Allie Kieffer Knows When To Make A Move

AUSTIN, Texas—Allie Kieffer’s superpower as a runner is knowing when to drop the hammer. 

“Once you can sense weakness,” the New York native says, “you have to make your move so they don’t come back. You want to make it insurmountable. You want them to think, ‘I’m racing for second.’ I want to do that to people.” 

And that’s coming from someone who coaches for a living, someone whose megawatt smile beams from a block away. The 37-year-old Kieffer, who will return to the 48th annual Statesman Cap10K on April 6 as the reigning women’s champion, is no killer. But she ain’t passive, either. 

Maybe it’s the New York in her. Or maybe it’s her background in psychology—how she understands people more than most. Either way, Kieffer, an Austin resident who moved to the city in 2019, will most certainly have a plan when she heads to the starting line and aims to run the fastest women’s time since 1997, when Natalie Nalepa finished in 33:43.

Only three women in history have broken 34 minutes at the Cap10K. Kieffer’s personal record at the distance, a time of 32:09.89 on the track from 2017, came when she was 29 years old. She ran 34:31 last year to win her debut in the race. She says she’ll know whether she can achieve the feat when race day arrives. 

“Usually, I kind of gamble,” said Kieffer, who’s planning for a pace of 5:25 per mile. “Because you have to decide before the race how much training you want to do. You might be at the starting line and realize, ‘I messed up and I’m in for it.’ Or I might say, ‘This is great.’ But I know I want to be fast again.” 

Getting To Know Allie Kieffer

Kieffer is probably best known for finishing fifth at the New York City Marathon in 2017. It was a moment that catapulted her name into the upper echelons of women’s long distance running and swung a run of good form that would see her follow up the performance a year later with a marathon best of 2 hours, 28 minutes and 12 seconds in the same race. 

The time today still stands as a top 50 performance in U.S. marathon history, though it was the 24th-fastest when it first happened. Much has changed in running since that day in 2018. 

With shoe technology, training philosophies and, well, outright talent flooding into the sport, the American record in the marathon is now down to 2:18:29. Kieffer knows there’s a difference between unrealistic ambition and practical output, so she’s probably aiming for somewhere in between. 

“Once you can sense weakness, you have to make your move so they don’t come back. You want to make it insurmountable. You want them to think, ‘I’m racing for second.’”

“I think on a faster course I can go faster,” said Kieffer, who’s reached two U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. “But I don’t want to make it all about time. That’s not as motivating for me. But I am trying to progress. I would like to get back to the New York City Marathon and be competitive.” 

By April, Kieffer will certainly have some months to plan for that. In the meantime, she says, she splits her schedule between coaching and training. Kieffer is the head coach of track and field and cross country at the Griffin School, a small college preparatory high school in Austin with 160 enrolled students. 

She also coaches adults and more accomplished runners independently, a trade she’s been crafting since 2015. Locally, she won the Austin International Half Marathon in January and competed in the Cross Champs back in November, clocking a time of 27:26 for 8K. More recent finishes included a runner-up nod at the Naples Half Marathon in 2024 and another at the California International Marathon in 2023. She was third in the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in 2022 and ran her PR of 1:09:17 that same year in Rome.

Often, she says, her undergraduate degree in psychology from Wake Forest comes into play with the high schoolers. Recently, she worked with a talented runner who finished well at the school’s Texas Charter School League but was hampered by an injury. At practice, Kieffer sensed something was off. 

“They don’t have to come to optional practices, but she just looked unhappy, so we had a chat,” Kieffer said. “I asked her, ‘Why did you choose to come? What do you want to get out of this experience?’ Running isn’t hard, but it is hard when you’ve taken a few months off.

“So we talked about being there for your teammates. A couple practices later, she looked like a baller. So in high school, it’s about mentoring kids. It’s enjoyable.” 

Allie Kieffer won the Statesman Cap10K in 2024 with a time of 34:31.

Personal Bests And Fast Times

Kieffer’s own history as a professional was short but sweet. She had a three-year run where she picked up a sponsor in the lead-up to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020—though the Games were pushed back to 2021 due to the pandemic. 

Some of her best work came over that stretch, from the marathon to shorter distances. That included a 5K personal best of 15:56 and a half marathon time of 1:10 in Doha, Qatar, a performance which was just a minute off her PR.

When the heat of Austin gets to be too much, she’s spent time in Flagstaff and even London. In 2018, she also spent a winter in Kenya training with Olympian Betsy Saina. 

But most of the time when she’s in town, she says, she trains out on the trail or on the roads by herself. She might pick up a few miles here and there with the Purple Dragons, the high-level training group which publicizes its training runs by virtue of physical coordinates.

Allie Kieffer Looks Ahead

It’s all made for a happier runner in Kieffer, who’s looking to join a long list of multiple-time champions at the Cap10K. Then again, it’s been nearly 10 years since that last happened—Allison Mendez recorded the race’s last back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016. 

This year, the race is once again offering a prize purse, including $1,500 to the winner. That incentive is enough to get some serious runners out on the streets. 

“When there’s prize money on the line, things change,” Kieffer said. 

“Last year, I really wanted to win. That’s all I cared about. I stayed with the leaders until we got to the downhill, then I put in a surge. There was no response from any woman. I said, ‘Let’s put some separation between us.’” 

A year ago, it was enough to land Kieffer her first Cap10K win. A year later, Kieffer’s superpower is still strong as ever. 

For more on the Statesman Cap10K and register, visit Cap10K.com. For a full list of previous winners and history, head over to the champions list.