Molly Seidel: "[Americans] gonna get our asses handed to us nine times outta ten, if the course is fast."

People shouldn’t interpret this as Molly not being competitive. She’s just very smart and self-aware, and I can assure you she is competitive as hell.

And she drinks beer, so she’s cool too.

100 percent agree. She’s honest, plugged into the sport, and so gritty. The authenticity she shows makes me root for her double. Can’t wait to see her in Boston. I’ll just add that I run in Boston and would see her running on the river, mostly in spring and summer 2020. I yelled “good luck in Japan” and she actually yelled back thanking me.

Awesome, shuffle stride.

And indeed, cool interview, rojo.

She speaks the truth. There is no guarantee that Africans won't run in tough courses and bad weather too but at least it makes them hold back a bit and won't treat it as a track race like as in Berlin course. I think Americans need really bad weather like the Boston one. That destroyed the Africans. They really cannot run in freezing cold weather.

JBaller33 wrote:

People shouldn’t interpret this as Molly not being competitive.

Correct.

The problem I have with rabbitted flat marathon after rabbitted flat marathon is it isn't really racing. In a legit race, if you want to run super fast, guess what, you have to set the pace. That's hard to do as you have to break the wind and you might blow up.

So someone may be faster than Seidel but are they so much faster that they can break the wind and set the pace themselves?

Authentic like a burrito from a food truck is Mexican.

That's some BS from Molly Seidel trying to hoodwink you into believing she is clean and that East Africans can't stand the heat. You know that places like Kenya are HOT with average temperatures that are the same as that in the supposedly hot Tokyo Olympics marathon. Why are you guys so gullible?

https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/kenya

LRC note. We think the OP is trying to be a troll and were going to delete this post as it's factually inaccurate. But in case they are being serious, we decided to leave it up but state that it is is factually incorrect. The average high in Eldoret is never above79 F.

The argument that Kenyans and Ethiopians are less competitive in bad weather, especially hot weather, sounds like random rambling. Maybe she meant she hurts less in bad weather but that’s not what she said.

What she said about Olympics vs majors and Kenyan/Ethiopian participation numbers plus luck and chance suffices to explain that she eked out a bronze in Olympics and fourth in NYC.

rojo wrote:

JBaller33 wrote:

People shouldn’t interpret this as Molly not being competitive.

Correct.

The problem I have with rabbitted flat marathon after rabbitted flat marathon is it isn't really racing. In a legit race, if you want to run super fast, guess what, you have to set the pace. That's hard to do as you have to break the wind and you might blow up.

So someone may be faster than Seidel but are they so much faster that they can break the wind and set the pace themselves?

Great article, thanks Rojo.

Interesting quote about how she got into running, not sure what she means about a quiet brain:

Seidel: Probably really bad ADHD [laughs]. But yeah, we had a bunch of land up behind our house. We would just play up there all the time and it had a mile loop trail around it. I would just run up there and we’d run in gym class and I just found that I really enjoyed it. And my brain was a little bit quieter when I did that and eventually I found that I was pretty good at it.

People with ADHD often describe their brain and loud to describe the overthinking or constant thoughts. She's basically saying she found when she was running that her ADHD was lesser

A great read and a very good person to interview. Shr gives raw responses. And her theory about fast courses and tough courses seem to be spot on. Bekele is proving it. In his last post race interview. He simply said the conditions were tough. He didn't make any excuses. So I still have lots of respect for him. Molly is a very realistic athlete.

So avoid flat, fast, rabbited races. Do races with tough conditions and preferably without a rabbit. Americans might not be faster than Kenyans but they're tougher. A kid from Wisconsin is much more hardened to tough conditions than a kid from Eldoret (which has near perfect climate year round).

CU Buff wrote:

So avoid flat, fast, rabbited races. Do races with tough conditions and preferably without a rabbit. Americans might not be faster than Kenyans but they're tougher. A kid from Wisconsin is much more hardened to tough conditions than a kid from Eldoret (which has near perfect climate year round).

I hope this is sarcasm. Americans arent tougher. But tough conditions up the randomness of events and in small fields that can make a difference. Some people will always have bad days. Throw in a few more have weather issues and you end up with a chance for slowwe runners to be competitive.

You’d never get that response from Sara.

rojo wrote:

JBaller33 wrote:

People shouldn’t interpret this as Molly not being competitive.

Correct.

The problem I have with rabbitted flat marathon after rabbitted flat marathon is it isn't really racing. In a legit race, if you want to run super fast, guess what, you have to set the pace. That's hard to do as you have to break the wind and you might blow up.

So someone may be faster than Seidel but are they so much faster that they can break the wind and set the pace themselves?

Of course it is legit racing. In either case the top runners are there to get a W and get paid - and they will do what they have to regardless to win. And surely you can recall at least a few times where someone's team mate made an Olympic or WC final just to pace and give their partner a tactical advantage. Were those not legitimate races? While I think unpaced races can be more interesting, fast rabbited races separate men and women from boys and girls and that is an honest deal.

If you think Americans are tougher than Kenyans, you're a moron.

BS Molly wrote:

Authentic like a burrito from a food truck is Mexican.

That's some BS from Molly Seidel trying to hoodwink you into believing she is clean and that East Africans can't stand the heat. You know that places like Kenya are HOT with average temperatures that are the same as that in the supposedly hot Tokyo Olympics marathon. Why are you guys so gullible?

https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/kenya

LRC note. We think the OP is trying to be a troll and were going to delete this post as it's factually inaccurate. But in case they are being serious, we decided to leave it up but state that it is is factually incorrect. The average high in Eldoret is never above79 F.

No... she's saying on talent alone Americans can't compete but if you make it about will and other non-genetic factors the gap closes.

Very good article!

There're a couple subtle things to say here:

Americans are not tougher or better on hills than East Africans. How do we know this? We stink at Cross Country. So I wouldn't say the hilliness of New York and Boston is the equalizer so much as the races being un-paced and unpredictable (weather-wise and tactically). With just 6 total Ethiopians and Kenyans if the weather is bad or the tactics are unusual, you are just upping the odds of a bad day for any of them.

Molly probably is selling Americans a bit short on the time aspect part. Keira ran 2:19 and properly trained you'd expect higher-ceiling athletes like Molly, Sisson and others to run 2:18. Yes they'd still lose to the Ethiopians/Kenyans on their best day but they could finish high up in London/Berlin et al. This is I guess getting your ass handed to you, but if Peres hammers the last 10K and beats Molly by 90 seconds in Boston is that really less impressive than beating her by 2 and a half mins in a drag race from the gun in London? I really don't think so, it's just our perception in our brains.