We’re all familiar with Spotify Wrapped, the year-end round-up of all your favorite music and artists. What’s even more impressive, especially for us running geeks, is Strava’s Year in Sport.
As you may have guessed, Strava’s Year in Sport is a highly personalized report for Strava subscribers that highlights data insights, social engagements, and various other moments from your past year of training and racing.
We were curious to see the Year in Sport of some of the top American runners, so we took a look at their yearly stats. In this article, we’ll dive into the yearly stats of five athletes to see what the year of being an elite runner entails.
Molly Seidel
Known for her charming “bygolly.molly” Instagram handle and outgoing personality Molly Seidel had a busy year on the road.
The Olympic bronze medalist has struggled with her physical and mental health over the last few years, and 2023 was no different.
Seidel was on track to reaching top form again for the start of the 2023 season after a sacral fracture marked the end of her 2022 season.
A right glute injury she incurred at the end of February from the US Half Marathon Championships forced Seidel to withdraw from her spring marathon, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon, in Japan.
Seidel has also spoken candidly about her continuous struggles with eating disorder relapses and ADHD.
At the back end of the 2023 season, however, Seidel made a full return to competition and had a standout performance at the Chicago Marathon, placing 8th in a stacked field with a time of 2:23:07.
Looking at Seidel’s Strava stats, it’s clear she put in the work through her struggles.
Accumulating 662 hours and 39 minutes of training over the year is quite an impressive feat, and it averages just over one hour and 45 minutes of training per day.
Seidel covered a total distance of 5,284 miles (8,503.7 kilometers) with 164892 ft. (50,259m) of elevation gain. This would average 14.5 miles (23.30 kilometers) per day.
With the US Olympic Marathon Trials coming up in February, Seidel has surely put in a good year of preparation to try and qualify for her second Olympic Games.
Conner Mantz
Another American marathoner to keep an eye on is Conner Mantz.
Mantz is one of just two American men who have met the Olympic qualifying time to earn Team USA a guaranteed spot.
Mantz competed at two Marathon Majors this year, the Boston Marathon and the Chicago Marathon.
At the Boston Marathon, Mantz was running with the best in the world, including Eliud Kipchoge, Evans Chebet, and CJ Albertson, and managed to stay with the group as they pulled through the half in 1:02:20.
Mantz eventually hit a wall and ended up placing 11th with a time of 2:10:25.
At the Chicago Marathon, Mantz earned Team USA a spot in the men’s Olympic Marathon after finishing the race with a personal best of 2:07:47, which was also good enough for sixth place.
Mantz put in a heavy year, according to his Strava yearly statistics.
Clocking 517 hours and 51 minutes over 4689 miles (7,546.1 kilometers) means that Mantz averaged one hour, 25 minutes, and 12.8 miles (20.67 kilometers) per day. Among all these kilometers, Mantz also racked up 107152 ft. (32,660m) of elevation gain.
Graham Blanks
Although he is young and his career is just taking off, Harvard’s Graham Blanks has shown that he has the potential to compete with the cream of the crop.
The individual NCAA cross-country champion went undefeated during the fall season and has already set records this winter on the indoor track, including the collegiate indoor 5K record in 13:03.78.
His time also met the Olympic auto-qualifying standard, making him just the third American to do so.
Blanks also boasts a personal best of 28:15.90 in the 10,000m and 7:44.76 in the 3,000m, both of which were also set in 2023.
Blanks attends the prestigious Harvard University, meaning that alongside being an elite athlete, he also balances a full class schedule at one of the most rigorous schools in the world.
According to Strava’s statistics, Blanks completed 371 hours and 57 minutes, which averages to one hour and one minute of training per day.
Distance-wise, Blanks covered 3689 miles (5,937.5 kilometers) with 94944 ft. (28,939m) of elevation gain mixed in. So, on average, Blanks completed exactly 10 miles (16.27 kilometers) per day. For a full-time college student, that’s some pretty serious dedication.
Colleen Quigley
The final athlete’s Strava we looked at was Colleen Quigley.
The 2016 Olympian had quite an interesting year of training, considering she got her feet wet in the triathlon world this year. Quigley completed her first triathlon in February 2023 at the Tritonman draft-legal development race in San Diego, California, which she won.
Although she’s adopted a more triathlon-oriented training regimen, Quigley says she still has plans to compete in the track and field world.
The Lululemon athlete had a mix of running, cycling, and swimming in her Strava yearly statistics.
In terms of running, Quigley completed 1,991 miles (3,204.7 kilometers) over 252 hours and 20 minutes. This would average out to 5.4 miles (8.78 kilometers) and just over 41 minutes of running per day.
Considering she only clocked 293 running activities in 2023, Quigley’s runs would have generally been longer than 5.4 miles.
If you pay attention to her Instagram, it’s clear that Quigley found a love for cycling this year.
In 2023, over 239 activities, she completed 6964 miles (11,207.9 kilometers) and 423 hours and 51 minutes. Over the year, this would work out to 19 miles (30.7 kilometers) and one hour and ten minutes per day.
Quigley spent 78 hours and 15 minutes in the water this year and covered 280,567 meters over that time. Over 126 activities, this would work out to just under 40 minutes and 2,226.7m per session.
Candice Burt
Known for her Forest Gump-style endurance feats is ultrarunner, race organizer, and mom, Candice Burt.
Burt currently holds the Guinness World Record for most consecutive ultramarathons after she completed 200 ultras of 50 kilometers for 200 days in a row, totaling 10,000 kilometers.
We knew her 2023 Strava yearly stats would undoubtedly be incredible, and we weren’t wrong.
Burt recorded an activity on Strava every single day this year and accumulated a total time of 1,683 hours.
In this time, she covered 7,729 miles (12,425.97 kilometers) and 587,020 ft. (178,923.70 meters) of elevation gain.
To put this into perspective, Burt ran the equivalent of 70 days straight, or about 25% of the year. Burt completed this while still living the life of a mere mortal, making time to sleep, eat, and even organize races and events.
Distance-wise, Burt would have made it just over halfway around the circumference of planet Earth.
In terms of elevation gain, she climbed the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 20.24 times. Considering many people who attempt to complete an “Everesting” challenge struggle to complete the elevation gain of just one Mount Everest, this is quite the feat.
Who’s Strava stats surprised you the most? Which athletes Strava should we go and geek out on next?
