Two months after placing third in the U.S. championships, Emily Infeld placed third in the world championships 10,000 on August 24, 2015.
Six months ago, Emily Infeld thought she was done.
She hadnât run in months, her fitness abandoning her in the wake of a stress fracture. As she poured her heart out to family, friends, and teammates, her frustration was visible. âI cried to everyone,â she says. âI was so low, lost and emotionally crazy.â
On Monday in Beijing, more than 5,000 miles away from her training base in Portland, Oregon, Infeld cried tears of a different kind after capturing a surprise bronze medal in the 10,000 at the IAAF World Championships.
The 25-year-old had been in fourth for much of the last lap. But in a last desperate lunge for the line, she overtook U.S. teammate Molly Huddle when Huddle prematurely raised her arms in celebration and eased up in the final strides.
Afterward, Huddle was inconsolable, but when she came across her younger teammate, she couldnât help but congratulate her on the achievement. âThose better be tears of happiness,â she told Infeld.
Infeld first got into running in middle school, mostly because it was what her older sister Maggie did. Though she was a promising talent during her days at Georgetown University, few thought of her as a potential global medalist. One of those who did was Jerry Schumacher, the head coach of the Bowerman Track Club, who started working with Infeld in the fall of 2012.
For a long time, though, it looked as if Infeld was on a fast track to becoming a has-been, or worse, a never-was. Joining Schumacherâs group involved training alongside Olympic medalist Shalane Flanagan on a daily basis. At first, Infeldâs biggest enemy was her own determination.
âIt was hard,â she recalls of those first two years. âJerry is really focused on strength, and the training was a lot more than I was used to. Iâm the kind of person who just wonât complain, but thereâs a difference between complaining and telling someone youâre redlining every single day.â
Infeld was often laid low with fatigue or injury. In November 2013, she got a stress fracture on the left side of her sacrum, a bone at the base of the spine that inserts between the two hip bones. She spent three to four hours a day on an elliptical machine trying to maintain fitness, but instead prolonged her recovery.
Eventually, she was forced to take 10 weeks of complete rest. By last fall, she was up to 95 miles per week in an effort to make up for lost time. She soon got another sacral stress fracture, this time on her right side, and had to take another 10-week break.
âI talked to my parents, my agent Tom [Ratcliffe], my coach Jerry, Shalane, and I told them, âI think Iâm done. I donât think I can do this,ââ she says. âI hit a super, super low point.â
âWeâre not going to give up on you,â she recalls Schumacher saying. âYouâre young. You have it in you. Weâll get you back.â
In February, Infeld took to the grass at the Nike campus to complete her first run since November. âI did five minutes,â she says. âI was so embarrassed; I didnât want anyone to see me.â
For the next few months, Infeld slowly increased her mileage, supplementing it it with runs on an anti-gravity AlterG treadmill. To regain fitness, she cross-trained âlike a fiend,â she says, swimming for 90 minutes to three hours each day. âIâm the worst swimmer ever,â she says. âI was forcing myself to go. It literally felt like I was drowning.â
By late April, Infeld had been back doing workouts for a month. To gauge her speed ahead of the 5,000 at the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 2, Schumacher had her run an all-out 400 in training.
Beforehand, Schumacher told Infeld about a seventh-grade girl he coached who did 64 seconds the previous week. âSo long as you can match that,â he said, âyouâll be okay.â
Her time, all-out, less than four months before the world championships: 68 seconds.
âIt was so embarrassing,â says Infeld. âAfter that, Jerry was like, âLetâs try you in the 10,000.ââ
At Payton Jordan, Infeld surprised herself by running 31:38.71, well under the qualifying standard for the U.S. championships in late June and the world championships.
Before the U.S. championships, she went to Park City, Utah, for altitude training, running every step alongside Flanagan and progressing rapidly in the weeks that followed. âShe does it the right way,â says Infeld of her training partner. âItâs a whole lifestyle with her. I just follow suit.â
At the U.S. championships, Infeld finished third in 31:42.60, one meter behind Flanagan, who was second.
After the race, Flanagan told Infeld that Infeld should have won their sprint, but that Infeld had eased up approaching the finish. In the weeks that followed, the point was made several times to her in workouts: run through the line.
Infeld returned to Park City in July, doing nothing much besides training, resting, and getting to sleep before 10 every night. Running 70 to 80 miles a week, she did three hard workouts in every 10-day cycle. One was a long run, often 1:45 or longer, with the last five miles at an increasing pace, finishing at 5:20 per mile. The other two were four to six miles of long track intervals, and a pure speed session, two miles worth of short intervals, âbasically all out,â Infeld says.
On Monday, Infeld drew on all of that speed work over the final lap, which she covered in 62 seconds.
When she crossed the line, the first person to embrace her was Flanagan, who finished sixth. âYou did it,â she told Infeld with tears in her eyes.
âI donât know what I did,â came the response. âI wasnât sure. I was in such a daze.â
When Infeld finally had time to look at her phone Monday evening, she was greeted with a deluge of messages from those closest to her, along with many from relative strangers who felt a connection with her journey.
âI spoke to a lot of people who had been through struggles who messaged me,â she says. âI think you bond with people when you have an injury.â
When she finally made it to bed, considerably later than usual, she barely slept.
âItâs something Iâve dreamed about for so, so long,â says Infeld.
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