WR: What was a typical day or week of training like for you leading up to the marathon? How was training impacted by the fact that the Olympics got moved back a year due to the pandemic? MS: Yup…my jaw hit the floor and I immediately booked it up to my room. WR: Did you just go to bed immediately when you found out? And we learned that was going to happen at 8 o’clock the night before. The conditions were going to be crazy hot, crazy humid-and then on top of that, it’s like less than 12 hours before the race starts, they say, ‘Remember how you’re supposed to get up at 4 tomorrow? Actually, get up at 3, because we’re moving the race up.’ WR: Y ou had a 3 a.m. And even then, the training venue was an absolute disaster…we had to run on concrete, on a 900 meter loop either uphill or downhill, and then a 400 meter concrete track. MS: I think so much of getting ready for this race was about kind of just embracing chaos from the get-go, of the whole thing being postponed, and then we have this extra year and a half of preparing and dealing with the fact that every race in the world was canceled, we’re in the middle of a the pandemic, so I think that was probably a pretty good crash course in just going with the flow, and just kind of having to take it as it comes.īut yeah, getting to the race-we didn’t know how to get to Sapporo when we got there, we didn’t know if our coaches were going to be able to come, we did not know whether we were going to be able to train when we got up there. WR: So how do you deal with those uncontrollable elements that pop up when you’re literally on the world stage? Basically, everything about this race was a hot mess express. MS: The time was moved up less than 12 hours before the race. WR: How did you adjust to some of the uncontrollable elements of the marathon? I know the race was super hot and the time was moved up an hour. just seeing friends, getting things together-we’re going to throw a little party at one of my favorite breweries tomorrow, but yeah, a lot of it has just been decompressing. I’m trying to unpack and repack to head back to Boston. It was the longest day of my life because of the time change…truthfully, my bags are exploded across my living room. Molly Seidel: I got back around midnight on the 9th. Women’s Running: What have you been doing since this past weekend? Have you had any chance to celebrate? to discuss why she’s calling the Olympic marathon a “hot mess express”, how seeking treatment for her eating disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder was crucial to getting healthy, the ways that running culture can better support young women, and how she’s thinking about approaching the 2024 Paris Olympics. Women’s Running caught up with Seidel a few days after her return to the U.S. Seidel is celebrating both her Olympic success and the healthier mindset that got her there: “It’s been really fun just getting to share it with everyone, more than anything,” she said of coming off of her Bronze win last weekend. ![]() Doing so ultimately proved to be crucial to surviving-and, now, to thriving, Seidel recently told Women’s Running: “By making sure I was healthy physically and mentally to be a functioning human, that has then enabled me to run better,” she said. RELATED: Molly Seidel Takes Bronze in the Olympic Marathon Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya Wins Goldīut the road to the Olympic podium had detours: in 2016, Seidel had to step away from her sport to seek treatment for an eating disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder-an experience she has said she feared would be career-ending. ![]() These days, Seidel is based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her talents took her to Notre Dame, where she specialized in the 10K and became a four-time NCAA champion, and later Boston, where she divided her time between babysitting, working as a barista, and running with Saucony’s Freedom Track Club. And last October, Seidel placed sixth in the elite-only London Marathon, where she ran a personal best of 2:25:13.įor Seidel, making it to the Olympics-let alone the podium- fulfilled a lifelong dream that began in Wisconsin, where she grew up and became a Foot Locker National Cross Country Champion in high school. Olympic Trials in Atlanta, where she ran 2:27:31 to finish second. The marathon was only Seidel’s third: her first was last February, at the U.S. In doing so, Seidel, 27, became only the third American woman in history to medal in the event, joining long distance legends Deena Kastor and Joan Benoit Samuelson. Last week, American Molly Seidel placed third in the Olympic Marathon, running 2:27:46, only 26 seconds behind winner Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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