	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

October 30, 2009

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

MARY WITTENBERG: Good afternoon. On behalf of all of us at New York Road Runners including our chairman of the board, George Hirsch, we welcome you to what's become our favorite Friday afternoon press conference, two very special athletes this year.
We welcome two very well known faces to New York City. We want to begin with, as we look forward to Sunday and Paula running in the race. We want to begin with a video looking back.
It could go on for a lot longer. And I think you are known for your sprint finish. You've heard me introduce Paula. You've heard me say she's the No. 1 on the top of our recruiting list for each of the last five plus years.
I think a much better way to introduce Paula today would be one legend to another. I'd like to introduce nine-time winner of the New York City Marathon, Grete Waitz.
GRETE WAITZ: Thank you. It's quite an honor to sit here with Paula. She is the marathoner. And not only because her running achievement, but also because I see a lot of myself in Paula. We both have a passion for track, cross country. That was how we both started, and then we moved on to the marathon.
And I don't know about Paula, but thinking back a piece of my heart is still with the way I started on the track and running cross country races, which is very big in Europe and Scandinavia.
As a marathoner, she has really paved the way for the women of today. Her time of 2:15, I think that took the breath away from a lot of people. When I saw that time it sort of, wow, I was speechless. I didn't think it was possible that a woman could run so fast, not too long after the 2:20 mark was broken.
So the runners have a lot to look up to. But also with her race and all the other races she has done sub 2:20. She has proven that it is possible to run those times, and that makes women all over the world train even harder. So her fast times may scare someone. Scares me, but I'm not running anymore, so for other runners, they are a great inspiration and motivation.
There is one thing I'd like to say about Paula. 2005 I was in Boston for the Boston marathon, and I was in the line waiting to buy a cup of coffee. And somebody came up to me and said, "Excuse me, are you Paula Radcliffe?" And I was like -- that was when my hair was different. I had a ponytail like Paula had. And I was like, "Please, can you say that again." They said", Are you Paula Radcliffe?" And I said I wish I were. Only in my dreams. That is today the biggest compliment I've ever gotten. So I'm really proud that somebody thought I was Paula Radcliffe.
About the race on Sunday, I know Paula, and knowing Paula she's a very consistent runner. And coming to a big race like this, we all know that she's ready to go. I do have the pleasure of watching her very close up. I'm going to be in the women's lead car. So I'm going to be with her step by step. And I wish her all the best for the race.
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Thank you. Thank you very much. I just want to say that I think that's the biggest honor for my career from being introduced by Grete. Definitely the cross country and the track is where I began at and I have many fond memories and my heart is there.
But my heart is also very strongly in the marathon. I think for that reason Grete and Ingrid and Joanie, they were big idols of mine. And for me now it's very special to be sitting next to Grete after everything that she's done.
I think the best and the strongest thing is besides such a great champion and how anybody could ever imagine to run, I think ten times New York, but to win nine times.
GRETE WAITZ: Well, you're on your way.
PAULA RADCLIFFE: I have a long way to go. But that's amazing. I think she's also my lucky charm to be sitting in the race. I like it when she's in the race truck, because I feel that brings me luck on race day. But I just want to say that the biggest strength is just what a great, humble and nice person you are. So I think that's what we all need to remember.
RICHARD FINN: Questions for Grete or Paula? Grete, what other similarities do you see with Paula with how you either ran or approached races?
GRETE WAITZ: We have a friend in common, and his name is Gerard Hartmann. And he said that he has never seen two runners so much alike like Paula and myself. Our trademark is run hard, do your best, and there is no limit for how hard we want to push ourselves, and I guess that is our trademark. We overdo it. But that is also what makes us champions.
If you didn't have that personality, you wouldn't have been a world class runner. So he, Gerard, he was -- I guess he still is a therapist, taking care of Paula, and I had the pleasure of meeting Gerard in Gainesville where we have a place. This was after my retirement, but I was still running.
So I had the pleasure of staying healthy with his hands, and he told me about Paula's training. I saw similarities, so that's why I feel so much closer to Paula as a runner.
RICHARD FINN: You talked earlier about when you saw Grete, I think when you were here for one of the early fifth avenue miles. Your thoughts? Any first memories of watching Grete either here in New York or anyplace world cross?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, my first memories are about world cross, and we talked about the amazing record in New York. And she has an unbeatable record in world cross country as well. And that was a big inspiration to me and trying to come back from winning the world juniors, it took me a long time to win the world senior cross country.
It was very special to me to be able to do that. So I think that background sort of backs up what Grete was saying about the training similarities. Because I think part of cross country running is you run with your heart, and you run with everything you can. It's not about the watch, it's not about trying to hit splits. It's just trying to run as fast as you can.
Even though the distances are totally different, that translates to the marathon very well. I think it can make you mentally strong, and make your body strong, too, for racing over the marathon distance.

Q. You had a difficult year. Last time you were here winning the Half Marathon, the set-up was a test for the World Championships. Your bounce hadn't come back into your running, so you felt you had to pull out. Just wondering after your tonsillitis recently, how your bounce is.
RICHARD FINN: For our viewers. The question is, I guess, how Paula's feeling, and I think the word was bounce, whether Paula's bounce is back.
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah. I think what was said is I didn't come out of that race and recover well enough to race the World Championships marathon in Berlin. And really I came here to test a lot of things out. I knew when I had the foot surgery in March that this year was very much going to be a transition year letting that recover. Getting what I could from the year, but not pushing and pushing things.
So when I came, things came together pretty late to have a shot at Berlin. That was the first time I'd run for 13 miles on the road. My first, I actually came through it really well. But my hamstring developed a bit of tendinitis and I've been compensating slightly. That's why the bounce didn't come back in Berlin.
In terms of the question about tonsillitis, that was really bad timing. It was probably going around the school where Isla goes. It just happened to be the week before the race. She came home. And I did a really bad training session, and I went to the doctors and had strep throat, too. Had to go to antibiotics.
Didn't really cost me a lot of training. I had to move one workout, and I missed one run, and I had to run some easier. So didn't cost me too much. So I'm feeling positive that I've got the long runs behind me. That was the main thing I was unsure of back in August, but I'm confident that I have the good long runs I need behind me for the marathon.

Q. Because this is your one big race this year, do you feel any extra pressure on you?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think just extra excitement and enjoyment to get out. Not really pressure. No. Just a really strong desire that everything work out okay, and just glad to be standing on the start line ready to go. Hoping that as always in a marathon, everything feels 100% race day and goes 10%.

Q. Last night I was running and I saw you coming off the reservoir with Gary. And we just did a quick hi. And to me I haven't seen you since this time last year. You actually look a lot thinner than you were last year at this time. I mean, the question is are you thinner? Are you fitter? How has the training gone, and has it been more intense?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think I'm exactly the same. I don't obsess about things like that. Last time I weighed myself I was pretty much the same, jeans seem to fit the same. So I think I'm pretty much the same. I go on how I feel in training, and I feel that I've kind of strengthened up a bit since where I was in August. Coming back in August because I think I've missed running.
I find in cross training you don't quite get the same strength into my quads and hamstrings as I do running up-and-down hills. So I've been able to fit a lot more of that in now. And I was kind of feeling that, not thighs, but my quads are stronger than they have been for a bit. So I don't know to answer the question.

Q. I've asked you before about your dominance in New York. Could you just talk about winning seven straight races? And the second part, you always seem to come to New York for the marathon having had a life-altering experience, whether it be giving birth or your Olympic experience, and that seems to have motivated you. You don't seem to have that this year. Unless you count your bunion surgery. So how do you go into this race and what do you think you use as motivation?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think first and foremost I'm a racer. And I just go into any race, wanting to race well, wanting to win the race. Wanting to show the hard work that I've put in in training and in preparation, and kind of bring that to fruition. And that's really when I stand on any start line, that's what I want to be able to do. Is give that 100% and show that preparation and things to workout like that.
I think in terms of New York, I just think that when I first came to run the 5th Avenue mile, I just from the very first loved it here. We went out for a run. We arrived late on a Saturday night. Went out for the run Sunday morning. We thought we'd come into some big carnival or there is a big event going on. It was actually just a regular Sunday morning in Central Park.
But the amount of people running around and Rollerblading, out with kids. It was just great to have that kind of oasis in the middle of this brilliant city. I think I just kind of caught a bug of New York, then ran well, which always helps. Then you come back the next year and run better, and it kind of snowball effects.
It's just a city that has happy memories. And to be honest, when I came in 2004, 2007, I didn't feel like I was coming back with something to prove. I just felt like I was happy to be here and wanted to go out and run well. And that doesn't change. That happens every time.
GRETE WAITZ: That's exactly how I felt when I ran. You know, coming to New York, especially the week of the marathon. If you weren't inspired and motivated before, you really came back here and you were because the city and everybody is talking about the marathon. All the New Yorkers and all the marathoners. It's sort of a special atmosphere in the city that really makes all the runners inspired. Especially also the elite runners.
When I crossed the finish line once in this race, you want to do it again.
RICHARD FINN: Let me clarify. Liz said something about that Paula has won here seven -- the last seven times she's been in New York. Paula completed a New York Grand Slam here with winning the New York City Half Marathon this summer. She's won the Continental Airlines 5th Avenue Mile, the New York Mini, and the ING New York City Marathon. So a New York City Grand Slam. The only woman to do that.

Q. I'm wondering, you're coming into this marathon where the women's field is kind of thin because of some late race cancellations. I'm wondering if that gives you more of a sense of confidence going into the race?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Well, I still feel it's a strong field. I mean, I think Salina showed in Boston that she's very much a force to be reckoned with. We know that Yuri Kano is very strong and will be coming in very well prepared. Any time Derartu Tulu is in the race, you've got to be prepared for that; too.
I think it's a strong race, I think always in the marathon, you have to also be prepared for the new person. Somebody who nobody has thought about, but is going to go out and run well.
But first and foremost for me with any marathon, it's about racing me. It's about how I feel on the day, and getting 100% out of me. Because that's what I can control, and that's what I can work hard to do the best from. And hope, as always, that it's good enough to run the race.
But it's very much sticking to my race plan and running how I feel, and following my instincts during the race that is most important. But I do think it is a strong field.

Q. You said last month on a conference call that you thought the record, the course record here was something you could do. Do you still feel that way? Are you looking at the forecast thinking it will be possible?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Is the forecast rain?

Q. I don't want to alarm anyone?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: No, I just didn't know. I thought it was going to be nice.

Q. There is a possibility?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: I'm just so used to the sun shining out in Staten Island. I hadn't thought it would.
I think that as any time at this stage, I think the course record can be beaten and I can run faster. But the main objective is to win the race, and to run the strongest way to do that and not think about times. I think the time for thinking about times is within the race. When you see how things are going. Beforehand I don't make plans, I just like I said, go with racing instincts and see how things go.

Q. This is a city that embraces its champions. So I'm wondering if there is any different feeling coming back as the returning champion? New York in general has treated you differently from last year when you were just another elite runner?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: No, I mean, I think honestly New York has always treated me well. Probably everybody who visits comes to the same feeling. You just feel very welcome here. The Road Runners have always made me feel very, very welcome right from the beginning.
So I think this year, it's special to be back here, but it's not much different to the other years because I've always been made to feel so welcome.

Q. I think I ran one -- I don't think anybody touched on this. One of the British periodicals that you were having a little bit of a hamstring issue. Has that cleared up at all?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: That was the problem that I came out with from the half I ran here in August. It was a bit of hamstring tendinitis. It didn't really. It just meant that I couldn't do flat out, all out sprinting. But didn't really affect my marathon preparations too much. And then just the little needle that I got last week. But the training was all done by then.

Q. The inevitable Olympic question. Everybody knows the Olympics haven't been your happiest running moments. Now you have the next one coming to your home country. Is that like oh, crap, the curse is following me home? Or are you looking forward to that? Are you going to try to treat it as just another race in your career? What is your mental approach to that?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: All of those, really. I mean, I think first and foremost I'm excited that we get the chance to have an Olympics in Britain, because I think that's an amazing opportunity. It will do a lot for the sport in the UK for youngsters into sport and inspiring kids to just get involved and get fit.
But for an athlete, I think it's an amazing opportunity to have that chance to perform on home soil, and the boost that that can give you. In terms of the pressure, I think I'm actually going, in a strange way, to be more relaxed if that makes sense because of what I've gone through in the last two.
It's kind of like it is something that I desperately want to workout for me, but I kind of have learned through that experience that however much, however hard you try, and however much you have things going in, it doesn't always workout that way. Sometimes it's just you enjoy it as it comes and stay relaxed going into it. And just trust that one time after all the bad luck, something will workout in the Olympics.

Q. You're still in the middle of a wonderfully long career, Paula. And your book is called My Story So Far. We get the sense that it's so far. Now that you've reached shall we say mature years, do you find it's any different? Are you still getting the same benefit from your training coming back from an injury and all this? Do you get back as fast as you used to? How does it feel being 37 as against your world junior cross country champion?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: I'm only 35 (laughing).

Q. Sorry.
PAULA RADCLIFFE: That's all right.

Q. I'm sorry. 37 was in my head?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: No, it's okay. I think you do find that as I've gotten a bit older sometimes it takes a little bit longer to recover from injuries that would clear up with like 24 hours rest. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer.
I find that my endurance is still getting stronger year on year, but obviously my speed is probably Stagnant or just hovering and dropping a little bit, and that sometimes between the workouts I just need a little bit longer recovery. That's the only thing. Whereas, before, I could always bounce back on the second day and do another strong workout. Sometimes I just need to take an extra day of steady running and do the workout just as good, but just a day later.
GRETE WAITZ: It's good to hear that she's human. Like everybody else who gets older, you need more time to recover.
PAULA RADCLIFFE: The problem is your mind doesn't remember that and still thinks it's the same as it was when it was 18.

Q. What do you think about your counterpart of the Olympic days of Joan Benoit Samuelson with some of her records? Does that inspire you to want to get back in topnotch shape and do that?
GRETE WAITZ: No, no. Been there, done that. I'm very happy with what I've done. I look at Joan, and I'm really impressed with what she's doing. That she still has the motivation and the urge to train as hard as she does. I know that she's aiming for a sub three-hour on Sunday. I think she can do it.

Q. You always seem to go to the front, I don't know if you do that on purpose or people just let you do it. Do you have race plans like that? I want to go to the front, establish a strong pace and let the others respond to that? Or is it them that just falls in behind you to say, fine, I'll do this?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Again, I think it's race instinct. So I tend to feel more comfortable, I guess, sometimes at the front. Maybe that comes out of track, cross country racing where I had a little bit of a longer stride, so it kind of felt more comfortable to be able to stretch out a little bit.
If you look at last year, I think if I didn't go to the front we would have been nine and a half minutes for the first mile and still stood on the start line. So sometimes you just have to get on and run your race, and not worry too much about where you are within the race.
Marathon running is a long way. You've generally got the whole road the whole way. So it's not like people are sitting behind you the whole time on the track. I think you can just go out and run your race and dictate your pace.
GRETE WAITZ: I can relate to that when I run the New York City Marathon, I did the same thing. It's hard to run somebody else's race. I had to run my own race. That was how I knew that I ran my best. So if somebody else wanted to run slow, that's up to them. But I had to do my own race.
RICHARD FINN: Once again, we'll have no pacers in had the men's or women's field, so we are encouraging and letting the athletes run whatever pace, and however they want to run the race.

Q. You talk fondly about your first time here in 1995, but you didn't win that race. That's the only race you haven't won here. Do you look back at that and say, darn, I wish I could have had a perfect record here in New York? How do you think of that pressure?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: No, I mean, I think racing, for me, it's something I love doing and it's fun. As long as you go in and you give it 100%, I mean -- I look back on that race and I ran as hard as I could, and I gave it my best shot. On the day I was happy with second place.
Obviously I was much happier to win it. But I was that far off winning it, and I gave it everything. It's not something that I'd look back on. There are plenty of races in my career that I look back on in my career that I didn't win, but I would say are good runs. My 23 in Monaco is one of my fondest memories and I've never won that race.
So I think it's about coming away with it satisfied, saying you gave it 100%, and that you gave it your best shot in the day. Obviously, if it's a win, that's that much better.

Q. You're pretty familiar with the New York course at this point. Is there a particular section of the course that's especially grueling for you or a trap for you? Any part of the course that's particularly tough for you as you move through it?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Honestly, I don't like the grill bridge when you go into the Bronx. I don't like that, because I can feel the spaces through my shoes, but it's so short.
I actually love the Bronx, it's just once you get into there, the energy there really picks you up. It's that nice bit where you're really within shooting distance of home. So that's kind of a good feeling. I always know that the bands are going to be really good there, and then I get to Central Park, and I love running in Central Park.
My favorite bit is rolling up-and-down to come into the finish, and just getting closer and closer with every stride. But I'm equally the first bridge is great. I mean, I love going out, and hopefully get a nice, sunny, clear morning and you see the Statue of Liberty there. It's just a really buzz feeling that it gives me and lifts me ready to go to the start. You see all the other people there excited and ready to go, too.
MARY WITTENBERG: The bridge will have one more marathon on it, and then it will be replaced. So you won't have to. We'll fix that up for you.
RICHARD FINN: That means you have to keep coming back.
Grete, any thoughts about, did you have a special part of the course or was there -- I think the question was a grueling part of the course or your thoughts about it?
GRETE WAITZ: As Paula, I didn't like to run across the bridge. The Queensboro also we ran with carpet. I don't think they do that anymore. That was a pretty long bridge to run to feel the what do you call it.
RICHARD FINN: The vibration.
GRETE WAITZ: Yeah, under the carpet on the bridge. But except from that, it was always a little tough after First Avenue, because First Avenue is sort of coming off the Queensboro Bridge and running First Avenue, that is like running downhill with a tail wind on a sunny day because people are screaming and yelling and you feel good.
Then you go through a more quiet part. I think that's around the 20 mile, but that may be hard. That might have been hard sometimes. But except for that, I didn't have any problems with the course.
RICHARD FINN: What we have tried to do and I think we've done it well is add a little bit more excitement, and a little more noise to that part of the course with bands and cheering zones. We've tried to have fans every step of the way when possible.

Q. I've known you for years and I know that you've really changed women's running. What is running itself besides the fame and the fortune and all that, what does running mean to both of you?
GRETE WAITZ: Well, running has been my passion since I was a very young girl. So, you know, I started out running because I loved it. I enjoyed it. I didn't think about fame or being a world class runner at all. I just did it because it was something within me that told me that, you know, this is something you should do. I liked it. I was happy when I was running.
As a young girl growing up before it was acceptable for females to run, I was even my mom was like, "Grete, can't you ever walk?" Because I was always running.
So I guess to me it's something that came natural to me, and I liked it. And then when it sort of happened to be that I was a world class runner and I got the opportunity to follow that path, looking back, I think I've been very, very lucky.
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, the same, really. I just say that running is hard to put into words. It's more a part of me in terms of it's the way that -- it's something that I love doing.
It's something I enjoy doing it but it's also my stress release. My anxiety release. My way of dealing with things that I have going on in my life. Just to go out for a run things usually feel better, sort themselves into place and workout that way.
Obviously, the health side of things as well. And I'm just, I feel that it's given me a lot not just in terms of my career, but in terms of health, self confidence, I actually feel I probably did better in school because I was running. And I'm very passionate about passing that on to youngsters and children and getting them involved in sport and running and showing them just how magical it can be.
Hopefully, it's something that even when my career ends that I'll still be able to get out there and run. Just to have that time just for me.

Q. After you've lived the dedicated life in training and burned thousands of calories in the marathon. What foods and drinks do you like to splurge on afterwards?
PAULA RADCLIFFE: Um, I kind of just go with whatever I want afterwards. So if I see a big chocolate cake afterwards, it might be that. I generally like to have a glass of wine, a glass of red wine after the race. Yeah, a big steak. Just, I go with what my body wants and let it choose what it wants over the next week or so after the race, really.
GRETE WAITZ: You know, it's the same goes for me. I think when you are a runner and you train that hard, you don't really deny yourself anything during training. You know that you need the energy and you need the food. So you just eat what you feel. Of course, you have to get the right nutrition, but I think when you have been an athlete most of your life, you tend to like the good stuff.
MARY WITTENBERG: Thank you so much to all of you. Grete and Paula, I can think of no better way to close our pro-athlete press conferences this week for our 40th running. And I can think of no better way to start the 29009 ING New York City Marathon than with both of you on the bridge. Thank you so much.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297