Shalane Announces Retirement And Coaching Career

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It’s a day equal parts sad and joyous: Shalane Flanagan has announced her retirement from professional running and transition into professional coaching. She ends her career as one of the greatest- if not THE greatest- US distance runners of all-time. She made four Olympic teams. She won sixteen US titles, a World Cross Country bronze medal, an Olympic silver medal, and the 2017 New York City Marathon. She has been an incredible inspiration to a generation of distance runners and a wonderful leader of our professional team. No short paragraph could do justice to her wide ranging impact on the sport and our club, so we’ve assembled below her announcement as well as a sampling of the many articles on her illustrious career.

A Generation’s Leader Says Farewell: Shalane Flanagan Retires from Pro Running (Women’s Running)

Fans, Teammates, and Friends React to Shalane Flanagan’s Retirement (Runners’ World)

Running Legend Shalane Flanagan Is Retiring (Outside Magazine)

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With happy tears I announce today that I am retiring from professional running. From 2004 to 2019 I’ve given everything that’s within me to this sport and wow it’s been an incredible ride! I’ve broken bones, torn tendons, and lost too many toenails to count. I've experienced otherworldly highs and abysmal lows. I've loved (and learned from) it all. Over the last 15 years I found out what I was capable of, and it was more than I ever dreamed possible. Now that all is said and done, I am most proud of the consistently high level of running I produced year after year. No matter what I accomplished the year before, it never got any easier. Each season, each race was hard, so hard. But this I know to be true: hard things are wonderful, beautiful, and give meaning to life. I’ve loved having an intense sense of purpose. For 15 years I've woken up every day knowing I was exactly where I needed to be. The feeling of pressing the threshold of my mental and physical limits has been bliss. I've gone to bed with a giant tired smile on my face and woken up with the same smile. My obsession to put one foot in front of the other, as quickly as I can, has given me so much joy. However, I have felt my North Star shifting, my passion and purpose is no longer about MY running; it's more and more about those around me. All I’ve ever known, in my approach to anything, is going ALL IN. So I’m carrying this to coaching. I want to be consumed with serving others the way I have been consumed with being the best athlete I can be. I am privileged to announce I am now a professional coach of the Nike Bowerman Track Club. This amazing opportunity in front of me, to give back to the sport, that gave me so much, is not lost on me. I’ve pinched myself numerous times to make sure this is real. I am well aware that retirement for professional athletes can be an extremely hard transition. I am lucky, as I know already, that coaching will bring me as much joy and heartache that my own running career gave me. I believe we are meant to inspire one another, we are meant to learn from one another. Sharing everything I’ve learned about and from running is what I’m meant to do now.(1/2)

A post shared by Shalane Flanagan (@shalaneflanagan) on Oct 21, 2019 at 6:28am PDT

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I would like to thank: The 5 coaches who guided me throughout my career, Michael Whittlesey and Dennis Craddock (2004-2005), John Cook (2006-2008), Jerry Schumacher (2009-2019), and Pascal Dobert (2009-2019). Each man was instrumental in developing me into the best version of myself. Jerry, Pascal and I will continue to work together in this next chapter and I couldn’t be more grateful. Jerry has been my life coach, running coach and now will mentor me towards my next goal of becoming a world-class coach myself. I’m thankful for his unending belief in me. My family and husband who have traveled the world supporting my running and understanding the sacrifices I needed to make. Their unconditional love is what fueled my training. My longtime friend, Elyse Kopecky who taught me to love cooking and indulge in nourishing food. Run Fast. Eat Slow. has been a gift to my running and to the thousands of athletes. My teammates, and all the women I've trained with, for pushing me daily, and the endless smiles and miles. They include: Erin Donahue Shannon Rowbury Kara Goucher Lisa Uhl Emily Infeld Amy Cragg Colleen Quigley Courtney Frerichs Shelby Houlihan Betsy Saina Marielle Hall Gwen Jorgensen Kate Grace My sponsor Nike for believing in me since 2004 and for continuing to support my new dream as a professional coach. I hope I made myself a better person by running. I hope I made those around me better. I hope I made my competition better. I hope I left the sport better because I was a part of it. My personal motto through out my career has been to make decisions that leave me with “no regrets”.....but to be honest, I have one. I regret I can’t do it all over again. (2/2) 📷: @nyrr

A post shared by Shalane Flanagan (@shalaneflanagan) on Oct 21, 2019 at 6:29am PDT

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Today, one of the greatest to ever lace ‘em up announced her retirement. We could not be prouder that Shalane chose to represent the Bowerman Track Club these past five years as an athlete, and we could not be more excited that she will continue to be with us as a coach! ⠀ Trying to describe Shalane’s brilliant career with anything approaching justice feels like an impossible task. It would take something like the resolve, perseverance, and ability of the woman herself to approach the task properly. Suffice it to say: for 15 years Shalane was at the very top of American distance running. She made 4 Olympic Teams. She won a Silver medal at the Olympics and a Bronze Medal at the World Cross Country Championships. She set American Records at 5,000 and 10,000m. She paced her teammate to break one of those records. She won 16 US Titles. She was the first US woman in 40 years to win the New York City Marathon. ⠀ And through it all she has been a leader an inspiration to a generation of distance runners- professional or otherwise. Our sport and our club are so much the richer because she is a part of them. We know that will continue to be true as she becomes as great of a coach as she has been an athlete. ⠀ Shalane is retired, long live Coach Shalane! ⚡️⚡️⚡️ . . . #BowermanTC #BowermanBabes #GOAT #LegendsNeverDie #CrossCountry #TrackAndField #Marathon @Tcsnycmarathon #TeamNike #NikeRunning #JustDoIt @NikeRunning #Running #RunningCulture

A post shared by Bowerman Track Club (@bowermantc) on Oct 21, 2019 at 2:16pm PDT