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Emilie Mondor always liked Emil Zatopek and Paavo Nurmi, 2 heros of the 5000 and 10 000 who finally left their marks over the marathon. Mondor follows the path of her heros by leaving the 5000m track for now and to focus on the mythic distance of 42.195km. " I always had that idea in my head. My agent Ray Flynn too. I live my dream now," said Mondor on tuesday July 25th; one day after the official release of her new upcomming races. She is an invited athlete at the prestigious ING New York City Marathon on November 5th. This will be her first marathon. Getting into the elite field at New York is already hard but as a first timer it is rare.
All this is good news for Mondor who went through very tough times in the last 2 years due to some unseen health problems related to her bones. She almost had to retired last january not knowing how she would comeback. As her cells couldn't absorbed clacium her bone density was reaching low density even with good medical follow-up and focus on health. She is now 25 years old.
But an experimental drug coming from europe was tried, Forteo, and the effects were greater then expected even if it doesn't help her in any way related to running and might even have side effects like higher dehydration and heart beats. Thus she had no choice, she wanted to walk at 50... This is a very expensive drug all only paid by herself and her family. It was a big investment for her athletic career and futur life. But she loves running and being active most of all.
She was allowed to resumed running slowly in spring and in May she surprised herself with a fast chrono of 32:26 in a 10km in Toronto.
Three weeks later, she did even better on a hard course in Ottawa ranking her performance as the 2nd best 10km time in North America in 2006. "This put me back on the international scene." Her agent started to received offers for appearances in races again.
Why the marathon insted of staying with the 5000m that made her known in 2003 Paris IAAF World Championships? She became the first canadian to ever run under 15:00 over the distance. Even with her succes on track, she never hide the fact that she dislikes racing around the 400m circle. The marathon is a distance that is more close to her taste. The longest distances but the reduced intensity should also be good for her bones. "Marathon is also more focus on your time and not your position. I love racing against myself and the times more then against others," said Mondor who was already succesful in cross country, road racing and track (2004 Olympian).
"Marathon is about mental thoughness and the tradition of the event." Mondor is not the first athlete to make the bridge between the 5km/10km to the marathon; this is a normal trend in athletics. She is still young thus and will go step by step. She knows she will need to run under 2:30 to be at an international level thus which means breaking the Canadian record at some point (2:28:36, Silvia Ruegger, january 1985). Her goal is to get ready for 2008 Beijing Olympics over the distance.
She is now in her season break before starting again fresh in her training site in Ottawa.
Traducted from:
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/
BY: Simon Drouin
source Emilie Mondor
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