Emily Lipari, an adidas professional athlete training with Golden Coast Track Club, joins DyeStat editor Erik Boal to discuss competing April 26 in the USATF 1 Mile Road Championships Presented by Toyota as part of the Grand Blue Mile Presented by Wellmark in Des Moines, Iowa. Lipari, who won the Grand Blue Mile in 2018 and captured the USATF 1 Mile Road title in 2020, shares her experiences and memories competing in Des Moines and how significant it is for her to return to the event nearly a year after suffering a meniscus tear in her right knee and less than two months after returning to competition. Lipari recaps her third-place finish April 16 in 4:36.98 at the B.A.A. Invitational Mile, just behind Annie Rodenfels (4:35.51) and teammate Taryn Rawlings (4:35.59), and analyzes her progression from competing in a 10,000-meter race March 6 to a 5-kilometer event March 26 to running consecutive road miles in April. She reflects on her knee injury preventing her from racing at the U.S. Olympic Trials last year and her decision to delay surgery in an effort to rehabilitate in order to try to compete at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Lipari revisits her return to training in the fall and the suggestion of coach Terrence Mahon to open in her first career 10,000 at Sound Running's The Ten at JSerra High in San Juan Capistrano. She explains losing track of the laps in the final mile and covering the penultimate 400 metes in 69.2 seconds, before realizing she still had another lap to run. Lipari examines still being able to run 77.7 on the final 400 and securing the World Championships standard in 31:24.82, as well as analyzing how necessary it will be to cover the final mile in 4:30 in the 10,000 final May 27 at the USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field. She looks forward to the opportunity to travel to Europe for the first time since 2018, as Lipari and teammate Sarah Pagano are scheduled to race a 5-kilometer road event in May in Germany. Lipari shares how valuable it has been to have Pagano and Rawlings, along with Emily Durgin and Katie Izzo as teammates collaborating with Mahon, and how grateful she is to be training and competing consistently after her meniscus and plantar fasciitis injuries in recent years.

WATCH USATF 1 MILE ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS PRESENTED BY TOYOTA ON APRIL 26