RE: 'The Road to Beijing': 3 hour marathoner wants to make British Olympic Marathon team in 2008

I say go for it! What do we have to lose, other than reverting back to the same old "I ran #:## in the mile, what do you think I could run a 5K in?" posts where a youngster trolls the waters of an over-fished pond of "Once a Runners!"

Heck, if he does it, doesn't his "dreams become reality?"

Haha, some guy said gravy. This guy has as much chance as a guy with a surname Norman qualifying for the Olympics.

Think I might have to spell it out this time...absolutely no chance. That goes for every single one of those guys who do that gravy thing.

No, but his projected time progression is ridiculous. Thats why hes not hitting times anymore.

This idiot is running a fund-raising scam. He wants to raise money for himself, not for running. He does like to run and that's fine, but using it as a vehicle for a scam is something else entirely....it's fraud.

The probability of him making the Olympics is about the same probability of The Pope making a visit to the Cottontail Ranch for some fun. It's not going to happen, and he damn well knows it. The fact that he is having a huge number of little niggles at 6:00/mile (RACE PACE) and 80km per week says that his body just cannot handle the training.

This is a goddamned SCAM.

It's hardly a scam when he's clearly telling the people he what he wants the money for is it. How else do you think films are made? There not made without a budget.

scam alert!! wrote:

This idiot is running a fund-raising scam. He wants to raise money for himself, not for running. He does like to run and that's fine, but using it as a vehicle for a scam is something else entirely....it's fraud.

The probability of him making the Olympics is about the same probability of The Pope making a visit to the Cottontail Ranch for some fun. It's not going to happen, and he damn well knows it. The fact that he is having a huge number of little niggles at 6:00/mile (RACE PACE) and 80km per week says that his body just cannot handle the training.

This is a goddamned SCAM.

I e-mailed Alex about his endeavours and received back a couple of replies. He seems liks a really nice and extremely dedicated guy but I believe 2:15 is out of his reach.

To give you some insight, I received this e-mail from him this morning:

Hi Peter

I thought that I would get back to you after having had a long chat with Bruce Tulloh and weighing up my options. Although from a financial point of view if I don't break 2:30 then there is no investment in the project we have decided to aim for a more realistic target of 2:34.

I really do appreciate people’s advice and no matter how hard it is to take the chances of running sub 2:30 are 1 in 100 where as 2:34 I feel 70 in 100.

I am determined to carry on afterwards but will have to balance the training with working full time again.

Best wishes

Alex

I think calling it a scam is a bit harsh. I think we have all had dreams of quitting work and running full time to see just how good we could be. I do think he is being delusional on two fronts:

1) It takes more training and time to achieve a 2:15 than he has put in or has left.

2) People with any competitive running background or common sense are not going to invest 70k in this, although having seen some of the crap on television right now this would be welcome watching.

Good luck to the guy but he has not made many of his goal times and quite frankly dont think he is putting the mileage in that he needs to run those times.

I think the general consenus is

1) He may or may not have the talent to run a 2:15

2) Underestimated how long it will take

3) Has not really put in enough training to reach his goal.

Nice post mate. Anonymously slagging off a couple of guys who've run 65 mins (and one of them a 2:18). Impressive. Good work.

Cheers AC, it was actually slagging off all their friends too if that's any consolation.

Is'nt it fun slagging people off anonymously. What a cowardly peice of s*** you are.

trollism could well be james trollope if you're looking for names

AC wrote:

Nice post mate. Anonymously slagging off a couple of guys who've run 65 mins (and one of them a 2:18). Impressive. Good work.

Trollism is clearly a knob, but it was hardly a 'slagging off'. He just pointed out that certain people aren't going to make it to the olympics, which on current evidence is quite true.

Wintersports wrote:

I think the general consenus is

1) He may or may not have the talent to run a 2:15

There can only be a consensus that he does or he doesn't, not both.

A more accruate way of putting it would be: "He obviously and quite categorically does not have anything approaching the required level of talent."

Disagree. I reckon that anyone who has run 2:18 has a shot. However, that's with a 2:15 qualifying standard in mind. Should UKa go down the 2:12 route then life will get very hard for the 26 mile guys...

Was chatting with a mate this AM on a run about this little adventure. Came to the conclusion that Alex's intention is right, but execution wrong.

Alex, one way to tame this crowd and get your thing funded was to profile 4-5 other guys with a realistic chance and include them in your journey. Compare and contrast. Try stepping in their shoes and benchmark yourself. Then when your journey ends, you can still follow theirs and see what transpires. You would have collected some training partners and advice along the way.

Possibly not too late - but your road to Beijing is going to hit bigger blocks if you don't do something realistic and positive.

Reading half marathon is a day that I would want to forget forever. I posted on the website that I was disappointed with the result but gave no explanation. As expected the critics jumped at the chance saying that I went out too fast and made a rather amusing comment about my running quoting "I think someone should stick a folk in him, because he is cooked". I can assure you all that I am not finished just yet.

Having spent Thursday and Friday in bed with Flu I felt a lot better on Sunday morning and decided to give it a go. After 3 miles at 6:00 minute mile pace which felt a hell of a lot harder then it should have done and I stopped and should have dropped out but decided to jog around the rest of the course. In hindsight I should never have turned up but after 6 really good weeks of training since my success at Wokingham half marathon I wanted to prove a point.

I have had to re-evaluate my goal for Paris and having had a long discussion with Bruce Tulloh about what I should do for Paris we decided that I should aim for a more realistic target time of 2:35 - 1:18 - 1:17 splits. It does mean that however frustrating it is and however positive and focused I have been in making my target of 2:30 it is most likely that I will not have the necessary investment to make the documentary I wanted.

However whatever happens in Paris I will still carry on and endeavour to get as close to my target as is possible. One thing that so many runners have failed to notice is that I am a filmmaker; I make documentaries for a living. I wanted to make a documentary about the marathon and marathon running. I have immersed myself in an attempt to better understand just how hard it is. Of course my chances of every getting to my end target are unbelievably slim but however I do, I hope that it has inspired other less talented runners to challenge their perceived limitations. "Aim for the stars and maybe you'll reach the sky, aim for the gutter and you will most likely hit".

why did he run reading when he had been ill this close it paris???

It's good the see Alex adopting a more realisitic plan,

On the subject of why his claims inspired a cynical response from so many runners, I don't think the asking for money or film project is the problem.

What rubbed many of us the wrong way is Alex's suggestion that his force of will is so much stronger than other runners' that he might be able to overcome the normal parameters for improvement.

He admits to lacking huge genetic gifts, so he's basically saying that because he is more dedicated, smarter, or better able to figure out how to train for distance running than the rest of us, he will surpass the normal progression that other runners labor through to reach an elite (or near-elite) performance standard.

That's the part of his plan that is a load of crap, and that is why there is a bit of gloating now that he's getting his dose of reality. There are no shortcuts* in running (figuarative ones anyway) and that is the beauty of it.

*Except EPO/other drugs ... wonder if he's thought of that yet.

Very well put. I couldn't agree more.

He's going to have to forget about Beijing 2008, and concentrate on London 2012.