A Runner’s Career Ends, but Her Mission Goes the Distance

A great role model on and off the track!

What a refreshing commentary about an extraordinary person during this week of campaign rhetoric. I recently saw this quote attributed to Martina Navratilova.

The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
-Martina Navratilova

Her Picky Bars are so good. I try to stock up when back in Eugene. Missing them here in Ukraine.

Fascinating story and well told on the exgeniences of life shaping the achievent and development of a high performance woman. She excelled in lifting the role of women in sports. Appreciate her efforts.

I do not follow the sport, I had no idea who this awesome woman was. Awesome both on the field of off.
Thanks.

I've followed her husband for several years, but what I know about her has only been about her running accomplishments. She sounds deeply intelligent, committed to changing the awful state of women's athletics and perhaps making a few dollars in the process. The sad truth is that today's icon is tomorrow's trash, and in sports that is as true as it is in politics. Fleshman seems to have moved quickly to get beyond the transient fame of "star athlete". Perhaps her example will lead more girls into sports, who will become women staying active and healthy.
We need more stories about transitional women figures in sport.

Brava for Lauren. If there were more like her, American track and field might once again occupy the American sports fan more than once every four years.

A nice article about an awesome athlete. To learn about someone else who's been doing this longer, look at Nikki Kimball still one of the best ultra runners in the world and about 10 years older. Full disclosure, I'm a friend. As someone who is not the skinny blonde that sponsors want to cover, she has had to wrestle with another bias endemic in our professional sports world. It turns out it doesn't matter so much how fast you run, how well and long you run, or how consistently strong your long career has been but rather more how cute the sponsors think you look to their customers. (Nikki looks damn cute by the way in her Hoka gear, she's just not a skinny blonde.)

I regularly read her articles in Runner's World magazine and find her to be supremely irritating. Also, her Picky Bars are extremely high in sugar... just candy bars with a "health halo" on them.

Refreshing and awesome - finally an article that focuses on real achievements

A great person who happens to be a great athlete. I hope that she makes her mark indelible.

I am impressed and know that Lauren will continue to do amazing things. She appears to be one of those rare individuals who is willing to look deeply and honestly, to research, and to think creatively. Combined with this is her incredible discipline. This article was my introduction to Ms. Fleshman (I rarely follow sports) but she is someone worth watching.

I've been a big fan since her Stanford days. Great career, well beyond "just running," with lots to admire as a person. And colorful: when someone apparently questioned her alleged privileged upbringing, she said (something like) the only thing she would inherit from her father was an old Bose stereo and a potty mouth. Can't help but fall for that!

Perhaps its due to editing requirements, but I'm confused as to why I have so many women heroes in track and field while she couldn't seem to find them. The incredible Joan Benoit (and many of her competitors from her day). Lynn Jennings, Princeton graduate, with her mud soaked poster on our walls, supreme toughness: 3 world cross golds, 9 national cross championships, Olympic bronze in 10,000. Meeting mid-distance stars Jearl Miles and Joetta Clark made me a babbling mess. Deena Drossin showing no fear against the best, and living the necessary lifestyle (ever been to Alamosa, CO? :) Many more, albeit without those credentials. What I most appreciated in them was the ability to be coached, a trait seemingly abandoned by many US men at that time, and to apply that coaching in the biggest races. Ok, fine, she can't compete with the best in the world. What she put into and got out of sports is what sports are supposed to be about. Which is why she will have a successful post-running life.

So, there have been many women around to admire and emulate. And Lauren has been, and will continue to be, one of them.

O.K., so having watched more than my fill of political nonsense over the last week, after I read this profile, I find myself asking: Why don't people like her go into politics. I have to think we would be the better for it.

Anyone who has met Lauren knows she's so much more than an elite athlete, she's smart, honest, genuine, a great writer, and an inspiration to many. My favorite quote on her blog announcing her retirement from professional running reads, "It was clear that this dream wasn’t serving me anymore. It was keeping me from being present, happy, and able to fully appreciate my amazing life. I knew I had to let it go, but I was scared of what would happen to my life without this goal holding the pieces together."

Haven't we all been there at times in our lives? With all that Lauren has going for her, reading a blog passage like that reveals an honesty and vulnerability that makes her so relatable and likable. I'm glad she's not retiring from writing!

Lauren and Jesse: Great people. Smart people. Brains, talent, initiative, character.

Forget the Olympics, Lauren has made one of the most important impacts on the sport for women. Her ethics, passion, and message are an inspiration and have paved the way for other professional women runners to have the voice they now do.

A true idol.
Thank you, Lauren, can't wait to see what you do next.