As race weekend begins, Brits reflect on their training & the marathon’s elite competition
Posted April 20th, 2007 at 5:15 PM by Kristin Bland
Section: News & Results, Marathons
The buzzing anticipation for Sunday’s Flora London Marathon is in full force and can be felt in corner pubs, restaurants and underground tube stations throughout the city. The emotions and excitement of race day have filled the city and are impossible to ignore, especially with the official countdown looming in the distance on the face of Big Ben.
Today, amidst this atmosphere, the elite British athletes gathered for a press conference to discuss the competition, racing strategy and the training regimens they endured over the preceding months.
Asked whether the competition had panned out as expected, the prevailing opinion among the British athletes was summarized by Jon Brown, the nation’s top marathoner and current Van Damme 10,000m record holder:
“Competition stacks up for this race. You’d expect Boston to take away some big names, but apart from the winner, London hasn’t lost out on anybody. The depth is very good. For the past 5 years, every year has been amazing. Competition is great, every race is unexpected, anything can happen.”
In regard to training and physical preparedness, Mara Yamauchi reported that she is in slightly better shape than she was for last year’s marathon; a race that she believes she could have run faster. Yamauchi, who returned to racing in 2003 after working for a few years as a diplomat in Japan, was trained in the most unique circumstances o the bunch: Her entire schedule was completed in Tokyo.
“I chose to prepare in Tokyo to train in a settled environment that I’m familiar with. I train on a 50k loop. Training in a built up environment continuously doing loops is boring, so it gives good mental training.”
Kathy Butler and Liz Yelling, who both competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, were forced to significantly modify their training and decided to focus on running easy. In 2005, Yelling suffered from what she labeled as “over-training syndrome”.
“By learning to run steady, I don’t suffer from overtraining anymore.” According to Yelling, easy running is key to avoiding pain and staying healthy, expressing that “easy days are the training day I look forward to.”
Butler also performed her training runs at a slower pace, not because of any lingering injuries, but rather because of the high altitude at new home in Boulder, CO. She explained:
“I can’t run as fast therefore I have to take it a bit easier. However, I’m covering more ground this way.”
As a battle with the world’s best runners quickly approaches, Yellling summarized the group’s views on the hard work they had put in over the proceeding months:
“You can always say its there, but you’re never really sure until you prove it in black and white.”
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Tags: british, england, flora london marathon, Great Britain, jon brown, kathy butler, Liz Yelling, London, London Marathon, london2007
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The Final Sprint
This article was well written and extremely informative. The author was good at combining creativity with important information!
April 21st, 2007 at 2:44 am