In the drivers seat with Lee Troop
Exclusive patcarrollonline.com interview
Page
3
The forecast was a tailwind from 35k
PC:
The race was fast right from the start with yourself in the lead
pack going through the first 5k in 14.45. Were you confident in
maintaining such a fast pace knowing that you still had such a
long way to go or did you feel a little bit scared maybe?
LT:
I
had committed early and knew we were going to go through the
half in 63mins. I actually rang
Mona at 5am to tell him the last
6km from the hotel would have a tail wind. I felt if I did
dropped off or get tired at this point I would have an
assistance to get me over the line. I at no time felt scared as
I was prepared to risk everything and have a go.
PC:
In the first half of the race was there any stages where you
thought that there was no way that you were going to be able to
hold 2.06 - 2.07 pace and that it may of been wise to back off?
LT:
I actually felt ok for most of the first 35km. A couple of times
I kept saying "am I ok?", "will I get to the next 5km etc..?",
but it just kept unfolding nicely for me. I knew I would get to
30-35km. It was whether I would get from 30-35km to home that
was going to be the concern. At no point in time did I think of
backing off.
Still in there with a chance at 35k
PC:
The lead pack you were in split up at around 30k with yourself
slightly dropping off. What were your thoughts at this time? Did
you go from where you were thinking that you were in there with
a chance of a podium finish to all of a sudden being in no mans
land?
LT:
What happened was at around 25km, Ruto (the winner) threw in
another surge. He opened up 10m. I looked around and it was all
Africans and Baldini (3rd at last years Worlds). I figured if I
kept going with Ruto I may pay the price and be caught and
funnily enough by race time the wind had changed and I knew we
would have a head wind over the last 6km. I thought if I
ran with Baldini and not tire, I could pick up the Africans that
drop off. I ran well to the hotel with
El Mouziz and Baldini.
Over the cobblestones I felt terrible and tired and I lost 60m
on Baldini and 30m on Mouziz, then once we hit the headwind on
the road I could not make it up. I did the right thing as
Baldini went on to finish 4th in 2.08.30. He even dropped in
time, just I dropped a little more. Up till the hotel I still
thought I could get on the podium and run 2.07.
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