Tierney Wolfgram American JR in Marathon - 2:31

Most 17-year old girls would be standouts with a 5k at that pace (sub-18). Really impressive.

yes, that was her. She ran before the state meet.

Standard Setter wrote:

I think she's 76th best US woman marathoner as they had the US Championships in February in Atlanta.. now time-wise, she would probably be in the Top 30... but she'll need to learn how to race (which is a skill in itself) to be one of the best US woman marathoners.

https://track.rtrt.me/e/ATLANTA-TRIALS-2020#/leaderboard/top-women-marathon/FINISH

JamesD2 wrote:

Odd that the article didn't say what or where the race was. From the far-from-crowded picture, it looks like it might have been something set up just for her to try to get the record. Regardless, congrats to her. Would this make her around the 15th or 20th best U.S. woman marathoner?

Idk if this is the point of this thread but she definitely went for it at the Trials. Was in 32nd @ halfway. Awesome to see her put it together & run that fast. So much time to keep getting better.

same kid? wrote:

I believe the situation you're referring to is actually the same kid? Didn't she run Twin Cities two years ago?

I was referring to someone longer ago than that. Mentioning her name will likely get the post and/or thread deleted, so everybody don't do so if you guess you know who it is.

The point was that the reaction was universally negative at the time. According to the peanut gallery, one is 'supposed to' run for their middle and high schools regardless of the coaching and, most importantly for the current situation, regardless of the list of events offered. Then, you 'must' run for some school or other after that. D1 obviously ideal, but wherever you end up, that's what you do. Only then may one consider 'moving up' (a comparatively new term; didn't exist in the '70s as far as I could tell but then again, teenagers raced on roads constantly then) to popular road racing distances such as half and full marathons. That was the sentiment a decade ago and even more recently - when the saga I mention took place.

It's good to see this has changed and the crowd here seems to be rooting for her. I certainly approve of and endorse her actions.

123 5 wrote:

Did she run in Saucony Endorphin Pros?

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Looks like it. The time is still impressive, but we have to remember that the shoes give a 2.5-3 min benefit on average. It's impossible to tell how this stacks up against the old U19 record, but there's a good chance that she's a 2:34-35 marathoner in regular/old marathon flats.

I believe this is the person you were referring to:

https://www.espn.com/espnw/athletes-life/story/_/id/14002011/9-criticisms-18-year-old-marathoner-alana-hadley-hears-how-responds

How is she 17 and in college?

Oldie and not goodie wrote:

How is she 17 and in college?

She graduated a year early. You can start college early by either essentially testing out of HS by getting a GED, or you can graduate HS early by taking extra classes (usually at community college in the summers). I believe she did the latter.

And were people wrong? Did your prodigy continue to improve and get better or did she peak at 17 and hasn't been heard of since.

I think most people are rooting for the prodigies to succeed. But after the first couple of dozens flaming out, the odds of the next one being a success isn't something I would want to bet on. And we aren't talking about things like making olympic teams and the like. We are talking about being faster at 20 than you were at 16....

Obviously the tough part is that we can't say if instead of training for a marathon if they did 5k/10k training for 3 or 4 years if they would be in a better spot.

Not surprising. The younger faster people don't run the marathon. If they trained for it they'd kill it. No wonder it's all old people in marathons because they can't keep up in anything else. It's the only race that the runners are past their prime.

To put this in perspective, Grete Waitz won the 1978 New York Marathon in a time slower than that. Pretty impressive.

I am glad she was born a biological women. Kudos to her.

I clicked through her HS results and they do not corroborate your assertion. 2020 track lists her as 12. 2019 track lists her as 11. It tracks back all the way through JH.

Here is the story on how she ended up in Nevada:

https://www.womensrunning.com/culture/news/tierney-wolfgram-graduates-commits-university-of-nevada/

currently fitter than Jordan Hasay, just saying

crazy to think her and the Ping's were competing against each in the small school all at the same time. Pretty sure she would have won b2b individual champs had she not run TC her second year.

bigote wrote:

crazy to think her and the Ping's were competing against each in the small school all at the same time. Pretty sure she would have won b2b individual champs had she not run TC her second year.

She would have qualified for NXN in 2018 too. She raced NXR that year and dropped out.

so I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, and I certainly don't want to appear to be criticizing Tierney. this is an extraordinary accomplishment and she should be proud.

I do wish we wouldn't glorify teenagers pursuing marathons. I get that high school XC and track isn't for everyone, but I think it's been proven over and over that teenagers running marathons is not a good idea and leads to burnout and injury. Remember how obsessed with running you were in high school? I think I would have run a marathon too if I didn't have coaches and parents discouraging it. It's not unique that a kid wants to do it. I don't think it's 'abuse' or anything if parents let their teen run a marathon, but I do think it's a probably a better idea for their health and longevity in the sport to pull up the reigns.

Interesting. I wonder if Mileplit somehow updated their database when she graduated to make everything hinge on the 2020 date.