Catching Up With Europe’s Leading Women Entrants: Lisa Stublic of Crotia, Sabrina Mockenhaupt of Germany and Portugal’s Ana Dulce Félix
by LetsRun.com
October 31, 2013
New York, NY – Day two of three media days prior to Sunday’s 2013 ING New York City Marathon took place today. During the first morning session, we caught up with three of Europe’s leading women’s entrants: Lisa Stublic of Crotia (and Connecticut where she was born/raised), Sabrina Mockenhaupt of Germany and Portugal’s Ana Dulce Félix.
We share their insight below.
Ana Dulce Félix Trying To Overcome Her Father’s Sudden Death and Still Run Well in New York
Ana Dulce Félix prior to the 2013 New York City Marathon
The 31-year old Portuguese athlete who had her personal best in New York in 2011 when she was fourth in 2:25:40 comes into New York hoping to perform well after suffering a big personal loss.
We asked Dulce Félix, who had the lead in Boston this spring, if her training prior to 2013 New York had been going well as we realized she only ran a half-marathon in Lisbon on October 5th in 72:29 versus the 70:44 she ran in Libson prior to Boston this spring.
Dulce Félix revealed the Lisbon race was difficult because it came the day after her father, who was her biggest fan and attended all of her races, passed away after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June.
“It was a significant loss for me and I really went through some hard times,” said Dulce Félix. “I will do my best on Sunday but the stress of my father’s illness (impacted me). I will try to improve and get organized.”
As for her future goals, she said her #1 goal for 2014 is to defend her European 10,000 crown next summer in Zürich. Dulce Félix won gold in Helsinki in 2012 by running 31:44.75, defeating silver medallist Jo Pavey in the process.
Sabrina Mockenhaupt Is Focused on Her Fellow European Competition and Loves Being In the United States With The “Crazy” Americans
Sabrina Mockenhaupt priro to the 2013 New York City Marathon
The 32-year old Mockenhaupt who has a 2:26:21 personal best is looking forward to making her New York Marathon debut on Sunday, one year after her planned debut was cancelled by Hurricane Sandy, a cancellation which Mockehnhaupt said was the “right decision.”
“One time in your life, you have to run the New York City Marathon,” said Mockenhaupt who revealed she’s a big fan of the United States:
“I’m really looking forward to the race because in America the people are crazy – way more crazy than in Germany.
Here, you can post, ‘I’ve got good hair,’ the day before the race and that’s great.
In Germary, they say, ‘She needs to concentrate on the race and focus. She must be serious.’
I’m always having to think, “Oh, what can I post? Can I say I have nice nails?’
They don’t like such posts in Germany. You must be serious and say, ‘I train hard. I focus hard.’
I like (America). That’s the reason why I’m here.”
When asked about more differences between the US and Germany, she said Americans seem to be more “crazy” about running than in Germany.
“In America, they are also more crazy about running. I’ve never seen so many people running in a park at 7 am,” said Mockenhaupt. “That wouldn’t happen in Germany.”
As for her goals for Sunday, Mockenhaupt said her plan is to focus on the other European competitors early in the race, “I want to be in the top Three European girls. In the race, first I’ll look to the Europeans. I want to run tactically at the beginning, not so stupid like I did in Boston (where Mockenhaupt had a 16-second lead on Rita Jeptoo at 5k). The big goal would be to be top 10 or top 8.”
Mockenhaupt really was a great interview full of great one-liners including this one:
“Running is my passion. I’m addicted to running – it’s like a perfume for me.”
Croatia and Waterbury, CT’s Lisa Stublic Feels She’s Fitter Than When She Ran 2:25:44 in April In Zürich
You can watch/listen to your interview with Stublic, who set a massive 5:01 personal best, by running 2:25:44 to win Zürich in April, on the right. Here are the highlights.
Stublic on her fitness:
“Overall I think I’m a little more fit than before Zurich but I don’t really know how my performance will be because before Zurich I had pretty much perfect preparaton – nothing really went wrong except after the New York Half Marathon I had a sinus infection for a week, but that was the only problem throughout the whole preparation.”
“But in preparing for New York, it was kind of up and down. I went through some really good training, then some little thing would happen and I’d go down for a little bit then I’d have good training again so it wasn’t as consistent as it was before Zurich.”
Stublic on whether she’s nervous because she only ran 71:43 for a half-marathon three weeks before New York, whereas she ran a Croatian national record of 69:18 three weeks before Zürich:
“It doesn’t really make me nervous because when I ran (the) New York (half marathon) three weeks before Zurich I ran New York 100% to see how fast I could go. But when I ran Zagreb three weeks before (this race), my plan wasn’t to run as fast as I could. I actually ran it faster than I planned. I planned to run it in 1:12:30 to simulate the race.”
Stublic on her goals for Sunday:
“I don’t really have a time goal as I feel for this type of race you can’t put a time on it. I’d like to finish top 10, maybe higher if I can. I think I have the 12th or 13th fastest time coming in.”
******
More: Read out 2013 ING NYC Women’s Marathon Preview here
Disclosure: The NYRR is advertising the live coverage of the 2013 ING NYC Marathon on LetsRun.com. This article is not part of any advertising package.