Juli Benson discusses her journey from barely making it to the NCAA Track & Field Championships her senior year to becoming an Olympian, and her subsequent transition into coaching. Juli coached Jenny Simpson to 1500m gold at the 2011 World Athletics Championships, and she now coaches runners of all abilities.

Juli got a flurry of attention after Nikki Hiltz, currently the U.S.'s top 1500m runner, announced last month that they are now working with Juli. But Juli coaches a number of high level athletes, which she discusses in this episode.

Topics include:

• How mentors like Frank Gagliano, Pat Henner, and Ron Helmer helped shape her coaching philosophy.
• How she wound up coaching Jenny Simpson and Kevin Sullivan.
• The seven pro runners she currently coaches.
• How she and Mike Smith handled the Nikki Hiltz coaching handoff after Smith and Hiltz were forced to part ways.
• Helping athletes navigate social media.
• The lack of opportunities for female coaches at the professional level.
• What it will take for U.S. middle-distance and distance runners to consistently medal on the world stage.

Juli's coaching website: https://julibensontraining.com/

Sarah Lorge Butler on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/slorgebutler.bsky.social

Fast Women on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fastwomen/

Fast Women on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fastwomen.bsky.social

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Molly Seidel, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon, provides an update on her running, health, and non-running pursuits. And she shares some big news about her sponsorship status

Sarah Lorge Butler on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/slorgebutler.bsky.social

Fast Women on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fastwomen/

Fast Women on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fastwomen.bsky.social

Subscribe to the Fast Women newsletter: https://fastwomen.substack.com/

Thanks for being one of the original listeners of the Fast People podcast!

Mike Scannell talks to Sarah Lorge Butler about coaching Grant Fisher to Olympic Bronze medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m last year, as well as two indoor world records in February.

Some Highlights:

• Discussion of Grant and Mike's post-Olympic recovery
• The importance of pacers maintaining rhythm in high-stakes races
• Grant thanking his pacer mid-race, while setting the indoor 5,000m world record
• What makes Grant unique, from a mental standpoint
• On whether it's harder to get high school kids to commit to working hard than it was 10 years ago
• High school kids being "mindless balls of clay"
• Is Mike still seeking a training partner for Grant?
• Mike's running, and how he tests all of the workouts he assigns on himself first
• How, at age 62, he remains healthy enough to do so
• How he got into coaching
• On learning from other coaches.
• How he'll approach Grand Slam Track, from a training perspective
• When Grant will run a marathon

Sarah's Runner's World article on the four pacers who helped Grant Fisher set his two world records this winter: https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a63875236/grant-fisher-pacers-world-records/

Sarah Lorge Butler on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/slorgebutler.bsky.social

Fast Women on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fastwomen/

Fast Women on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fastwomen.bsky.social

Subscribe to the Fast Women newsletter: https://fastwomen.substack.com/

Thanks for being one of the original listeners of the Fast People podcast!