We've got up some written highlights of our talk with Woody.
He went into more detail about the Jerry quote that got a lot of attention on here: "I think you're throwing away your career by leaving" and explained he and Jerry Schumacher are on good terms.
"Jerry was like, you can't just leave without a plan. Like this is not good. This is not a good idea.
And he wasn't alone in thinking that. I think Jerry was genuinely concerned. And he's like, you're just being stubborn, like don't do this. And to some degree, he was right. I was being very stubborn. But, he wasn't alone in thinking that.
The nicest person in the world, Evan Jager, was like, this is where you're going to be your best. You need to stay on Bowerman.
My own mom was very conflicted on the situation. I tried to explain to her all the reasons, I'm getting older and, I want to try new training. And, even my mom is like, okay, but I don't think this is a good idea until you have a team. And I'm like I have to go without a team.
That's what it came down to. Because otherwise I would just be doing Bowerman training and it's harder and harder to leave when you've just been doing work with the team and training with the team and you kind of fall back in the mold. And so I was like, I have to leave without a plan, basically. And trust that I would figure it out. In the meantime, I would work on my own training.
Later he said, "When he told me he didn't want me to leave Bowerman, it was because he really did care about my career.
Did he go about it the right way? Probably not, because there's just a piece of Jerry that he's not really good at.
But, I'd say we're on good terms. We can't deny how much history we have together. Like he made me who I am as a runner right now, and he knows that."
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