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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 1, 2013Mattie SuverAlisha WilliamsNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK MATTIE SUVER: Definitely feeling energy in the air. The runners, and everybody has positive energy. I think it's exciting to be here. Definitely a different feeling from last year. Yeah, I think it's exciting. ALISHA WILLIAMS: I think last year definitely adds to the excitement today. Seeing the city recover from something like that and just seeing how strong they've come back. It's a pretty special year, I think. So I feel really honored to be here. And I'm sure you, especially, being here last year. Q. You've had success in New York this year between the Mini, Cal Harbor, 10K. What does it mean‑‑ is there something special about the state that you just do well? MATTIE SUVER: I guess so. I'm hoping to keep that streak and alive and keep running well in New York. It's fun, every one of them. The Mini has kind of a surprise for me. That was exciting. And Cal Harbor, I was right in the middle of marathon training. I had no idea how I'd feel. Turned out to be a great race. Let's hope this one will be just as good. Q. Talk about your training leading up to this weekend. How's it been? ALISHA WILLIAMS: It's been great. It's always kind of nerve‑racking. These last couple of weeks, I feel like I've been a little bit of a hypochondriac. Oh, my gosh, something's wrong, this and that. But the tapering for the marathon, you put in so much work, it's just a big day coming up. I'm so excited. Everything is flowing together perfectly. Q. Sam was talking about that personal best, 2:30. What do you think you can do to knock that down? How far do you think you can knock that down? ALISHA WILLIAMS: I'm hoping to go under 2:35. That's kind of the goal. But if I could run low 2:30s, I'd be happy with that this weekend. It would be a big PR. Q. Has your training indicated that a 2:30s low is a possibility? MATTIE SUVER: Yeah, we've been hitting all our workouts right around that pace. Compared to my training before the Olympic trials, I can't even compare it. I was on my own. I had no idea what to do. I was just kind of doing the same thing I did for the half marathon or the 10K. The marathon is a whole different beast. I definitely have a new respect for the distance. I'm excited to see what I can do. Q. What did you learn from that first experience? MATTIE SUVER: Oh, my goodness. I definitely hit a wall, and I didn't do a very good job of hydrating or anything. I think I just kind of‑‑ I didn't know exactly, and I had no one out there to guide me. I went out a little over my head, and that came back to me the last six or seven miles. This next time, I'll know to keep myself in my reins and do what I can. Q. Alisha, coming back to New York this year, is that extra special for you? ALISHA WILLIAMS: It is extra special. Like Mattie said, it's great to see how the city's come back and the city's excited for it. I'm honored to be here and take part in this event and show everybody how great the city is. Q. You're familiar with New York too? ALISHA WILLIAMS: Yes. Q. Is there something special about the city or the state that brings out the best in you? ALISHA WILLIAMS: Yeah, there's definitely something special about the city. I think that can be said just by the number of people that want to run this race. I mean, it's an amazing city. It's one of the best cities in the world. How many times do you get the opportunity to have a 26.2 trek through one of the best cities in the world? You get to see so much of the city. I don't know if I'll really be paying attention to the city, but, yeah, it's fun. It's going to be a great experience, I hope. You know, you never know what's going to happen out there, but I'm excited to have the opportunity. Q. What do you feel like your training has been time‑wise, how you're feeling? ALISHA WILLIAMS: I'm hoping for low 2:30s. I've run 2:34. It's kind of making the decision do I play it safe, or do I go for it? It's hard because you don't know how the groups are going to go. For me, I always want somebody to run with in a marathon, and I run better. Sometimes that dictates how your race is going to go. I love that New York is more of a championship style race. It's not a time travel course. I can say I'm hoping for low 2:30s, but if you get fifth place and run 2:35, that's also pretty amazing. Let's say the race goes out really slow, and it's just basically a track race the last 10K. You just don't know. That's what's exciting about New York as well, I think. It's kind of how you stack up in this amazing field. So pretty stoked. Q. Do you think you guys would work together at all? You guys have around the same time goal, and you're on the same team. ALISHA WILLIAMS: Yeah, we do all of our workouts together. Yeah, I would love that. I mean, if Mattie and I worked together, I think that would be comforting, you know, to have your training partner and friend out there. I think it would make it a great experience for us. Clara Peterson and I have run our last two marathons together. We've actually become friends just on our‑‑ for what is that, like the 43 miles we've run together? We ran together last year. So I think you kind of do have that special bond when you're all out there running a marathon together. So it would be great if we could run together. Q. You said it would be comforting. That's huge to have a person next to you that you know and that you're familiar with. Can you talk about that? What does that add to your mentality going into the race? MATTIE SUVER: I think what's really great about our team is we get excited about how the other people on our team do. It's encouraging because you know that we're well‑prepared. So to have your teammate up there with you and you guys are both working hard together, I think it's exciting. I think it's motivating, if that makes sense. ALISHA WILLIAMS: I know you can kind of feed off each other's energy. If one of us is starting to feel tired, the other takes the load. It feels like you're working together as opposed to trying to compete against each other. So I think that's maybe where the comforting comes from too and just the excitement of they're having a good race and you are. Q. Talk a little bit about, you started off with 5K. How is the marathon buildup and how does it compare to last year? ALISHA WILLIAMS: I think it's been a struggle for me this fall. I ran that 15:09, and then two weeks later, I got a stress fracture, which I didn't really know what it was the first four weeks. So I came back. My first day of running was in the middle of June. And I think this fall was really a challenge for me. I ran a lot slower at the 20K in Cal harbor, and I was trying to compare myself to last year, and after Cal harbor, I was questioning whether or not I should do the marathon. I didn't know if I was fit enough to do it, if I had enough time, enough miles under my belt. But I talked to coach Simmons, and it was‑‑ he explained it that I had a really robust track season last year. I did several 5Ks, two 10Ks, a 3K, and a road mile in there. That went all the way through June. Then I took a break, and I started marathon training. This year, once I started running again, it was pretty much marathon training. So I just didn't‑‑ I don't have that turnover right now, but I've got a lot of miles under my belt. So I'm hoping that that helps. The 10K was Tufts was better than Cal harbor, but I would say I'm feeling less confident this year than I was last year at this time. I'm going to go out there and see what I can do. Injuries are a part of the sport, and you come back however it is that your body lets you. You just go out there and do your best. Q. A lot's been made about your working full‑time. Are you working also? MATTIE SUVER: I work part time, yes. Q. When do you work? MATTIE SUVER: We usually do it pretty early in the mornings. We go pretty early. Like 6:30, 7:00 in the morning usually together. Q. When do you get up? MATTIE SUVER: Like 6:00. Sometimes when you have to set the alarm before 6:00, it seems a little rough. Between 5:30 and 6:00. ALISHA WILLIAMS: It's too painful. Q. And are you mostly on the roads or track work? ALISHA WILLIAMS: We work out pretty much all on trails, dirt trails. We're pretty fortunate that we have soft surfaces and great trails in Colorado springs. So we do most of our workouts there. Q. And what's been the biggest gut Buster you've had? ALISHA WILLIAMS: After Cal harbor, I would say. MATTIE SUVER: That was the hardest. ALISHA WILLIAMS: We raced Cal harbor, and then we had some mile repeats after the race, and then had a couple hours to rest. And that night we came back and did a workout. Q. The race ended? ALISHA WILLIAMS: The race ended, and we went straight to‑‑ MATTIE SUVER: Mile repeats. ALISHA WILLIAMS: Yeah, mile repeats. Q. How many? ALISHA WILLIAMS: Four of them we did. We were supposed to do six. MATTIE SUVER: We were supposed to do six, but we ran out of time. ALISHA WILLIAMS: We had to make it to awards. So we had to stop our workout. We were okay with that. Then that afternoon at 4:30 p.m., we went out and did a 12‑mile workout. That was probably the most brutal workout I've had this year. That was one of those days where you're like thank gosh I have this awesome teammate and friend here to get me through this. MATTIE SUVER: It was really hard. Q. Is it hard to do a lot of work when you're tired? MATTIE SUVER: Practicing and running on tired legs. Q. You get to 20 miles, and you say, oh, this is nothing? ALISHA WILLIAMS: Your body gets used to running kind of depleted. So you have to rely on that. Just a way of teaching your body to run that distance. Q. That was September? MATTIE SUVER: September 14th. No, 21st. ALISHA WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah, 21st. Q. Was it hot? ALISHA WILLIAMS: It was pretty humid. MATTIE SUVER: It was humid, yeah. It was like 60s. ALISHA WILLIAMS: 90 percent humidity. We're not used to that in Colorado. Q. Do you have like an A goal, a B goal, and a C goal? MATTIE SUVER: Oh, yeah, definitely. Well, I'd be happy if it I ran this, but my super secret goal‑‑ ALISHA WILLIAMS: If it's a really great day. Q. After running 15:09 on the track, like why? Why the marathon? MATTIE SUVER: Yeah, I'm thinking that right now. Yeah, I think the marathon is the ultimate challenge. And for us‑‑ Scott and I have talked about this a lot, and I think it works out pretty well to go from the track to the marathon. I think they balance each other out very well. For me, I kind of thrive on that marathon strength, and I've had really great track seasons after my first two marathons. I'm probably more of a track runner than a marathoner. I think that's probably my better event, but I love the challenge of the marathon. I think is does make me a better track runner and a more well‑rounded runner. Q. So when you look at the big picture, you think you do marathons for track or track for marathons? ALISHA WILLIAMS: I think both. I think my first love is track. I've been doing it forever. I've been doing it since I was in middle school. The marathon still intimidated me. I don't know if that's ever going to go away. I don't know. When you're in marathon training, you're so focused on the marathon. So it's hard to say. I think that you just really complement each other well so you don't have to choose, I guess. Q. I mean, looking ahead to 2015 or 2016, like track more than marathon? ALISHA WILLIAMS: I hope to do both. I guess it's who gets the marathon bid, the timing. L.A. is up for it. That would be a little bit hard. We're already talking about that, how do you navigate that with the timing? MATTIE SUVER: January is better. ALISHA WILLIAMS: Yeah. I mean, really, for the distance runners, for people who want to come back‑‑ and you look at kind of our 10K team this year, and a lot of them‑‑ all of them except for Lisa were in the marathon trials. Sorry, not this last year, 2012. So, yeah, it just kind of depends on the timing. I don't know what I would choose if I had to choose between the two. Hopefully, I can do both. Q. Is your time the fastest marathon? MATTIE SUVER: No. There were people who broke 15, Jenny and Molly. Early on. Q. Early on it was. MATTIE SUVER: I was stoked at that time. I was pretty happy. Q. The year you had the great track season, two 10Ks and a road mile, that was 2012? MATTIE SUVER: Yeah. Q. I heard you talking about goals. How has your training been going, and what is your goal for Sunday? ALISHA WILLIAMS: Training's been going pretty well, marathon specific. I wouldn't say racing has been going super, but training has been going pretty well. Goal, if there was a time goal, it would be probably low 2:30s. But with New York, it's always hard to have a time goal because it's the championship style racing. It's hard to know how the groups are going to split up and what the tactics are going to be out there. But I don't know. I'd be thrilled if I could finish in the top 15, I think, place‑wise. The field is really strong. So I guess we'll just see. Q. What kind of time do you expect to go out at? I know the first mile's uphill. But two miles, what are you going into two mile split? ALISHA WILLIAMS: Two mile split, I think between 1:14:30 and probably like 1:16 would be a good half time. Q. What's your part time job? MATTIE SUVER: I work in a physical therapy clinic. So tech. Q. You work as a tech? MATTIE SUVER: Yeah, just in the back taking patients through exercises. I got my degree in exercise physiology. It's kind of fun to work in the exercise field. When you see a lot of fellow runners or athletes. So it's kind of nice to be there and help them. Q. And how many hours a week are you doing that? MATTIE SUVER: It's usually between 20, 25. Q. Is it flexible? MATTIE SUVER: It's very flexible. I work actually for the PT who was my PT. She knows my running schedule and demands and has been very, very flexible with it. Q. How many people are in the ADP team? MATTIE SUVER: Gosh, it's growing. It's definitely growing. Maybe a year ago, it was probably four of us women and maybe ten men. Now there's probably about 10 women and 15 men or so. Q. How is your training going? Looked like you did well at the U.S. 20K, came in second place. MATTIE SUVER: Thank you. The training has been going pretty well. This is my first real marathon training block. The first few months, or weeks, it was definitely a shock to the body, and you could see how Alisha and our other training partners, Wendy, had already been used to all that marathon training, and their bodies kind of adapted well. For me, the workouts were really hard the first few months, and the racing still came easy because I think I still have that speed leftover from the road races earlier in the spring. Now, you know, by the end, the last few weeks, the workouts have started to go easier, and I think that showed in the Tufts race. I think I kind of more switched over to the marathon training as opposed to trying to tag onto that 10K/half marathon P training. I think that's a good sign. Even though I didn't race as well at Tufts, I think that's good because it shows I felt strong and ready for the marathon. We'll see. I mean, it's exciting kind of being my debut, I would say, as far as actually training for the marathon. It's definitely an exciting time to be here. I'm looking forward to what happens. Q. What's the goal? MATTIE SUVER: You know, kind of similar to what Alisha said. I'd be really happy to run 2:30s. I just want to get out there and compete and put myself in a good position. Hopefully, top 15, top 10, maybe in the top group of Americans. Just see what happens out there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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