London Marathon 2003
Yay! The London Marathon is about to start in about 5 minutes, I’m watching it live on TV. I’ve been interested in the Marathon and running in general since I started running about 2 months ago. I’ve gone slack in the past 2-3 weeks but I hope to go running today, as the marathon has given me some inspiration 
Information about the marathon can be found on the official London Marathon website. For anyone who wants information on running, how to start, how to avoid injury, etc, runnersworld.com is an excellent site. For UK-specific information, there’s runnersworld.co.uk.
There’s a great interview here with Paula Radcliffe, Paul Tergat, and Sebastian Coe. The questions were asked by runnersworld.co.uk members. A choice quote from Paula:
>>From Monique: Do you feel nervous?
>>Paula Radcliffe:Definitely. I think if you dont feel nervous, then what are you doing it for? Because its only when something is really important to you that you get those nerves. And I think that when youve worked and prepared and done all the training, everybodys going to be nervous, and crossing fingers with all that anticipation that its going to go right on the day.
And Paula had a brilliant victory, putting her name firmly into the annals of athletics. She has smashed the women’s world record by crossing the finish line in 2h, 15mins, and 25secs. Her time was 1min 53 secs better than her previous performance in Chicago. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya finished second, with America’s Deena Drossin in third. Gezahegne Abera of Ethiopia won the men’s race, with Italy’s Stefano Baldini and Joseph Ngolepus of Kenya in second and third place.