Hello! Welcome back to Footprint – and happy Friday.
In the throes of marathon training last year, I trudged around Central Park three times in torrential rain. My headphones broke. My shoes might have been drier after a swim. It was a truly miserable experience.
One of the best, worst and weirdest parts about running is you can run the same distance, at the same pace, with the same effort, and have vastly different experiences on two different days. Everything else has an impact – from where you are to how you are, and much else in between, including the weather.
Almost a year after that soggy slog in Manhattan, I ran the same distance through Los Angeles last weekend, down to Santa Monica and Venice Beach. From bucketing rain to a bucket list run, I’ll take that trade.
Highs and lows, and how to bridge them, is one of the themes of this week’s interview. Thanks, as ever, for reading.
EDITION #26
As the World Athletics Championships begin in Tokyo, US Olympian Elise Cranny – competing in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters – speaks to Footprint about grit, success and gratitude
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Jason Ludlow for London Marathon Events
🗽 DOUBLE DUO
Eliud Kipchoge (pictured) and Sifan Hassan will each make their debut appearance at November’s New York City Marathon, organizers New York Road Runners announced, weeks after racing in Sydney • Read
🏟️ TOKYO CALLING
Some races at the World Athletics Championships are practically a foregone conclusion, David Melly writes for Citius Mag. Others could go a dozen different directions • Read
🗻 PEAK CHALLENGE
Mountain athlete Kilian Jornet is trying to scale the tallest peaks across the contiguous US – more than 60! – in a month. He spoke to The New York Times • Read
💭 RUNNING BENEFITS
Our relationship with running helps cultivate a deeper relationship with ourselves, and build an outlet to experiment with self congratulation, writes Salty’s Grace Cook • Read
🍺 RUNNING DRY
More athletes are spurning the boozy culture once common in distance running, Rachel Bachman writes in The Wall Street Journal – and it could be helping them go faster • Read
INTERVIEW
‘Everyone Has A Story’
Matt Pendleton for Grand Slam Track
Something wasn’t quite clicking for Elise Cranny. For months, she grappled with what she called a “low-point lull”: getting sick, falling short, and struggling through races.
Slowly, but surely, things turned around. The two-time US Olympian clawed her way out of the lull in time for two crucial races – still carrying the lessons learned along the way.
“It’s easier to say now, further removed,” Cranny said in an interview. But by last month, “I almost felt grateful for those experiences” during the low.
A pair of strong performances at the USA outdoor track and field championships this summer secured Cranny’s spot in both the 10,000 meters at the World Athletics Championships tomorrow, and the 5,000 meters next week.
Having won her place on the team at USAs, Cranny wrote what athletes tend to write on social media – expressing excitement, and thanking her family, friends and sponsor – after confirming their place on the world stage. But she also noted what this year has taught her: the importance of “never counting yourself out,” even when things aren’t going to plan.
It was one of several times Cranny used Instagram as a “public journal,” putting vulnerability to one side and openly documenting the highs and lows of track racing.
After disappointment at February’s Millrose Games, she could have posted the standard cookie-cutter message – I had a tough race, but I’ll show up next time – and gone about her day. But that “wasn’t going to do much for me,” she said.
Instead, after chatting with a few friends and her mom, she sat down and wrote something that would end up reading like more of a rallying cry.
“Don’t do it to prove people wrong. Do it to prove yourself right,” the post began, gradually building to: “Don’t do it to run away from your past ghosts. Do it to make your future self proud.
“Don’t do it because you have to. Do it because you’re curious. Do it because you can. Do it because you want to. Do it because you love it. Do it because it was what you were made to do. Do it because you want to see what you are made of.”
Sure, it was about running. But it was also not about running.
Cranny continued in this vein after falling short of a lofty goal to break 30 minutes (and the US record) in the 10,000 meters at the TEN in March, and struggling through a challenging Grand Slam Track season, posting her perspective away from the track.
“I think it’s also nice to just remind people that everyone has a story,” she reflected. “You can be super competitive, and tenacious, and be fighting in a race – even if doesn’t mean that you’re fighting for first place.”
More often than not, it’s champions and record breakers who get praised for their grit and determination. “But you can also be gritty in different ways,” said Cranny. It doesn’t get much grittier than pushing all the way through to the finish when everything in that moment feels like it’s going wrong.
For her part, Cranny has worked with her coach, Jarred Cornfield, on defining success. Like many elite athletes, she is reluctant to make excuses – but sometimes, she said, this has led her to disregard important context.
“I think I’ve gotten in that trap in the past,” she said. “No race is good enough. There’s always more that you could be doing. Whether you win or not, it always just felt like ‘oh, I could have run a faster time, or I could have placed higher’.”
Take the first Grand Slam Track meet in Jamaica, where Cranny came sixth in both the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. No excuses. But she had raced the TEN and traveled to Kingston, competing three times in a week. Context.
“How can you also have a little bit of grace with yourself and celebrate some successes,” she wondered, “even if it’s different than what you intended them to be?”
Cranny couldn’t put her finger on it in the spring (over-trained? under-recovered?) as she turned up to races not quite feeling herself. But it was “really important” for her to show up anyway, and take the wins she could find.
“You don’t just have to sign up to a race, or show up to the start line, when your training is perfect,” she said. “I want people to know that, too, even at the elite and the professional level, noone’s buildup – even if they go and win a gold medal – is ever perfect.”
“When you start to feel a little more like yourself, kind of battling through those tougher races, when you already knew from the beginning that it was [not] going to be great,” she added, “I do think there was a lot of strength to be gained from that.”
Gearing up for Tokyo, Cranny is almost grateful for the lows she endured earlier this year. Back on the world stage, she’s looking to scale new highs.
Howard Lao for Grand Slam Track