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Marathon Talk Episode 13: Regina Fleming

Everything that Regina Fleming does in running, she had lying within from the start. So ask yourself: What do you have inside of you that’s yet to be discovered?

Regina dubs herself an ‘accidental runner’ - an accident which very recently took her all the way to the Six Star Medal.

Deena chats to Regina in an inspiring interview this week on Marathon Talk, where we also talk about trusting the taper in Training Talk, final figures on the record-breaking Tokyo race, and much more!

In this episode of Marathon Talk

  • 0:00 - Opening up with Deena’s successful ‘panic training’ for Paris, and inspiring stories from the LA marathon, where she commentated
  • 11:25 - The biggest stories we’ve yet to hear from Tokyo, including the final tally of record-breaking Six Star Finishers, plus a scintillatingly close NYC United Airline Half Marathon in the wheelchair division, and possibly the most bizarre race ever devised.
  • 21:40 - Training Talk: The taper; how to trust in the preparations you’ve made and taper successfully to recharge ahead of the spring marathon season
  • 29:45 - An uplifting interview with marathon royalty, recent Six Star Finisher Regina Fleming, who shares some of her most remarkable stories, grueling finishes, work for representation, and more
  • 1:05:35 - Closing out with a look ahead to Deena’s upcoming Paris marathon, plus her preparations and targets for the race


Episode highlights

“Before our next episode, I will have slogged through what is the Paris marathon, but our guest today, Regina Fleming, told me some great tips because she has run Paris. She said that you are basically running all through Paris, and that the Eiffel Tower follows you wherever you go.” 10:10 - Deena Kastor 

“It was the NYC half marathon and in the wheelchairs it was a bit of epic racing. Perhaps something to come for this season's Majors wheelchair series? Susannah Scaroni, who we have had on the show, beat Manuela Schär by 11 seconds in the women's race, setting us up really nicely for their battle to come in Boston.” 14:50 - Martin Yelling 

“Recovery is so important; recovery in between intervals, recovery after a hard run so you can come back in a couple of days time and hit another good effort. If you can't master that, make the taper your moment of magic.” 24:00 - Deena Kastor 

“People in the taper sometimes feel this pressing need to test themselves out. ‘I’ll just check my legs haven't fallen off, I'll just check I can still run a certain distance’, and that's not good either.” 28:15 - Martin Yelling 

“I wasn't a ‘runner’. I'm an accidental runner, I would say. But I realised that I could run, so when I finished running that half, I said, ‘Well, that wasn't bad. I want to do a marathon’, not knowing how to get into New York, not knowing what it took to actually run a marathon. So that was my first marathon.” 35:00 - Regina Fleming

“That race took me seven hours and one minute to finish. I was in pain, so I stopped at the medical tent at mile three, and at mile 13. I kept going, I walked, I ran and jogged. I felt like I rolled down the street, all the way to the end of the race. So that medal means a lot.” 43:35 - Regina Fleming

“It has to be outward. You have to do things that will change your community or speak up and make other people feel better at the same time. I feel like it's like running with a purpose.53:40 - Regina Fleming

“Before I opened that magazine, and saw that race and entered, everything that I'm doing in running was already inside me, I had no idea it was in there. So ask yourself, what else is inside of you that you don't even know?” 55:45 - Regina Fleming

Episode keywords: Marathon talk, abbott world marathon majors, marathon running, distance running, endurance marathon, marathon training, endurance training, london marathon, berlin marathon, boston marathon, chicago marathon, tokyo marathon, new york marathon, six star finisher, the barkley marathons, marathon taper, world record tokyo, regina fleming

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