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NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 7, 1999

Adriana Fernandez

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

MODERATOR: Let's start with Adriana. Congratulations. The first Mexican female winner of the New York City Marathon. I want to know which Mexican restaurant are you eating at tonight?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: Thank you very much I am still very happy with the victory. I don't know yet in which restaurant we are going to celebrate, but my coach is here, my family and a lot of people that have supported me are here and we will celebrate with them.

Q. Who is your teacher?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: Gomez.

Q. About 4 miles you caught up the front. You ran with her for a long time. Why did you stay with her? Was it a little mental? Were you trying to break her? Were you happy with the pace?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: When I saw that she led I went I caught up with her to follow the pace and I felt very strong, so I thought I could win the race by there and decided to go after that.

Q. What did you learn last year that helped you win today?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: Last year I realized that the New York City Marathon is similar to what I train that gave me a lot of confidence to train better in that course in that type of terrain to come back an win it here.

Q. After you time here you have the qualifying time to represent Mexico in the Olympics what are your plans for the future and the Mexican press wants to know when exactly are you arriving in Mexico City?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: I believe that after my time here I am more than qualified for the Olympics. I will be training and preparing and focusing to run in a good race at the Olympic games. I don't know when I will go back to Mexico city.

Q. Are you planning to run another marathon before the Olympics? Will you run a spring marathon or will you just focus now on the Olympic marathon?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: Probably my coach is the one that decide the program, probably but I don't know yet.

Q. When you made -- when you went away from Fiacconi, were you putting any extra pressure to break away then or was just Fiacconi just slowing down?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: I was trying to push harder to make sure I win the race.

Q. Were you surprised that no one was able to keep the pace with you, that you were alone and so far out there at the end of the race?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: I was surprised but I concentrated on my pace, on my own rhythm and that is what took me to the victory.

Q. You said that what you learned last year was that the New York City Marathon course is something like where you train which begs the question: Where do you train? Do you have five bridges near your house?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: I train normally in the volcano, Tuluca (sic), which is for your information 12,000 feet in elevation. I also train in the Oketal (sic) or the Desert of the Lions outside of Mexico City which is very up and down and they go there and they do loops anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.

Q. You said on TV, did we understand you correctly, that the wind bothered you so much that without it you may have run 2:20 and broken the world record today --

MODERATOR: He corrected himself and said that it could have made for a course record. Do you want to elaborate?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: It was very windy out there and I run by myself. I believe that I could run the course record if the conditions were better. I am hoping to come back next year to do it.

Q. How was your training and strategy different from this year or last year to this year? What made the difference?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: Basically this year I trained more in the mountains. I went to the volcano more than last year. When I finished second here last year my confidence level went up the roof. After that race, I was talking about winning races not necessarily being top 5 or going for a fast time. I did try to win London. London she made the break and ended up second in 2:24. At the press conference I said I no longer am going to go in the race trying to run a fast time or to finish in the top 3, that in this race I was going to try to win the race.

Q. What is going through your mind when Franca makes the incredible push at the very beginning of the race, what is going through your mind and how were you able to keep yourself calm during that time?

ADRIANA FERNANDEZ: I thought that if I let her go farther -- open a bigger gap I would gain confidence and maybe win the race from the beginning. I decided to catch up with her, stay with her and then make a push on her own.

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