Mary Cain running a 3000 tonight at the armory in NYC (1/9)

Cain has run 9:38 for TWO MILES indoors which equates to around 8:58 for 3k using IAAF Scoring Tables. She's not close to being what she was before.

Hayduke wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

.....which was on a hilly road course as opposed to an indoor track.

That course has steep downhill so is not that hard

Not claiming it was "that hard". Those conversion charts are for equal 'conditions'. I wouldn't take a hilly 4 mile road race held at midnight in the cold and expect an equal conversion to an indoor track 3K time.

It is a start for her I guess but a long way to go before she makes it to the starting line in Eugene in June and looks pretty unlikely.

Her time would have put her #5 onnyhe final indoor HS list last season.

Les wrote:

Cain has run 9:38 for TWO MILES indoors which equates to around 8:58 for 3k using IAAF Scoring Tables. She's not close to being what she was before.

Assuming she’d be anywhere near her lifetime best is delusional and unproductive.

Who?

Here's the finish video. Spoke to Cain afterwards and her coach John Henwood off camera. Mary was all smiles and compared it to a middle school race running much of it in lane 2. She said the fastest 800 she has done this year was in the race and that she plans to take it gradual and get better in each race but there isn't a lot of time to qualify for indoors. She and John said they would pick an event down the road but Mary acknowledged she has a lot of range.

https://twitter.com/letsrundotcom/status/1215474337387548678?s=21

Mary's next race is the Dr Sander invite where she will race Katelyn Tuohy.

was that a letsrun uniform?

wejo wrote:

Mary's next race is the Dr Sander invite where she will race Katelyn Tuohy.

TREMENDOUS. this is going to break letsrun.com

Losing a few pounds would greatly improve her overall chancesof making it to the Olympics

I'm sure this will get deleted but, it shouldn't. I don't know why she gets special treatment. I see comments about Tom Brady being old, fat, washed up and Colin Kapernick being all manner of horrible things. Nick Symmond's weight is a popular theme and a myriad of other negative comments about other professional athletes are allowed. Why does Mary Cain, a grown ass woman and professional athlete, get coddled like a baby? If this is deleted I don't ever want to see another comment about any other athlete being out of shape or needing to lose a few pounds.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7H8s2EgEBl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Wow. You have achieved something there. At first, I thought it must be a feeble attempt at humor.

Then I realized that your were intentionally making a “negative comment” about Mary Cain in the guise of some sort of principled defense of other athletes who have to suffer negative comments on these boards without any compassion or empathy. Good for you: an equal opportunity bully.

It is a relief to know there is someone here willing to step up and bully a “grown ass woman” when no one else appears to have the courage.

Or is it the hypocrisy that bothers you? Some unjust double-standard? Either way, your judgment that vicious invective is an acceptable way to make your point speaks volumes.

Nats1931 wrote:

Wow. You have achieved something there. At first, I thought it must be a feeble attempt at humor.

Then I realized that your were intentionally making a “negative comment” about Mary Cain in the guise of some sort of principled defense of other athletes who have to suffer negative comments on these boards without any compassion or empathy. Good for you: an equal opportunity bully.

It is a relief to know there is someone here willing to step up and bully a “grown ass woman” when no one else appears to have the courage.

Or is it the hypocrisy that bothers you? Some unjust double-standard? Either way, your judgment that vicious invective is an acceptable way to make your point speaks volumes.

But it is true that she is too heavy for an elite. Perhaps this is a good thing, training with all the extra weight - if she loses the weight in spring/summer, she'll fly!

hart crane wrote:

Kevin Tschirhart 6th in the 1000 in about 2:34

What is this 2003

This made me LOL

I'm more interested in the arm swing of the guy behind her.

This is an athlete who faced mental burnout and claims to have been harmed by a former coach. She stepped away from the sport and is attempting to come back.

I’m sure she knows she isn’t at the weight she used to be.

I’m sure she knows she isn’t running the times she used to, nor are they yet fast enough for the Olympics.

But she is trying. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for the fastest American HS girl miler ever to run in her own shadow. Losing weight for women is also much harder than it is for us men.

My point is: cut this person some slack. Your criticism isn’t helping anyone.

If you knew that a pro was only running 25mpw, you would call them a fool. If you knew they were out drinking every night, you would call them a fool. Every college football player puts on 20 pounds in their first year with a college team. The announcers will still comment that the player needs to gain another 20 pounds in order to make it to the next level. That is acceptable. If Engels or Centro gained 10 pounds, it would be noticeable and it would be acceptable to point it out. I agree that nobody should shame Cain. Good for her if she is happy. But as soon as she starts talking about making the Olympics, people will make recommendations about coaches, training, sleep, nutrition, form, and physique. Hopefully, everyone will be sincere and civil.

I think the point here should be, there is absolutely no NEED to comment on her weight. Cain is so aware of what her body can and can not do, and she will need to be very careful about cutting weight. Not everyone woman is able to be super lean and healthy, so it is a fine line and one that is hard to walk for some than others. The comments that talk about her weight as if she is some lazy slob who hasn't bothered to consider losing a few pounds to be faster is just plain ignorant. Obviously she is training and putting in a lot of effort to run the times she has, women who are fat slobs don't run 16's for a 5k....She obviously knows that weight matters, and knows for her she can't maintain a super lean body and be healthy, she knows she can get lean for competitions, but keeping it all year around for her equals breaking bones. This is the fundamental reason why in women's running there is always a few outliers that are so much faster, they are the rare woman that can maintain near male leanness without facing injuries, the rest of the pack, can not. Cain is just exceptionally talented with speed, but not necessarily in keeping a lean frame, but it doesn't mean she has no future, she will just have to come at it from a different angle than other elites do, and I think she is. I am very excited to see what she can accomplish, and so happy that she is happy!

To everyone saying she needs to lose weight: stop it.

I've coached collegiate women who had eating disorders and pushed it too far. The recovery from that is a long, gradual process. For the few who can come back from it, they always work on gaining weight first before even attempting running again. Many times, doctors won't let them run again until they get their periods for many months in a row. That requires gaining a good amount of weight.

From here, no focus should be on weight. It's about getting the nutrients you need, eating whatever you want, whenever you want, and trusting that your body will do the adjusting it needs to do. Simply training like an elite and eating good foods is MORE than enough. I'd imagine she is not training nearly as hard as before, but it slowly increasing intensity.

Mary will keep making a comeback if she can keep this patience up. She is on track to have a longer career, compared to if she tried to come back too quickly into full training OR tried to lose weight.

I'll say it again: every telling her to lose weight, STOP IT. This a much more fragile situation than someone who has never been harmed by trying to get too lean.

This is what I’m talking about.... We all want to tip toe around Mary’s weight which is totally not my spot to judge....EXCEPT she just shamed and murdered the reputation of Alberto Salazar. The man lived for this sport and now has been outcast by us because we all jumped on the bandwagon that Mary drove. Does anyone see this picture and think.... Damn if you are Alberto and your athlete is overweight for a world class runner.... how do you manage the situation without hurting the feelings of an 18 year old girl? How do you have those tough conversations? Maybe he didn’t go about it the right way but both Mary and the sport drove this MeToo Alberto ship off a CLIFF and that to me is just as evil as him pointing out that the above picture isn’t world class.