 |
|
|
| Part Five, Paula Radcliffe to defend at NYC marathon |
| New York Road Runners club and Larry Eder |
October 4, 2008
New York , NY
|
|
You've only raced I think it's four or five times in the last few years. Do you plan to race more next year if the body is fine? PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, definitely. No, definitely. I mean, I think that hasn't been by not wanting to race; that's been by kind of having to struggle with injuries and with getting back from those. So, yeah, I mean, definitely, getting back to racing more often and just enjoying it are really important to me. Q. You seemed to have a summer that was dominated by training on a treadmill with your iPod. Have you incorporated any of the cross training techniques into your current schedule, your training for New York, or are you sick to death of treadmills and jogging belts, Nordic skiing machines? PAULA RADCLIFFE: Kind of a mix. I mean, honestly, I haven't been back into the pool, apart from that couple of weeks we took at the beach. But that was more just like messing around in the sea. And I haven't been back on the ski machine, but it is something that will continue to be incorporated in my training. I have been incorporating still the treadmill and some cross training in the week because I think everything has its place. I did learn some good ways of maintaining fitness and keeping in good cardiovascular shape, like you say. I just needed to have more time on my feet, which I wasn't able to get going into Beijing. But in the long run, in marathon training, I think it's always a good thing to be able to mix in some cross training just to ease the load on your legs and muscles. I guess, especially as I get older, that's important. Q. You had such a limited buildup to Beijing, horrendous injury, but still managed to run 2:32. Have you taken any satisfaction after the Games in speaking to one or two of the medics or doctors who told you it was impossible to even reach the Games? PAULA RADCLIFFE: Not really. I mean, to be honest, I think all of those medics who said that they did want me to be there and they did sort of support me in getting there, I think everyone on the medical team who'd worked around me, we kind of went through all that even before the race saying, Look, thanks for working as hard as we did to get to this point. The guys said that they didn't think we would get there. And now that I should be proud of having just got there, but, of course, I wanted to go there and I wanted to I still don't feel that I did perform out there. So it's not like I would be sort of claiming anything by what I did there. I didn't run as well as I hoped to do, even with the buildup I had. But at the same time, like I say, there were reasons for that and I'm not going to crucify myself either, but I did hope we would do better than that. Q. You mentioned earlier that you keep perservering, you'll keep perservering with the Olympic marathon in the way you did with the World Cross Country. Are your World Cross Country days over now or do you see yourself lining up in that event again? PAULA RADCLIFFE: I don't know. I mean, yeah, it's an event that's very special to me. It's probably something that I would like to see myself going back to. Whether it's in the plans this year, I don't know. I guess it depends on decisions about a spring marathon. But I don't rule it out. I mean, I hope I've still got a good few years left in me yet. Like I say, I would like to get back to kind of just being able to go out and race a lot more. I probably have to get over the fact that I haven't won (indiscernible) since 2005, but I don't think that would be a big hurdle to get over, especially on a cross country course. Q. You mentioned Constantina, 38. Last weekend in Berlin Mikitenko, 36, ran sub 2:20. Do these things give you a bit of a lift, knowing there's athletes two, three, four years your senior turning out the kinds of performances that are good enough to win major events? Does that help you psychologically at all? PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, definitely. I think you have to go a lot on how you feel, as well. Certainly from a mitration point of view, from an energy point of view, I don't feel like I'm hanging on by any means. And I've always said that sort of the end of my competitive career will probably be signaled by the fact I don't really have the desire to go out and put in the huge work that you need to put in in training weeks every day. I don't feel like that at the moment. I feel at the moment like I'm just really enjoying going out and training every day and not having a cloud of injury or something hurting hanging over me. So I think it's how you feel rather than the actual age on the piece of paper. So at the moment I do feel that I have good runs left in me, yeah. I just need to be able to sort of steer clear of injuries and keep the buildup strong. Q. You mentioned that 2:15. Is not out of the realm of possibility. When was the last time you had a smooth buildup for a marathon? PAULA RADCLIFFE: I guess probably going into Helsinki. Into Helsinki, it was a pretty smooth run. It was pretty smooth once I got going into New York last year, it's just that it was short. I guess ideally again this time, but sometimes if you've got the background there, it almost is better. I do feel with a good, smooth buildup that would help. RICHARD FINN: On behalf of Mary, who I'm sure is sorry that she could not make the call, the connection didn't work from the airport, she's on the plane now, but on behalf of all of us, we'd like to thank everybody joining us. We look forward to seeing everybody here in New York in a few weeks. Again, our special guest Paula Radcliffe, we welcome you back
|
|
|
|
View past articles
|
|
|
|
|
