Official Mary Cain's returning to racing discussion thread - Her 3k is today (July 16th)

Darn, I was hoping she would run Monaco next week

douglas burke wrote:

Darn, I was hoping she would run Monaco next week

Just looked up Monaco does not have a 1500 or 3000 or 5000 only an 800 which is not her best event, I guess that is why she is not running.

douglas burke wrote:

Darn, I was hoping she would run Monaco next week

If you were the Meet Director how would you justify giving her a lane in an 800 or a steeplechase?

I'll assume you were not hoping to see Cain run out of the blocks.

Link to source?

This isn't what I would expect for her first race back -- unless she is in 9:10 shape or better she could be way off the back. Maybe she is rabbitting.

MaryKane wrote:

Decent quality line up next week (Monday 16th)

Cork City Sports 3000m

Mary Cain (USA), 8:58.48,,

Charlotte Arter (Wales) , 8:58.48),

Melissa Duncan (Aus), 8:58.14 ,

Elinor Purrier (USA), 8:55.68,

Genevieve Lacaze (Aus), 8:52.28,

Linn Nilsson (Swe), 8:57.89,

Camille Buscomb (NZ), 9:05.24,

Marta Pen Freitas (Port), 9:03.18,

Nicole Tully (USA), 8:54.28

CorkCitySports site does not have start lists published yet. Where did you get your insider info?

hart crane wrote:

This isn't what I would expect for her first race back -- unless she is in 9:10 shape or better she could be way off the back. Maybe she is rabbitting.

And so she's probably in under 9:10 shape...everyone's so skeptical of her return, but her 3k PR came in a tactical race and she has more speed than the rest of this field. Under 9:10 for 3000 would be an excellent opener for her and she could easily do that with this field.

douglas burke wrote:

Darn, I was hoping she would run Monaco next week

Seriously? Do you know something the rest of us don't?

It's hard to remember that even in her prime, Cain was more promise than delivery. She didn't run especially fast by international standards. Her two fastest times, run five years ago, would only have gotten her 9th at Pre or Lausanne this year. And in her one big international race -- the Moscow Worlds that summer -- she finished 9th. Since then, she has only run slower.

I am a Cain fan, and hope she really is "back." But I have a hard time seeing how anything she's done in the past four years suggests it'd be smart for her to run a DL as her first real race in almost two years. I would think she'd be better off to start with some second tier races, at least until she gets a sense of where she is. She's only 22, so she's got plenty of time to find out if she still has it.

PS Cain's PBs probably don't reflect her true top end in 2013. For example, Cain was regularly beat Gabe Grunewald that year, and Grunewald set a massive (3 second) PB in Monaco that summer. So who knows how fast Cain could have run in a fast race such as Monaco?

eating packet and tripe are you? wrote:

CorkCitySports site does not have start lists published yet. Where did you get your insider info?

Not the OP, but the 3000m start list went up on FB yesterday.

BTW, I just confirmed with Cain's agent Ricky Simms that yes, she will be racing in Cork. Good work OP.

....and thank you to LetsRun for confirming and continuing to be a day behind the rest of the world.

Cain is back baby!

hopeless hoping wrote:

douglas burke wrote:

Darn, I was hoping she would run Monaco next week

If you were the Meet Director how would you justify giving her a lane in an 800 or a steeplechase?

I'll assume you were not hoping to see Cain run out of the blocks.

I was thinking there would either be a 1500 or a 3000 or a 5000, and giving her a lane is justified as she is a HUGE draw, her name alone brings fans and gets people talking just look at how many threads on here there were when she was running and even when not running.

douglas burke wrote:

I was thinking there would either be a 1500 or a 3000 or a 5000, and giving her a lane is justified as she is a HUGE draw, her name alone brings fans and gets people talking just look at how many threads on here there were when she was running and even when not running.

This is just silly. Even at her peak, Mary Cain was never a HUGE draw in Europe. In 2013, her magic year, she couldn't get into the 1500 in Monaco. She had to settle for London with the rest of the B-Teamers.

Nothing she's done since then has raised her drawing power. She's run slower and slower, and so had to run in worse and worse meets. The last DL meets she entered were in NY & London 2015, when she ran non-DL races. In London, she finished next-to-last in the 1500, again against B-Teamers. In NY, she finished 4th in a 1000m race behind Donohue, Moser (who was doubling back from the 800!) and Mecke (Mecke?).

(As a side note, Doug predicted she'd run 2:32/3 in NY as a "confidence boost." She ran 2:38.)

I kind of wish it was the 15th so we could have it be an even 2 years since her last track race but prefer this to say the 14th. Makes for better copy. "Prior to winning her 8 world titles, Cain early in her career struggled, once going more than two years between track races."

Purrier or Cain....who ya got in that head to head duel? And will the better of those two be in the top 5 in this race?

soverydiff wrote:

Purrier or Cain....who ya got in that head to head duel? And will the better of those two be in the top 5 in this race?

Purrier. Not even close unless Cain is in 8:50ish shape.

Perrier 5 and Cain 8.

Seems like a tough field for a multi year rust buster.

Wise?