Kyle Merber makes official retirement announcement

Emily Swan Song wrote:

RIP NJNYTC wrote:

Posted it to instagram about 10 minutes ago making what we all saw coming official... thoughts? Strange to see retirement this close to the olympic trials but it was expected. I feel like a lot of high schoolers hearts are crushed, he has clearly done a ton of great things for the sport!

Kyle just sounds depressed, tbh. He'll be back.

I can still see him going for the Trials this year. I feel like the pressure of "getting back" has been wearing him down over the last few years and he's ready to take a different approach. Beyond 2021 who knows what he'll be up to. Wishing him the best.

He was one of the first guys I followed of running social media.

I truly believed he was capable of making the Olympic tram in 2016 based on the shape he was in indoors

kyle merber has done more for the popularity of track & field than rupp or centro ever have

even if they came out of hiding for the remainder of their careers they would not leave the same level of impact

the sport needs more kyle merbers

President-Elect Patriot Mom wrote:

I hate the Ducks wrote:

He is great. I also like Kevin Hanson and Kara Goucher and Camille Herron.

I respected him as a runner but I would NEVER agree with his politics. Wish he would focus a little more on running and keep the politics off the feed.

I figured as much; never really like him.

flvmmox wrote:

kyle merber has done more for the popularity of track & field than rupp or centro ever have

even if they came out of hiding for the remainder of their careers they would not leave the same level of impact

the sport needs more kyle merbers

Amen! I saw firsthand what an impact he had on younger runners. They really looked up to him and he went out of his way every chance he had, to interact with them.

I agree, he was putting down some crazy workouts and ran some pretty good times leading up to it. It's a shame he got a stress fracture/reaction when he did and missed like 6 weeks of training.

I never knew a ton about Merber’s running. I don’t care what he accomplished to be honest.

But when I was in high school and watched “The Real Maine”, I got amped as hhell. That movie was just one small piece of media I got to suck in during my running-crazed high school years. It obviously wasn’t the only thing, but it did show dweeby 9th grade me that running CAN, in its own unique way, be “cool”.

I had very few running role models. I never heard sh*t from Rupp, even if he was on a completely different level. But I never got any insight into his life, never got to see him and a bunch of teammates out there grinding and having a good time and getting fit. Merber did that though. Pretty good guy in my book.

Bummer. I'm about the same age as him and started getting serious about running around the time when he was doing the Millrose blog for Dyestat in high school. Watching him win that race is one of my first memories as a track fan. It was awesome and motivating. Seems like ages ago, though. He's had a good, long run.

When you retire from running do you get a gold stopwatch?

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Juice Springsteen wrote:

I truly believed he was capable of making the Olympic tram in 2016 based on the shape he was in indoors

Is this a case of you are misremembering? According to tilastapaja, Merber didn't do much indoors in 2016 according. Just a 7:50 3k and a DNF at Millrose (or was he the rabbit?).

Time wise, his big indoor season was 2017 when he ran 3:52 in the mile but looking at things as a coach the problem for Kyle was that he was always better at time trialing than running in championships 1500s. I mean a week after that 3:52 mile, he was only 6th at USA indoors.

Please don’t view that as a knock on Kyle. It’s kind of amazing he ran as fast as he did. His lack of success in championships might make some sense as he didn’t have an amazing 800 pb (1:47) nor was his endurance fantastic (13:55 5k pb).

So how is he gonna outkick the true studs of USA 1500 meter.?The other ‘poor endurance non Xc guys’ are way faster than him - Andrews and Manzano both have 1:44 800 pbs - and then the guys with similar 800 pbs like Blankenship have better endurance (13:30isih 5k pb) . And then there is someone like Centro who has both.- speed (1:44 800 pb) and endurance (13:00 5000 pb) and you see why he’s winning the Olympics.

-Rojo

PS. TO the guy who suggested we get him on the pod, i think he would make a great podcast guest.

I was there when he ran the first sub 4 minute mile in Alaska. Super cool, and got to talk to him after and he seemed super chill. He was definitely an inspiration for my rise after that which led to me race well at footlocker nattys and get a d1 scholarship. People rolls their eyes when "inspiration" is mentioned as a duty of pro athletes, but it sure as hell helped me. I always envisioned racing with him down the road on my home soil, sad that won't be happening anymore.

I haven't kept up with Kyle's career, but I thought I'd share a story about Kyle. About 13 years ago, I was a freshman on the XC team at a dreadful D2 state school that will not be named. I was one of those very average running tryhards who couldn't see the writing on the wall that it was time to give up competitive running and focus on my education and career.

I cringe thinking about it now, but I posted to LRC asking for coaching help since I perceived that my own coaching was insufficient (I actually just wasn't very good) and among the responses I got was from Kyle. He volunteered to set up a training program for me and coach me through email/social media. This lasted for all of one week before I decided to pivot, transfer to my state's flagship university, and quit competitive running to focus on work and school. I remember feeling embarrassed emailing him to let him know after he had made the effort to reach out and set up a program for me. Kyle responded with class and enthusiastically wished me the best.

I don't know if Kyle reads the boards, but if he does, thanks for your help over a decade ago. You're a class act and I wish you the best in the next leg of your journey.

I'm afraid that Covid will kill or end other pro runners careers also.

Thanks for sharing this C. And since then, you've built a great D2 program and a family of your own. Excited to keep seeing you and your team's growth.

now he can really go for it with a blue collar. good luck!

He still holds the American NCAA record at 1500, right? At least I thought he did when post season stuff is excluded. And it was a a shocker in 2012 when he got it and kicked down Brannon.

Isn't Kyle a race director and doing other work for Hoka?

He was on the world record DMR team in 2015 at the World Relays.