Anne Marie Lauck

She is struggling with myriad injuries. AML is the nineties and '00's version of Judi St. Hilaire. JSH roadwhored her fragile body until it could take no more and she was broken down. Lauck has done the same. She was a boneheaded road racer who over raced and always with the same ten cent head tactic: go out hard, hard, hard. Winnning a road race against her is like taking candy from a baby. With no kick all she could do was take the lead. All her competitors knew it. Let this be a lesson to those who overrace on the roads. Your body will speak up loud and clear.

I get your point but she's also 34 and an Olympian with a pretty decent career behind her. She was a factor on the scene at least at the top national level. And she did win a few races. I admire her.

She's all done. One could persuasively argue that she squandered what could have been a far more impressive career with some track racing that mattered. Instead she is destined to be a former Mini Marathon winner. Yeah, sure, she made two Olympic teams but the second team was a gift from Regina Jacobs. She was completely out of her league in Sydney. I don't admire her. She roadwhored her career into oblivion.

And who, I wonder, cares what you admire.

you are so pathetic!!! she is probably thrilled with her successes; why should you care how she went about achieving the success she did.... maybe she is now doing other things in life which are just as important. did you make 2 Olympic Teams?

One more Olympic team than she made.

I don't know the details, perhaps she could have medaled in the Olympics in the 10,000 or something. Well, probably not with her legspeed. Maybe she could have been smarter and focused completely on the marathon like Bordin or Kannouchi and lived at altitude and only raced 5 times a year. At least that would give the appearance that she was being smart and focused. But maybe she enjoyed competing and liked to race frequently, did well enough to make a decent living, and still made two olympic teams. I don't see her career any different than Keith Brantly's. She made her choices for whatever reason.

"The other things in life that are just as important" argument is so five minutes ago. That is always pulled out once a runner is done. Other things in life are always more important than running. I would doubt she is thrilled right now. Potential never realized. End of story.

There's probably not a runner alive who has retired and not thought "I coulda run faster..." Beyond that, I for one wish I coulda been such a successful "road whore" as AML. Let's see a show of hands on this board of people who wouldn't have loved to have had such a "compromised" career such as hers. I doubt many hands would go up. We all pick & choose our battles....knocking .14 seconds off our 10K's, getting a gold medal, or having a stellar road racing career. The girl done good.

AML was sighted, by me, 5 months ago, running a road 5k in Ridgewood, NJ.

"Road whore" commentary is woefully misplaced, she never raced all that much on the roads.

And 10th in the Olympics is not too shabby. I'd take a 10th just in the USOT ("The XFL All-Star Game" of T&F).

I beg to differ. She DID road race alot. I can remember her running Bix just before racing at World Champs one year. What kind of serious track racer does that? She road raced in lieu of the track racing that would have smoothed her form, improved her leg speed, honed her racing tactics. She never went to Europe to mix it up with the big girls. She absolutely did race on the roads alot. So don't call it road whoring. Call it over racing on the roads. Whatever.

Sure, some runners make a career of finishing in the top ten in fast races in Europe. Maybe for some that's fine. But also there are others who would rather challenge themselves on the roads - and, yeah, pick up some money to put some food on the table or get a down payment on a house.

So one athlete grinds out a 32:02 on a hot day in Iowa and wins $5K and another run 31:32, pulled along by a flock of sub 31 runners in 50 degree temperatures on a still night in Norway. Which is the bigger deal?

I know runners who passed on $200,000 over a few years time by eschewing the roads, waiting for the big breakthrough on the track, and it didn't happen. They gave it a shot, more power to them. But there's no reason to put down those who may recognize that they are not going to beat the world's best on the track, and choose to do some high quality road racing and actually - oh, no, not that - made some money in the process.

Guest 2 wrote:

One more Olympic team than she made.

Nice anon shot tough guy.

In the Know wrote:

I beg to differ. She DID road race alot. I can remember her running Bix just before racing at World Champs one year.

I remember Eyestone racing a lot. If you look back on Hodgie-San's web page you will see that Greg Meyer raced every week just about and ran 2:09 and 27:52. Malmo also raced a ton during his peak years.

I think she had a very nice career and doubt that she is done.

Anyone can get injured and have it screw up your career. Bob Kennedy has been hurt a lot lately, how much did he race? almost never. Same for Goucher. I don't see the correlation with "over"racing and injury as being 100%. Many runners will run just as hard in workouts or harder and drill themselves into the ground.

I am with JAM, I'll take a 10th in the Olympics anyday and call it a heckuva career.

BF