8 Months ago Cranny's 5,000m PR was 15:25. Now 30:47 10,000m

She crushed it!@

fghrunner wrote:

So great to see a high school all-time great develop so well. If she was able to stay healthy in college she would have multiple NCAA titles

Yeah, I wonder the extent of her injuries in college. Seems crazy she never won one after being near the front pack her first year in XC and 2nd in the 3000 indoors.

America's depth in long-distance is phenomenal. Compare results since 2014 with any other seven-year period in history and it's no contest. Add in the sprints and field events, and USATF can rightly claim to be the "World's #1 Team." Well done, Elise Cranny, Grant Fisher, et al.

I hope the World Athletics Relays can take place as scheduled in Poland on May 1-2. Instituted in 2014, it's a great addition to athletics, and one where Team USA particularly shines.

She ran well.

She does not follow Quigley on the gram .

She probably never visited Dr. Brown until after college.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ddLLiCjGDOmrNLoE34/giphy.gif

I was thinking along the same lines as McFly. When this big of a jump happens this suddenly mid-career my first thought is drugs. Has she ever passed a test? I'm not sure she has. Somebody prove this wrong. Hopefully one of you has some more info on this, but I remember some BTC runners saying they've never been tested. If you've never been to a IAAF/WA event, nor medalled at USATF it would be pretty easy to never have been. That's according to second tier US runners, anyway - which she was prior to last night. It would be great to be way off on this, but the simplest explanation is very often the one.

Cranny has written a lot on her instagram lately about learning how to accept that she has a more muscular body type and not getting sucked into the thinner is better distance runner trap that she was sucked into in college and just fuel her body and let her weight land where it does. After all this discussion about Mary Cain, etc. her progression after getting out of that environment and learning to maximize her potential as a pro should be a welcome counterpoint. I.e. women can be successful when they let their bodies develop appropriately and don't try to force leanness. All this hyperfocus on female development and the backslides that sometimes happen just after puberty towards the end of high school and college is deeply counter productive. The environment in the NCAA can be toxic and chew up talent, and thankfully Cranny go through it and emerged stronger. But she could easily not.

I see all of this as far more plausible than doping.

Yes, she talks about having RED-S and how it derailed her college career. Glad she is doing better, and obviously discovering her talent at longer distances is a bonus.

2 the gills!!!

Straight Outta Beaverton wrote:

I was thinking along the same lines as McFly. When this big of a jump happens this suddenly mid-career my first thought is drugs. Has she ever passed a test? I'm not sure she has. Somebody prove this wrong. Hopefully one of you has some more info on this, but I remember some BTC runners saying they've never been tested. If you've never been to a IAAF/WA event, nor medalled at USATF it would be pretty easy to never have been. That's according to second tier US runners, anyway - which she was prior to last night. It would be great to be way off on this, but the simplest explanation is very often the one.

biggest factor is her being injury-free for a good stretch in the best pro group--look at her in college--after her freshman year -she was injured for the better part of 3 years...didn't meet her freshman top-20 cross results until her 5th year in 2015; had the talent from HS just needed to build on that!

+1000!

One could make the argument that Jason Hartmann is a better coach than Chris Miltenberg.

Straight Outta Beaverton wrote:

I was thinking along the same lines as McFly. When this big of a jump happens this suddenly mid-career my first thought is drugs. Has she ever passed a test? I'm not sure she has. Somebody prove this wrong. Hopefully one of you has some more info on this, but I remember some BTC runners saying they've never been tested. If you've never been to a IAAF/WA event, nor medalled at USATF it would be pretty easy to never have been. That's according to second tier US runners, anyway - which she was prior to last night. It would be great to be way off on this, but the simplest explanation is very often the one.

You know she ran 14:48 to win one of these time trials last year, right? That puts her as the U.S. #7 all-time.

More recently she was 2” behind Houlihan in the 5k at “The Track Meet,” and then 0.1” behind Schweizer and Quigley in the 3k at Prickly Pear.

I predicted she’d place 2nd in 31:02. She exceeded all expectations, but she wasn’t really a “second tier” US runner heading into the race.

She had been finishing closely behind the other top BTC women for the last year or more, running extremely fast times. Why must so many on this website immediately insinuate that a runner is doping as soon as they have a breakthrough performance? When a runner with a history of injuries puts together solid training block after solid training block without interruption great things can happen. Now Cranny will have to decide what distance to run for the Trials

Jeffro wrote:

America's depth in long-distance is phenomenal. Compare results since 2014 with any other seven-year period in history and it's no contest. Add in the sprints and field events, and USATF can rightly claim to be the "World's #1 Team." Well done, Elise Cranny, Grant Fisher, et al.

I hope the World Athletics Relays can take place as scheduled in Poland on May 1-2. Instituted in 2014, it's a great addition to athletics, and one where Team USA particularly shines.

I like the World Relays too, but I am not sure what that has to do with this thread.

Naperville, I think it's because there is a school of thought that at the upper levels of any sport, including something as different from distance running as American Football, most of the participants are doing something that could be titled 'doping'. Of course sports fans assume as much. It's not a dumb question. Don't you remember various BTC members being listed as 'likely'? Add that to the Salazar/NOP fiasco.

What's relevant about that is that Nike was behind Al and apologizes not at all. Plenty of employers/sponsors would fire someone who got a sanction. I can't name a non-Nike bust since Ben Johnson. Lance, Bonds, any sport.

Now, let me be clear: saying all drug cheats wear and work for Nike (which I am not saying exactly, but it's close to being true) is dissimilar to saying every Nike athlete is a drug cheat. It seems necessary but is definitely not sufficient. I have to think there are plenty of totally clean, and so adamantly opposed to enhancement that they'd never bend a rule, types wearing the swoosh. 99% of high school runners are in them, for example. But if you have a chance to be one of the best and you have to pick your alliances, those planning on going the questionable route go with Nike given the chance. Lyles didn't. Coleman did - and we know what happened. Your employer having your back helps a lot.

Last, the jump was sudden and shocking. What's the title of the thread? Can now run 10k as fast or faster than 5k PR. It was pointed out above that the jump wasn't really last night, it was in late summer. Well, OK, last night wasn't all that surprising given last year. Late last year. This changes my analysis not at all. A sudden breakthrough in September '20 or February '21, either one after 5 years of not being heard from in the national class picture (and not even remotely in the picture on the world scene) are exactly the same.

So that's the thought process of the questioners and doubters.

1, Drugs usually are the answer.

2, Nike affiliation makes that more likely, not less. They are not the least anti-drug as an employer.

3, We don't see a gradual progression from the age of 17 on until now (or a couple races ago, whichever you consider the breakthrough).

4. Lack of attending events that test. If the BTC brings a USADA official, great. I want to believe, after all. If they don't, my assumption of these quickly organized, mysteriously located intramural time trials are absolutely dirty in my assumption. Dodging competition is an known BTC attribute (finally last night, others were allowed, which I really dug). Dodging testers seems to be their thing, too.

Nothing against this particular runner. Just explaining why so many people jump to the same conclusion. It's an easy jump to make. Hopefully way off in the case of last night. They were great races and I really enjoyed watching.

I started the thread and said 15:25 was her PR 8 MONTHS ago, meaning before her 14:48. Before that her 15:25 PR was from a BU indoor meet in 2015 after her final NCAA xc championship as a redshirt senior.

So this is a long time coming. She ran 4:10 in high school and 8:58 as a true frosh and has finally had multiple years of (mostly) injury free training.

Don’t forget that even as a sophomore, she was injured almost all of fall/winter, and was still NCAA runner up in the 1500m outdoor.

She is a huge talent and hasn’t been able to show it until the past year. I am positive she is not doping.

*BU indoor meet in 2018