Sunni Olding: what is she up to?

she's been hurt supposedly

She ran at Eastern Michigan last Saturday. 13th in 5000 at 18:28. Just starting to come back from injury.

A picture would help greatly in this case.

I saw her at a relatively small road race last summer. To give you an idea of just how small, the men's division was won by Ohio Northern's Jimmy O'Brien (a good runner, but if it's competitive 5-miler he's not going to win).

My first reaction was "Is that Sunni Olding?" followed by "What the heck is she doing here?"

Did she beat you?

jsquire wrote:

I saw her at a relatively small road race last summer. To give you an idea of just how small, the men's division was won by Ohio Northern's Jimmy O'Brien (a good runner, but if it's competitive 5-miler he's not going to win).

My first reaction was "Is that Sunni Olding?" followed by "What the heck is she doing here?"

Jimmy O'Brien was an All-American in XC and ran 25:0x this year, I don't know about the 5 milers you're running but a guy with those credentials would win 9 times out of 10 I'd think.

I hate to break it to you but there's a big difference between a D-III All-American and a D-I All-American. 25:0x won't get you close to D-I nationals. That day Olding ran 31:10, barely beat a local HS girl, and drove 2+ hours to find this race. Wierd.

jsquire wrote:

I hate to break it to you but there's a big difference between a D-III All-American and a D-I All-American. 25:0x won't get you close to D-I nationals.

Did he say anything about D1 nationals? All he said was that someone running 25:0x would win the majority of 8k/5-mile road races...especially considering that time is on grass, and would probably be faster on a road, assuming that he was in the same shape.

I believe the D3 national course this year was fast but not blazing, so you can't judge off the bat whether or not he'd "qualify" for D1 nationals (I assume that's what you meant). And just FYI, the dude has run 1:50/3:47, so he's no slouch.

RIGHT!!

Minster to the Findlay/BG area is not a 2+ hour drive. That is if she was in Minster over the summer....

or how about the fact that your average road race is won in 18:30.

jsquire wrote:

I hate to break it to you but there's a big difference between a D-III All-American and a D-I All-American. 25:0x won't get you close to D-I nationals. That day Olding ran 31:10, barely beat a local HS girl, and drove 2+ hours to find this race. Wierd.

Of course I know that. The guy who posted right after you summarized my thinking perfectly.

I fail to see what the big deal is. The Pemberville 5 miler is a decent road race, with close to 500 runners each year and is pretty well known in the area. You'll be hard pressed to find a more competitive 5 miler in NW Ohio. The winning time is usually in the low to mid 25s. (The winning time this past summer was 25:02 by Nick Kruse, O'Brien ran 26:22.) And on top of that you can go to the Pemberville Free Fair right afterwards and get some great fair food!

Jimmy O' got 3rd place at Pemberville.... Sunni was showing off her scars there too. NICE!

Does anyone have any receny pics to see how she is looking?

Sometimes good runners who are considered "local legends" who just want to do a 5K road race as a workout or are out of shape will drive a bit of a distance to an area where they're less likely to be recognized.

Again - where is Sunni Olding and what is she up to in terms of running and racing?

As another poster already mentioned, she raced at EMU this past weekend. I was there to see her race. She is still running for Notre Dame. She did not appear to be in her best shape as she only ran in the 18:30 range, but it sounds as though she is returning from an injury.

Good luck to Sunni with coming back. I met her on a recruiting visit, and her name matched her personality!

SOlding is entered in the 5000m at the Hillsdale College Gina Relays tomorrow, afternoon session.