Do you dare to attack at the 70-minute mark?
I thought about her, but the forecast is not optimal. You can protect yourself against rain or cold, dress better, wear a hat or glasses. But it doesn’t do much against the wind. Even if I have two conductors, Vít Pavlišt and Honza Sýkor, the wind will not stop completely. It takes a lot of energy, and if it gets really bad, the time can even go up by minutes.
After last year’s half marathon in Istanbul, where you ran the Czech record, you said that it was definitely not an ideal race. Does that give you confidence that there are reserves in the record?
I didn’t feel very well there the whole race. There was also quite a headwind as the entire race was run along the exposed embankment. Here, the track will be covered at least occasionally.
| Sold out again |
|---|
| The maximum possible number of runners will set off on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (live on ČT Sport) from Náměstí Jan Palach on the route of the Prague Half Marathon. “After four years, we are sold out, with almost 12,000 participants,” says elite athlete coordinator Tomáš Mirovský. In the men’s field there are three runners with personal bests under 60 minutes, Kenyan living in Japan Benard Kimeli will attack for a third triumph. The twelve-year-old track record is 58:47. Among the women, the favorite is Irene Jepchumba Kimaisová with a personal best of 64:37. “But it was a completely different weather in Barcelona,” she smiled. |
Did your achilles hurt you in training, how long did it take you out of training?
For three months. From the end of October to the end of January, I struggled with it quite a bit. Not that I dropped out of training completely, I tried to compensate by strengthening and riding the trainer, but it wasn’t ideal. I’ve been training for two months now.
Last year you worked again with your knee and then it turned out to be a very successful season, with the exception of the marathon at the European Championships. What did you take away from it?
That was one of my biggest lessons. Surprisingly, I put the race behind me the next day, but I tried to get the most out of it. The problem was that I wasn’t well fed. As I’m still struggling with digestive problems, I’ve been a little crazy with food. I am now working with a nutritionist and I feel much better. Before the races, my blood sugar is measured so that I have it ready for the most important race, which should be the Olympics. The half-marathon doesn’t have to be dealt with so much, the body won’t completely break down in it, but I’m also preparing for the Prague Marathon. We started to include low-carb training, which should adapt the body to the situation when it no longer has energy.