Most pro marathoners pick a race on the calendar and then spend between 12 and 16 weeks officially training for it. That’s not the case with the London Marathon on Sunday. It was July when athletes started hearing rumblings that the elite race might actually be happening during the pandemic-shortened race season, and it was mid-August before the four Americans— Jared Ward, Sara Hall, Molly Seidel, and Lindsay Flanagan—learned they had been accepted into the race.
That left only about 9 weeks before race day, and when you figure that pros typically taper for two weeks before a race, in reality they had only 7 weeks of marathon-specific preparation.
The Americans, however, aren’t worried. Runner’s World caught up with the four, who said they they feel they’ve had solid preparation and hope to compete well and vie for PRs—even if they are well behind the lead packs that include world record-holders Brigid Kosgei and Eliud Kipchoge. Here’s how they managed a shortened training cycle and prepared for London’s unusual course this year, designed with safety in mind: It’s 19 laps around a 1.3-mile loop.
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Jared Ward
Age: 32
PR: 2:09:25
Coach: Ed Eyestone
Lives in: Provo, Utah
Training: So as not to risk injury, Ward was keeping his volume low, about 70 miles per week on single runs in June and July, about 30 percent lower than it would normally be during a marathon-training segment. He also had been doing a lot of speed work with a bunch of 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter track runners, including intervals as short as 400 meters.
“I’ll do 800s in marathon training, but those 4s were different,” Ward said. “It felt like a blast from the past. I was hanging on to these fast BYU guys, running 61 and 62 seconds per lap. They felt fast.”
Once he learned he was in London, he quickly ramped up his mileage over a series of weeks to 110, before he started tapering back down again. “I only had four long runs at 2 hours or longer. In a typical cycle, I would have at least 10,” he said. “But if this marathon goes well on a seven-week training cycle, I’m never doing a 16-week training cycle for a marathon again.”
STAY UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE LONDON MARATHON WITH RW+ 🇬🇧: Although Ward was never internationally competitive on the track, he liked the rhythm of the 10K—crossing 25 laps off one by one. He thinks the London looped course will fit well with how he mentally breaks down a race.
Goal: “I want to go out and run a personal best if conditions are good.”
Fun fact: Ward, a professor at BYU, is teaching a course in statistical programming this semester—on Zoom, as many college instructors are. He taught one class during race week from his hotel room in London.
Sara Hall
Age: 37
PR: 2:22:16
Coach: Ryan Hall
Lives in: Flagstaff, Arizona
Training: “I’ve done my most volume but also ran my fastest workouts,” she wrote in an email to Runner’s World. “I hit some periods of feeling tired and mentally even a little burned out, which is really unusual for me. I haven’t had thoughts of burnout since 2013. But talking to my friends in all professions, I see similarities across the board and attribute it largely to the crazy pandemic year we’re in.”
Hall said she has been “grinding away” with only one rest week since early April. “I keep responding better to the work than I ever have despite my age, so it makes me excited to keep building and seeing how far I can take this.” She started her buildup for London 12 weeks out, which is typical for her, even though she didn’t get assurances she was in the field until August.
STAY UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE LONDON MARATHON WITH RW+ 🇬🇧: Hall has done a lot of training on a loop that’s just longer than a mile. “The main thing was getting used to running clockwise, which is opposite the track, and dealing with the boredom,” she said. “The marathon is a really long race, and running in small circles makes things feel longer.”
Goal: “I’d be disappointed not to come away with a PR, just because this has definitely been my best buildup. But I’m mainly focused on running smart and placing as high as I can, and letting the clock take care of itself. I’ve been fifth twice in world marathon majors. I’d really like to make it on the podium, but that of course depends on other people, and I can only control my race. Obviously the field is super stacked.”
Fun fact: Advertisement - Continue Reading Below PR State of Mind Long Sleeve T-Shirt, in a five-person race near Eugene, Oregon, set up by her college teammate Ian Dobson. Two of Hall’s four daughters were in the race. Hana, 20, ran 1:20:03, and Mia, 16, ran 1:23:18.
Molly Seidel
Age: 26
PR: 2:27:31
Coach: Jon Green
Lives in: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Training: Seidel was the surprise second-place finisher at the Advertisement - Continue Reading Below, her debut at the distance, but the uncertainty of whether the Olympics would be happening amidst the pandemic caused her some anxiety in the spring. By the summer, when she knew the Games wouldn’t happen until 2021, she began training for a 10,000-meter race on the track in July.
The day before the race, she was doing a shakeout with a friend. As Seidel did strides across a parking lot, the friend’s 70-pound puppy got excited, ran at Seidel, and knocked her over. She landed hard, suffered a separated shoulder, and had to miss a week of training.
Once she recovered from the dog mishap, Seidel went to Flagstaff, Arizona, to train at altitude for London, where she put in 125-mile weeks and her training was much more consistent than it was before the Trials. “I love coming out to Flag,” she said. “I love the fact that you have to work so much harder at altitude. The times aren’t going to be quite as fast, but [you have] the ability to do hard long runs on the dirt roads. It helps me get in a better mindset. For a buildup I really want to be able to focus.”
STAY UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE LONDON MARATHON WITH RW+ 🇬🇧: She has spent time training on a 1.5-mile loop in Flagstaff, and she feels experienced. “I came from racing track 10Ks,” she said. “It doesn’t get much more tedious than that.”
Goal: Seidel isn’t sure if she is in PR shape in only her second marathon. “The big goal for the fall was to get in another marathon and prepare myself as well as I can for the Olympic Games,” she said. “Go into this race and really go hard and mentally stay tough and try and stay with some of these packs that are forming. Obviously I’m not going to be up with the sub-2:20 women. But I don’t want to sell myself short.”
Fun fact: Seidel and her sister, who share an apartment, recently moved from Boston to a large space across the Charles River in Cambridge. When Seidel called movers, the dispatcher recognized her name. “She was telling me all about how she’s run Boston and she’s so excited to see me run London,” Seidel said. “I’m like, ‘That’s really cool, also, can we figure out this moving thing?’”
Lindsay Flanagan
Age: 31
PR: 2:28:08
Coach: Steve Magness
Lives in: Boulder, Colorado
Training: Flanagan kept her mileage around 90 per week in the early part of the summer, and when she discovered she was in London, she was able to quickly increase to her usual 110–115 miles per week. “The marathon pace stuff has gone much better than it ever has,” she said. She does a “substantial workout” every Friday that totals about 20 miles, and the next day she’ll do a 22-mile long run. Those back-to-back efforts have given her a lot of confidence. “I know I’m strong right now,” she said.
STAY UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE LONDON MARATHON WITH RW+ 🇬🇧: Flanagan mapped out a 1.1-mile paved loop around a dog park in Boulder, and she has done most of her workouts on that to prepare for the London course. “I probably look crazy out there circling this dog park,” she said. “I feel like that will come in handy, having practiced that.”
Goal: “I know there’s a PR in there,” she said. “I’m hoping it’s going to happen. I’m excited to give it a go. I have all this pent-up energy from not getting to race all year. It’s time to let it loose.”
Fun fact: Flanagan is not related to famous retired marathoner Shalane Flanagan—although she does get asked about it.
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ldquo;I want to go out and run a personal best if conditions are good.&rdquo is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Sara Hall Runs Impressive Half Marathon PR, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
