Kaela Edwards: On the Right Track
Rising Mile star training with world champion Emma Coburn and fellow Rio Olympian Aisha Praught-Leer in Boulder, Colorado
By SPIKES
It’s one of those classic #motivationalquotes you’ll see floating around on Instagram, but it couldn’t be any more fitting to describe the set-up former Oklahoma State middle-distance star Kaela Edwards, 24, chose to kick off her career as a professional runner.
After signing her first pro contract with adidas in June last year, Edwards packed up her bags in Stillwater, OK and moved to Boulder, Colorado. She and boyfriend, U.S. Miler Chad Noelle, had decided on their new home pretty quickly – Edwards grew up in Highlands Ranch south of Denver and knew the area would provide endless running opportunities for both of them. “We decided on Boulder before we even knew what the coaching situation would be,” she says with a grin.
Her coaching situation, it turns out, couldn’t have worked out much better. In autumn she joined the group around world 3000 meter steeplechase champion Emma Coburn and Jamaican record holder Aisha Praught-Leer, who are both coached by Coburn’s husband Joe Bosshard.
Edwards, who clocked a sub-4:30 indoor Mile last February, admits she had been eyeing up the training group around Coburn but was “really timid” at first. She thought “there’s no way Joe’s going to be interested in me joining their group! I’m a half-miler/Miler, I haven’t done as much, and those two are Olympians.”
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