Runners React to Shalane Flanagan's Retirement

"You set the bar high and brought everyone on the line up to those standards. USA women dream bigger because of you."

Published October 21, 2019 04:05PM

As news spread of Shalane Flanagan’s retirement on Monday, the running community took to social media to share their thoughts and perspective on how one of the sport’s most decorated athlete’s has impacted their lives.

How runners are reacting to Shalane Flangan’s retirement

“What does her retirement mean to me? Many things. The one thing that sticks out the most is the journey,” her husband Steve Edwards wrote on Instagram. “Shalane never made it to Footlocker in HS, she bombed out at NCAA XC Champs her sophomore year (picture is 10min post race.) She was entitled to nothing in running, she earned it all. She never got overwhelmed with the process, just took it one mile at a time, for 20 plus years. From Boulder, to Marblehead, to Chapel Hill and now in Portland. Wouldn’t of changed anything.”

Her post-collegiate career was filled with excellence and dominance across distances—and was impossible to ignore.

Oiselle’s Sarah Lesko noted how she (and likely many other coaches) used Flanagan as an example of what good running looks like, tweeting: “During my 9 years coaching middle school XC and T&F, each season I would show clips of this race of Shalane Flanagan to demonstrate what good form and guts looks like.”

But for many, it was the 2017 New York City Marathon—when she became the first U.S. woman in 40 years to win—and her now iconic reaction that will forever be cemented in their memories.

That single moment changed American distance running forever, and created a legacy of greatness that raised the bar for everyone. “I smashed the 100 mile World Record a week after Shalane won NYC! The Shalane Effect is real!” wrote two-time World Champion ultrarunner Camille Herron.

Flanagan’s retirement doesn’t mean her impact is leaving the sport, however, merely shifting. She also announced on Monday her official move to coaching the Bowerman Track Club in Portland, Oregon. After competing for 15 years, Flanagan will now become one of the only women guiding the careers of U.S. Olympic runners.

“This badass pouty-mouth selfless passionate caring champion runner, who made 4 Olympic teams, laid the foundation for the 21st-century American elite women’s running boom,” Arizona State University sports historian and former NCAA track champion Victoria Jackson tweeted. “She lifts others up as she flies, and will continue to do so, now as a coach!”

From everyday athletes and race organizers to former teammates and future athlete’s she will coach, here are some of the runner reactions to the news of Shalane Flanagan’s retirement:

Courtney Frerichs, 2017 World Silver Medalist and professional runner with Bowerman Track Club:

Emily Infeld, 2016 Olympian and professional runner with Bowerman Track Club:

Kara Goucher, elite distance runner and former teammate of Flanagan:

Molly Huddle, elite distance runner and 10,000-meter American Record Holder:

Mary Wittenberg, former President and CEO of New York Road Runners:

Elyse Kopecky, two-time NYT Bestselling co-author of Run Fast. Eat Slow. and Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow. with Flanagan:

Steve Magness, run coach and author of The Passion Paradox:

Paul Merca, track & field writer announcer based in Seattle:

Caitlyn Smith, former Women’s Running digital editor who wrote about some of Flanagan’s most pivotal life and career moments:

Sarah Mac Robinson, writer and 2016 Olympic Trials Qualifier:

Taneen Carvell, endurance coach based in Arlington, VA:

elite athletes Shalane Flanagan