In this episode of "Running: State of the Sport," George and Amby chat with Keira D'Amato, the American record holder at 10 miles and the half-marathon, and the second fastest ever in the marathon with her 2:19:27.

These performances make Keira a top contender in the February 3 Olympic Marathon Trials. Keira has followed an unusual path to her current running. Soon after college, she stopped serious training to get married, have two children, and start a real-estate business. She stayed away from elite running for more than a decade. However, she zoomed back in 2019 with a 2:34 marathon in Berlin, and she's only been getting faster since.  

Before talking to Keira, George and Amby discussed the biggest recent news in running. George was impressed by Parker Valby's win in the NCAA Cross-Country Championships, especially by her low training mileage. He also noted noted that Harvard's Graham Blanks became the first Ivy League winner at NCAAs. Blanks called his race "dumb ass" after finishing, but there wasn't much evidence of that. 

Amby mentioned that Harvard has an actual world-record runner in physics prof Jenny Hoffman. She recently set a female record for the run across America, averaging 63 miles/day for 47 days. Amby was also intrigued by Jonathan Gault's report at LetsRun.com on the increasing use of a sodium bicarbonate mix by top runners. (It's legal but often produces more "runs" than running.) It's claimed that Kelvin Kiptum, Molly Seidel, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have been using the bicarb mix. 

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"Running: State of the Sport" is brought to you by MarathonHandbook.com and RunLongRunHealthy.com. Marathon Handbook is the world’s leading marathon website, with a special focus on trustworthy running information and free, runner-tested training plans for all ability levels.

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Audio engineering by BJ McGeever.