TALES OF TRAVEL DOMINATE DISCUSSION AT LONDON MARATHON
By David Monti
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission
LONDON
(22-Apr) -- Organizers of Sunday's Virgin London Marathon faced one of
the biggest challenges in the 30-year history of their race this week
as the ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland caused
the closure of Heathrow and other airports in Europe, forcing them to
make costly, alternate travel plans for their elite athletes.
"Overall,
a pretty challenging week," race director Dave Bedford told reporters
at a press conference here today. "But, it's what we do."
Bedford's
team, led by elite athletes manager Glenn Latimer, chartered several
private planes to collect athletes from Nairobi and Eritrea in Africa,
modified travel plans on commercial carriers to divert athletes to open
airports, chartered a jet to collect 24 athletes in Madrid, and even
hired a four-passenger propeller plane to fetch British star Mara
Yamauchi and her husband and coach Shige from a small airport in
northern France. Bedford estimated the cost of the modified travel was
£147,000 (USD 226,000), but said that it was money well spent to
protect the quality of the race.
"We haven't been sitting down there worrying about that," he said of the extra expense.
No
athlete faced bigger problems than Yamauchi, who finished second here
last year. She and Shige needed six days to get here from their high
altitude training base in Albuquerque, N.M.. The Yamauchi's trip began
last Thursday when the couple flew to Denver to chart their course to
London, concerned that they needed to be proactive because the volcanic
ash problem was growing worse.
"It was a long and, let's say,
interesting journey," Mara Yamauchi said at a news conference today.
"It took us just about a week to get from New Mexico to London. It was
very tough at points. There were times we thought we wouldn't make it
by Sunday."
The Yamauchis spent two days in Denver trying to
initiate a flight plan which would land them in England, or at least
Western Europe. Carrying 100 kilograms of luggage, including a massage
table, they flew from Denver to Newark, N.J., on Saturday, where they
had arranged to board a flight for Shannon, Ireland, because that
airport had briefly been open. But by the time they got to Newark,
Shannon had closed again, and their best available option was to fly to
Lisbon, Portugal, where their real adventure began.
"When we
arrived in Lisbon we said, fine, we're in Europe," Mara said. "Let's
try and get a train to Madrid. But you couldn't find information
anywhere. Shige said, 'let's get a taxi.' And I thought, this is going
to cost quite a bit of money. And he said, 'never mind. We've got to
get to the London Marathon. David Bedford will pay, surely.'"
For
650 euros, plus a 50 euro tip, the couple hired a taxi driver to drive
them to Madrid, a nearly 800 km ride. In Madrid, they managed to
arrange for a rental car, a scarce resource during the flight crisis,
at a cost of 1800 euro. They drove themselves to Paris where they got
a small break at a nice hotel to get much-needed sleep.
"We
didn't have much time to sleep," Mara explained. "I hardly did any
training during that time. I couldn't really find time for meals,
really. We were just grabbing sandwiches here and there. Physically,
it was quite tiring. Mentally, it was also quite tiring sorting out
the journey."
In Paris they convinced a Cambodian cab driver to
take them to the beach town of Le Touquet on France's north coast where
elite athletes manager Latimer had arranged for the small plane to meet
them at a local air field. The cab fare was 450 euros, plus a 50 euro
tip, Shige said. Bedford said that the small plane cost £1400 to
rent. They flew to Shoreham Airport outside of Brighton in Sussex on
Wednesday where race officials picked them up.
"It's been a
mental roller coaster," Mara said. "Having finally gotten here, to run
well on Sunday would be fantastic. It would be the icing on the cake."
In Shige's mind there was no doubt they would make it.
"If
you have a will you have a way," said the self-taught coach. "We were
just committed to come here. We really trained hard for this."
Two
of Yamauchi's two key rivals have also made it to London, defending
champion Irina Mikitenko of Germany, who came by train, and 2006 Virgin
London Marathon champion Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. Kastor,
who only arrived here late today, flew on Tuesday from Los Angeles on a
hastily arranged itinerary on Tahiti Air to Paris, where she spent all
of Wednesday. From Paris, with the help of Susan Judy at Flynn Sports
Management, she got a ticket for a direct train to London today.
"It
was definitely one of the more challenging trips I have taken in my
lengthy career," Kastor told reporters on a teleconference. "I went
through seven different itineraries until finally landing in Paris and
getting a couple of trains to arrive here this afternoon. One of my
itineraries had me going through Colombia, another one had me going
through Casablanca. Luckily, I didn't have to take any of those."
Kastor's husband, Andrew, who accompanied her for today's teleconference, had better luck traveling than she did.
"My
husband left almost two days after me and got to London before I did.
So, I think my anxiety to get here kind of hurt me that my travel ended
up so chaotic."
PHOTO: Mara Yamauchi arrives at Shoreham Airport
outside of Brighton in Sussex on her way to the 2010 Virgin London
Marathon (Photo courtesy of the Virgin London Marathon)
ENDS