You can probably count the number of national-class marathoners who started out as competitive bodybuilders on one finger. That digit would be pointed squarely at Dallas dentist Melisa Christian, who in her early twenties was striking oiled-up poses in the glare of buff-babe spotlights around the country but is now among the best marathon runners in the U.S.
A week ago, the 31-year-old Christian placed 27th in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon with a time of 2:41:18. Her first marathon, in 2001, took her 3 hours, 31 minutes and 20 seconds to complete, and it wasn’t until 2006 that she broke three hours. She only started running in her second year of dental school, which was presumably not long before that 3:31 (when she would have been around 24 years old).
At age 23, Christian upheld an entirely different athletic standard, rating high in amateur bodybuilding competitions. The sequence of pictures below show her at age 23, age 29 (when she first qualified for the Olympic Trials by running 2:46:30 at the 2006 Boston Marathon) and age 31 (at last Sunday’s Olympic Trials). It’s hard to believe that all of these pictures are of the same human being. Obviously the transition from 1998 to 2006 is most striking, but something seems to have happened in the past couple of years as well. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
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Anyway, we’re obviously looking at a serious case of talent combined with willpower here. This is someone who decides that she’s going to literally mold herself into a perfect specimen — be it one who stands still or one who keeps up a six-minute, ten-second-per-mile pace for 26.2 miles — no matter what it takes. Her time at the Olympic Trials was her best by almost a minute, so expect Christian to get even faster before she’s through.
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#1 by PhysioProf on April 27, 2008 - 10:10 am
She stopped using anabolic steroids and took out (or got smaller) breast implants?
#2 by Kevin Beck on April 27, 2008 - 12:00 pm
“took out (or got smaller) breast implants?”
That’s it! I was going to suggest she had a bilateral lung lobectomy or something, but I knew that wasn’t quite it.
Whew! I always get so close to the facts without being able to wrap my mind around ‘em.
#3 by mgordon on April 27, 2008 - 5:07 pm
Maybe it’s just me but I think she looks far hotter and healthier in the bottom two pics. I’m not really into the shoe polish rubbed all over the body look.
#4 by Kevin Beck on April 27, 2008 - 5:14 pm
No, it’s not ust you. Despite what she managed to do with her body at age 23, on the whole she doesn’t look a day over 40 in the bodybuilder shots. She was obviously aiming for an extreme-outlier look in those days, and she certainly achieved it.
You guys have probably already Googled her for other pics, but her professional photos (like this one hearken to neither a musclehead extraordinaire or a withered runner. She just looks like a healthy woman in her late 20′s.
I don’t mean to make this about her appearance per se so much as marvel at the physiological range she’s enjoyed. Only a tiny fraction of women have the potential to run 2:41 for the marathon, and of those who do, a vanishingly small proportion could bulk up the way Ms. Christian once did — with or without chemical aid.
#5 by Norm on April 27, 2008 - 5:47 pm
Agreed, it’s not about her appearance, but I have to say that her running form in the last pic is beautiful. Talented runners always look so graceful (well most of them anyway, I’ve seen a few bizarre styles on good runners that make me wonder how they manage to move so fast).
#6 by Arf on May 15, 2008 - 12:30 am
Let’s explore the inner world of the once pumped body builder turned runner.
Consider she was never a runner in school (high school or college) and is beating all american types with 2+ years of serious running.
Consider she stated that due to her dental school commitments, she didn’t have time to commit to running. Hmmm…….I guess body building only takes a few minutes of your day.
Consider that about the same time she ran 3 marathons in 4 months and finished by qualifying for the OT, her then boy friend was setting PR’s. After they broke up he went back to his “normal” times. Was it her aura?
Consider she was quoted in a RW interview saying she had food allergies that prevented her from running faster times years ago. This was never mentioned when she was flatly accused of doping a few years ago. Maybe a convenient reason to state in a national pulication to deflect suspicion?
Consider her statement in the same article about her reasoning for being able to recover from a hot Chicago race to run a PR 4 weeks later in New York. “Recovery is all mindset.”
Consider in the same article that she stated she just listens to everything her coach tells her to do. IF that is true her former coach has no business coaching vulnerable high schoolers.
Consider she hired attorneys to force the body building site to take down her profile. Wonder why?
The USATF and everyone will figure out what the running community in DFW already knows. In my opinon this chick is juiced and will eventually join the long line of deniers like Marion Jones and Regina Jacobs.
#7 by Kevin Beck on May 15, 2008 - 12:46 am
Bodybuilders.com still has a profile of her up, and if you scroll almost all the way down you find this:
What Supplements Have Given You The Greatest Gains?
1) 19 Nor-Andro and 2)19Stenediol
Those are converted in the body to testosterone and nandrolone, respectively. Both are very popular, very illegal substances per WADA/IAAF/USADA/USATF/etc guidelines.
Good thing she’s not into bodybuilding anymore or we might have to suspect her of cheating!
#8 by arf on May 15, 2008 - 2:54 pm
Her profile was removed for a brief period, but came back.
If you read any of her interviews, you will notice she selects her wording very carefully to make it appear that she follows her coaches plans to the letter and she is simply their vehicle. Her claim a few years ago when the suspicion started to fly was fish oil and healthy eating. She is all over the map. The latest RW article has her spouting about some miracle recovery supplement.
Like I said, she will fall by the wayside with the likes of Deeja Youngquist.
#9 by jst on July 4, 2008 - 11:48 am
You eggheads are pathetic! Have any of you ever met this woman? Or are you jaded runners that have simply had your butts kicked by this person in a race? Im assuming that the attorneys services were sought out more on the basis of libel and slander. Based upon the fact this woman is a doctor, I would believe it to be possibly damaging to be accused of abusing drugs!!! It is not within reason to say that these accomplishments have come via hard work and committment! The human body is an amazing thing, and most people never come close to maximizing their genetic potential based upon lack of willpower and dedication. It seems pretty clear that this woman has both. Maybe you should be out there training right now instead of playing on your computers… I BET SHE IS!!!! People like you make me want to puke!!
#10 by Dizzle on February 24, 2009 - 12:45 am
Just because someone was once a body builder doesn’t mean they were juiced! Not all body building requires illegal drugs. Have you ever heard of natural body building? I’ve always been a runner…HS/college/post collegiate but my brother is a natural body builder and didn’t start competing until he was almost 40. My point is you don’t need drugs and I doubt she was juiced when she was 23. I can guarantee you she’s not juiced now. So she’s good looking and had breast implants….big deal! You all just seem way too concerned about what she is or isn’t doing. If I had to guess, most of these posts here are from jealous females who can’t take the fact that she’s not an ugly like most of you lanky female distance runners. Maybe you all in DFW are just jealous of her success because she didn’t run in HS or college. I can name several runners who didn’t run in HS or college and went on to run great times later in life. Guys who ran in the low 2:20′s and didn’t compete in college. Get a life! Run in the low 2:40′s and then you have a leg to stand on, until then, go back to sticking your finger down your throat to lose the extra calories and looking like a skeleton!
#11 by One's a cunning runt... on February 24, 2009 - 1:43 am
Irrationally defensive, generic sounding comment to ancient post + regional reference = result of “vanity Google”
Here’s the extent of your reasoning: Someone who admitted she was NOT clean by running standards during her bodybuilding days (she would have been flagged for two different steroids) is surely clean as a marathoner and a by-product of hard work alone, but anyone who’s lean and fast can’t be the by-product of genetics and training…she must be anorexic/bulimic!
This blog needs a fucking hypocrisy filter!
#12 by One's a cunning runt... on February 24, 2009 - 1:43 am
Irrationally defensive, generic sounding comment to ancient post + regional reference = result of “vanity Google”
Here’s the extent of your reasoning: Someone who admitted she was NOT clean by running standards during her bodybuilding days (she would have been flagged for two different steroids) is surely clean as a marathoner and a by-product of hard work alone, but anyone who’s lean and fast can’t be the by-product of genetics and training…she must be anorexic/bulimic!
This blog needs a fucking hypocrisy filter!
#13 by Jimmy on December 1, 2009 - 6:56 pm
This woman or whatever you call that is as dirty as my sons diaper. She has a following of dumb ass admirers who are so naive and to stupid to know it’s imposible to do what she does in a natural way. They always come to her defense and she plays the damsel in distress so well. I’ve watched her train and she goes all out everyday. Those of you who know a thing or two about running know that you have to go easy here and there. She doesn’t. All out everyday. Her ex roomate says that when she has a bad workout she comes home and cries out loud and smashes chairs and creates holes on the walls. That’s called Roid rage Roger Clemens style. She also avoids people when asked how she recovers so quickly. Please don’t insult others by saying she work very hard because most real runners do. I hope she gets faster so that her little game gets busted a la Liza Hunter Gal-cheat. So sad to go to extremes to get others attention. Surgery. drugs, you name it. I hope she gets the athletic fedaration’s attention. That’ll be the day.
#14 by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on March 10, 2011 - 6:45 pm
“Talented runners always look so graceful (well most of them anyway, I’ve seen a few bizarre styles on good runners that make me wonder how they manage to move so fast).”
It’s a freaking still, how the hell do you see graceful form in that?
#15 by Shelby Marie Council on November 2, 2011 - 6:04 pm
Love her, love this pic!! She is the sweetest most honest person I have EVER met!!!