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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 2, 2012Kurt FearnleyNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Q. Do you think you would ever do that again? KURT FEARNLEY: No, never. Never ever. I think my life will be on concrete for a long time to come. I think that I enjoy these marathons in all these cities, the New Yorks, Londons, Parises. I think the jungles of Papua New Guinea can stay in 2009. It was hard, very hard. Q. Does doing something like that help your training or does it actually sort of interrupt it, because you're training for regular races? KURT FEARNLEY: No, it interrupts it, absolutely, because trying to crawl again is just a lot more brutal then I guess the finesse that you need to race wheelchairs. Racing chairs is all about doing these tiny little things right, as in how you push the chair, how you corner the chair, how you can get it up to certain speeds. It's about doing things kind of gentle and smooth, and crawling is just brutal. Crawling is just dragging yourself through mud. It's a completely different ballgame. Q. Are you glad you did it? KURT FEARNLEY: Absolutely, yeah. It was one of the best things I've ever been a part of, but it's also one of the hardest. Q. Do you have any other plans to do anything like that? KURT FEARNLEY: Not really, no. I did a yacht race, a 56‑hour yacht race from Sidney last year, and we won, so that was fun. That was a bit out there, kind of middle of the night, waves crashing over the top of you and on one of these massive machines and a 100‑foot yacht is a monster. It's quite a risky race, as well. Things like that, I don't know whether I plan for them or they just kind of pop up, but I hope they don't pop up too regularly. Q. What kind of shape do you feel you're coming in here with? KURT FEARNLEY: Good shape. The Paralympics were only a month ago. Q. Is that the most recent race you've done? For you guys that's a long layoff. KURT FEARNLEY: Actually two months ago. September 9 is the last time I raced. Q. How often is it that there's two months between your races? KURT FEARNLEY: I'm only peaking for two marathons every year now. I might race another couple of marathons, I guess slower intensity and less of a focus, so I can almost train through it without causing too much damage to your body. But I'm only focused on two, one is in April and one is November. Q. Boston is it? KURT FEARNLEY: Boston. Q. Do you turn around and do London the next week? KURT FEARNLEY: No. I think to prolong my racing it's important for me to limit the amount of races that I do. Traditionally wheelchairs, we had to race 10 marathons a year because the financial benefit just wasn't in there. The sponsorship was harder to come by, the prize money was much lower. So you realistically had to bury yourself through 10 races to earn enough to keep doing it. Now we've got New York, which has changed the game. It's the most supported marathon in all the world at the moment, and they've also lifted up the Londons and the Bostons, and we're able to target two or three and do all right. And also people are watching us more than what they used to, especially in Australia. Back home it's made it a lot easier because people care and they know that there are wheelchair races in New York and London. That's also made it a bit easier. Q. Why do you think it's gained in popularity in Australia, that more people are watching? KURT FEARNLEY: The recognition abroad helps with the recognition at home. So the increased emphasis or focus on the wheelchair races in these major populations are helping with the recognition for it in Australia. I think Australia has a pretty healthy wheelchair culture, as well, so we have a lot of‑‑ we have a lot of people who are interested in Paralympic sport. Some of the biggest names in sport have been Paralympic. Q. When did you arrive here? Did you have any travel issues getting here? KURT FEARNLEY: I lost a couple of tickets from LA to New York, but I was able to book another couple a few days later. At the end of the day I was only 30‑odd hours delayed and surprised that we were able to get through that easily. Q. Were you watching any TV coverage while you were sitting in LA wondering how is this ever going to happen? KURT FEARNLEY: We were watching the whole weekend when we were in Australia, as well. It's big news over there. And I think that it's‑‑ I don't know whether it's surprising or not, but I think the effect and the interactions or whatever kind of is hitting New York is watched by everyone. I think that this center has such a high profile around the world, including in Australia, so if it happens here, it's news in Australia, as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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