Eliud Kipchoge pledged to return to the Boston Marathon in a bid to win the race after taking time to reflect on his disappointing sixth place on Monday.
The double Olympic champion gave some more detail on issues that he encountered during the race that dented his ambitions to become the first able-bodied man to win all six Abbott World Marathon Majors.
“I trained for five months in a good way but what we planned couldn’t not go through. This is sport,” said the world record-holder.
He admitted that was experiencing some pain in his upper left leg approaching 30km.
“My left leg was actually not coming up anymore,” he said. “I think that’s where the problem is. I tried to do the necessary but it was not working so I put my mind to just run a comfortable pace just to finish.”
Asked if the rolling hills of Boston presented a challenge he was unaccustomed to, Kipchoge brushed off any notions that he had been unprepared. “No challenge,” he said, “My training was all up, we can accommodate up and down and flat, so no challenge at all. I don’t think it’s the weather, I think there was an underlying problem, it’s just a problem on the leg.”
And when the question was put to him as to whether he would like to return to the race: “Absolutely yes,” he replied.
At times, the champion sounded almost apologetic for his performance as he considered the expectations that the crowd may have had for him before the race, but was in typically philosophical mood when he turned to his plans for the future.
“I don’t know yet, the outcome yesterday destabilized everything and I need to go back, rearrange again and come back.
“There are three things. Yesterday is a cancelled check, today is cash, tomorrow is a promissory note. Let us forget about the cancelled checks, let us talk of the cash and the promissory notes.”
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