Quoted message said:Well it's the first I've heard of Lance speak to his Marathon
goals....Armstrong and Paula Radcliffe in NYC today pushing some Nike
ipod [censored]. "he's been training 45 minutes - 1 hour a day and hopes to
come within one hour of Radcliffe's finishing time"
Here is some of the text of Lance talking about the NYC marathon on
Sirius Radio a few weeks ago...
After the music break the talk turned back to the upcoming marathon
and what kind of time he thought he could do. This will be his first
marathon ever and it's generated a lot of buzz in the media. Lance's
been training somewhat already - 10 mile runs here and there on the
roads and trails around Austin - and noted that he has a running
background from his days in triathlon. I reminded him he also has some
results, coming in third out of a thousand people a couple of years
ago at the LAF's "Run for the Roses" 5k.
"I also did Kristin's run recently at the Fertile Hope 5k, and had a
decent time," he said. "So I'd be ecstatic to break three hours at the
New York City Marathon." Me having almost no knowledge about running
showed my ignorance and lack of quick math skills and asked if that
was a good time. "Three hours is a 7-minute mile pace - I think that's
hard - I mean a 7-minute mile isn't that hard, but to do it 26 times -
that's hard, especially at the end." And now I know…
I have done a little running recently so I can hang with some friends
and noted that - differentiating from cycling - it requires a totally
different muscle group. "That's why I'm kind of paying the price right
now, I'm trying to adapt to running. Just the jarring - it's so hilly
here in Austin, running uphill is hard, but running downhill is hard
on you. So if you're going up and down and up and down, your quads are
just killing you."
The other big deal about the marathon is that it's also at the same
time as Lance's 10-year cancer diagnosis anniversary. "The marathon
for me is an interesting idea, because you take a 35-year old guy who
used to be a pro athlete, he retires, and some think he'd want to do
nothing after. But that's not what the rest of the world does. They're
at that age and they want to be a weekend warrior - run, ride your
bike, etc - do something to try and stay fit. So I get to be one of
those guys. And then to get to tie it into my 10-year cancer
anniversary, that's a really cool connection." Can he win? "I am not
going there to try and win anything! Breaking three hours would be
huge, and if I can get near 2:45 I'll come out of my skin." Higgs says
a sub 2:45 is his prediction, Lance said he better know some short
cuts if that's what he wants him to do…
--
Phil M.
