Sarah Crouch - Boston Marathon

She got an appearance fee? Couldn't have been much unless the BAA just throws around money. She couldn't have seriously thought she had a shot at a top 10 slot. She only got it last year because of a simultaneous serious of fortunate events for her that were highly unlikely to ever reoccur. With a stress reaction, doubtful she was in top form. For her to attempt this was foolish on her part. Pride got the best of her. Hopefully it doesn't knock her out for the rest of the year and she can race in the fall.

Just another desperate, delusional US runner.

If Magness is still her coach, what was he thinking?

Great example of failing to objectively evaluate the situation (before and during the event)... sure a later qualifying effort isn't ideal, but there's plenty of time to adjudicate the training regimen for that scenario. Perhaps a longer "run up" to the race is what's missing for that elusive sub-2:30 performance. Boston was an emotional decision, and now we're likely never going to know... she's potentially out of this Olympic cycle.

Was the posting on twitter today:

“Sometimes, you have to just let your athletes figure it out. Guide them. Help them. But if you provide all of the answers, they don't learn. It doesn't stick.”

An attempt in Magness’ part to absolve himself of any responsibility in this situation?

Broken Foot Bandit wrote:

Was the posting on twitter today:

“Sometimes, you have to just let your athletes figure it out. Guide them. Help them. But if you provide all of the answers, they don't learn. It doesn't stick.”

An attempt in Magness’ part to absolve himself of any responsibility in this situation?

I've always considered Magness a passive-aggressive deva that hijacks coaching philosophies and sells them as his own... he spends 90% of his time tearing down other coaches, while simultaneously picking their pocket for "his" own system. In short, he's a little punk with an internet connection.

“Sometimes, you have to just let your athletes figure it out. Guide them. Help them. But if you provide all of the answers, they don't learn. It doesn't stick.”

Though 100% true... to put this out on twitter is truly ridiculous (even for him). Total dick move, and says way more about him than it does Sarah Crouch.

Broken Foot Bandit wrote:

Sarah Crouch ran the Boston Marathon after an MRI showed she had a stress reaction on verge of fracture because she thought her best shot at the Olympic A standard was placing top 10 in a World Marathon Major and a fall Major would be too close to the Trials for her liking.

By half way she had fallen off pace/pack and it obvious top 10 wasn’t happening and her foot had fractured but she continued on to finish close to 20 minutes off her goal time. One likely reason she didn’t drop out when it went south was that most Marathon Majors reduce your appearance fee/support by half for a DNF.

Thoughts on this?

I believe it was her femur, not her foot. She posted the MRI report on IG and said her femur fractured halfway through the race. If so that sounds incredibly painful to completely fracture and run on that. Ouch.

Instead of idle speculation, I DM'd him on twitter to ask his thoughts on Sarah and this thread. He gave me permission to post.

"Ha! That's hilarious. I'm proud of Sarah going for it. We had a discussion before hand and weighed the risks and benefits. In the end, it's her career and I'm here to support her. I stand by her decision 100%, and will take whatever blame anyone wants to assign to me for not holding her back. She's one of the toughest runners I know and I couldn't be more thrilled to work with her. As far as the tweet about 'over coaching'. Every week we have a discussion with my college kids on why we do things. One of the kids made an astute observation on 'letting him figure out' and work his way through a challenge. It's part of our team culture here to take ownership over your running. I see coaching as more of a partnership versus a dictatorial coaching style. We watched a nice Nick Saban video that's been floating around on his lessons about the dangers of "Always be coaching" and why he needs to talk his assistants out of coaching. It's worth a watch if you haven't seen it. "

Nice try Steve. This is so obviously you posting. Your arrogance and ego vs peer pressure to not post on these boards. So you pretend to be someone else who DM’ed you. Your response would have taken about 5 DM’s.

Sad, sad, sad

Anything else to say Mr. Magness. Other than how you 100% support a runner finishing a race on a fractured femur. As if that doesn’t say enough about your concern for your runner’s long term health.

The audacity of it all!

Curious II wrote:

She couldn't have seriously thought she had a shot at a top 10 slot. She only got it last year because of a simultaneous serious of fortunate events for her that were highly unlikely to ever reoccur.

Some people are victims of their own delusions, she is one of them.

Curious II wrote:

She only got it last year because of a simultaneous series of fortunate events for her that were highly unlikely to ever reoccur.

She was 6th in Chicago. What were the fortunate series of events other than the field not being deep. I mean it's pretty crazy that flat course WMM has 2:32 get 6th but what were the "series" of events.

Given the fact that US women's marathon is loaded right now - Huddle, Sisson, Cragg, Hasay, Flanagan, Linden, etc. - it's hard to imagine a scenario where someone without the standard doesn't get top 3 on the women's side.

She’s been top 10 at Chicago 3 separate times in the last 5 years (6th place twice I believe) and was 11th at Boston by a few seconds in 2016. Hard to see how thinking top 10 was delusional?

Curious II wrote:

She got an appearance fee? Couldn't have been much unless the BAA just throws around money.

Are you serious? You’re clearly not an elite or in the know. There’s way more money in elite level running than commoners like you think. Of course she got an appearance fee as a John Hancock invited elite, and there were probably stipulations to receive it (time, place, finishing).

There is no scenario in which running a marathon with a stress fracture is a good decision. One of the most important responsibilities of a coach is to protect the athlete from themselves.

Hopefully Lindsay Flanagan remembers this when she gets coaching advice from Steve.

He was 100% in agreement with Sarah’s decision to run and finish with a stress fracture in a major bone. Absolutely believes that was the right call, because she’s so tough. Like being tough somehow makes the fracture not a problem. Yet somehow he bills himself as a science and coaching genius and knows so much he arrogantly tells other coaches how they should do it.

I mistakenly thought she was one of the top finishers at Boston in 2018 due to the rain, wind, cold, etc. That is what I meant by series of fortunate evenets I realized my error after the post. But still, a 2:32 should not be top 10 at a WMM unless there is a weak/small elite field or other fortunate events to help. And she did that well while healthy, and not running with a stress reaction that turned into a stress fracture. At her best, Sara would have an outside shot at top 10, if everything goes her way. Starting with the injury she had, not realistic.

I’ve heard the name, remind me of her credentials

As noted above, I was mistaken as I initially thought Sara was one of the flukes from the 2018 Boston. I realized my error later when I recalled who she was. Of course she would get an appearance fee based on her past track record. No need to insult with the "commoner" label Mr. Alledged John Hancock Elite. I know quite a bit about appearance fees from my time working for one of the larger race management companies in the US and several current and former elite runners I know. People do make occasional mistakes on here. You must be one of those a-hole posters who thinks he know everything and cannot be mistaken.