Running News Daily

Kate Grace, an 800-meter specialist who ranked third in the world in 2021, is taking a slow road back to competition.

At first, the COVID symptoms Kate Grace experienced at the end of December 2021 seemed mild enough. She had a sore throat and fever and felt tired. That turned into a cold, which gradually eased over the next several days. And because she had been vaccinated and had a booster shot, she didn’t expect any lasting complications. Within two weeks, the 800-meter specialist, a 2016 Olympic finalist, was back to running.

But in January, she began to notice she was struggling in training. She was pushing to hit her usual 7-minute pace during easy runs, and she felt exhausted afterward. In workouts, her difficulties were even more stark. “Paces that should have been pedestrian for me were an all-out effort,” she told Runner’s World. Grace, 33, had had a terrific 2021 track season, setting PRs in the 800 meters (1:57.20) and 1500 meters (4:01.33) and finishing in the top 3 in six of seven Diamond League meets she ran, with three victories. She couldn’t wait for the 2022 season, with the World Championships set to take place in July in Eugene, Oregon, the first time the meet will be held in the United States. 

“I was just so excited about getting back to races, I think I pushed myself way too hard,” she said. “In my intense desire to get back into shape, I wasn’t patient. I didn’t listen to the fact that my body was not cooperating.” 

After about three weeks, she realized the struggles she was having were out of the ordinary. She stopped trying to train. Her body, she said, “kind of shut down.” 

Her primary symptom was crushing fatigue. One easy activity—making lunch, for instance—exhausted her for the rest of the day. Other symptoms included dizziness when she stood up, poor sleep, and excessive sweating. She would have to rest after she climbed the stairs in her Boulder, Colorado, home, because her heart rate would soar. Her feet turned purple in the mornings when she stood up, and she had brain fog. 

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee put Grace in touch with doctors in Denver, who tested her heart and lungs—which checked out fine, with no sign of myocarditis—and confirmed she was experiencing classic long COVID symptoms. They told her there was nothing to do but rest. 

That’s what she did. For 10 weeks, Grace did no running, cross-training, or lifting. She did start taking walks—just around the block at first, and she’d need a nap afterward. But over the weeks, those walks gradually grew to an hour. From those, she moved to hiking to get her heart rate up. Then short runs. 

Now she’s back to running an hour a day. She’s still slower than she used to be on her easy runs, but she’s improving rapidly. It’s too soon to tell whether Grace will be able to have any kind of racing season in 2022, but she’s relieved to have her normal life and energy back. 

“I literally cried on my first run,” she said. “I ran for 20 minutes at 10-minute pace. I was so happy. To be able to go and run and move my body and feel normal afterward, yeah, I laughed and cried. It was amazing.” 

Grace struggles to convey how she felt during the worst days. “The fatigue was like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “I feel like I went to sleep in December and woke up in April. I did nothing. I couldn’t look at my phone. Weeks passed, and I don’t even know what happened. I was like a gray ghost of myself.” 

Her physical symptoms were compounded by fear of not knowing when she would ever feel like herself again. Forget about her racing—she just wanted her life back.

Here is what she has learned so far in the process of her recovery—and what she wants other runners who have had COVID to know about coming back. 

Rest and be patient. Grace advises anyone who has had COVID to take an extra week or two off before trying to run again, and then to start back to running very conservatively. She doesn’t know for sure if she made herself worse by trying to run before she was fully recovered, but she certainly didn’t help matters. “It’s way more prudent to wait and let yourself heal,” she said. “It’s always a possibility to have a delayed reaction to illness.” Post-viral syndrome is something that happens with other illnesses, such as mononucleosis or the flu. With COVID, too, it’s possible to fall into deep fatigue and need a long time to recover. 

Don’t let your identity as a runner obscure what your body needs. Be appropriately humble. Respect the illness. “Just because you are a healthy, in shape person, you’re still human, your body still needs rest,” she said. “You still need time to recover.” Pushing through is counter productive.

One day your body will work for you again the way you expect it to, if you give it what it needs. But it might happen on a very different schedule than you had planned. 

Take the timeline pressure off. You have a target race on the calendar? Let it go. Defer your entry, if possible, or transfer the bib to a friend if the race allows it. You will race again, just maybe not when you thought. And fretting about it won’t help. 

Grace credits her coach, Joe Bosshard, with telling her to stop worrying about her track season. Every day that she didn’t feel better, she said she would “freak out” about how her season was slipping away. That stress would slow her recovery. “We have to reset mentally,” Grace said Bosshard told her. “Don’t think about races. Let yourself be calm and heal. When that happens, we can revisit racing plans.” 

Walk before you run. Runners tend not to count walking as exercise, but a week or two of walking can help runners transition back into their primary activity. As Grace got better and faster at walking, she progressed to hiking. 

While physically the walks helped prepare her body for running again, they also served an important psychological purpose. “I had lost confidence in my body,” she said. “I needed to prove myself I could get my heart rate up and not fall back into the hole.” Walking felt less likely to set her back than running, and when her walks went well, she started to lose the fear she felt around running.

Invest in a heart rate monitor. Grace now wears a Polar heart rate monitor and has been very careful so far not to overdo it. Otherwise, she’d likely be worried about her pace. When she started her short walks, she kept her heart rate to only about 50 percent of her maximum heart rate. With hiking, she got up to about 60–65 percent of her max. With her first few runs, she didn’t exceed 70 percent of her max and she wanted to make sure she could recover from those runs without excessive fatigue. Now she runs at between 70–85 percent of her maximum heart rate. 

Everyone’s COIVD experience is different. Even though Grace knew plenty of people who had had COVID, she didn’t know any athletes who had suffered from long COVID. So the first few weeks back to running, when she was struggling, it didn’t even dawn on her that her issues were related to the virus. 

When she realized she had long COVID, at first she spent long hours searching on social media and message boards for stories of people who had recovered. And she couldn’t find them. (It makes sense, she said. When you get better, you stop visiting the message boards.) But when she posted on her Instagram account on February 13 about her long COVID symptoms, she did hear from a few people who told her they had gotten better, which was helpful. “That was the one time I was thankful for Instagram,” she said. She stayed largely unplugged after that post. Comparing her recovery to others’ didn’t help. 

Tell your support team what’s going on. Grace went through a particularly hard three-week stretch when she was scared, confused, and emotional. “I would wake up, feel crappy and tired, and would start crying on my kitchen floor,” she said. 

Her fiancé, Patrick, knew what was happening, but she clued in her family and her teammates training under Bosshard about how sad and worried she was feeling. Emma Bates, in particular, was helpful, inviting her over, but understanding when Grace declined. “They made me feel included but very low-impact stuff,” she said. “Check-ins like that were meaningful.” Thanks to her strong network, there was one symptom that never appeared on Grace’s list: isolation. 

Most Olympic marathoners spend their youth focused on running. They join track clubs, compete in national championships, and pursue the sport from an early age.

Julia Mayer’s journey was very different.

Today, Mayer is Austria’s marathon record holder, a multiple national record holder on the roads, and an Olympian. Yet for much of her athletic life, running was not her primary sport.

For 16 years, she played soccer.

Then she discovered something that would change her life.

“I noticed that I was really fast in the fun runs and that it was really, really fun,” Mayer said when reflecting on her transition from soccer to distance running.

What began as curiosity quickly became a passion. She eventually made the bold decision to leave soccer behind and focus entirely on running. It was a move that surprised many people around her, but Mayer believed she had found her true athletic calling.

The decision proved to be the right one.

Within a few years, Mayer developed into one of Europe’s top marathon runners. Her steady improvement carried her from local races to the international stage, where she began rewriting Austria’s record books.

She now holds Austrian records in the marathon, half marathon, and road 10K. Her marathon best of 2:26:08 established her as the fastest female marathoner in Austrian history. Her performances in the half marathon and 10K have further cemented her place among the country’s all-time great distance runners.

Her rise culminated with qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Competing in the Olympic marathon represented the realization of a dream. On one of the most challenging marathon courses ever used for the Olympics, Mayer ran courageously against the strongest field in the world and finished 55th in her Olympic debut.

Behind the scenes, success has come through extraordinary dedication. During marathon preparation, Mayer trains twice a day and covers approximately 200 kilometers, or 124 miles, each week. The workload demands discipline, patience, and a deep commitment to continuous improvement. 

What makes her story especially inspiring is not simply the records or the Olympic appearance.

It is the fact that she found her greatest talent later than many elite runners.

In a sport where athletes are often identified at a young age, Mayer’s journey serves as a reminder that potential does not always reveal itself early. Sometimes it takes years of experience, a willingness to try something new, and the courage to follow a different path. 

The former soccer player who once chased a ball across a field is now chasing history on the roads of Europe.

And according to those closest to her, her best performances may still be ahead.

For runners of every age and ability, Julia Mayer’s story delivers a powerful lesson: it is never too late to discover what you are capable of.

From soccer player to Olympian, her journey proves that remarkable achievements can begin when least expected.

Megan Keith produced the performance of her career in Oslo on Thursday night, shattering one of Scotland’s longest-standing distance running records and cementing her place among Britain’s greatest female 3000m runners.

The 24-year-old clocked a sensational 8:28.35 over 3000m, breaking the Scottish outdoor record that had stood for nearly four decades. In doing so, Keith eclipsed the previous mark of 8:29.02, set by Scottish legend Yvonne Murray back in 1988, ending a record reign that had lasted 38 years.

Keith’s breakthrough run was more than just a national record. The performance also propelled her to third on the UK outdoor all-time list, placing her behind only two of Britain’s most celebrated distance runners — Paula Radcliffe, who leads the rankings with 8:22.20, and Laura Weightman, whose 8:26.07 remains the second-fastest outdoor mark by a British woman.

The significance of Keith’s achievement is amplified by the calibre of athletes she now joins in the record books. For decades, Murray’s mark stood as one of Scottish athletics’ most untouchable records, surviving generations of elite competitors. Keith has now succeeded where many outstanding runners have fallen short, announcing herself as one of the leading distance talents in British athletics.

Her time also compares favourably with the best performances produced indoors. Olympic medallist Laura Muir ran 8:26.41 indoors in Karlsruhe in 2017, underlining just how exceptional Keith’s outdoor effort in Oslo truly was.

The run continues a remarkable rise for the Scottish star, whose progression over recent seasons has transformed her from a promising prospect into a genuine force on the international stage. Running with confidence and composure against elite competition, Keith demonstrated both the speed and endurance required to challenge the very best in Europe and beyond.

With the World Championship season gathering momentum, Keith’s record-breaking display sends a powerful message. Not only has she etched her name into Scottish athletics history, but she has also established herself as a serious contender in one of the sport’s most competitive events.

In Oslo, Megan Keith did far more than break a record. She ended a 38-year wait, climbed into the upper echelon of British distance running, and delivered a performance that may prove to be a defining moment in her career.

British middle-distance talent Phoebe Gill took another significant step forward in her return to top form, producing a determined victory over 800 metres at the Meeting de Marseille in France on Wednesday.

Competing in challenging, wind-affected conditions, the 19-year-old demonstrated both resilience and composure as she held off a late charge from Switzerland's Veronica Vancardo to secure the win in 2:00.81. Vancardo finished just three hundredths of a second behind in 2:00.84, underlining the fiercely contested nature of the race.

While the margin of victory was narrow, the result represented another encouraging milestone for Gill as she continues to rebuild momentum following her injury setback. The young Briton showed impressive race awareness and strength in the closing stages, maintaining her advantage despite the difficult conditions that made fast running a challenge throughout the evening.

The Marseille triumph adds to a growing body of evidence that Gill is steadily progressing toward her best form. Earlier in her comeback campaign, she clocked 2:01.50 for 800m in Bydgoszcz before demonstrating her versatility with a strong 4:05.53 performance over 1500 metres at the BMC Grand Prix meeting in Trafford.

Those performances have highlighted not only her improving fitness but also her ability to compete across multiple distances as she carefully builds her season. The Marseille victory now provides further confirmation that the European junior star is moving in the right direction.

Gill emerged as one of Britain's most exciting middle-distance prospects through a series of breakthrough performances as a teenager, earning widespread recognition for her fearless racing style and remarkable maturity. Injury temporarily interrupted that upward trajectory, but her recent results suggest she is steadily rediscovering the form that made her one of the sport's brightest young talents.

With each race, the signs of progress become increasingly evident. Winning in difficult conditions and under pressure from a quality field is often a stronger indicator than a fast time alone, and Gill's latest success demonstrated exactly those qualities.

As the summer season gathers pace, the Marseille victory offers another confidence boost for the British teenager, whose return continues to gain momentum. If her recent progression is any indication, Gill could soon find herself back among the leading names on the European middle-distance circuit. 

The NCAA Track and Field Championships delivered a moment few could have predicted as Ja’Kobe Tharp produced one of the most astonishing performances in the history of sprint hurdling, rewriting the record books in spectacular fashion.

Competing in the opening round of the men’s 110-meter hurdles, the Auburn star stunned the athletics world by clocking an incredible 12.75 seconds, becoming the first athlete ever to break the 12.80-second barrier. In doing so, he eclipsed the long-standing world record of 12.80 set by Aries Merritt in 2012, a mark that had stood as one of the sport’s most revered achievements for more than a decade.

What makes Tharp’s breakthrough even more remarkable is the scale of his improvement. Entering the championships, the defending NCAA and U.S. champion had recorded a season-best of 13.05 seconds. Yet under the brightest spotlight, he unleashed a performance that exceeded every expectation, slicing an extraordinary 0.26 seconds from his personal best in a race that instantly became one of the greatest ever run.

The achievement sent shockwaves throughout the track and field community. While Tharp arrived in Eugene as one of the leading contenders for the NCAA title, few envisioned a performance capable of redefining the limits of the event. Instead, the American hurdler delivered a race for the ages, combining flawless technique, explosive speed, and impeccable rhythm from the first hurdle to the finish line.

The historic run not only secured his place in athletics history but also transformed the outlook of the championship. With the world record now in his possession, Tharp advances to the final as the overwhelming favorite, carrying momentum that could make an already unforgettable weekend even more extraordinary.

For years, the 12.80 barrier appeared untouchable. On a stunning day at the NCAA Championships, Ja’Kobe Tharp proved otherwise, producing the kind of performance that reminds fans why sport remains so unpredictable. In a matter of seconds, he turned a routine qualifying round into a landmark moment that will be remembered for generations.

The world record no one saw coming is now a reality—and Ja’Kobe Tharp is the man who changed history.

A new chapter in middle-distance running may have begun in Oslo after American teenager Cooper Lutkenhaus produced one of the most remarkable performances of the season, narrowly defeating reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in a thrilling men's 800m contest at the Diamond League meeting.

The 17-year-old sensation shocked a world-class field by crossing the finish line first in a race that came down to the smallest of margins. After an intense battle over the final metres, Lutkenhaus held off Wanyonyi by just one hundredth of a second, producing a dramatic finish that left the packed stadium in disbelief.

From the opening lap, the pace was relentless as the leading contenders positioned themselves for a fierce showdown. As the athletes entered the home straight, Wanyonyi appeared poised to unleash his trademark finishing kick. However, Lutkenhaus refused to be intimidated, matching the Olympic champion stride for stride before producing a perfectly timed lean at the line to secure a historic victory.

The result marks a breakthrough moment for the young American, who continues to establish himself as one of the brightest talents in global athletics. Defeating an Olympic champion at a Diamond League event is a feat many athletes spend entire careers pursuing, yet Lutkenhaus achieved it before reaching adulthood.

For Wanyonyi, the narrow defeat does little to diminish his status as one of the world's premier 800m runners. The Kenyan once again demonstrated his exceptional class and competitiveness, pushing the race to a world-class standard and forcing his young rival to deliver the performance of a lifetime.

Beyond the result itself, the race offered a glimpse into what could become one of the sport's most exciting rivalries in the years ahead. With established stars and emerging talents now pushing each other to new heights, the men's 800m continues to evolve into one of athletics' most captivating events.

On a memorable night in Oslo, the spotlight belonged to Cooper Lutkenhaus. At just 17 years old, he stood toe-to-toe with an Olympic champion and emerged victorious, announcing himself to the athletics world in spectacular fashion.