Run-Down Forums

[Dan]

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2002/12/08/sowang08.xml

[Conway]

Couldn't read it ... Do you have to subscribe ??
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Conway
Speed Thrills

[Dan]

It shows up ok for me without subscribing (takes a bit of time to load), but I shortened what looked like extraneous URL info. Maybe it got cached on my computer and the shorter URL really doesn't work by itself... Here's the full URL I first visited:

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2002/12/08/sowang08.xml&sSheet=/sport/2002/12/08/ixsport.html

Dan

[Distance_Guru]

A good article. I always wonder about interviews given in languages other than english and then translated, particularly non-latin or germanic based. It always seems like there is no emotion in the words of the speaker and I have trouble telling if that's part of the culture (since most of these interviews are from people living in the far east) or if there is something lost in translation.

Anyway, I'm not surprised about her not knowing who Paula Radcliffe was, I seriously doubt any of the girls on my team know who she is, so for someone in a country like China it's perfectly believable. I also like the way she delt with the questions about possible drug use. She seemed to realize that people would believe what they wanted to believe and that it really didn't matter what they thought. Undoubtedly living in a country like China where the nationally controlled media is much easy on her than it would be if she lived in the west makes that attitude less difficult to maintain.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

[Conway]

I was impressed by her talk of her training ... How hard it was physically and psychologically ... Just confirms my thoughts about distance training and imroving to that level ... I would love to knwo about the trianing methods themselves .. I think people would probably be shocked and horrified if we knew what they were as I am almost certain they pushed themselves to the physical limit ... Unfortunately we may never know ... And her reasoning for the weird concoction they took makes sense to me from a mental standpoint - although I have no idea how it would work ...
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Conway
Speed Thrills

[Paul]

My take on this is quite different and not necessarily accurate.
I think she is caught up in her own self absorption. She seems to know what Kristiansen said about her but she doesn't know who Radcliffe is. Her designer clothes, her maturing beauty, her wealth... there are developers in China who have made out like anything you have read in the states about Enron, Global Crossing, or Qwest. The thought that she would like to get into coaching is a joke in my opinion. She lives for the moment. There are many athletes who are entirely focused, but still know what is going on around them.

Paul

[Dan]

As I recall, that group was thought to be running basically a marathon a day on average, although I never saw any details about what the training elements consisted of.

I'm skeptical about her not knowing who Radcliffe is. Ma's group was too prepared for her to not be familiar with, at least by name, a fairly significant competitor who she ran against in major meets at least twice. As DG said, maybe something was lost in the translation... However, that was the basic premise of the article and would be a major detail to screw up! I think it tells us that the interview in general should be taken with at least a small grain of salt.

Dan

[Distance_Guru]

I agree, another thing particularly when reading interviews with athletes from China (read people living in an opressive communist country) they tend to be very guarded in what they say. Something like not knowing Paula Radcliffes name might have been her way of down playing the success of an athlete not from the mother land.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

[Conway]