The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
An honour for star local athletes to race against the world’s best
Local stars Aaron Scott and Josh Lunn are among 50 elite athletes invited to take part in a new-look London Marathon later this year.
There was disappointment on the local running scene after the organisers were left with no choice but to pull the plug on this autumn’s rearranged mass participation 2020 race because of the coronavirus crisis.
However, a version of the prestigious event will go ahead on October 4 for elite runners only and excitingly local hot shot Scott will be on the start line alongside his Helpston Harriers second claim teammate Lunn.
The race will now take place on a 20- lap spectatorfree course around St James Park in the heart of the capital.
“It’s amazing to be part of such a unique event” said Scott. “I think there is going to be 40 to 50 maximum on the startline for both the men’s and the ladies’ races.
“That will only include a dozen domestic athletes, so to feature with Josh is incredible. Training over lockdown has been on track. I worked on my 5km speed and managed five or six efforts of between 14:30 and 14:45 which was plenty fast enough for where I wanted to be.
“I have done plenty of laps of the Stamford Town Cricket Club outfield. I reckon I’ve racked up over 1000 miles around the boundary. People might think that’s a little odd, but all of us runners are a bit bonkers. The pitch is fast, traffic-free and I can switch off and just use my lap times to compare week on week, month on month or even year on year improvement.
“London is going to be 20 loops of just over 2km around The Mall, Horse Guards Parade and Birdcage Walk, so it’s also good mental preparation for that. The aim is a big personal best, but the focus of my current training has been to forget about any goal times and run to effort.
“Around three to four weeks out I can start to see what pace my training suggests. I’d like to think that will be 2:14 to 2:15, but I also want to give myself the possibility of going even faster.
“It’s going to be an odd experience running around a closed loop, and I can imagine it’s going to be a tougher mental battle than ever. Usually at London you can rely on the crowd support in the last 10k, but there will be none of that.
“With Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele set to do battle there could be a world record chance, so I’m very excited to have a front row seat for that.
“One incentive is trying to keep being lapped down to a minimum. If I can only be lapped twice and therefore run at around 2:13 to 2:14/ pace, I might have a chance to out sprint them both down The Mall... but then have another two laps to do!”
Scott has a current marathon best of 2:16.57 which he set in Frankfurt in 2018, but he was only eight seconds outside that time in Frankfurt 2019. With his last three marathons all run in the 2:16/2:17 region, now could be the time for him to take a big leap forward.
Lunn has never completed a marathon, having dropped out in Frankfurt 2019 with an upset stomach.
However, he has put together a quality set of half marathons over the past couple of years, and peaked in Newcastle last September when clocking 1:04.25 for 15th place in the Great North Run.
“It’s helped having a target now as I lost a lot of motivation in lockdown,” Lunn said. “I’m very excited as it’ll be a niche event and probably never happen again.”