This Was Molly Seidel’s First Marathon. Her Next Will Be at the Olympics.

She has two day jobs.

While Seidel spent the past two months training at altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz., her life in Boston has been rather ordinary compared to that of some of the competitors she faced on Saturday. She goes to work, shares an apartment with her younger sister and soaks up the gnarly weather conditions in Boston.

“I usually get up, do my main training session, come back, work a couple of hours at the coffee shop or go babysit, then can run later in the day,” she said. Then she laughed. “But things might be changing up a little bit when I get back to Boston.”

Seidel has been able to lie low at the coffee shop, and few customers and co-workers knew her status as an elite runner until recently. “I told them I qualified for the Olympic trials, and they were excited, but they’re also like, ‘You’re a nerd who runs.’”

She said her coach, Jon Green, did not like the two-jobs-while-training-at-an-elite-level thing. “I like the coffee gig,” Green said. But the babysitting? That requires too much driving and sitting in rush-hour traffic.

She gave her sister a high-five at Mile 7.

When’s the last time you saw a professional athlete swerve midcompetition to high-five a family member?

Exactly.

She thrived on a brutal course.

Seidel’s time, 2:27:31, was especially impressive given the course conditions.

The hills and strong headwinds slowed the field. Linden finished in 2:29:03, with Bates close behind in 2:29:35. Huddle and Hall did not finish. Hasay finished, but in 2:37:59.

She’s a talented turkey.

One of Seidel’s favorite traditions is to wear a turkey costume at a turkey trot in her native Wisconsin.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/sports/olympics/molly-seidel-olympic-marathon-trials.html