Mary Cain was a ridiculously successful athlete at a young age, and I can't imagine what it is like to deal with the pressures associated with that. As I think about her story/career trajectory, there are a few observations that I think are really important for all runners, and especially young female runners. Having success at a very high level in this sport is a finite thing; very many things have to go right to achieve and maintain success, and so many things can go wrong to derail one's achieved success. Every athlete is different, and among those who will achieve incredible success, each of them may experience world-class success during a different window of time in their athletic lifespan. Some may experience improvement throughout high school, college and beyond, whereas others may find that their ability to improve comes to a grinding halt well before they though it might. Whether we like it or not, pushing the envelope training for running can take an extreme psychological and physiological toll, and will adversely effect women much more so than men. As someone who has competed in and been around the sport for many years, I have never seen so many broken down and dangerously depressed people in one place as I did on the women's cross country team when I was competing in college. The physiological changes that women's bodies will undergo between the ages of about 14-20 generally are incompatible with hard aerobic/anaerobic training while maintaining a restrictive diet. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that, for women in this age band, the ability to improve, much less have success, will come to an abrupt and seemingly inexplicable end for most during these years. For those of us who may provide guidance to young athletes, and especially female athletes, it is critically important to help athletes and especially successful athletes to avoid tying all of their self-worth to a sport where success is here today and gone tomorrow. It is critically important to help young athletes to develop a life outside of sport, and to facilitate finding self-worth and enjoyment from other sources and in other things. Those of us who are parents need to be slow to buy the hype when our children have success in this sport. Mary Cain began working with Salazar at age 16, and joined NOP at 17, foregoing a shot at a college education during the years immediately post-high school. Her success came to a grinding halt, she is behind her peers when it comes to starting life and a normal professional career, has missed many years of formative experiences and interest-development and has only the scars of physical and emotional pain to show for it.
I can't blame Mary Cain for this- it is not her fault. However, I do strongly question the guidance provided to her by those around her during her teenage years, and I sincerely hope that her story can serve as a powerful lesson to other distance running prodigies. The same traits and characteristics that make runners successful can be extremely dangerous and destructive when the success dries up and there is no longer a viable and productive outlet for the narrowly-focused obsession that running at its highest level can become.