The Female Runner’s Relationship with Food
In 2019, elite runner, Mary Cain, voiced her experience with the emotional and physical abuse that underwent during her status as one of Alberto Salazar’s athletes in Nike’s Oregon Project. Mary Cain is an American professional middle distance runner that was considered a child prodigy during her youth, and before she joined Nike, she was one of the fastest girls in America. During her time training with Salazar and the Oregon Project, she became beaten down by a win-at-all-costs culture. In this type of unhealthy culture, Cain’s male coaches were convinced that she had to get “thinner, and thinner, and thinner” (Cain) to be able achieve maximum potential in her running abilities, but maximum potential was far from what Cain reached. Instead of becoming faster, Cain’s body started breaking down. Through the lens of there being only success and failure in sports, “her rise was just as spectacular as her fall” (Cain).
Throughout Cain’s time with Salazar, she experienced five broken bones and lost her period for three years due to her expectation to lose weight in order to run faster. Cain reported that Salazar was obsessed with her weight and purposely made her weigh in in front of other teammates, thus placing additional pressure on her to become thinner than what was healthy for her body. By the end of her time with one of the most well recognized track teams in America, Cain was at risk of developing osteoporosis and infertility.
Cain’s experience demonstrates how there is a systematic crisis in women’s sports in which women and girls are being forced to meet athletic standards that are based on how men and boys develop. In that system, the female body is at risk of breaking down (Cain). The breaking down of the female body due to lack of nutrition in a sports based setting is called the Female Athlete Triad, a threefold condition of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. (Fielder-Jenks). Numerous elite athletes including former University of Oregon distance runner, Emma Abrahamson, struggled with at least one of conditions of the Female Athlete Triad.
Emma Abrahamson, now a social media influencer for athletes, especially female runners, expressed how she struggled with amenorrhea during her time as a collegiate athlete, and how she now wants to inspire runners to make wholesome meals that will sustain their hard working bodies. She said that “There is still this idea out there that eating less is better, because you’ll be faster if you’re lighter. But you’re no going to run faster if you eat less…”I’ve seen so many runners get injured or run poorly because they’re not eating enough to fuel their bodies.” (Middlebrook).
Abrahamson was just one of the runners who opened up about their relationship with food following Cain’s video. Cain’s video even sparked conversation among previous Nike Oregon Project athletes as well. Amy Yoder Begley stated that she was kicked out of the Oregon Project because she was too fat and was told that she “had the biggest butt on the starting line” (Cain).
Salazar and other male coaches of the Oregon Project fostered eating disorders through their impossible body and weight expectations and their false belief in the myth that the thinner the runner, the faster the runner. In addition to developing physical disorders such as amenorrhea under Salazar’s coaching, Cain also developed mental illnesses that caused her to have suicidal thoughts. She became a victim of an abusive man and an abusive system. (Cain)
*****
In order to make progress in rectifying this issue, more and more professional runners have been sharing their stories and developing cookbooks specifically for athletes. One of these runners is Shalane Flanagan and her former college teammate, Elyse Kopecky. Flanagan, American long-distance runner, commented in response to Cain’s video saying how she should have reached out when she noticed that Cain was struggling. In their cookbook, Flanagan and Kopecky inform the readers that it is estimated that about 20 percent of active women and up to 45 percent of female competitive runners suffer from athletic amenorrhea, which can lead to bone density loss and fertility issues. (Flanagan and Kopecky). Furthermore, in their cookbook, Run Fast. Eat Slow. and it’s sequel Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow. Flanagan shares her story about needed wholesome and filling foods for marathon training while Kopecky shares her struggle with amenorrhea.
In the introduction of their cookbooks they state,
“We would show runners everywhere that by indulging -yes, indulging- in real food, they will not only train and perform better, but also improve their overall health, all while enjoying what they eat more than ever before” (Flanagan and Kopecky).
Overall, they hope to educate athletes on how a nutrient filled diet from wholesome foods will lead them to success while also allowing them to avoid suffering from conditions of the Female Athlete Triad.
Works Cited:
Cain, Mary. “I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I Joined Nike.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html.
Ekern, Baxter. “History of Olympic Athletes & Eating Disorders.” Eating Disorder Hope, 26 June 2018, www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/olympic-athletes-eating-disorders.
Flanagan, Shalane, et al. Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow: Quick-Fix Recipes for Hangry Athletes. Rodale, an Imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018.
Flanagan, Shalane, et al. Run Fast. Eat Slow: Nourishing Recipes for Athletes. Rodale, 2016.
Middlebrook, Hailey. “These Drool-Worthy Pancakes Are Packed With Protein to Satisfy Hungry Runners.” Runner’s World, 19 Feb. 2021, www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-weight-loss/a31913003/runner-diet-emma-abrahamson/.
