I'm not really surprised by the letsrun comments on this article. This story was insightful and absolutely worth examining. Girls who speak out about the way a short sighted obsessive program damaged their long term physical health and (way less important) love for the sport being framed as "SJWs" is so stupid, and ultimately beyond screaming into the void here, it just isn't going to work anymore.
I want to talk a bit about Amazing Racers, which was the FM book by Marc Bloom. Firstly, if there is anything you need to know about Bloom is that he has a tendency to hero-worship anyone who is fast, including high school programs that are fast. In the book God on the Starting Line, which is supposed to be about his own coaching experience coaching a modest team, he waxes poetic about Alicia Craig, Saratoga's program, and Pat Tyson. He frames Alicia, then a teenager, as a near perfect human living above the fray, who is "not like all the other teenagers", which means she is predestined for success. he also expressed awe for Alicia's successful team, who ran hard 400 repeats the day before a race.
Amazing Racers involves a lot of the same hero-worshipping for the Aris' and the FM team. But for me, reading between the lines, I could already see the unhealthy issues. There's a quote in the runner's world article that really hit home for me. Essentially about how for many teenage girls, the desire to please their coach supersedes anything. This is really really true. the stotan philosophy emphasized that the team is God, and giving all of yourself for your teammates is the most honorable thing you can do.
There's a story about the parent of a fourteen year old freshman having a snickers bar ready for her in their car when she was done with practice. Upon hopping into the car, she threw the snickers bar away in disgust, saying that she could NEVER eat it because she couldn't do that to her team. Rutledge is very open with her eating disorder and the injuries she got but if you read between the lines, several of the girls in this book suffered from eating disorders. There are multiple stories of FM girls "tripping and falling" in college and breaking their bones having career ending injuries. If you have healthy bones, your body can survive a fall.
For those who are rolling their eyes at these girls in this article, you have to acknowledge one thing the article has right. College coaches aren't super interested in recruiting runners from these programs. My college coaches weren't interested and let me know this (back in 2008-2012), and neither are many others. So you do have to ask yourself; who is all this success for? Can we name one FM runner who has had similar success in college?
If you don't believe that high level of training, well, I once took a recruiting visit to a school and stayed with a girl from one of these programs (not mentioned in the article though). She told me that her workout entailed a 3 mile warm up and a 3 mile cool down with everything they did. So if they had a 10 mile run, they did a 3 mile warm up, 10 mile run, and 3 mile cool down. Oh and they also had morning practices every day on top of afternoon practices. The girl was currently injured and working out 45 minutes a day. She didn't compete much if at all in college.
Nicole Blood is someone I'd actually be interested in hearing from. She ran for Saratoga back in their heyday and then quit the team. She said that she had to quit because she had IT band syndrome and was forced to "run to tolerance" (whatever on earth that means). Then she said that her teammates were not allowed to speak to her. Does this sound like a healthy team? An injured teenager quits her team and now her friends aren't allowed to speak to her...at all? Nicole literally ended up moving to California.
A healthy high school program should emphasize winning and hard work, yes. Coaches should push athletes to get the best out of themselves. But any involvement in things outside of practice and races is overstepping. Coaches shouldn't dictate, guilt trip, or "encourage" what an athlete eats or doesn't eat at home. I think it's ridiculous that regionals is 2 days after Thanksgiving. But coaches shouldn't guilt trip kids into eating a "healthy" meal. Let kids make their own decisions about that ( I bet many of them will monitor what they are eating that day on their own). They shouldn't enforce curfews on kids, or discourage them from spending time with friends or at football games. They have no right to discourage them from partaking in other activities while in high school, as long as they make every practice and race. They shouldn't control who you speak to and who you don't speak to and they shouldn't show up at your house on a Sunday after a night out drinking to scold you. Just some thoughts.