Brenda Jepchirchir 29:26 FTW in Valencia was only 14th and 21st in NCAA 5/10K

I noticed this too, this is one of the most ridiculous jumps I’ve ever seen. How can you go from 15:33/32:41 to 29:25 in less than a year?! That’s a 3+ minute 10k PR, and she probably PR’d by almost a minute for one of her 5k splits mid race.

Did she leave the NCAA and go pro?

Yeah, Kenya has such a stellar clean anti doping record!

There’s no super PED that would cause that much improvement.

Go ask Cathal Lombard - mid 30s to mid 27s in 10000

Apparently as I saw Ikaika (Davor Savijas agency) post the result…her form has been way up quickly since NCAA. In November she ran 30:0x after several road/PB wins. She is young and I suspect a large training jump joining a pro setup but it’s a wild improvement in about 7 months.

Bizarre result. She smoked Girmawit Gebrzihair and Eilish McColgan who clocked 30:02 and 30:08 today and hold 1:04 and 1:05 respective half PBs, better than Jepchirchir's 1:09 best from 2024. I can think of only two possible explanations supporting a clean performance at Valencia:

BJ trained at altitude from July through the end of the year w/ heavy mileage and optimal recovery & nutrition.

BJ is a superresponder to supershoes--even her 30:04 road 10k in Nov 2025 was astounding compared to her track times.

I was watching the race too and was shocked when I realized she was well under sub 29 pace at halfway and even later into the race.

If she had even sniffed Ngetich's WR it would have been for sure too good to believe.

Yes, crazy progression.

It looks like she was running in Japan in 2022/2023 (as a pro?) and got down to an 8:57 for 3000m. One year ago she was running 9:08. So she also broke her 3Km (in addition to 5km) PB during this race. Who knows, there may have also been a segment in that race where she also broke her 1500m PB of 4:17.5

I looked at what Jane ran for her last 1500m at BU. She ran 4:17. Obviously, Jane only went 14:44 for the 5000m, which is slower than Brenda’s 5km pace in that race. So it is very possible that Brenda also broke her 1500m PB.

That’s an unbelievable performance

BTW: she was at Kamimura Gakuen HS in Japan (not a pro).

60/40 IMO... still a relativevly high probability

She certainly could be doping, but it's not fair to cherry pick results. She has been running 15:30's for several years, not only last spring. It appears she has run very few track 10k's and the 32:41 from last June was a championship race, not a time trial. She ran a 30:04 road 10k last fall.

Super shoes on the road could be worth a minute in the 10k for strong responders, plus a road vs. track 10k can be slightly faster on a perfect course even when ignoring the shoe impact.

Wasn't meaning to cherrypick at all. She has gotten way better quite fast since leaving the NCAAs, that's all.

How long was she on sub 29:00 pace for?

Cherry picking????

She ran the 10,000 3 times in 2025 (not only once). Her PB from June 2025 is 32:41. She came 14th. 1min 24 behind the winner. This was not a "tactical" race for her.

Yesterday, she crossed the 5Km in 14:32. Her best 5,000m until June 2025 was 15:33
(technicall still is)

Assuming steady running in the first 5km (it was not, she was slowing down), her 3Km split would be 8:42. Her 3,000 best until June 2025 was 8:57 (technicall still is)

8:42 is 4:21 pace for 1500m. Her 1500m PB is 4:17.59 from April 2025. I'm pretty sure she broke her 1500m PB somewhere in that first 5km.

This progression was over the past 7 months.

Didn't some Letsrun staffer go from mid 29:00s to low 28s in a year in the 10K.

That name is a big RED FLAG.

"Last names of stick figures containing chirchir should be automatically flagged faster than Rupp's bio passport".