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TCS NYC MARATHON

November 3, 2016

Ryan Vail

New York, New York

Q. This is your first marathon since New York two years ago, right?
RYAN VAIL: That's right.

Q. How are you feeling? Nervous? Excited to get back to racing?
RYAN VAIL: I'm excited to get back to racing. It's been a long almost year and a half of injuries. So my last race was U.S. Championship in the track in 2015. It's been a while. I'm just excited to get to the starting line.

Q. What did you learn from those three injuries?
RYAN VAIL: Patience. The last one, the third injury, I don't want to kick myself too hard over because it was going into the Olympic trials. I knew I was pushing the envelope. I knew I was taking a risk. So I'm okay with that one. I think the first two I could have done a better job at avoiding long-term injury. So I'll go with patience.

Q. I noticed your posts online, reading that, you've been very vigilant about taking days off at the slightest hint of injury. Is there anything else you've done just to sort of stay healthy or any other changes you've made?
RYAN VAIL: I've added some more strength training. I've always been good at rehab, but I've been lifting some more weights and trying to build muscle and strength development when I wasn't able to run, even before coming back. So I've taken that part a lot more seriously.

Q. It looks like workouts have been going well, but maybe you don't have the same peak mileage as before. Do you worry about that confidence-wise at all, that you might not have the strength? What's your mindset?
RYAN VAIL: It is different coming into this. Usually I come in with hitting exactly the mileage I want to, hitting exactly the workouts I want to hit. This time, the workouts have gone surprisingly well, as well as they've ever gone, but that's the one piece I'm missing in my mind is having that volume. But because the workouts have gone so well, I'm not that worried about it. I've had 12-plus years of high volume under my belt. So I'm really counting on that coming through to help me out.

Q. Do you feel fresher going into this one than you have in previous marathons?
RYAN VAIL: I do. I feel more fresh going into workouts. So I assume that's going to carry over into the race as well. The whole body feels good now, right? Usually in the past, it's always little niggles here and there and tightness and fatigue. None of that is here right now. I'm really hoping it will stay that way through Sunday.

Q. What do you have in mind for a goal?
RYAN VAIL: New York is all about competition. I'm not too worried about time goals right now. I just want to go out there and compete. You know how it can be slow or fast or go out at the gun. I want to be top ten. I want to match my previous best, and I want to compete for a top spot.

Q. If you look at Chicago the last couple of years and also New York last year, there's been a big pack of runners until pretty late in the race, and then someone will throw out a hard move. Have you simulated that sort of rapid change in pace? Do you feel like you're ready if that happens?
RYAN VAIL: Yeah, I think so. We like to do these tempo run, tempo workouts in training. It helps to drop down to threshold pace at 18 miles and later in training you make that mental jump in the race when you're already fatigued. I think that's a great way to prepare for that.

Q. What kind of tempo runs do you do?
RYAN VAIL: I'll do like a threshold based tempo to start the workout. Let's say it's a ten-mile run. And then come back and do another threshold type workout . So it would be from miles, let's say, 18 to 23 range. So it's really late in the game. It's really geared to change the mentality of what's happening out there.

Q. Is that something you've done in the past for a few years?
RYAN VAIL: It is. It's something I've done in the past this year. I did it twice. Normally I would only do it once with different types of threshold training. And they were both faster than I've ever done. To me, it's a big confidence booster to be able to push those miles at a faster pace.

Q. Mentally, was it tough to get over missing out on the trials? If you look maybe 12 months before the trials, you were one of the top contenders for the team. How long did it take you to get over that? Was it difficult to bounce back?
RYAN VAIL: It was difficult. I knew I could get hurt because I was pushing the volume so fast after the previous injury, but to have it happen so close to the race. I was already in California. I got the MRI results a week before the race. To have it happen so close to the race, it was really tough. I couldn't watch the race.

The I stayed away from it. Once I got back to running, though, I was able to put it out of my mind pretty quickly. I was excited to get back to training.

Q. Anything else we should know?
RYAN VAIL: I don't think so. Glad to be back on track. Excited for this race and 2017 as well.

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