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TCS NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 2, 2014Kurt FearnleyTatyana McFaddenNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Congratulations. We'd like to introduce our 2014 TCS New York City Marathon wheelchair champions, Kurt Fearnley, Tatyana McFadden. Today marks the fifth win for Kurt. He won previous titles in '06, '07, '08, '09. He's the course record holder here from 2006, when he ran 1:29:22. He won the 2013 London Marathon. Captured seven medals at the Paralympic games. He's from Australia. Tatyana, 25 years old. It's her third New York City Marathon, TCS New York City Marathon win, her second Grand Slam victory, winning 2014 London, Boston, Chicago, now New York. She's the 2013 defending champion here and a 2014 winter Olympian. She's from Maryland. Could I please ask both Tatyana and Kurt just to give a couple of opening statements. If you were watching earlier this morning, you saw that the start time moved a little bit from 8:30 to 8:45. I think you know what I'm referring to. Just talk about the conditions out there and your race in particular. Tatyana? TATYANA McFADDEN: First of all, I want to say thank you. Thank you to you all being here and thank you to the TCS Marathon, and thank you so much to the volunteers and for the fans. It's absolutely a wonderful, wonderful marathon. This morning's weather condition, it was quite windy, 28 miles per hour, headwind throughout the entire race. Yes, we did get a little bit of a start later in the race, and we did start mile 3. That was a great call. That was just a safety call. We got into our chairs. We started from mile 3 and pushed our way up. It was very, very windy. So in the race, you had to be smart. You had to be strategic. And you had to conserve, and you had to think about where your strength and weaknesses are throughout the entire race. I cannot believe that I have won eight marathons in a row. Again, this is absolutely incredible. So I say thank you and thank you for all your help. KURT FEARNLEY: I think that there are some points where I think that decisions need to be taken out of the hands of the athletes. So I think that self‑preservation often isn't existing in very high quantities with athletes in particular, but the right call was made at the start of the race. Coming down that bridge, I was concerned last night, but when you line up against 30 other boys, you're not going to talk about how concerned you are. And even during that race, my front wheel would be lifted up by the wind and moved like two feet to its left. If that would have happened on a bridge and we would have been in a pack of ten guys, someone's going over the side. Yeah, if anything happens to these guys, I want to be the reason why they hurt. I don't want it to be an incident that we all just‑‑ it just can't happen. So I think that the organizers, they did make the right call. The rest of the race was the most interesting wheelchair race that I've ever been involved with, and this will be my 56th or 57th marathon and my 9th in New York. We had a pack of about 12 or 13 guys for the majority of the race, and then me and Tomasz Hamerlak were able to get a breakaway, and you could see the peloton bringing us back. And then to go back to six men and to outsprint everyone by half a second, this is why we do what we do, and this will go down as one of my most memorable. THE MODERATOR: Kurt, if I'm not mistaken and I'm going to turn it right over to the media because they don't want to hear from me, but I have to ask the first question: You had six in your group coming up to the finish line. Take us through that. KURT FEARNLEY: Coming out, I thought I was going to get boxed in by the boys moving around to the left‑hand side. I think on days like today, the tactical race is straight out of the Tour de France. It's a cycling race. I could see the guys coming on the left‑hand side. It was Soejima on the right and Ernst van Dyk on the left, and that left that open for me on the right‑hand side. I sprinted once here with Krige Schabort, and it came down to inches, and I wasn't going to make that mistake again, and I was calm and ready for the last 150 meters, and then it was just head down and deal with try not to breathe for 15 seconds or 20 seconds and just get to the finish line. All these boys, there's six of them, they all deserve to win on any day. Of the four major wheelchair marathons this year, we've had four different winners, and London was Marcel Hug, in Boston it was Ernie getting his tenth win there, in Chicago Josh George, and I was the winner in New York. The sport has been improving over two decades. So we're in good shape. Q. Tatyana, I think they said on the TV that you fell at one point. What happened there? How did you regroup after that? THE MODERATOR: I told you they were probably going to ask about that, Tatyana. TATYANA McFADDEN: That was my fault. It was coming into the turn before the climb, right before the finish, that one last right turn. And it's a very tight turn. I just took the wrong line, and I fell out of my wheelchair. I quickly had to get back in. I think I hit a bike. It was quite embarrassing, but I owned it at that moment, and I got back in and took one look behind me to make sure the girls didn't catch me, and I just continued with my way up that last hill right before the finish. KURT FEARNLEY: Can I add to that and just say that's an absolute testament to the athlete that Tatyana is. There is not a more dominant athlete in any sport at the moment than what Tat is doing to women's wheelchair marathons. It's incredible. Q. Tatyana, with the wind, there was some type of issue with the TV feed. Can you talk us through just a little bit of the race, when you took the lead more definitively and what it was like in the early going. TATYANA McFADDEN: The wind was extremely, extremely tough. I remember the start of the race I just headed out first, and the girls fell in behind me, and we just continued to work together, switching off about every half mile because the wind was really, really strong. And then before I knew it, I surged on an uphill, and then it was just three girls left. It was me, Manuela and Wakako, and it was just us three for the entire race most of the way until that last top bridge, that bridge that's closed off. And that was a good mile climb, and I hit it on that bridge. That's where I dropped Wakako and Manuela, and I just kept going. I knew, if I kept up my momentum, if I kept up my intensity and my speed, they won't be able to catch me because I'm going alone. It's quite easier going alone than having people sucking wind behind you because you're pulling their weight as well. So I just stayed focused and went my comfortable speeds. It was quite windy. I remember, when the gust was hitting me, it shocked and surprised me sometimes because it was so strong. But it's just really about knowing your strengths and really pacing yourself, just being quite smart and not overexerting so you don't have anything for the finish. Q. Tatyana, this is for you, too: I just want to point out how have you balanced your training over the past couple of years? You're training for a marathon and winter sports. And how do you compare the feeling of competing in both of them? TATYANA McFADDEN: This year has been an absolutely incredible year. There's no words to describe it. I did the Winter Paralympics in Sochi, and I got to go back to my place where I was born and have my birth family, my adoptive family there. Winning the silver medal was just the cherry on top. Three weeks later, I got back into my racing training, and I just focused on mileage. In three weeks, I put in over 200 miles. In one week, sorry, we put in 200 miles, and it's just focusing on mileage and mileage and reshaping my body and retoning and really focusing on my arms and my back. So the training was very, very strategic after Sochi. And then from here, I've just stayed at University of Illinois‑‑ it's now the National Training Center. And having it be the National Training Center, we got new equipment and new equipment for the gym, new equipment for the rollers, and so we're able to adapt the equipment just for our upper body. Just putting in that time and focus, really just being a full‑time athlete and being able to transition and refocus. Each race is so different, and I have a goal for each different race because they're very strategic in their own way. KURT FEARNLEY: Having spent time with Tatyana training, she is an absolute warrior. She works hard and is just dedicated. It's good. TATYANA McFADDEN: I like keeping up with the boys in training. THE MODERATOR: Kurt, you told me about your addition to your family a second ago. What is the age and‑‑ KURT FEARNLEY: So I took off the first half of the year from marathon racing because we had a little boy back in March. I think he's my lucky charm. I'm going to pack him in my backpack for every New York Marathon now. All good things. It does make things a lot more real and a lot more emotional when family is extended, and then it's just escalated when they're here on the sidelines. He'll never remember it, but I won't forget it. It's the best. THE MODERATOR: We'll take some pictures today to remind him. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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