Fernando Cabada Hoping For Race of His Life And Top Five Showing At 2013 Boston Marathon
“I know there is a thing (lot of attention) for first American and all that, but how is being first American if you are getting ninth place anything to glorify? You are still getting ninth place.”
by Robert Johnson
April 12, 2013
Boston, MA – Today I caught up with 30-year old Fernando Cabada for a very enjoyable interview. Cabada who debuted in 2:12 way back in 2006 before finally PRing again last year at 2:11:53 was full of optimism for Monday and dreaming big.
“I’m hoping I’m going to run the best marathon I’ve ever run,” said Cabada who said given the fact he debuted at 2:12 in 2006, he figured he’d be at least at 2:08 by now. “I really want to just run the best I’ve ever run.”
“I don’t want to put so much (emphasis) on time. I want to be top ten but I don’t want to be ninth or tenth. I know there is a thing (lot of attention) for first American and all that, but how is being first American if you are getting ninth place anything to glorify? You are still getting ninth place.”
“I just want to give myself an outside chance for top five maybe,” said Cabada. “But I don’t think me going out with the leaders and mixing it up from the get-go is going to do it justice. I gotta remember that all of my great performances – getting the American record at 25k, my national championships – resulted from being in control and from me warming up into it.”
“But when you are running with so many good guys, they are going to dictate how things are going. I’m not (going to be) 100% in control. I’m not the top dog in the field. So it’s going to take a lot of confidence and a lot of patience. I’m going to have to run strong the whole way.”
Off camera, Cabada told me if he runs the race of his life that “for sure, top three” is where he thinks he’d finish. Cabada would likely need some help to finish that high but given the fact that fellow American Jason Hartmann who has a 2:11:06 PB was fourth last year, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities.
The 30-year old Cabada who turns 31 next week also said off camera that he’s excited to be in his 30s and is hoping to learn from what he admitted was an up and down past both on and off the track.
For more on the more mature Cabada, take a look at the long ESPN.com profile on him:
The video interview is embedded below.