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

The negative response to this guy is not a surprise. As people are saying, it's just disrespectful to all the real sub-2:20 marathoners out there. Here is a bloke off the street saying I can do better because...uh, why exactly? He may not see it that way--he's just "chasing a dream"--but by announcing time goals he is in fact comparing himself to others. He is in fact saying, I can will myself to do things others find beyond their limits. It's not at all surprising this rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

I had the same reaction when Michael Jordan announced he was going to be a major league baseball player. There are thousands of good athletes in the minor leagues who have been preparing all their lives for a shot at the majors, and MJ assumed he could surpass them in a few months, even though his physiology is not ideal for the sport (how many position players are a lean 6-7 with long levers?) and he had almost no prior skill training. If I had been a AA pitcher at the time, I would have beaned him every time.

Best of luck with London, if don't try you will never achieve!

Seb Coe said this resently...the first step toward the podeium is having the right parents. He disrespect the natural ability of Olympians. You'd have to have aprrox sub 4 mile talent even to consider this, anything else is just ignorance of the sport and life.

fgfg wrote:

You'd have to have aprrox sub 4 mile talent even to consider this, anything else is just ignorance of the sport and life.

Don't be stupid. Sub 4 minute miling is a bit excessive.

And you can be TOO fast twitch to run a decent marathon - look at Andy Hart and Matt Yates dragging themselves round London the year after they retired from the track (although Richard Ashe looks quite promising this year....)

Sub 4 talent, but probably over 1500. And then enough time and training and effort and it MIGHT happen.

Ok, so we all have dreams. This guy was aiming high. Very high. But he had a dream. Lets not slag someone off for trying to reach their goal shall we. He was aiming for very quick PB's over a short period of time. In my opinion too short of time. But so what ? If he does'nt do it then he tried.

Perhaps we should all focus on OUR goals and not get wrapped up in other peoples. Fair Play to you Alex mate.

was he really trying to achieve these 'dreams', or was he doing a lot of talking, blogging and filming about it - on his site he seems to have a lot of nice videos of him training in different locations and 'reflecting'- but not too many of him dragging his ass out the door at 6am for yet another 10 miler - if he was genuinely trying to do this he might have tried to do enough training, but he didnt.

also, as has been said previously - if this was a 'dream' since he was a kid as he claims, what the F has he been doing for 20 years apart from being lardy. He's a Bullsh1t (sadly i think he's bullsh1ting himself more than anyone) artist whos surrounded himself with sycophants. Although his bird is tasty.

on his website wrote:

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

haven't you ever raced when ill? I certainly have. I bet nearly every runner has - it's a right of passage, and you learn not to do it again!

What did Matt Yates run for the marathon? Is he still running?

London 2001:

1034 (984) 00719 MATTHEW. YATES (GBR) M 32 BELGRAVE HARRIERS AC 03:00:06

Anyone know any background to this time? was he running seriously, did he blow up? Having run against him a few times over the years over a variety of distancesI'm sure he could have run substantially quicker?

yes I have but I do not have team of people around me that he does, I would of thought 4 weeks before a big effort like the marathon he would of had the sense (or someone in his team) to step back and just train rather than run himself in to the ground racing a half and therefore having to rest up the crucial weeks before Paris when he would be wanting to start easing down rather than missing training

I also don’t think he should of been running a half 4 weeks before the marathon it seems to close for my liking

I'm sure Yatesy could have gone quicker.

He'd done some decent training but nothing like at the same kind of level as when racing middle distance seriously.

He'd been at the Expo for the week too. On his feet all day, hassle, late nights and a few sly pints. (May be not just a few).

I'm always beat up by the time the weekend comes if I've worked the Expo - I wouldn't dream of trying to run 26.2 at the end of it.

I thought as much, around the time he was running sub 1:50 800's for fun he turned up at a local 10k with a serious hangover and a black eye from the night before, the time he ran that day was also not a great example of his 10k potential.

So.. any revised opinions on his chances?

So how it he get on at Paris?

He's not run it yet it's in a few weeks time.

Paris Marathon wrote:

So how it he get on at Paris?

Paris is a week on Sunday... and he's hoping to do a 1:17/1:18 split I think he said.CheersMark

kayanoreeves wrote:

He's not run it yet it's in a few weeks time.

Paris Marathon wrote:

So how it he get on at Paris?

Everyone bored with Vero now? lol...

I'm predicting, 2:37 at Paris ;-) anyone else? Infact, lets set up a predictions...

Alex Vero Paris Marathon Predictions

Mark Dodd - 2:37:14

i think 2 50