{"id":3279,"date":"2019-10-28T14:56:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T20:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2019-10-28T14:56:37","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T20:56:37","slug":"valary-aiyabei-wins-frankfurt-marathon-in-course-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/news\/valary-aiyabei-wins-frankfurt-marathon-in-course-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Valary Aiyabei wins Frankfurt Marathon in Course Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Frankfurt, Germany – Valary Aiyabei of Kenya wins Mainova Frankfurt Marathon in a new course record with her sub 2hr 20 time of 2:19:10<\/p>\n

Valary Aiyabei wins Mainova Frankfurt Marathon in 2:19:10<\/h3>\n

You can have physical talent as an athlete but is that enough? Long term followers of track and field will remember the oft cited quote by Sebastian Coe in his competitive days when the current IAAF president, was asked a question along the lines of: \u201cWhat\u2019s the most important part of your athletic armoury?\u201d The response of the double Olympic champion at 1500m and world record holder was: \u201cThe top nine inches.\u201d His view was, it\u2019s what in the head that counts.<\/p>\n

Valary Aiyabei of Kenya, the newly crowned women\u2019s champion and course record holder of the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon<\/a>, certainly has physical talent. Running 2:19:10 and, in the early stages of her solo run to victory in the Festhalle, startlingly inside world record pace, shows you have to be a special runner. Going through the first 5 km in 15:38 was astounding, pointing to a finishing time, admittedly far in the distance, of inside 2:12 which would have been a staggering improvement on Brigid Kosgei\u2019s world record of 2:14:04, set only two weeks previously in Chicago.<\/p>\n

What made Aiyabei go out so fast? There\u2019ve been occasional examples of runners \u201cshowboating\u201d, wanting to look good only to fade as in Greek mythology when Icarus and his father dared to venture too close to the sun. But speaking barely minutes after crossing the finish line on the Festhalle\u2019s red carpet, Valary Aiyabei reflected in matter of fact style: \u201cI started fast because I thought I could hang on later when I slowed down.\u201d This response would suggest a marathon novice but that the Kenyan definitely is not. The Frankfurt win was her third marathon of the year after third place in Nagoya in Japan in 2:23:01 in early March, followed by winning the Eldoret title on home ground with 2:27:19 in late April.<\/p>\n

Valary Aiyabei thinks world record is possible in Frankfurt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talking later in more relaxed circumstances after the victory press conference on Sunday, it became clear that Aiyabei\u2019s strong belief in her capabilities has also been boosted by Brigid Kosgei\u2019s world record. The latter carved 81 seconds off Paula Radcliffe\u2019s world record which had stood for 16 years. The impression Valary Aiyabei gave in Frankfurt was that there are other women, albeit from a select talent pool, who believe they can follow suit: \u201cThe world record is possible if you train well and focus on the race, everything is possible. I think it is possible because when I was running those splits for a 2:14 finishing time, I felt comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mental Strength played key role in her Course Record in Mainova Frankfurt Marathon<\/strong><\/p>\n

She did slow down but though she spoke of having to \u201cstruggle and fight\u201d, looked comfortable running at what eventually was 2:19 finishing tempo and kept more than a minute between herself and a group of high quality pursuers. There was an edge to her voice when she reflected on another reason for going out so hard: \u201cMy plan was to run a PB because my personal best had stood for so long.\u201d Aiyabei had run 2:20:53 for third place in Berlin two years ago. She can certainly reflect on a mission accomplished but Valary Aiyabei issued another declaration, expressing her delight at the reception from the Frankfurt fans: \u201cI believe the women\u2019s world record can be run here. Yes, and I think I can do it!\u201d Next year\u2019s Mainova Frankfurt Marathon will take place on 25th October.<\/p>\n

The day also brought good news for the two leading European women who both comfortably achieved the Olympic qualifying time by running inside 2:29:30. The Briton Steph Twell finished as top European in eighth place with an impressive personal best of 2:26:40, improving by almost four minutes in her second marathon. She also broke the 22 year-old Scottish marathon record of Liz McColgan, who ran 2:26:52 back in 1997 in London. \u201eYes, I feel I am much more of a marathon runner now,\u201c said Stephanie Twell. Germany\u2019s Katharina Steinruck also made big inroads on her best time of 2:27:26 to achieve the qualifying time for Tokyo: \u201eIt was a great race for me and I felt really good. Breaking the Olympic standard by more than two minutes makes me very happy. I hope this is good enough to secure nomination.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frankfurt, Germany – Valary Aiyabei of Kenya wins Mainova Frankfurt Marathon in a new course record with her sub 2hr 20 time of 2:19:10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,21,29,1],"tags":[99,383,518,897],"class_list":["post-3279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-featured","category-frankfurt","category-kenya","category-news","tag-99","tag-frankfurt-marathon","tag-kenya","tag-valary-aiyabei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}