"Starting to talk with Alistair (Cragg), I was really excited about his ambition and excitement for the (PUMA Elite) team. He wanted to create a situation where we would be contending for World teams, Olympic teams and eventually contending on those bigger stages as well. At first, hearing those goals sounded a little bit scary. Exciting, but scary. So it's really cool to start seeing some of it actually come together."

My guest for today’s episode is Fiona O’Keeffe – the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion. She ran the fastest marathon debut in American history with a 2:22:10 performance to win and also break the previous Marathon Trials record held by Shalane Flanagan from 2012. She will be joined at the Paris Olympics by American record holder Emily Sisson and Dakotah Lindwurm.

O’Keeffe was so impressive in the Orlando heat and pressed from the front to pull away from her competitors about 19 miles into the race. She ran all of the last few miles under 5:30 but threw down a 5:09 at Mile 25. She ended up winning by more than 30 seconds.

In this episode, we chat about how she mastered her marathon debut, when she knew the 26.2-mile distance was calling, her excitement over the state of U.S. women’s marathoning and we had to ask about the blood on her bib, which was caused by chafing from a gel that was stashed in her top.

A star is born in U.S. marathoning.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest: Fiona O'Keeffe | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@fiona_okeeffe on Instagram⁠⁠⁠

Time Stamps:

3:46: Aspirations to qualify for the Olympics. 

4:45: When she decided to go all-in on the marathon.

5:40: When she shifted to marathon training. 

7:08: What her training structure looked like heading into the Trials. 

8:21: How she managed heat training. 

10:31: How she stayed composed.

12:15: What was going through her mind during the race. 

14:06: Her thoughts in the later stages of the race. 

16:49: Fueling during the race.

18:15: Breaking down the gel chafing situation. 

20:25: Her social media following. 

22:28: How she balanced school work with training as a student at Stanford. 

25:18: Why she decided to join Puma Elite. 

27:13: How she celebrated.

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