Is Shalane Flanagan asking for trouble?

Why does it matter if she gets injured. Sounds like she is taking that risk to complete a goal. She should be praised not questioned. I mean there is no professional championships she needs to be healthy for in the near future. I am very impressed by her right now.

I feel like her completing this is the biggest advertisement for super shoes ever

Probably yes wrote:

Stefan_2_33 wrote:

Before it becomes a battle of Boston experts: she is running the WMM series, not just Boston.

A bad joke doesn't get better because it's an insider's joke.

Not a Bostoncentric joke, nor an insider joke. Women literally could not participate in any race over 800 meters for many many years because people literally believed their uterus might fall out. They even ginned up some fake news stories as evidence to back this theory.

It's not a bad joke, it's witty sarcasm based on fairly recent history.

A joke is not bad just because you're ignorant to history.

Correct, a bad joke is just plain bad, not just because of my ignorance :-D.

I can remember several 7 marathons in 7 days type stunts in recent years but I can't remember another runner (male or female) who has finished them so quickly. Yes 2:40 is pretty far off her PR but I can't even walk the next day after running within 15 or 20 minutes of my PR. One has to wonder what she could achieve in a road ultra 50K to 50 miler. Maybe she should try Comrades next year

Stefan_2_33 wrote:

Probably yes wrote:

Not a Bostoncentric joke, nor an insider joke. Women literally could not participate in any race over 800 meters for many many years because people literally believed their uterus might fall out. They even ginned up some fake news stories as evidence to back this theory.

It's not a bad joke, it's witty sarcasm based on fairly recent history.

A joke is not bad just because you're ignorant to history.

Correct, a bad joke is just plain bad, not just because of my ignorance :-D.

All jokes aside, it is worth studying some history on female participation in distance running. It's eye opening because what sounds like antiquated mid-evil thinking was actually part of the paradigm within our or at least our parents lifetime.... so to deconstruct the joke the poster is basically say: "Why are you worried about Shalane running a few marathons... is it because she's a woman? Come on now, this is 2021 not 1982!"

Now you can question whether the intent of the OP was sexist or not... but then you got Gene Dykes running 200 miles in his 70s and med-resident guy doing 3 marathons in 3 days and Ryan Hall doing 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days and countless other mega-endurance feats by all sorts of people from all walks of life that most people don't bother questioning... And Shalane seems more physically capable and prepared to handle her particular feat then a lot of these guys... so it makes you wonder if there isn't at least some overt sexism going on, intentional or not... and even if not, it's still worth at least a bit of reflection, am I right?!?

Haha, as the OP, I can tell you I would have asked the exact same question if it were a guy who was aiming for that. There's no sexism here. And frankly, after watching her run Boston, I'm amazed at her ability to bounce back from Chicago so quickly. I don't know who is handling her "recovery," but they've nailed it! Her powers of recovery are superhuman.

I think it’s a bit of attention grabbing and honestly a bit sad. Shades of Jordan playing baseball..