Maggie Vessey's head is not in the game!!!

Maggie Vessey, last years rising star in the 800 (clipped just under 1:58 last summer) is struggling this year. I have watched replays of her races on Universal Sports, Flotrack and on TV when I am luck enough to get time to watch one of her races. Frankly she looks like she is just going through he motions. Very similar to her performance in the Worlds last year in Berlin. Lately she falls to the back of the pack sometime down the back straightaway and stays there for the rest of the race.

Something is not right in her head or she is hiding an injury or other physical problem. Or maybe last years was her year and now that is over. In other words a flash in the pan. But strangley without knowing anything about her, what I observe is mental. She doesn't look like she has her head in the game. There's no oomph or snap to her running. Her racing tactics are abysmal. I wrote her coach about this last year (he is local ) and he blew me off in a very polite manner. And he was right to. He is the one who spends hours caching her. I don't even know the gal. But in my deep dark running past I have gone through similar periods and I remember what it felt and looked like. And that is what I see when Maggie Vessey competes.

Go to Universal or Flotrack and look at her 2010 races. In one a runner bumps her on the turn early in the race. Instead of fighting back by getting back in the race, she immediately drops back to the back of the pack and stays there.

Whatever she is doing in training, it is not preparing her for the rigors of the racing circuit.