Olympic triathlon gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen continued her road to the marathon with a disappointing – for her – 4th place in the USA Track & Field Half Marathon Championships in Pittsburg, PA. She finished in 1:10:58, behind Aliphine Tuliamuk's 1:10:04 for the win. It was Gwen’s first half-marathon and she felt the pain of a torrid early pace.

Notwithstanding her sense that it wasn’t her day, it’s the third impressive performance for the new pure runner in as many races, with a 15:15 indoor 5000, a 31:55 outdoor 10,000 (for the win) and now this. Gwen has a way of lasering in on the weakness in her game, as she did while shoring up her swim and bike in triathlon, and one expects her just to get better. Whether her best event is the marathon or something shorter is still an open question, but that’s a good problem to have.

In other triathlete-as-pure-runner news, NAU student Andy Trouard ran 13:21 for 6th place at the Payton Jordan Invitational's 5000 meter race. Andy was a star swimmer in high school before switching to running as a junior. He comes from a triathlon family and is known to be strong on the bike, though he isn’t a cyclist per se. Is he getting too good as a runner to eventually move to triathlon? Andy’s former running teammate at NAU is current triathlon Olympic hopeful Matt McElroy.

In another running-triathlon nexus, the winner of Gwen’s race, Aliphine Tuliamuk, has been coached for years by Ryan Bolton, U.S. Olympian in triathlon and former winner of Ironman Lake Placid. Bolton’s athletes also include Boston Marathon champion (2015) Caroline Rotich, along with many age group triathletes.

In a welcome (to many, this writer included) reprise was Gwen’s return to the old school split shorts!

[Image and video above from Talbot Cox]