Week 33

The marathon at the Olympics is a tricky event. You qualify 8 months before the Olympics in a cross-country style, winner-takes-it, race. The USA is one of the few countries that selects their Olympic marathon team by running the entire Olympic hopeful field (those that have hit the Olympic standard) across the race distance - 26.2 miles. 8 months later; the top 3 men and women toe the line at the Olympics. Simple - right? Not exactly.

There’s the issue that your build has to be spot-on, not once, but TWICE in less than a year to peak at the exact right moment. Then, there’s the issue of ensuring your build leading up to the Olympics is a perfectly timed dance; high mileage, but not high enough you’ll get injured, some racing to gain confidence, but not enough that you’ll burn out before the Big Dance.

This past weekend, there was some drama amongst USATF - the alternate on the women’s marathon team; Jess McClain, flew out (on her own dime, no less) to Paris on FRIDAY, a mere 48 hours before the marathon race start, under the impression there was a chance she’d be subbed in as an alternate. You can read more about that drama HERE.

If you’re wondering how things ended; Jess was NOT subbed in, and Fiona O’Keeffe lasted 30 seconds in the marathon before becoming the first official DNF of the day. You can read her response to the situation below.

In this week’s email:

• A Moment for Flavor Flav: Snoop Dogg can’t be the only rapper that gets all the love during the Olympics. Flavor Flav not only sponsored the water polo team after hearing most of them had second jobs to make ends meet, but he’s now created a custom piece for Jordan Chiles - U.S gymnast who was robbed of a bronze medal AFTER it was awarded.

• Mantras are EVERYTHING: If nothing else; let this be your sign to create and believe in a mantra that you repeat during your next race, ride, etc. They truly work - and are just as powerful as the pros make them to seem.

• Hopeless Romantic: Paris Olympics kind of felt like one long audition for starring in a Hallmark movie. We aren’t mad though - we might have come for the international competition, but we stayed for the AWWW moments.

• Gymnast Hops: Useless information, but funny nonetheless; Simone Biles can jump as tall as a Home Depot Skeleton. We’re pretty sure there’s no endurance athletes that can even come close to that.

👇Listen to a Cadence-recommended Pod: Lauren Brandon is a phenomenal professional triathlete. If you asked us; she’s Triathlon’s Sweetheart. One of the nicest, most down to Earth athletes we’ve interacted with hasn’t done many long-form podcast interviews, so we were stoked when this one was posted!