Mary Cain: Running, Track & Field

Cain holds high school national records in the indoor mile and 2 mile, outdoor 800m and 1500m and more

Women Talk Running Podcast: January 2013

Cain is a 16-year-old high school runner (as of 2013) from Bronxville, New York. She has been called the next Mary Decker Stanley because of her outstanding career thus far. Her talents caught the eye of Olympian and famous distance coach, Alberto Salazar. Salazar has taken Cain under his wing.

She has set several national high school record. At the World Junior Championships in July 2012 Cain broke Jordan Hasay's 1500m national high school 1500m record. Cain finished the race in 4:11.01, bettering the record by 3.49 seconds. She unofficially broke the indoor high school 3,000m record at the University of Washington Indoor Preview in January 2013. Her finish time of 9:02.10 beat Melody Fairchild's finish of 9:17.7. However, Cain's performance took place on an oversized track which disqualifies her from claiming the record.

In late January, 2012 she set a new high school indoor mile record (4:32.78) at the New Balance Games. The previous record or 4:38.5 was set by Debbie Heald in 1972. In the midst of this outstanding performance Cain managed to break the national high school indoor 1500m record of 4:18.9 set by Lynn Jennings in 1978.

The following week at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Cain lit up the track again, setting a new national high school record in the 2mi. She finished the race, of elites, in 3rd with a time of 9:38.68. This destroyed the previous record of 9:55.92 set by Melody Fairchild in 1991.