“I been there. That’s a different kind of pain!” Michael Johnson wrote on X on December 13 last year. He, in fact, added those lines while resharing a clip uploaded by the X-handle, Track & Field Gazette. The clip had Gabby Thomas running a mile (some said, 1600 m) in her training drills at Buford-Bailey Track Club. On the track, she was accompanied by Tamara Clark, Tia Jones, and several other competitors. It may seem strange, right? A handful of sprinters completing a mile or 1600m during their training sessions! But did they benefit from training over such a long distance?

Well, Johnson put the actual suffering into words by watching the clip and remembering his own experience. Also, the clip showed Gabby Thomas and others, tired. After the run, some even rolled on the lush green grass. But on the same day, Gabby learned one or two things about the difference between sprinting and running. She later shed light on that. 

Gabby Thomas focuses on the key differences between running and sprinting 

According to Gabby Thomas, there’s an enormous gap between sprinting and running. And she’s happy doing her sprint workout. She has no intention of embracing something that might land her on a bigger track, possibly a running track of bigger distances. In her interaction with the YouTube podcast Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce, the three-time Olympic champion kept everything real. She shared her experience from the mile (or 1600 m) run, carried out in December last year. And how was it? 

Notably, Gabby Thomas concluded that race in 5:43 minutes, far earlier than her practice partners Tamara Clark and Tia Jones. Yet the athlete claimed the race to be a profound example of the difference between the sprinters and the runners. In the podcast, she said, “I ran a PB of 5:43, like maybe two months ago, which was huge for me. But the distance runners are probably like laughing. They’re watching that like literally laughing on YouTube like what’s she doing?” Remember, the race had once put Gabby on her knees. She strived hard to shake off the exhaustion. 

However, Gabby thought that the actual runners wouldn’t have faced any issues in covering that distance on the track. She further said, “They’re like, oh cute. And I’m like, I’m lot like huffing and puffing and I’m like a professional runner.” She kept on adding, “People don’t realize that sprinting is a completely different set of muscles and training even down to our lifestyle.” How is the training different though?

Initially, in the conversation, the Olympian claimed, “The biggest misconception of sprinters is that we actually, like, we run distances like our training, I would say the most you would do as a sprinter… like you’re running maybe five hundreds and that’s on the long side. So like 500 meters might be like, you know, a lap around a track plus a little extra bit.” 

But as a sprinter, Gabby wouldn’t attempt that distance in her training drills. She can only “do a mile gut check like in the fall.” Nonetheless, she knows that such drills won’t benefit her. That’s how she keeps her sprinting self away from the running division. After all, Gabby had to cross an enormous distance to reach where she currently is. She has a maxim to follow.

She will continue on her terms with the sport

Gabby Thomas’s path to fame was not smooth. She even thought of retiring from her professional sprinting career. But here she is, in 2025, still hanging. Rather, in a few months, Gabby will enter the Grand Slam Track contest. After Athlos NYC 2024, the 28-year-old will have another chance to promote a contest coming with a big purse and lots of promises. And she will continue to do that, standing up in her role. 

On January 8 this year, Gabby Thomas made her mindset clear in a cover story published by Vogue. In the story, she said, “On the track, I can’t cheat four years of hard work and commitment—otherwise I wouldn’t be there.” Additionally, she has a maxim to follow in her current role. Such as? In the cover story, she let it slip: “You show up every day, and you work. And win or lose, the emotions that come—you can’t fake that, either.” Also, she has ‘so much truth in what she does.’ Her statements tell us all we have to know about her mindset. Hopefully, her fans will continue to celebrate this legendary sprinter for many more days to come!