I'm starting to like this Reddit interview feature. In case you didn't know, Reddit, a user-influenced news site, stages virtual interviews with people or organizations of some notoriety about four times per day. Their most recent guest of note was Bill Gates. Their latest was Mary Cain, probably the world's greatest female junior distance runner with the potential to become one of the world's best. For a list of her accomplishments, scroll to the bottom.

Before a Reddit interview, the interviewee, called the AMA ("ask me anything") must prove his or her identity, usually by providing a link to the password-restricted page of their Twitter account. That's what Cain did.

Ultimately, her appearance was disappointing, as also indicated by the headline of letsrun's thread, "Mary Cain Dodges all the Tough Questions on her AMA Reddit!" Though it may be unfair to compare her session to Bill Gates', which pinpointed the billionaire's current plans and goals in a more personal way than most news articles, her interview didn't give us any new or inside information. It wasn't just silly, but guarded as well. Clearly, Cain understands the power of the press and doesn't yet trust her ability to provide answers both interesting and relatively free of controversy. Even though she's only in high school, people probably expected more. Why even give a Reddit interview if your point isn't to better inform the world of your plans?

The best questions she skipped:

1. Your workouts are insane! Especially for someone so young, do you worry about burning out?

Also, what are your major, long term goal times?

(Will she continue to improve? By how much?)

2. Have you ever run the sunken meadow xc course in kings park?

(Because I'm from Long Island and have enormous respect for the hilly course amid a rather flat region.)

3. Dibaba just ran 8:16, 3:55, and is gunning for the 2 mile WR. She has another sister ready to step in as well (800m).

The Swede (former Ethiopian) is right behind her heels in the 1500m.

Are you intimidated by the Ethiopians?

(Could be interesting to see how she feels about worldwide competition in general.)

4. Hi Mary! Do you get nervous running against veterans? Any tricks for keeping your head in the right place before a race?

(Goes with question #3.)

5. Hi Mary, big fan here. I was wondering what your weight lifting PRs are if you lift at all. Vertical jump max? Good luck at Milrose!

(Would be interesting to see if Cain is athletically gifted in other areas besides running.)

The 17 year-old high school senior (who turned professional earlier this year, foregoing college competition) has numerous high school and junior records ("junior" meaning 18 and under and being more prestigious than a high school record), including the national high school record in the 800 meters (1:59.51), the national junior record in the 1,500 meters (4:04.62), the world junior record in the 1000 meters (2:35.80) the national junior record in the indoor mile (4:28.25), and the national junior record in the two mile (9:38.68) - times that would place her firmly above average in the scope of NCAA DIII running... for men. She also placed tenth in the 1,500 meters against the best professionals at the 2013 World Championships.