After a painful Olympic experience, the British distance runner returned to Berlin in September with a time of 2:21:24.
Callie Hauger-Tucker just couldn’t let all her hard work go to waste. Yes, there were race options at the end of the year and the pain of the Paris Olympics remained raw, but there were demons to slay and lots and lots of miles in the tank.
So with just a week and a half to go until race day, she decided to see if it would be possible to run the Berlin Marathon.
Just completing the 26.2-mile mission barely six weeks after a truly traumatic experience in the French capital was a tall order in itself.While Sifan Hassan and Tigist Assefa were at war at the front of the field on the Versailles course on August 11, Hauger-Tucker was simply fighting straight. to stay.
He knew something was wrong even before the race began. The sweltering weather was a near-constant feature of the Paris Games, but the mercury was only 16 degrees when the athletes gathered at the start. instead it seemed like more of a furnace for the European half marathon bronze medalist who found himself looking for ice packs to cool himself down in. More alarm bells began to sound as the race began.
Callie Hauger-Tucker in the main group (Getty)
“It was scary because it was so early,” says Hauger-Tucker of the discomfort she started feeling , where I did not allow, I thought. It will be good but the taper unfortunately didn’t do its normal job this time because of what was going on. Stress is unfortunately going to take it. I thought I was tough enough to get through it, but My body was doing crazy things. I just hit absolute exhaustion. I could barely stand up.”
So much so that when she reached mile 17, she fell into the arms of her husband and trainer Nick on the side of the road. His Olympic race was over. “I just wanted to sleep for a week,” he recalls.
It really was her body’s way of telling her enough was enough, not surprising given how difficult the previous weeks had been. Earlier this year, Hauger-Thackery’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which, at one stage, seemed is a terminal.
“We were told the worst, so I thought: “Oh my God, I might lose my mum this year,” says the British 5km champion. .
Fortunately, Rachel, a former sprinter, has responded to treatment and is in a much better place now,” adds her daughter. “And it’s unfortunate that things turned out the way they did. But life is messy It’s not always rainbows and butterflies. And we’re human. My training was going absolutely great, so I just thought it would take me. But I knew I was losing a lot of sleep, and then, when you lose a lot of sleep, you also lose your appetite in a marathon survive.”
Callie Tucker (Getty)
Like her mother, Hauger-Tucker carries the PALB2 gene, which has been shown to increase her risk of breast cancer, which means she also has regular checkups, and the process is another mental challenge to deal with The finish line at the Brandenburg Gate was sweeter.
The Yorkshirewoman proved herself to be a natural marathon late last year, clocking 2:22:17 on her debut at the McKirdy Micro Marathon in New York.
Such a strong start, coupled with good training and that bronze medal in the half marathon at the European Championships in Rome in June (Britain won team gold) made the Paris experience all the more difficult to return with a personal best of 2:21:24 to finish first European woman and seventh overall. in general, then felt vindicated.
“I’m happy that I was able to show a (true) reflection of my running,” said Hauger-Tuckery, the second-fastest British marathoner in history behind Paula Radcliffe. “I can’t let that get lost. That’s why I did one so soon.”
» This is an abridged version of a feature that appeared in the November issue of AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
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