
Legend: Basil Heatley won Olympic marathon silver and (inset) set a world marathon record
MARK SHEARMAN
IN AN EFFORT to rediscover the recipe for British marathon success, Athletics Weekly recently gathered a handful of legends for a special lunch. We stirred them gently and turned up the heat with a few pointed questions and left them to simmer for an hour. The result? A spicy dish, full of flavour, but with some surprisingly simple ingredients at its core.
“People talk about planning today, but I did nothing,” said Basil Heatley, the Olympic silver medallist and former world recordholder for the marathon. “I just got out and I ran and I enjoyed it.
“The really good thing about distance running is that you don’t need to have all that (planning),” he continued. “You just need to go out and have a run. It’s just putting one foot in front of the other. And if you can do it a bit faster or a bit more frequently than the other bloke, then chances are you will beat him.”
Liz McColgan, winner of big city marathons in New York City, Tokyo and London, offered advice that was equally blunt. When asked what makes a world class marathon runner? “Stubborn,” she answered, without hesitation. “You need to be single-minded and stubborn.
“There is such a rollercoaster to success and there is more disappointment than success and to be a marathon runner takes more than four years. You need to work, work, work.”
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