Katelyn Tuohy almost gets beat!?!?!? But rallies to 3-peat in EPIC race.

I will also fully claim to know nothing about foot mechanics besides also being a hobby jogger...I never thought she had a hard impact stride. Maybe more so in XC because of the footing differences, but I always found her quite smooth on the track. But again, I'm sure there are many others who have a more informed opinion.

astro wrote:

You are joking right?

The one thing that bothers me is that in an interview she said she reads social media about herself. That's dangerous. Someone needs to tell her not to do that. Could you imagine a young athlete reading some of the commentary on here?

Unfortunately, they all do...even the one's that say they don't. Teens in general spend about one-forth of their time on the internet, reading something about yourself is far more interesting than reading about someone else. It is almost impossible for a female to ignore what's being said about them. Hasay, Hadley, Cain, etc., read everything that was said about them.

astro wrote:

When Young is on the cover of SI, gets Gatorade athlete of the year twice, has millions of YT views etc and is going for his third national title, something no one ever accomplished, while everyone is telling him his entire legacy will be defined by that one race, let us know.

100% Agree....while Young was certainly a favorite, it was a healthy debate on who would win the guys race. Young has had a solid HS career, but not perfect...and losing NXN would have been disappointing but certainly was not out of the realm of possibilities. Tuohy was on a completely different planet in turns of expectations...I have a daughter about that age and I can't imagine how she would deal with a fraction of the pressure and expectations on KT.

I do think that it is an absolute credit to her coach (Diglio - got to say I have been really impressed by some of his interviews), and also obviously KT's family. Never seen them, never heard from them...but they must be doing an awful lot right to have helped KT stay as grounded as she did.

Good post.

Thanks for that link, that was an intense last couple of laps!

Tuohy did seem to be striking a little harder than I recall seeing in past races. I'm not sure if it was due to crappy course conditions or fatigue, or both. We'll see what she does on the track! What an amazing race and a tenacious athlete.

Jedsdead wrote:

[quote]astro wrote:

I do think that it is an absolute credit to her coach (Diglio - got to say I have been really impressed by some of his interviews), and also obviously KT's family. Never seen them, never heard from them...but they must be doing an awful lot right to have helped KT stay as grounded as she did.

Two stories from a Section 1 dad with girl harriers...

1 - At the NY State meet in 2017, it was a complete icefest/mudfest, much worse IMHO than Glendoveer this Saturday. Our team is running in Class B and picked to finish second well behind East Aurora. Our coach doesn't have 1/2 inch spikes and asks fellow Section 1 coach Diglio for help. Diglio comes up with 7 sets of 1/2 inch spikes even though he only has 1 runner in the race. We go on to upset EA for the title with a huge debt to Digs. Class.

2 - I have related this before in another thread, but here goes again. At the same 2017 NY State race, Tuohy's breakout year where she went undefeated and set numerous course records including Bowdoin, my wife and I are getting into the hotel elevator going to our room. We introduce ourselves to another husband and wife in the elevator and find out it is Patrick and Denise Tuohy. I said "oh, running royalty!" Patrick downplays the whole thing with complete humility. Next morning, we see them at breakfast before the races. Turns out they are focused on their son getting recruited much more than Katelyn's meteoric rise to prominence. Again, they seemed totally grounded and without the slightest hint of arrogance. Class.

As in other areas of life, runners hit plateaus after spurts. With continued work, many have future spurts to new levels of success. Tuohy appears to have plateaued relative to some of her competitors. Her gap over Claire Walters, for example, is much tighter and she is well off of her course records at Bowdoin and Glendoveer. But her self confidence, strong work ethic, and wicked level of talent bode well for her to have more spurts going forward. How high? Not sure. She has not shown great speed nor has she had to race tactically, ever. Lots of room for growth.

But my bottom line is this. She and her family have handled themselves with grace and humility through five years of cross country/track, four years on the national stage, and a difficult three at the top with the pressure of the national media. Whatever my analytical side says about her speed, or what college she should consider, or what her top end is, my heart pulls for the Tuohy's. I hope to see them tomorrow night at the Section 1 XC dinner. I know what to expect. Class.

Thanks for those stories...very nice to hear on both sides, and not unexpected at all to be honest.

I completely agree about the plateau's athletes (especially young girls/women) go through...it's never a steady rise. It's a spurt, then flat, a spurt, then flat. Tuohy hit a meteoric rise early on around gr 9 or 10, and then still a few smaller ones. Some girls have hit some a little later (walters) but they still have a long way to go to catch Tuohy. The one thing I will actually disagree on is that she has regressed. Obviously she is not running course records, which again is a smart move. She has not needed a maximum effort in any race this year. And when she has 20-30sec leads, there is no need to push. I'm not saying that she could have broken any of her records this year, but I also don't think she attempted to in any race. For example, I believe her Bowdein pk record is 16:45. She ran 17:06 at NXR this year and looked to be at 80%-85% the whole way. Maybe I'm wrong, but she looked like she could easily have been 15 seconds faster.

Anyway, thanks again for the insight. Great to see she has the right people around her, and hopefully she has continued success!

Show Time wrote:

Given all the hard races she has ran in the past month I would not read anything into her winning by less than we would have expected. She ran a state meet that was held on a icy course in about 15 degree weather, the fed meet held at Bowdoin Park which is very challenging, Regionals back at Bowdoin Park, and then NXN Nationals. In all those races she had some of the best runners in the country she was racing against. That is super demanding physically and mentally.

Fatigue might be a factor, but Tuohy has done the same championship schedule for four years. I don't think that was the problem. More likely nerves and numb feet/legs, which she mentioned in the interview. Saratoga Springs ran the same schedule as Tuohy (5 meets back to back: Sections, States, Feds, NXR, NXN) and all top-5 girls had season-high speed ratings after getting beat twice in a row by FM at States and NXR. FM took the Feds week off so should have been fresher, yet underperformed at NXN, a rarity for a Bill Aris team.

I still think she just had an off day and somehow still managed the win. Maybe nerves, maybe she was numb, whatever. Off days happen to everyone and this was hers.