Elle Purrier should run a steeple race

an idea wrote:

I’ve been thinking,

Don't think.

an idea wrote:

I’ve been thinking, she could be the first American to break 9:00.00 in the steeple so why shouldn’t she give it a go??

1. Obviously fit.

2. Faster than Emma or Courtney over flat

3. Has run steeple before.

4. Wouldn’t have to be a permanent thing

5. I imagine a bonus for an AR

6. If it doesn’t go well, she is still fast af in her primary event

There are probably reasons not to, but she seems like she has all the tools. Would be fun to watch as well.

1-3 also apply to Colleen Quigley. Colleen should take a shot at the 1500m in the trials.

Houlihan would smash the American record in one try.

Houlihan actually tried this in 2017 or 2018. Her mechanics were awful and she was 2 footing water jumps so it was abandoned.

Purrier was also terrible when she ran it in NCAA. 2 footed water jumps and stepped on barriers. Plus Coogan doesn’t coach steeple.

Both ladies are crushing it in the 1500-5k and should stick to that. Bottom line is the steeple isn’t for everyone. Even Simpson only ran 9:12 the same year she broke 4:00 and 15:00 and she had Wetmore as her coach.

No, Elle should not run a steeplechase.

Um no. I would imagine being short isn’t ideal for steeple....

briswiss wrote:

Um no. I would imagine being short isn’t ideal for steeple....

Ostrander is 2 inches shorter and smoked Purrier in 2017, the first of Ostrander's three NCAA steeplechase titles.

an idea wrote:

I’ve been thinking, she could be the first American to break 9:00.00 in the steeple so why shouldn’t she give it a go??

1. Obviously fit.

2. Faster than Emma or Courtney over flat

3. Has run steeple before.

4. Wouldn’t have to be a permanent thing

5. I imagine a bonus for an AR

6. If it doesn’t go well, she is still fast af in her primary event

There are probably reasons not to, but she seems like she has all the tools. Would be fun to watch as well.

Things are going so well that I doubt she'd make a switch, but I don't think this is ridiculous or uninteresting. People writing off the idea "just because" or because she had bad technique might forget that she -

- Won USA Jrs in her first season running steeple

- Was 9th at World Jrs that season

- Was an all-american in the event multiple times (every season she ran it)

- Did all of this with sub par technique

- Barely broke 9 in the flat 3k the winter after she ran 9:43sc, and then didn't run a sc again.

I doubt she'd go out and run 9:00, but it would be interesting to see how much faster she could run off of fitness alone

Leah falland is more likely to be a trials dark horse than anyone else. Coburn-Frerichs-Falland finish.

dragonquest12 wrote:

Leah falland is more likely to be a trials dark horse than anyone else. Coburn-Frerichs-Falland finish.

Sorry I didn’t mean for the trials or as an event switch. I just meant as kinda a one off race.

Even still, I have a hard time believing Falland would beat Purrier if they did both race it. Sure there are barriers, but Purrier is an AR holder and everything indicates she is fitter than nearly every other American she would be up against (+/- 1 or 2 BTC).

If nothing else, it would be fun to watch.

It would be an injury risk if she did not properly prepare for the steeple race. She'd probably run 9:15-20 and could challenge for third place in the US but why bother if she is better in the 1500m anyway?

Of course, in theory one could run sub 9 with 8:30 flat fitness but so far there have only been very few people to get there. Either they lose considerably more (like even good steeplers like Quigley) or they are for some reason much better in steeple than any flat distance (e.g. Krause, Frerichs).

Being that her older sister was a steepler and as fit as she is, definitely