Molly Seidel
Everything good about marathoning
I didn’t watch much of this year’s Olympics. I knew who was running, but really don’t have the time to sit and watch the soap-opera awfulness of the network coverage.
But, I have to talk to someone about how impressed I am by Molly Seidel. The lessons to be learned here could fill a book.
If you’ve been living under a rock, Molly is an American runner who took Bronze in the women’s marathon. She’s the third American woman to medal in the marathon joining Joan Benoit and Deena Kastor.
Molly came in second in the marathon trials in her first ever marathon. This Olympic marathon was her third ever marathon. The broadcasters like to play on that, exclaiming “In only her third marathon!”
Which is a red herring. They make it sounds like she wandered off a corn farm in Wisconsin Forrest Gump like and jumped into the race. This is not a neophyte. She is a very accomplished and very special athlete.
She was national cross-country champion in high school. She was NCAA national cross-country champion in college. You can see that 2015 race on Youtube. She dominates it start to finish.
On Instagram, she wrote: “Other kids wanted to be astronauts or firefighters; I wanted to be a runner. Even on the hardest days I try to remember how blessed I am to do the thing my 10-yr-old self only dreamed about.”
She screamed when she crossed the finish line and said “Hi, mom and dad,” into the camera.
…
Like we talked about last time the Olympic officials in Japan moved the venue for the marathon north to Sapporo to give the athletes cooler weather. It didn’t work. The day of the Women’s race was in the 80’s with very high humidity giving you a real feel of 100 degrees on the road.
The starter’s gun went off a minute after 6 a.m. local time under sunny skies and with a temperature reading of 25°C (77°F). The temperature climbed to nearly 30°C (86°F) near the finish.
Lesson number one in this story is how you approach adversity. We’ve all been there. You’ve trained your butt off and you’re watching the weather. Instead of that perfect racing weather you get one of those soul-crushing hot and humid days. What do most people do? What do I do? You adjust your goals down, plan to take it easier and try to survive.
What does Molly do? Molly gets psyched because she knows that the tougher the conditions the better she gets. It’s that old Prefontaine theory. Make everyone suffer and see who wants it most.
Molly doesn’t adjust her goals. Molly goes after it right from the start and makes everyone suffer. She knows that when the race is about foot speed there are faster runners, but when the race is about toughness she’s got as much as anyone.
“I wanted it as hard as possible, I wanted it hot and windy, knowing a lot of these women run fast in conditions that are very good. I think I thrive off a little bit of adversity. The course in Atlanta (at the Olympic Trials) was a tough, hilly course. When the going gets tough, that’s my strong suit.”
“I try not to have too many expectations. It is just to go out, stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and try and make some people angry. My goal today was just to go in and for people to think, ‘Who the hell is this girl?’ ”
She took a lead after the halfway point and surged ahead, time after time, stringing out the field and placing herself in a position to win with two miles to go.
She established herself in the lead pack from the start, never dropping back more than a few feet from the front to occasionally grab a water bottle.
She looked strong end to end. She hung with lead pack. She stayed with breakaway pack.
It was a magnificent race.
Lesson number two is you can’t win if you’re not ok.
The other story the broadcasters liked to dwell on is that Molly had an eating disorder in 2016 that she sought help for.
Our competitive sport culture tells us to push past the pain, to have grit, but you also need to take care of yourself.
Molly discovered that she runs better when she doesn’t train as hard. You can tell she is having fun.
If you don’t follow her on Strava you should. She posts all her runs, yes even the Olympic marathon. You can see her splits. What impressed me was her heart rate. She’s basically maxed out the whole time. Then at the end you can see it climb as she closes the race.
Molly is one of those athletes that finds peace in the marathon. She’s a warrior.
“I love that slow grind and squeezing it down at the end,” she said. “It is very different from some of the shorter races. I still love doing the shorter stuff and I hope to still do shorter races to keep that sharpness, but, man, I love this race.”
Molly is, for me, everything good about running, the marathon and the Olympics.
She posted an easy run on the Charles River path this weekend when she got back from Tokyo. I look at that run on Strava and I know exactly where she is. How many mornings did I celebrate my training on that trail and across the Longfellow bridge?
I can’t wait to see what else she can do. But, if she does nothing else, this is enough.
Thank you Molly.