London Marathon: Pacesetters put in the hard miles ahead of D-Day

London Marathon is one of the most prestigious race in the world marathon majors which every athlete dreams of participating in.

With Berlin Marathon being held on Sunday, athletes who will be competing in London will be jetting out of the country this week ahead of the race slated for next Sunday.

The pandemic has come with a heavy prize of making sure athletes train in a bio-secure environment and undergo various tests before they travel for global events.

The usual big names from Kenya will not be competing in London due to various reasons which forced the organisers to have new entrants in the elite field.

World marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge opted out of the race after successfully defending his Olympic title in Sapporo, Japan last month.

However, women’s world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei will be lining up to defend her London title despite competing in the Olympic Games where she bagged silver medal.

She will be joined by Frankfurt Marathon champion Valary Jemeli and Joyciline Jepkosgei who is the New York Marathon champion.

Nation Sport caught up with two pacemakers in Kapsabet, Nandi County who will be aiding the elite athletes during the race.

Betty Lempus will be teaming up with Irene Kimais and Dorcas Tuitoek while Sila Kiptoo has been tasked with pacing the men's race.

Lempus, who runs under the 2Running Club, said that she is happy she will be running in her first major marathon as a pacemaker and has prepared well.

To pace the first group of athletes, one has to be strong and Lempus has been working on her endurance in the first 25km to ensure she executes her task to perfection.

“I was excited when I was named to pace the athletes and my target is to pace up to the assigned 25km mark. If I will be in good shape, I would love to reach the 30km mark just to gauge my body,” said Lempus.

Lempus participated in the Battle of Teams in Prague, Czech Republic where she managed to clock 2:24:16 emerging fifth in her team Mattoni.

She revealed that she has never met Kosgei and is looking forward to getting some advice from her on marathon running.

“I will be interacting with the world beaters and it will be my first time to meet her because I normally see her compete. I want to get more tips from the world beater on how to run the major marathons because that’s my target in future,” she said.

Kiptoo, who is also under the 2Running Club headed by Italian coach Claudio Beraldelli, is elated to be pacing his training mates in the camp.

This will be his first race since the coronavirus pandemic struck after pacing Dubai Marathon up to the 30km mark last year in January.

“Since the pandemic struck, I have just been training and waiting to see if the world would open up so that I can compete again but I’m happy because the management tasked me to pace the London Marathon race,” said Kiptoo who was third in Warsaw Half Marathon in 2019.

He wants to gain more experience as he targets to shift to marathon races in future.

“I have been participating in half marathons and road races and my target is to grow gradually and take notes from my seniors who have better experience as I shift my focus into running marathon races,” added Kiptoo.

Kiptoo will be pacing Kenyans Milano Marathon champion Titus Ekiru, last year’s runner-up Vincent Kipchumba and Valencia Marathon champion Evans Chebet.