MARY ‘RUNS’ AGAIN
MARY DECKER SLANEY TELLS JASON HENDERSON HOW SHE GETS HER FITNESS FIX THESE DAYS
IT IS NOW many years since Mary Decker Slaney hung up her track spikes and these days her main sporting target of the year is the Elliptical Cycling World Championships, which is held every October just outside San Diego. Struggling with both arthritis and the after-effects of more than 30 surgical operations for injuries, she is unable to run freely or without pain. But riding an elliptical bicycle allows her to enjoy a similar feeling and movement to running, only minus the pounding. “It has,” says her husband Richard, “been a godsend to her.”
Mary turns 58 this week, but trains seriously for one or two hours a day on an elliptical bike at her home in Oregon and takes the Elliptical Cycling World Championships seriously. The event involves a never-ending climb of almost 12km that rises more than 4000ft as it approaches the finish line near the top of the Palomar Mountain. Some call it the Alpe d’Huez of elliptical cycling. Yet unlike the Tour de France there are no crowds of fans for this rather quirky event and Mary and her fellow competitors grind up the narrow and twisty road in lonely fashion with only a handful of curious, early-morning onlookers for company.
New sport: Mary Decker Slaney has been forced to swap running for riding an ElliptiGO bicycle
JASON HENDERSON
More than 30 years have passed since she sped to a golden double on the track at the World Championships in Helsinki and tangled with Zola Budd at the Los Angeles Olympics. Back then the eyes of the world followed her every stride. Now, she competes in relative anonymity.
Mary still has a desire to push her body through the pain barrier and she retains the hunger to win for winning’s sake. The 2015 event, for example, was the fourth time she has raced an elliptical bike up the Palomar Mountain and she vows to keep coming back until she wins the women’s title, which is something that has so far evaded her.