out a way to either get an Rx filled overseas, or find a way to help them have it shipped/get it to them somehow. People without medical backgrounds likely don’t even know the limitations you’re referring to — so, as a seasoned clinician, Mary’s dad should have simply said something like, “Unfortunately, I can’t so that, but let me see if there’s anything else I can do to help you.” As a professional (or a friend), that is the correct “grown-up” response.
Been trying to sum up my thoughts on this. I will say, there were certainly parts of this book where Mary could have done some self reflection of her own.
Back to the Gabe Grunewald DQ story. It's still crazy to me that a thirty year old woman can't look back and see the bigger picture of that protest, rather than making it all about her. I like Mary. I believe she was abused by Salazar and Treasure. That doesn't change. But that chapter and the Julian one betrayed a level of main character syndrome and a lack of self awareness that had me questioning her accounts of other stories where I did not know the full story.
Mary portrays her coach Jim Mitchell, as horrifically cruel and callous at times. Ignoring the vicious bullying she sustains from her teammates and from their parents. The way they give her the cold shoulder, attempt to sabotage her, and scream at her. Jim Mitchell ignores all of this, and even goes out of his way to treat Mary like she is the sole problem, asking "why can't you get along with these girls? They are nice girls!" and then announcing to the then sophomore that she would never be a captain after Mary pushed back on racing one week after returning from nationals.
It's awful behavior from Mitchell...if it is in fact the full story. I believe the parents in Bronxville are nuts, and the kids are probably vicious too. But Mary is a Bronxville kid too. Her parents are Bronxville parents too. She portrays her parents as benevolent, largely staying out of their kids business unless they are being attacked in some way, but I have a hard time believing that. Yes jealousy exists, but it doesn't typically digress into full throated bullying without a reason.
With all that being said, Mary's side of things shouldn't be entirely discounted. She correctly points out some of the hypocrisy we see from runners. How many of them love to be relevant on a topic and are all talk and little action. So many runners piggy backed onto her story expressing support and girl power and all that. They even used her name to promote their own images. Mary also makes it clear how she feels about drug cheats which few runners ever do.
It’s a bit much now, flogging a dead horse. Yes salazar sucked but like so many people have sucky coaches and REDS and full blown ED hospital admissions and come back. She loves having something to blame as if it was guaranteed she was gonna be the best thing ever. Maybe she genuinely was at her peak early and would never have made waves on the pro scene like katelyn tuohy. I think you probably need a bit of resilience and a can do attitude to make it to the top anyways which she certainly doesn’t have.
Been trying to sum up my thoughts on this. I will say, there were certainly parts of this book where Mary could have done some self reflection of her own.
Back to the Gabe Grunewald DQ story. It's still crazy to me that a thirty year old woman can't look back and see the bigger picture of that protest, rather than making it all about her. I like Mary. I believe she was abused by Salazar and Treasure. That doesn't change. But that chapter and the Julian one betrayed a level of main character syndrome and a lack of self awareness that had me questioning her accounts of other stories where I did not know the full story.
Mary portrays her coach Jim Mitchell, as horrifically cruel and callous at times. Ignoring the vicious bullying she sustains from her teammates and from their parents. The way they give her the cold shoulder, attempt to sabotage her, and scream at her. Jim Mitchell ignores all of this, and even goes out of his way to treat Mary like she is the sole problem, asking "why can't you get along with these girls? They are nice girls!" and then announcing to the then sophomore that she would never be a captain after Mary pushed back on racing one week after returning from nationals.
It's awful behavior from Mitchell...if it is in fact the full story. I believe the parents in Bronxville are nuts, and the kids are probably vicious too. But Mary is a Bronxville kid too. Her parents are Bronxville parents too. She portrays her parents as benevolent, largely staying out of their kids business unless they are being attacked in some way, but I have a hard time believing that. Yes jealousy exists, but it doesn't typically digress into full throated bullying without a reason.
With all that being said, Mary's side of things shouldn't be entirely discounted. She correctly points out some of the hypocrisy we see from runners. How many of them love to be relevant on a topic and are all talk and little action. So many runners piggy backed onto her story expressing support and girl power and all that. They even used her name to promote their own images. Mary also makes it clear how she feels about drug cheats which few runners ever do.
Has she ever explained why she made a transfer of allegiance to Ireland?
Last race: February 28, 2020 (age 23)
Transfer of allegiance: February 16, 2024 (age 27)
Considering her age at the time, I assumed she was possibly going to try a comeback and just knew she had no chance to make Team USA so she gave Ireland a try. More than two years have passed, however, and there is no indication that she will ever race again. It all seemed pointless.
I haven’t gotten to this section in the book, but as a non-cancer doc, if someone asked me to prescribe them cancer medication oversees, I would not feel comfortable doing so. Out of my scope of practice and risk involved. But, there is a way to be compassionate about it obviously.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.