Paula Radcliffe: Love for marathon keeps her going

Gulf News

Former world champion Paula Radcliffe says running can be fun and the advent of Super Shoes has only accelerated the growth of marathon in recent years.  “I work with kids trying to get them involved in families into running. I started it in the UK and now I have the first Families on Track event starting in Monaco in February. So it’s really just trying to show that running can be fun and the whole family can do it together. The kids can put their phones down for a little bit and just get into that healthy lifestyle mindset,” said the 50-year-old marathoner, who is embarking on a new role in recent times.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/sport/olympics/for-paula-radcliffe-the-love-for-marathon-keeps-her-going-1.100263863  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #marathon #PaulaRadcliffe

Transcript

00:00First of all, I think it's a huge advantage to love the marathon,

00:04to kind of love the hard parts and the easy parts of it.

00:10Now I do a mix of things.

00:13I commentate on major races, like the Dubai Marathon,

00:18and for me, it's a big privilege to, if I'm not taking part in the race,

00:23to have that honour of telling the story to people watching at home

00:27and to kind of explain the nuances in the marathon race,

00:32because there are many, and for me, it's always interesting to watch

00:36how it unfolds, who is having a good run,

00:39who is using different tactics to hide how difficult it is

00:42or going through those rough patches, and it's fascinating to watch.

00:46So to be able to have the best seat in terms of watching it

00:50and to have that honour of conveying it to people around the world,

00:53I think is very special to me, and it's also a learning curve for me,

00:57so I'm getting to stretch myself and to try and improve in a different area now,

01:03and I also work with kids, trying to get kids involved in families

01:07into sport and into running.

01:08Back at home, I started in the UK,

01:10and now I have the first Families on Track event

01:12starting in Monaco in February,

01:14so, yeah, it's really just trying to show that running can be fun,

01:18the whole family can do it together,

01:19the kids can put the phones down for a little bit

01:22and just get into that healthy lifestyle mindset.

01:25I do think that the shoes have opened up the event a lot.

01:30I think before there was perhaps a little bit of a fear perception

01:34also surrounding the marathon,

01:35and I still believe the marathon is the best event,

01:39but it has to be respected.

01:42You can't just jump into it like you can for 1,500 metres or a 5K.

01:47You need to do some planning and you need to have a good first experience,

01:51and you also need to learn the events and learn those areas.

01:55So I think all of those make it intriguing for the young athletes coming in,

01:59and I think now with the shoes,

02:00what we're seeing is that athletes are starting to move to the marathon

02:04sooner in their career, a little bit younger stage,

02:08and they can also race more often in the year

02:10because the recovery is accelerated both during and after the marathon.

02:14So it's changed the concept a little bit,

02:17and I think it has opened it up,

02:19made it more available to more people,

02:21and we're definitely seeing that impact on the mass side as well.

02:24So I know the figures are looking good.

02:26We're hoping for 20,000 people in the mass races here in Dubai,

02:31and a lot of those will have invested, I think, in the shoes,

02:35and they will have helped them in training

02:37and helped them to stay injury-free and to just enjoy their running a little bit more.

02:41For me, it was progressing very, very gradually.

02:44First of all, I was just a kid who liked to run,

02:47liked the feeling of running.

02:49Then I joined an athletics club when I was nine,

02:52and then I was racing cross-country and 800 metres,

02:55and then gradually I moved up the distances,

02:581,500 metres, 3,000 metres.

03:01My first championships as a senior, World Championships, were at 3,000 metres,

03:05then 5,000 metres, then 10,000 metres,

03:07and then all the time slightly getting outkicked on the final laps.

03:12So realising that the marathon was the event for me

03:15where I perhaps had more mental and psychological

03:20as well as physical advantages that I could use to my advantage.

03:24First of all, I think it's a huge advantage to love the marathon,

03:28to love the hard parts and the easy parts of it,

03:32and you need to embrace that,

03:35and you need to spend as much time in the training,

03:39training the mind, as we do training the body.

03:42So I think if you look at the best marathon racers,

03:45you look at the likes of Elia Kipchoge,

03:47then he has all of the techniques, his mind is so strong,

03:52and you train your mind to be strong in training

03:55by putting it up against all of the obstacles that might come up in the race

03:58and knowing that whatever happens, you're going to be able to cope with that.

04:02So I think it's enjoying that battle that really helps

04:06and knowing those techniques that you go to

04:09when you're in that difficult spot in the race,

04:11because there is always, even for the top, tough athletes,

04:14there are always difficult periods within the race

04:17where you have to concentrate, you have to focus,

04:19you have to only think about one foot in front of the other.

04:21I think the history and the culture,

04:26many parts of the world, we have different sports

04:28kind of high up within our culture.

04:31In Ethiopia and in Kenya, it's athletics and it's the marathon

04:34because of the likes of Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Tergat,

04:38Gerardo Tullo, Getawame, all those people who went before,

04:42and there are so many athletes coming into the system

04:45and just getting the opportunity to train hard in unspoilt conditions

04:50and really to be able to focus on that.

04:52They're on a lot of distractions,

04:54and a way to do well and be very successful is through running.

04:59So I think when you have that number of talented athletes coming in

05:03with a history and a culture of performing well

05:05so they know what they have to do,

05:07the system knows what they have to do,

05:08then that's why we see so many come out at the top and race very, very well.

05:13We have a lot of promise in the UK scene,

05:15maybe not so much in the marathon,

05:17but certainly in the middle distance races at the moment,

05:19800 metres, 1500 metres, both on the male and female side,

05:23we have an extremely, extremely strong team and a young team.

05:27And we're starting to see in the marathon as well,

05:29we have so many, certainly women qualified,

05:32and the men are starting to get the qualifying times there as well.

05:35We're seeing the times improving and improving almost every time

05:38that there's a new athlete making a debut

05:40and running very well at the marathon.

05:42So it's great to see more of a kind of mentoring

05:44rather than a coaching input,

05:46but just chatting, just giving advice.

05:48I think, yeah, the marathon on the one hand has changed a lot,

05:52but on the other hand, it's still the same distance

05:55and the same rules apply.

05:56I think you have to accept that some work out and some don't.

06:00I tried my best and then injury meant

06:03that I couldn't give my best at some of the Olympic marathons.

06:07But then, yeah, on the main side,

06:09I got to achieve some great things in my career

06:12and my family are healthy and happy today.

06:13The low point is clearly probably the Athens Olympics

06:16because in Beijing, I knew I was hurt a long time before.

06:21And if it hadn't been for Athens, I wouldn't have tried to go and race.

06:25But yeah, Athens was the hardest

06:26because I was in good shape just before

06:28and then the injury meant that I wasn't able to finish the race.

06:32So it was very, very hard.

06:34The high points are many.

06:36I think winning the world cross-country in Ostend

06:38was a huge high point for me,

06:41the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, European Championship,

06:44and then, of course, setting the world record in 2003.

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