Olympic hero’s marathon struggle for fitness
OLYMPIC rowing icon James Cracknell has told how he is desperate to complete the London Marathon next Sunday, if his body will allow.
The double gold medalist, 51, has been in pain after damaging tendons in his right foot last month while training for the 26.2-mile challenge.
Now after weeks of rest and recuperation, he is training again in the hope of competing.
James, who ran the marathon in 2h 43min in 2017, said: “I want to get to the start line injuryfree and I reckon I can have a good crack at going round in under three hours.
“I’m just monitoring it day by day. I did a trial five miles this morning, which was alright.
“I did the Colchester half marathon on March 17 and it was slightly sore then.
“I was raising money for a local war memorial fund. I haven’t run much since.
“The physio says that I’ve got slight arthritis in the bones on the top of my foot and it’s all inflamed.
“If I start with pain, the chances of me getting to the end are pretty small, so if that’s the case I don’t want to start and then not finish.
“That happened last time in 2022, so I’ve vaguely learned my lesson – but it’s more now if I start, I want to finish.”
And he noted: “There’s always the option to plod around from the start, so I could just kind of go for a stroll just to get around.”
If he makes it to the big day on April 21, James plans to raise funds for brain injury charity
Headway, for which he has been an ambassador since his near-fatal bike accident 14 years ago.the father-of-three was hit by a petrol tanker as he filmed Cracknell’s Race Across America and was left in a coma, suffering damage across his brain’s frontal lobe that changed his personality.
He split from his wife of 17 years,tv presenter Beverley Turner, in 2019, after she said his brain injury “took away the man [she] knew”.
James, who was awarded an OBE in 2005, then married American Jordan Connell in 2021 – and ran the London Marathon in under three hours that year.
However, in September 2022, when the pandemic pushed the event from April of that year, he had to stop running after 17 miles due to injury, so his latest foot issue has been a real blow. But of his strong stamina, James added: “It’s 20 years since I stopped rowing and I’d like to do it faster than I did the year after being Olympic-fit.
“I think that’s a good message, that we can actually maintain quite a lot of fitness.”
As well as trying to heal his foot to tackle the mighty challenge next weekend, James is also planning to stand as the Conservative candidate for Colchester at the General Election.
James, who took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2019, earned his gold medals in the coxless four at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
‘If I start, I want to finish’