Fast-forward to 2022 and, three marathons later, the 27-year-old Seidel can now name herself an Olympic medalist and the quickest American lady ever at the New York City Marathon.
Having taken to the begin line of her debut marathon in Atlanta hoping to position in the high 20 — with the prospect of competing, not to mention medaling, at the Olympics a distant thought — she’s the first to confess the race “blew away all of my expectations.”
While many distance runners step as much as the 26.2-mile marathon distance in direction of the finish of their careers, Seidel was a relatively early convert having made the swap from observe racing in her mid 20s.
Partly, that was resulting from her frustration with working 10,000m on the observe — “I kind of kept banging my head against the wall with that one,” she says — and partly resulting from ambitions she had held rising up.
“I always kind of dreamed of doing the marathon,” Seidel provides.
“I think there’s just this kind of like glamor and mystery around it, and especially for a younger runner who enjoys doing the distance events in high school, that’s kind of the ultimate goal. Everybody wants to do the marathon.”
Seidel’s success at the Olympic trials wasn’t with out challenges. As the pandemic delayed the Tokyo Games by a yr, additional alternatives to show her credentials in the marathon distance had been positioned on maintain.
“I struggled with this kind of imposter syndrome after the trials, specifically as probably the person no one expected to make the team and the person that got probably the most criticism like: Hey, why is this girl on the team?” she says.
“I think I really struggled with that, and I struggled going into the Games and feeling like I belonged there and trying to prove that I wasn’t a mistake on that team.”
When the Olympic Marathon got here round 18 months after she had certified for the workforce, Seidel as soon as once more exceeded her personal expectations with a sometimes gutsy, gritty efficiency in the sweltering warmth of Sapporo.
As leaders Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei of Kenya pulled away in the closing levels of the race, Seidel discovered herself vying for a medal alongside Israel’s Lonah Chamtai Salpeter.
But with two-and-a-half miles remaining, Salpeter hit a wall and light from rivalry.
A medal was now Seidel’s to lose, and she duly wrapped up the bronze with a scream of pleasure as she crossed the end line — the third US lady ever to medal in the Olympic marathon.
“I struggle with confidence and I struggle with wondering whether or not I belong at this level, whether I belong as a competitor on the world stage,” says Seidel.
“The Olympic medal was kind of showing me: Hey, you belong here, and you can do this regardless of any insecurities that you might feel,” she provides. “You can still go get beaten, you can still have a lot of work to do, but you can do this.”
“Yes, we were coming off this emotional high winning the medal,” says Seidel, “but there had been so much just pent up stress over the course of the Games and leading into the Games with Covid, with the quarantine, wondering if the Games are going to happen.
“And so I got here again and frankly, I used to be simply drained and emotionally exhausted and spent.”
But obstacles — physical as well as mental — kept appearing. Two broken ribs she suffered ahead of the race hadn’t healed with race day looming, and her coach Jon Green suggested she wasn’t ready to compete.
“It was an absolute catastrophe of a buildup,” says Seidel.
“It was actually arduous, not solely with the psychological stress that we had happening after the Games of simply feeling, frankly, no motivation. And simply looking for that drive to re-up for an additional arduous race proper after an unlimited race that I’d been coaching successfully two years for.
“And then it was just like problem after problem after problem, and injury after injury.”
Even with two of her ribs damaged, Seidel says she “felt incredible” throughout the race, setting a brand new course document for an American lady of two hours, 24 minutes and 42 seconds and putting fourth.
She had deliberate to make a return to the streets of New York this weekend for the NYC Half, however introduced on Tuesday that “setbacks in training” — which aren’t rare occurrences whenever you’re working as much as 135 miles every week — have meant she took the resolution to remain at her coaching base in Flagstaff, Arizona forward of the Boston Marathon.
“It’s super tough,” Seidel mentioned on her high-mileage schedule.
“It’s hard, but I think it’s a matter of learning how to balance. Your body adapts over time and I make sure I’m getting sufficient rest and all that. It’s a challenge, but I love the challenge of it.”
Loads has modified in her working profession since then. Broken bones have healed and Seidel has established herself as certainly one of the greatest marathon runners in the world. But that is to not say there are not any extra targets to chase, nor that there are not any extra classes to study.
Each marathon, she explains, brings with it contemporary expertise and a renewed sense of pleasure.
“I feel like every single time it’s just kind of wild,” says Seidel.
