My first thought when seeing the time she ran was... "not good"

Then i watched the video of her race and she simply looked flat. She said in the video that Jerry wasn't confident that racing would be the best, and maybe a workout instead was a better option. Reading between these lines, Gwen came off a huge block and was tired. When the move happened in the race and she couldn't respond, it's a sign of fatigue.

Plus, this being the first race back, you can't hit a homerun every time you race.

However, when she ran her 15:15 at the same meet two years ago... i believe it was her first race back since having her child. Could be wrong.

So... who knows how to judge this performance.

What if Gwen doesn't make the olympic team? Doubtful Nike will release her, just continue to reduce her base salary.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

Every sport has an ideal body type and Gwen is not built for world-class long distance running in my opinion. I wrote her off when she made her announcement, and again when she kicked the marathon to 2024. I fully expect she will watch both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics from the sidelines. She needs to soak that gold medal for as long as she can, but should be looking for a future outside of being an athlete. In the meantime, I wish the top contenders could get half the press she does while bringing up the rear.

I actually think she's too skinny to have much of a kick to follow "moves". She doesn't appear to have much muscle mass in her upper thighs and glutes to deliver much of a kick. She definitely doesn't look as healthy as she did when she was a Gold medal winning triathlete.

It’s hard to comment on how Gwen looks without knowing stats from triathlon to running.

However, when you look at Sifan Hassan who is the best woman in the world, she’s pretty “small” and she can do everything, so judging performance off of muscle size/definition isn’t always the best indication

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

good thing you aren't her coach:

https://www.european-athletics.org/...rd-eugene/index.html

or hers either:

https://www.kicker.de/758746/artikel

They didn't show lap splits in the video, but the race looked like it started quite slow (not really tactical, just slow). It's kinda surprising, since Gwen probably wasn't the only one who needs a qual time. She also just sat in the pack vs. going to the front and driving....really not sure why; she needs the qual time, not a win at some indoor meet.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I hate seeing this. She doesn't look right.

My favorite race of her ever was Abu Dahbi 2015. Here is the hi-lite video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3OZlPpOFg

It is only a 6 minute clip but if you watch from 3:20 to 3:30 she runs by Annie Haug and Andrea Hewitt like they aren't professionals. A few moments later they show Norden, True and Zaferes in the foreground and GJ 300 yards behind. And there is something about GJ's body language in that shot that strikes me every time I watch it. Its the difference between thinking your the best and knowing it.

I don't even want to see this current version of Gwen.

+1 on this, she is capable of running the OTQ time and has 3+ more months to do it. She didn't have pacers this time around and they'll likely give her pacers in the race she needs to get the time.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

It looked like there were two pacers...she just couldn't finish it off.

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

In the race two years ago she had two BTC pacers. If there were pacers in this race they weren't there to work for Gwen, I thought I saw the winner pull away with like 8 laps to go and never got caught so I didn't think they did have pacers

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I still say she's too thin and needs to work on her nutrition: https://www.youtube.com/...spmvunKUg&t=218s

I do hope she is well. I suffered from disordered eating and when I did I had that same sallow look in my eyes and face. In your video she looks so healthy. Now she doesn't and I wish her well.

She said in the video that Jerry wasn't confident that racing would be the best, and maybe a workout instead was a better option. Reading between these lines, Gwen came off a huge block and was tired. When the move happened in the race and she couldn't respond, it's a sign of fatigue. //

This is the part that I dont get, you would think the coach knows by now not to race her tired. What was the potential outcome here, nothing good if she was hammered from training. She needs a big win, which could be a race, or a time, otherwise she could self destruct mentally. Of course she can run fast, she has proven that, but she now has a long stretch with a lot of bad races she has to get over. Adding one more to it was just not necessary. If she races, she should taper and rest. No amount of mileage, or a particular workout is going to do more for her than having a great result in an actual race. I just dont see the point in running her when she can barley run times she would have done as a triathlete..

The comments stating that she is too skinny, clearly they have no clue about long distance running which is not Ironman racing by the way.

As to what went wrong, not sure, not all of us have what it takes to run 100-120 miles per week without getting injured, and maybe that's her case. Really personable athlete, I hope she turns things around.

100% agree

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

I agree, it was kind of scary looking at her low body weight right now. Hope everything is ok with her nutrition / habits.

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- Jordan

My Strava

I think I do have a clue about long distance running and agree with the posts above that she's overshot the target. She's always had a gangling physique due to her height, but she seems to be closing in on the concentration camp survivor look with no power. But that could be accentuated from being tired as Monty noted above. It's time for her to rest up and see where she is fresh.

Also, I don't know what training she was doing leading into this, but I hope it wasn't 100-120. That would be potentially reasonable for the marathon, but once she turned her goal to the track, then I would argue that a more appropriate training load would be more in the 60-80 range with higher quality. Yes, that's just an opinion; but what is factual is she has not performed at the level she aspires to for a long, long time now. Whatever they are doing has not worked.

Lastly, "Really personable athlete, I hope she turns things around." - Completely agree.

completely agree.. need to go in shaved and tapered to get a good result..
Gwen's had plenty of big training blocks since she started this run at the Olympics, needs some positive reinforcement now rather than more load..

Hate to say it but I don’t think Jerry is the coach for her. Time to look elsewhere before it’s too late. However for GJ at this point it’s not about the winning but the paycheck/social presence.

No need to re-hash previous discussions, but I think quite a few of us saw her run that 15:05 and win the 10K at Standford and thought, 'Do THAT. You're having good luck at these distances that your body already knows. Try the track for the 2020 Olympic cycle, get used to only running, and if that works try the marathon afterward.'

I'm open to argument (that I believe Gwen voiced) that the longer distance of the marathon sometimes spells more unpredictability, and gives grinders at least more of an outside shot than lining up with the Hassans of the world and getting shredded at 5k/10k. (Make no mistake, I place that outside shot at extremely, extremely low.)

Maybe she just had a bad recent race due to [choose your] whatever. She's had some bad luck with her recent achilles note coming due. But as mentioned, this trajectory can't be helpful for her mental state or current/future prospects as an athlete. Like Monty said, she needed/needs a win.

Agree—she’s cooked rn and her window is closing fast.

What is such a bummer is that I bet peak 2015/2016 tri GJ could have easily made the 5k OTQ standard.

Hell, that version of GJ might well have lapped the one we saw in the video on a 200m indoor track over 5k.

Her best pure running performance came in fall 2016 with 10 miler in 53:13 and that was obviously from tri fitness and training. I hold out hope she will find that magic again, but agree, it does not look promising at this point.

I agree her results are not at the level that I would see an athlete trying to make it to the olympics in a few months.

However I reckon she's smart enough to surround herself with the right people for coaching/mentoring/guidance etc. and my take on the whole thing is that she is living in an environment that gives her the ability to learn and get 10x improvement after every race she's getting into. Granted I'm a huge fan of Gwen and I'm saying this based on how she's been able to catchup with the best so quickly and for a few years when she switched to Jamie after her deception in London 2012.

Bottom line I just would love to see a triathlete having a successful track career AFTER triathlon. #GoGwen

Gwen Jorgensen has already climbed the mountain. She's won Olympic Gold. What she is doing now is, apparently, because she loves it. If she doesn't make it, she doesn't make it but I don't understand the mentality that asks, "Is it time to worry yet".

Worry about what? Not winning another medal? Oh the humanity.