NYC Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan retires

Nov 5, 2017; New York, NY, USA; Shalane Flanagan became the first American to win the female race of the New York City Marathon since 1977. Mandatory Credit: Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com via USA TODAY Sports

Running: New York City Marathon

Four-time Olympian and New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan says she is retiring from competitive running to become a coach.

The 38-year-old Flanagan made the announcement on social media on Monday, saying she has only one regret: “I regret I can’t do it all over again.”

A native of Marblehead, Massachusetts, whose mother was the first woman to break 2 hours, 50 minutes in the marathon, Flanagan won a silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2008 Olympics. She won the New York Marathon in 2017, becoming the first American woman to win the race in 40 years.

Flanagan said she will be working with the Nike Bowerman Track Club.

In a pair of Instagram posts , Flanagan said, “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.”

 

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With happy tears I announce today that I am retiring from professional running. From 2004 to 2019 Ive given everything thats within me to this sport and wow its been an incredible ride! Ive 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. Ive 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 Ive ever known, in my approach to anything, is going ALL IN. So Im 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. Ive 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 Ive learned about and from running is what Im meant to do now.(1/2)

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