The 2025 London Marathon is simply across the nook, and long-distance working icon Martin Fiz is eager to hammer residence the seriousness, and hazard, of the endeavour
A former world marathon champion has issued a stark warning concerning the threat of loss of life in newbie working, simply days earlier than the London Marathon. Martin Fiz, who gained gold on the 1995 World Athletics Championship, says he fears that the rising recognition of marathons and half marathons, mixed with insufficient preparation, is resulting in a surge in unintentional deaths amongst newbie runners.
“Sadly, we must get used to extra accidents as a result of extra persons are taking over working, many with out correct preparation,” Fiz instructed Diario del Triatlon. The 65-year-old attributes the alarming pattern to 2 key elements: the rising variety of runners and a widespread lack of respect for the bodily calls for of long-distance races.
“There are extra runners and fewer respect for distances,” he mentioned. The working increase has reworked marathons right into a cultural phenomenon, with many amateurs viewing them as bucket-list challenges reasonably than severe athletic endeavours.
“Marathons have change into a pattern, however for me, it is a lifestyle,” the Spaniard, who competed on the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Video games, defined. “The working increase has led folks to lose their worry of distances as a result of it appears the tougher the problem, the extra participation there’s.”
The results of this mindset have gotten tragically clear. In recent times, the variety of deaths in half marathons and marathons has risen, with a notable instance being the loss of life of a runner within the Madrid Half Marathon earlier this 12 months.
Fiz believes many amateurs underestimate the necessity for rigorous preparation. “A marathon can’t be ready in three days; working it’s the results of fixed and steady work,” he mentioned. “To do it, you should be ready, and if not, you must begin with shorter distances.”
He additionally criticised the tradition that pressures runners to sort out marathons or ultra-trails (long-distance races that happen on mountain trails, reasonably than on roads or tracks) to show their value. “Amateurs are setting the fallacious objectives by pondering you are no one when you do not run a marathon,” he insisted.
“It is like mountain races the place when you do not do an ultra-trail, you are not an athlete. We’re utterly misunderstanding the idea. We’re disregarding distances.”
To mitigate the dangers, Fiz advocates for a extra cautious strategy. He urges runners to undertake wholesome consuming habits, bear stress assessments, and construct their endurance step by step. “Some are born to win and others to take part,” he mentioned. “Elite athletes are those who win Olympic medals, not amateurs, so take pleasure in it, and take advantage of coaching.”
Fiz, who has logged over 150,000 miles in his working profession – greater than most automobiles – remains to be going robust, regardless of approaching his 70s. Earlier this month he braved freezing temperatures and gusty winds to win the M60 class on the Berlin Half Marathon, marking his fifth victory within the SuperHalfs collection.
Regardless of a latest harm that sidelined him for 4 months in 2024, Fiz’s resilience and disciplined strategy have stored him on the prime of his age group. “I am very pleased as a result of after so many months injured, I have been capable of compete at degree once more,” he mentioned.
The Spaniard is the one athlete within the world who has managed to win in six Majors Marathons within the Grasp 50 class [runners over 50 years old], successful the Marathons of New York, Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, and London, attaining the objective of acquiring the ‘Six World Marathon Majors’.
The London Marathon begins on Sunday, April 27. This 12 months’s occasion is aiming to interrupt the world file for probably the most finishers of a marathon, with greater than 56,000 folks anticipated to run.
The file was set eventually 12 months’s New York Marathon, the place 55,646 opponents crossed the end line.
