8/20/2023 0 Comments Download molly marathon runnerWhat’s even weirder is where such a prolific runner lives. But some people’s bodies can’t hold up to more stress,” says Friel. “I’ll see a lot of women saying quality, not quantity. On and off, she’s been running a lot since she was a kid growing up in Great Falls, Montana. She believes her peers don’t approach her mileage, and guidelines indeed exist for “older” marathoners to log as little as one-third of Friel’s biggest weeks. “Not her thing.”įor her age, Friel also logs a lot of distance. “On paper, you’d think Molly would be able to run a fast 5K,” says Torrence, who has coached Friel for five years. Friel would run a few miles at a 6:10 pace, and then a few more at 6:20. Ian Torrence, who heads up the Flagstaff, Arizona–based coaching company Sundog Running, often forced his athlete to dig deep during, for example, a 17-miler. In the buildup to Friel’s CIM race, her coach devised workarounds. Take her approach to traditional speed work: Friel has always disliked the track sessions that are often part of a marathoner’s training mashup. “In some cases, that can be better than the right diet or whatever was your target number of training reps.”įriel’s age isn’t the only quality that distinguishes her from her competition. “Love and passion for what you do are their own kind of fuel,” says mental performance coach Andrews. “Her authentic self seems to mesh with her natural talents.” “I’ve never met this woman, but clearly she loves to run,” says Robert Andrews, founder of the Institute for Sports Performance, a Houston-based organization that focuses on mental performance and works with myriad pro athletes and Olympians. They’ve lost the desire to push themselves ridiculously hard. Older athletes generally have lost more than their world-class abilities. You don’t see 50-year-olds playing Wimbledon or racing in the Tour de France. But don’t lose sight of the cool truth that Friel, who was running high school track before a lot of her competition were born, gets the honor of being in the mix. In the trials, Friel will no doubt lose to athletes who are a fraction of her age. Well, such “stupid-crazy” results also gain Friel entry into America’s most selective women’s marathon. “I’m not sure that these stupid-crazy finishing times get me anything,” she says, “except self-satisfaction.” Friel trains and competes as she does only to please herself. ![]() She’s workwomanlike, logging 100-mile weeks in an era when many of her peers opt for less. Friel also qualified for the trials in 20. Friel ran virtually each of the flat CIM’s 26.2 miles in 6.25 minutes.īut Friel is not exactly the freewheeling John Daly of masters marathoning. She finished Sacramento’s California International Marathon in a swift 2:43:57, well under the qualifying time of 2:45 and far faster than the time then-54-year-old Sister Marion Irvine ran (2:51:01) to qualify for the 1984 U.S. On December 3, Friel became the second-oldest woman ever to land a spot at a trials marathon. And yet, back in late 2016 and probably between handfuls of Doritos, Friel told her coach that in 2017 and at 50 years old, she wanted to qualify for the 2020 U.S. Owns a bunch of foam rollers, all of which go unused. Can’t train much on hills or in crystalline air. ![]() She doesn’t put much thought into her diet. As a runner, aging marathoner Molly Friel seemingly does a lot wrong.
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