Can a Girl Really Run a 180 Speed Rating??

Via Bill Meylan, TullyRunners

See Full Article Here

Amber Trotter has my highest girl speed rating rating ever (180 at Footlocker 2001 run in Orlando, Florida). She ran for Ukiah high school in California.

As noted in a previous article that compared Boy-Girl winning time differences, at Footlocker 2001 in Orlando, Amber Trotter broke Sara Bei's course record by 31 seconds ... Sara Bei (now Sara Hall) won Footlocker 2000 ... Amber Trotter won Footlocker 2001 by 40 seconds ... she beat 4th-place Molly Huddle by 55 seconds ... she was only 1:34 slower than boy's winner Timothy Moore ... Chris Solinsky finished 3rd in the boy's race only 2 seconds behind the winner (so Amber Trotter was only 1:32 slower than Chris Solinsky).

Watch The Race ...Footlocker 2001 was broadcast nationally on television by the Fox Sports Network on a delayed basis (no web-cast) ... The first one-hour replay started the Monday following Footlocker ... That broadcast is currently available on the Internet at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrOOeMhPTA ... You can watch Amber Trotter run the 180 speed rating.

It was warm and very humid at the Orlando Disney World golf course in 2001 (about 80 degrees at race-time for the girls) ... you can see dew on the grass ... Amber Trotter's coach (Jerry Drew) was interviewed before the race and said Amber would go out in 5:00 to 5:05 ... he said she was healthy and "everybody knows about the anorexia problem".

Amber Trotter competed against three exceptionally talented runners at Footlocker 2001 ... I posted a high-school look-back article about Molly Huddle in 2012 ... It lists the remarkable high-school performances by Molly Huddle ... NY State & Federation champion and she had broken 12 cross country course records her senior year entering Footlocker ... she would go on to break the National outdoor high school 2-Mile record (10:01.08) at the National Meet in hot & humid North Carolina in June 2002 ... Molly Huddle is currently one of the top American distance runners.

Erika Odlaug (Deerfield HS Illinois) had broken 12 course records in 13 races (she did not break the Footlocker Midwest course record; it was completely rain-soaked and muddy) ... The Illinois girls were racing a 2.5-mile distance in 2001 ... Erika Odlaug had shattered that Detweiller Park record earlier in the season and she broke it by an additional 5 seconds in winning the State Meet (13:25) ... She won the IL State Meet by 45 seconds ... The previous outdoor track season, Erika Odlaug won the Golden West 2-Mile in 10:11.31 and was 2nd at the adidas Outdoor Nationals 2-Mile.

Natasha Roetter (Lexington HS, MA) had won back-to-back Footlocker Northeast titles ... she was 4th at Footlocker Nationals in 2000, and was also undefeated entering Footlocker 2001.

Footlocker 2001 ... The race video shows what happened ... Amber Trotter opened a big early lead and extended it all the way to the finish ... She ran the opening mile in 5:03 (had a 23 second lead over Molly Huddle who was in 2nd at the mile).

By the halfway point, Amber Trotter's lead was 36 seconds and it was clearly obvious that the real race was for second place. In fact, her race was so dominant that race officials had to call for a second golf cart to pace the group of 32 of the nation's finest female runners. One for Trotter, and one for the rest of the field (as reported by http://fl.milesplit.com/articles/253/amber-trotter-does-the-expected-unexpectedly).

Amber Trotter passed the 2-mile mark in an incredible 10:21 (Natasha Roetter was 2nd at 2-miles in 10:54) ... 10:21 for 2-miles in heat, humidity and wet grass ... Amber Trotter won by 40 seconds over  Erika Odlaug who edged Natasha Roetter ... Molly Huddle was 4th (55 seconds back) ... Molly Huddle was 15 seconds ahead of the 5th-place finisher ... Full results listed here with my speed ratings.