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Holmes: "It's the mental approach"

Friday, April 22 2016 by SNTV
  • Two-time Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes previews the London marathon, which will take place on Sunday (24 April).

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Kelly Holmes, Two-time Olympic champion:

    "Training has been quite sporadic I have to say, on and off over the past four months. I have managed to do my 18, 20 and 22 miles. They were alright. I wasn't able to walk after them for about a week. But at least I got them in the bag."

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Kelly Holmes, Two-time Olympic champion:

    (asked about the biggest difference from middle distance running to marathon running):

    "It's the mental approach because it's so long. You find yourself questioning why you're doing it, you switch off. I find I'm very erratic with my pacing and I don't really know how to deal with it all. Bio-mechanically I'm a forefoot runner, which is fine, lots of people are, but me, my hips have been suffering badly with the impact of the road and continuous long length. So it's actually affected my body quite a lot. I'm in one piece so that's quite good for me."

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Kelly Holmes, Two-time Olympic champion:

    "Everyone is asking me about the time and to be honest because I've not done 26 miles I've no idea but having done the 22 miler, if everything goes well and there's no issues I can definitely run under 3:30. I'd be really pleased if I can run under 3:30 for a first, and last, marathon, I'll be very pleased. So let's see."

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Kelly Holmes, Two-time Olympic champion

    (on the possibility of snow during the race):

    "Look, I'm shivering out here, I can't stand the cold but I think I'd prefer it to a heatwave. Your body is going to warm up at some stage in the 26 miles, right? Yeah, Whatever happens, we're all going to be in the same environment so can't do nothing about it. just wrap up well and hope that the body's going to burn up quickly."

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