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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