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

So how many of you have secret goals that you are seriously working towards, but don't actually say out loud for fear that nobody would believe you capable of them? I'm sure it's more than half. I have no idea why anybody would be insulted at this. Some of us may consider it a little arrogant to verbalize one's goals like this, but many of us secretly hold on to the belief that we are capable of far better than we have ever produced. The guy is actually on track with his goals at the moment. Good luck to him.

It was watching Shorter will the 1972 Olympic Marathon that made Bill Rodgers put out that cigarette he was smoking and say "well if he can do why the heck not me".

DenverRunner wrote:

tomtomtom wrote:

do you not think he is trying to con people into giving him 75 grand? he simply has no chance whatsoever!!!!

That was my first thought when I read that...

Is it even a con when it is so blatantly obvious that he's just looking for a handout? Let the donor beware.

DenverRunner wrote:

tomtomtom wrote:

do you not think he is trying to con people into giving him 75 grand? he simply has no chance whatsoever!!!!

That was my first thought when I read that...

He's looking for 75k British pounds, not US dollars. Am I the only one that caught that? Approximately $145,000. That's some pretty good money to accomplish his goal. You can buy some really good PED's for that kind of dough.

Andy barber, you are spot on i reckon. The 'handouts' look clearly explained in that 1 - for the sponsors he has in mind there are big tax offsets and 2 - if he doesn't keep making his pretty tough progress milestones - and he looks like he may start falling short v soon - the sponsors don't cough up their next instalment.

The only thing I find annoying about it - and I think it's unintentional on this guy's part - is that as someone already mentoined, it serves to undermine how many years the current crop of sub 2.15ish GB marathon guys worked to get to that level, and ditto those just behind them on the rankings. As for the coaches, advisors, support team etc, fair enough they are all looking to promote themselves in their particular fields - they have very good relevant CVs themslves albeit his club coach clearly hasn't yet experienced developing elite endurance runners. The runner has made very big progress in the last year or so; clearly he's not at the level that Tulloh has operated at as both athlete and coach, but I'd guess that any coach would get some satisfaction out of seeing this sort of progress.

The runner is a documentary filmmaker so of course he's going to have a glossy website and be commercially astute to develop the project - but he's got to go out there and do all the mileage.

His progress suggests that April 2008 will be well short of whatever his ultimate endurance performance may be and when he doesn't get the UKA/BOA thumbs up for Beijing, as he surely won't, it' d be interesting to see if he carries on to see what he can achieve anyway.

I just wanted to set a few things straight with some of you. I decide to take on this challenge as an opportunity to inspire others that anything really is possible and in no way do I intend to degrade other runners or their achievement. To date I have received a grand total of £0 in sponsorship for a documentary that I have had to self fund and made the website myself. The documentary is being filmed by a friend of mine and it really does upset me that advice and help that has been given to me by Bruce and Keith should be so degraded. I don’t know if I will ever make it to my target and most probably I never will but I will continue in my attempt to show that anything really is possible.

Best wishes

Alex Vero

davidch wrote:

The only thing I find annoying about it - and I think it's unintentional on this guy's part - is that as someone already mentoined, it serves to undermine how many years the current crop of sub 2.15ish GB marathon guys worked to get to that level, and ditto those just behind them on the rankings.

I think whatever happens to him what he does will highlight the work these guys has put in.

If the documentary gets off the ground UKA should try to make sure the guys in the mix for the team are regularly feature. The best coverage these guys have had recently could well be when Huw Lobb won Man Vs Horse. (Huw would be a great case study - the guy is the most organised and systematic person I've ever met. Even on a walking break he has a schedule: 8.30am morning run. 9.15 shower. 9.25am make sandwiches...)

And as Bannister said in The First Four Minutes: "Failure is as exciting to watch as success, providing the effort is absolutely genuine and complete..."

There is a first time for everything.Running is historically a individual sport, but can we change this?That's why running has appeared to be a dying sport, unlike rugby and soccer - In fact without running you could not condition yourself for other sports.Watch this space )

why don't you make a documentary about the guys who genuinely have a chance of qualifying for the Olympics and demonstrate the massive sacrifices they put in year after year for that one chance to pull on the UK vest? Most of the guys who have been hammering away for years at this probably have a 1 coach, a couple of mates to train with and the odd bit of physio if they can afford it. Far better to demonstrate this to the public who constantly slag the british distance guys off.

how are you going to go from running 75 to 70 for a half in 4 weeks, i just looked at your website

Steve Brace

who is steve brace is he god because you will need him, good luck

First off I think Alex deserves a pat on the back, the problem with running at the moment is that too many people are not extending themselves and are happy to cover the distance, the 'gym culture' as many people call it, just look at your local 10k, 600 entries and about 3/4 guys going sub 33 seems to be the norm. Here is a guy who is going to do everything he possibly can to improve, and take a couple of years out of what seems like a very successful career. The fact he is a film producer is beside the point.

If you look at running over the last 10 years it has gained huge numbers but times and performances have dropped, particularly in the area between where Alex now finds himself and those in with a chance of making a national team. Some people might be dismissive of what he is doing, but maybe somebody somewhere will be inspired by his story and may with all due respect, have more talent than Alex, Dan Robinsons phenomenal improvement is not too far away from this story, although it took him several years, that would be the only criticism of Alex's project, the short period of build up, I don't think 2/3 years is enough and maybe 2012 would have been more realistic, I think this is the issue which makes some people feel insulted, the idea that you can achieve in 2/3 years what some highly talented people have spent a lifetime trying to accomplish.

As far as I'm concerned any publicity for distance runners is a good thing.

Best of luck.

???. wrote:

who is steve brace is he god because you will need him, good luck

Steve Brace was an out of shape who took up jogging i his 20s. His first marathon was outside 3.30. He eventually got down to 2:10:35 and is ranked 17th on the UK all-time list.

its the time line that i think is wrong as above i think it will take more than 2/3 years to do anything like this, and why 75k is this for the special effects in the film

I don't care about your sponsorship or lack thereof - if people want or do not want to give you money it is no skin off my or anyone else's back (except maybe your sponsors but that is between you and them). What kind of bothers me is the lack of respect for people who truly do have a shot at making the olympics and how hard they work to achieve that goal.First, your goal of making the olympics is hardly new. There are countless runners out there who put in mile upon mile in the hope of conquering much more modest goals. They run through injuries, in inclement weather, through personal hardship all in the hope of improving by just a few seconds in a local 5k. And they do it without any fanfare or publicity or documentary film made about them.Second, and maybe I am wrong, but this is not possible. I wish it were possible to achieve anything we want in athletics but all the hard work in the world won't get some people to run a 2:15 marathon. Running at the olympic level not only takes hard work, but also talent. So what? Well so you fail... big deal. Except 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. Your publicity is related to that of Dean Karnazes, I don't mind you guys getting the publicity, what I mind is that you give off the impression that you are special too - that you could be great runners which in reality is far from the truth. I hope your attempts reveal just how competitive running is but I have the feeling it will have the opposite affect.

Alexander Vero wrote:

I just wanted to set a few things straight with some of you. I decide to take on this challenge as an opportunity to inspire others that anything really is possible and in no way do I intend to degrade other runners or their achievement. To date I have received a grand total of £0 in sponsorship for a documentary that I have had to self fund and made the website myself. The documentary is being filmed by a friend of mine and it really does upset me that advice and help that has been given to me by Bruce and Keith should be so degraded. I don’t know if I will ever make it to my target and most probably I never will but I will continue in my attempt to show that anything really is possible.

Best wishes

Alex Vero

I find this quite insulting... some people may find someone running a 34min 10k gym culture, but I don't.I am lean (5'10",142) run upwards of 70 to 80mpw and I cannot break 33...i am not 'happy' to cover the distance, i bust my butt just to get a few seconds fasteri read up on all the running literature and follow it to the tmaybe it is all relative but if you had said people who run a marathon once and never run again that is one thing but you are putting the bar pretty high to refer to some of these runners as gym culture

DWardle wrote:

First off I think Alex deserves a pat on the back, the problem with running at the moment is that too many people are not extending themselves and are happy to cover the distance, the 'gym culture' as many people call it, just look at your local 10k, 600 entries and about 3/4 guys going sub 33 seems to be the norm. Here is a guy who is going to do everything he possibly can to improve, and take a couple of years out of what seems like a very successful career.

Alexander Vero wrote:Best wishes

Alex Vero

Hey man, good luck!

Ok so here is my 2 cents worth.

I think that any effort for one to improve themselves should be applauded and I dont think he wishes in any way to undermine the effort of other runners. Any publicity for this sport at this time is good publicity.

We have no idea how talented this guy really is so his top performance potential is only a stick in the fog at this point but my gut instinct says he has not given himself enough time to get to his 2:15.

The mistake lots of runners make is that they assume their improvments will be linear and improving from 3:30 to 3:00 is the same as 3:00 to 2:30 and also that their bodies will be able to sustain increased load without injury.

I say he should continue to aim high and see what he can achieve but keep your feet on the ground. The pile of tried and failed is far bigger than the sub 2h15s...