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

I think you've missed his point. He wasn't saying that 34min is 'gym culture'. He's saying that not many people are now going all out to run as fast as they can - that's gym culture. This is reflected in results. Look at a race with 600 entries from a decade or two ago and the sharp end would be faster and with more depth as far more people in these races trained for and aimed for a fast time (whatever that meant to them).

Good luck Alex!

Please provide background about training/lifestyle. Do you do altitude between now and Olympic trials? What's your nutrition plan like? BMI? Running full time? 3 sessions/day?

maybe, i see his point but it came off sounding like anyone who didn't break 33 wasn't concerned about their time which I don't think is true

I like this guys style. It's good to be optimistic.

He's gonna have to beat me though. My plans are very similar to his.

I find the whole thing bloody ridiculous he has a bloody cheek more than anything!! I have run 5km in 14:25, 10km in 30:11 and have run 67 minutes for the half. Why dont I start asking for money to make it to Beijing. Please can someone give me £100,000!! It doesnt work like that. The money would be better off given to the marathon men that are presently running around sub 2:20 not some guy that struggles to run sub 35 mins for 10km. There are loads of guys down at my club that are more talented than him, work full time, have a family etc.

i know what you mean

I habve never read so much BullSH**TE in all my life, its like reading commments form a bunch of jealous kids in the school yard, so manynegative people in this world man, why dont you all go and find a little island soemwhre in this world and FU**kin die.........if people have a dream and want to achieve it willing to put in the hard work you the FU*8 are u lot to knock the Sh*T out of him be he even starts. your all just jealous cause noither of you have the intellegence to go about do this yourselfs, ecuse the spelling but this is type in rage against negative people who have nothing else to do with their sad lives but to know others ..............

Why dont you? - I dont think anybody will just come and offer it too you, but if you ask for it , maybe you might just get it...

I dont think its likely this guy gets any funding to achieve his goal and it maybe he is being a bit cheeky asking but hats off to him if he does, however unfair it may appear to you.. I mean someone gives Jade Goody cash ;)

i say good luck to the guy as there is nothing wrong with a dream, but i do have a problem with needing 75 grand to do it!

i know i could live off 10 grand a year and hopefully will be close beijing. but if someone does have a spare 75k in the back pocket- i might be a better bet for the GB team as missed athens OG by 0.86secs in the 1500m, and the standard is now 0.3secs slower- so if i can improve my best by 0.56secs and have a good trial im in! and forgot to mention i have been in this sport since i was 12years old!

good luck again, but sometimes even with all the will and hard work in the world dreams do not always come true!

sorry jt

I don't think this would give the sport or general distance runners much publicity - its totally focussed on one guy doing the 'I used to be fat, now look at me' thing.

When this doesnt happen this guy wont necessarily be that distraught, as he admits himself its the longest of long shots, so the whole film will be a general - 'well done, you improved a lot but it was never really on so dont worry kind of thing'. A true study following guys in with a genuine chance (a la the US 5000 Metres film) would show the true highs and lows of people striving for that one chance - the ecstasy of those who make it, the gut wrenching agony of those who miss out (Chris Cariss 2.15.08 London 04 anyone?!) - surely as a film maker Alex V should appreciate thats a far more powerful subject for a film than this solo ego effort.

[quote]anEconomist wrote:

I worry that your story fades away after you fail and all nonrunners are left with is the idea that some average yahoo was training so hard and he was going to make the olympics. That is the last thought in their mind - that all it would take is hard work. It takes away from the talent of the true greats. People will have the impression that anyone could be a great runner if they wanted to - wrong, people in the olympics are very special, extraordinary runners with natural gifts.

[quote]

Actually the opposite is surely true. If he puts in all the hardwork and fails, then his story will highlight the talent that it takes to get the Olympics, and place Olympians on a higher pedastool. The lesson being that it takes more than hardwork to be an Olympian.

If he succeeds and makes it, then his story will be a true inspiration to runners and nonrunners alike.

As for those runners who are insulted at the thought of an "average Joe" training hard and trying to get to the Olympics, then you yourselves are extremely arrogant (what makes you more than an avereage Joe - the fact that you call yourself an athlete?) and possess a very fragile ego.

Good luck in nailing that final 1 second for Beijing.

Yes, while you are without a doubt a more deserving candidate at least if I were donating cash.

But, this guy has created the website, blogs his results and the average joe already knows more about his trials and tribulations than we know about yours.. Its a media intense world and with tools like youtube, google video etc these sorts of guys will get what they want even if their approach is not as pure or deserving as yours..

mmm ok that sounded intelligentfirst, is he willing to put in the hard work, mmm not really... there a ton of runners who have put in 15 to 20 years of nonstop work, probably towards the sole goal of making the olympics, they do it silently without fan fare and without making a national cause out of ithe is talking about a year, that does not impress me... long term committment impresses mesecond, i'm not sure exactly what there is to be jealous of at all... in my field this would be like some kid in undergraduate school standing up and saying i am going to win the nobel prize it is my dream (well no kidding same with a thousand other economists out there)good to have a dream but it would be more than a little ridiculous at this point in the young student's, put in the years and get close, show you have extreme talent, love for the subject and extreme determination and then we can think about making it a public causei think the same kind of goes for this runner guybut hey whatever, I hope he accomplishes his dream

grey wrote:

if people have a dream and want to achieve it willing to put in the hard work you the FU*8 are u lot to knock the Sh*T out of him be he even starts. your all just jealous cause noither of you have the intellegence to go about do this yourselfs, ecuse the spelling but this is type in rage against negative people who have nothing else to do with their sad lives but to know others ..............

gross---

to establish myself until late October an abyss formed at the base of my spine. The whole condition was cased by a group of in growing hair (actually quite common) tracking up the natal clef. After an operation to excise the area I was left in bed for 5 weeks due to vicinity of the stitches. 3 months later, over weight and having lost a degree of fitness, I had become more determined than ever to fulfil my life time ambition to attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games as a Marathon runner.

"an abyss formed at the base of my spine"

I sincerely hope for the sake of Alex's health that this should read "abscess" (still gross, though less dramatic)

less polished than the other guy's but a lot more substance one might suggest.

When are some of you going to realize that all the hard work and dedication in the world cannot overcome your genetic limits? If world class times only required the ability to survive 120 mile training weeks, then most of us would be world class simply for putting the time in.

Good on Alex for giving it a go and aiming big. His odds of success are very long but I admire his optimism and not settling for being a neighborhood stud at local 5K races. My high school XC coach said, "Better to aim for the stars and miss than to aim for the gutter and hit it."

Plus consider that his PR campaign seems to be working. We are talking about a guy with dreams. Isn't that better than rehashing tired old arguments and calling US runners pussies for not going to Mombasa?

Quite honestly, why do some of you continue to run at all? For all of the big talk on this site about how badass you are for being a runner, I believe that most here are self-loathing and socially retarded individuals that lack success in life and cling to this sport as some sort of delusional affirmation. I venture many of you could save some cash on shoes and race entries, put on a few pounds of muscle, and then actually find some happiness. Some of you might even get laid and find a job that pays more than minimum wage. You might even move out of your parent's house! (Hint: lots and lots of people you call "fat" and "slow" are very happy and lead full lives - is this why you hate them?)

Maybe I'll see some of you at the St. Patrick's Run this weekend. You should be easy to spot: pasty, skinny, Gatorade stained singlet, baggy shorts, bitching about something wrong with the race, making excuses for your less than stellar time, and going home alone-again.

I think the reason most are not totally supportive of AV's goal is that he seems to be applying the philosophy behind "The Secret" to running. Most of us don't by into that philosophy for anything, much less running. It's not that it's an insult so much as that we know there is more to an achievement than simply wanting it. That is a start, sure, but it simply cannot be everything. I might as well say, 'I have acted in community theater, and I want to earn an Oscar in 2008.'

Representing your country in the Olympics doing what you love to do is a dream held by many, but it's a dream because it takes incredible talent, work, support, and luck to get there. If anyone could do it, then no one would really want to do it.

Genetic limits? What makes you an expert on the subject?