ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 2, 2003

Sylvia Mosqueda

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: Thank you. Yes, I am.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I think it's training smarter; not doing as much as I used to do and I think the older a woman gets, the woman gets stronger in the longer distances. I have gotten slower in the shorter distances so I have got to move up now.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: That was really bad, the fires back home. I woke up that morning with a really bad cold and then I kind of brought that cold over here a little bit, and breathing that air and training in it, I couldn't wait to get out of there and come to New York to train in this weather. The air quality is not very great here either, but compared to back home this is heaven right now.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: It was great this year thanks to Dave. He brought more elite women in. That was a big difference. Running alone gets a little difficult because at some point when you are out there by yourself you are not racing anymore, you are just out there for a tempo run. Today there was a lot of great competitors and I had a lot of women to run with and I never got stuck alone out there, so that was a big difference.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I am tired somewhat. My back hurts. This course is really tough. I just couldn't wait to get into Central Park because that's where you get all the energy from all the people. They really bring you into the finish line. I never really felt good out there at all. At 4 miles I was already having trouble with my breathing. I have a little congestion from the fires at home and also from having a little bit of the flu, but I was just -- I got to, like, 10 miles, I wanted to drop out. I was feeling really bad. I kept thinking what my coach told me after the marathon: You get days off, so you have got to finish the whole thing. I am glad I did.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I can't have ice cream. I am lactose.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I can see them up ahead but when you are really feeling bad, you are not really thinking about where everyone else is at. You are just thinking of yourself at that point. I got a second wind, like around 13 miles and I am glad I hung in there and didn't drop out at 10 miles. And when I got off the bridge somewhere around 16 where all that huge crowd is at, they gave me a second burst of energy so I am glad I hung in there.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I wanted to come here and run 2:28 and I was right at 1:14:10 so I was right on. I somewhat lost it right at 20, I was already at two minutes off, so I knew I wasn't feeling good.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I heard that Deena is going to be in the trials for the marathon, so her alone being there, I think she will make the race fast. A lot of American women now are really running that marathon. There's a couple -- there's going to be people running there. I think I will get my A standard there.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: It doesn't really intimidate me. It just means that the Americans have to get to work. Kenyans run well, Russian women run well. Now we didn't have Deena out there and she can run. So there's no intimidation at all. They do their homework. They run fast, they deserve it. When they win they work for it.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: No, it isn't. It's really going to take Americans to have a really great day to really come and catch these Kenyans. They can run but there's no intimidation at all.

SYLVIA MOSQUEDA: I think it's going to be more tactical. Here these women, they just went out and they came here to run fast and that's what they did. Americans, we tend to run a little bit more tactical and run together. It will be a big difference.