aewillia

First, I would like to thank you for helping pave the way in women's athletics. I just started running about three years ago and have been nothing but supported by my friends, family, and the running community, and I feel very thankful that I didn't have to face the same kind of challenges to competing that you and other leading women did.

Second, I was wondering how many years it took you to build up to 120 mpw. Obviously at seven miles for your first run, you've got a solid head start on most of the population. Did you jump pretty quickly into the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and then take a longer time to build up from there or did you find yourself well-suited to high mileage very early on?

If you ever find yourself on reddit again, we'd love to have you hang out with us over at /r/advancedrunning!

215 miles? That's amazing. I can't even fathom that. It seems like all of the big name marathoners and track people these days don't tend to go that high mileage anymore, I guess because it's so hard to recover from that much training stress. Did/do you keep running logs?

I wanted to be one of the people who did 100+ miles a week, they seemed so cool and respected.

Even at my level, I totally understand that feeling. I remember that when I started running, 40 miles a week seemed unattainable. Now that's where I sit pretty regularly and I see people running 60-70 mpw and I'm just waiting for the day that I can run that much (hopefully).

Ultramarathons definitely seem really appealing. Even just a 50k would be cool to try just once. The trail and ultra community seems like one of the most interesting subcultures in the sport and I'd like to experience it just once. I figure that waiting until after I've done an actual marathon might be best, though.

What would be a compromise that you would be okay with as far as allowing athletes to fulfill their sponsorship obligations (and get more money from sponsorships because they're promoting the brands more frequently on bigger stages) and balancing that with the financial interests of USATF/Team USA?

I think that league-wide uniform mandates are bullshit, no matter if it's track or UFC or even the NFL. USATF seems to be pretty short-sighted in its approach to the uniforms, since more prominent athletes will inevitably lead to more visibility for and participation in the sport.

Also, a running question: What's the workout you dread doing the most?

Your cat's a fan of Team Chaos, I see.

I'm not sure I've ever lived in a place without this rule, but I heard the exact same thing about our college's sorority houses and women's dorms.