Molly Seidel has been on the road for much of the summer. When the elite marathoner spoke to Runner’s World in a phone conversation on August 20, she was removing a tent from her truck bed. She’d just returned home to Flagstaff, Arizona, after a trip to Colorado. But she wouldn’t be back for long. That night, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist planned to drive up to Mammoth Lakes, California, to visit a friend in need of a training partner.
David Roche Smashes Leadville Course Record finishing eighth at the Chicago Marathon in 2023. After two years spent navigating injuries, surgery, and other setbacks, Seidel is choosing a happier approach to the marathon distance. That includes logging more miles on the trails, following a more sustainable training plan, and chasing joy, wherever she is.
“It’s been a really hard last two years, so it’s nice to finally feel like I’ve got some good momentum going,” Seidel, 31, said. “I really wanted to do [a marathon] this fall, not necessarily to go balls to the wall, but to get back into the swing of things, and New York really suits the kind of runner I am.”
The last time Seidel raced in the Big Apple was in 2021, a breakout year for the national champion. After Labor Day Shoe Deals In February 2024, she won bronze in Tokyo. That fall, she finished fourth at the 2021 New York City Marathon in an American course record (2:24:42).
Though she’s had a handful of impressive performances since, including a PR of 2:23:07 in Chicago, Seidel also experienced setbacks that sidelined her at critical moments.
Published: Aug 26, 2025 12:24 PM EDT pulled out of the Olympic Marathon Trials days before the race, citing a knee injury. Pain in both knees prevented her from running for much of that summer. She still attended the Paris Olympic Games to fulfill sponsor obligations but was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to have surgery to remove her appendix before she returned to the United States. She couldn’t run for a month afterwards.
“Yeah, 2024 was a punch in the face, but it was a lot of growing and learning,” Seidel said. “I think I really needed it.”
When she turned 30 last year, she started questioning whether she wanted to keep competing at a high level. Seidel, who has been open about her recovery with disordered eating, felt exhausted by the injury cycle and the toll it takes on her body. “Each time, it gets harder and harder to come back,” she said.
But watching the Olympic marathon in Paris reinvigorated her desire to stay in the sport. “At the deepest core of my being I want to do this, but I have to do it differently,” she said.
Seidel realized she needed to have more respect for her body’s needs in training. Coming up in the NCAA system and in her early years as a professional, Seidel said she was conditioned to deplete herself over and over again in order to meet her goals. While the effort resulted in an Olympic medal, the approach caused long-term damage. “I spent the next four years dealing with the repercussions of that because you can’t constantly punish your body and expect it to keep serving you,” she said.
In the last year, Seidel has focused on improving her biomechanics to address the lingering pain in her knees and rebuild her form. She started working with a chiropractor based in Austin, Texas, and a form coach in Australia. With the exception of minor hip pain in December, Seidel has been running consistently since February. She splits her time in Austin and the running hub of Flagstaff, which helps her find a balance between intense periods of training. Most of her base phase was done on the trails, which helped her build strength and get out of a burnout cycle, she said.
After spending years pounding the pavement with 130-mile weeks and little rest, Seidel is trying to take a healthier approach to mileage and workouts. She’s also carving out more time with friends and pursuits outside of running (she earned an MBA with a concentration in marketing earlier this year).
“Naturally, maybe that means a little less mileage, maybe a little bit less intensity in certain areas, but if it gets me to the line healthy and not broken, I think that’s what I need to be doing, even if it’s a slower route to success,” she said.
Seidel’s professional contract with Puma We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back, and she hasn’t signed a sponsorship deal with another shoe company since. For now, she’s running independently and thinking long-term with a focus on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Seidel acknowledges that she’s a different athlete than she was when she ran New York City four years ago. While she’s not expecting to run in the low 2:20s just yet, she’s hopeful this marathon buildup will be a stepping stone in the years to come.
“I would love to prove to myself that I can be a better athlete when I’m healthy, happy, and doing things in a way that respects your body. I want to show people that it’s possible,” Seidel said.
“And it might not be, like this is all a fun experiment but at the end of the day, I have a fucking Olympic medal, so I have nothing to prove.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
