Molly Seidelran the marathon of her life on Saturday morning in Tokyo — an even more impressive feat considering it was her third marathon. Ever.
“I love that slow grind and squeezing it down at the end,” the 27-year-old told reporters after her third place finish in theSummer Olympics. “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.”
Seidel, who ran her first 26.2-mile racelast February, won the first women’s marathon medal for the U.S. since Deena Kastor got bronze in 2004; and Seidel is now only the third U.S. woman to make it onto the podium in the event, period.
Whileshe told reportersthat she had no certainty about a medal finish — “I was hoping to be in the top 10, really” — she also said she had made it to the marathon hoping to leave her mark.
“I try not to have too many expectations,” she said. “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?’ "
Seidel said she was taking a cue from fellow Olympian Courtney Frerichs, a friend, who won silver in the women’s 300m steeplechase earlier this week after strategically and conspicuously choosing to set the pace for the pack rather than wait and pounce late on the leaders.
“Seeing her do that and race aggressively was truthfully what gave me the strength to not be afraid to stick my nose in it,” Seidel said.
In the end, her final time of 2:27:46 put her less than 30 seconds behind Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei, who won gold and silver.
Everyone else was at least a minute behind Jepchirchir.
“We didn’t go out super fast and I kept it very controlled at the beginning,” Seidel said after the race. “After halfway, rather than follow, I wanted to make moves and be aggressive. These races are tactical, so I wanted to be a little bit of a bulldog and not let people walk all over me.”
Ahead of Tokyo, Seidel shared with PEOPLE bothher marathon tipsandsome of her routines.
“I don’t really have like a certain meal that I need to eat or things I need to do just because I’ve had to travel around so much and I found that a lot of times before a race, especially if you’re in a different country, it’s very hard to stick to those type of routines,” she said earlier this year.
But, she said then, “I love to fold my clothes right before I go to the line. So I’ll fold all my warmup gear, kinda just like putting them all in a neat little pile and then after that I feel like I’m ready to go to the line.”
It’s a way of “putting my mind at ease,” she said.
As for her marathon advice, she urged “proper nutrition during the race” (she’s a fan of the drinkable, carb-heavy gels like Maurten’s).
And, of course, “body glide, lots of body glide, to avoid chafing.”
To learn more about Team USA, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.
source: people.com
