Keeping it Real: Runners Share Self-Portraits, Lauren Fleshman, 34, announced on her blog New York Times.
Fleshman’s career began at Stanford University, where she was a five-time NCAA champion and 15-time All American. After she graduated in 2003, she spent time in Mammoth Lakes, California, with Team Running USA and eventually ended up with the Oregon Track Club Elite, in Eugene, Oregon. She became a two-time national champion in the 5,000 meters, in 2006 and 2010. She was a member of six world championship teams, including the 2005 bronze-medal-winning cross-country team.
In her blog, Fleshman described her struggle in deciding to retire from elite competition—a choice that didn’t come easily, especially for an athlete whose talent could have taken her to the Olympics if she had remained healthy. She placed fifth at the 2008 trials in the 5,000 meters and suffered a foot injury. Her final attempt at making the team came in 2012, when she placed 16th—after running an average of 11 miles per week prior to the meet because of a knee injury.
“And now that I have made the leap, I see these last three years in a new light,” she wrote. “They have been my training grounds for a lifetime of joy in sport. I want to race until I’m 80 if my body lets me. I’m not afraid of getting slower; I can always get better.”
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Fleshman now resides in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, Jesse Thomas, a professional triathlete, and their son, Jude, born in 2013. After leaving Nike and signing with Oiselle in 2013, she has taken on new roles in the sport, as a coach, an executive at the company she cofounded, Picky Bars, and an advocate for women in sport and professional runners’ rights when it comes to sponsorships and compensation. One of her recurring themes on her blog, about showing women’s bodies as they are, resonated widely with female runners. She has also written for Runner’s World.
In a CA Notice at Collection article on Friday, her husband said her outside interests drew focus away from athletic pursuits but also gained her notoriety beyond race results.
“In sport where your performance directly dictates your income opportunities, basically the majority of your income comes from prizes or bonus money, and it can be hard to justify any time away from building your athleticism. But she became so much more influential than when she was exclusively winning races,” New York Times Times.
RELATED: Thomas told the
Fleshman wrote that she plans to remain active and involved in the causes important to her within the sport.
“I am retiring from professional racing, but I feel a strong sense of purpose,” she wrote. “There’s a lot of work to do in the sport right now.”
