US-based Preston Harrier talks about the latest in a long battle with Emile Cares, raising his game and the excitement of making his London Marathon debut.
After his marathon debut of 2:08:58 in New York last November, Patrick Dever is looking forward to going faster and making an impact on British soil at the TCS London Marathon on April 26.
“I’m so excited to be doing London,” she says. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I’ve always watched it growing up and even just talking to my friends who live in London who have done it or watched it, it just feels like an incredible race to be a part of.
“At the New York marathon it was crazy how loud the crowd was and I’m sure London is just as loud or louder. My family, who mostly live in Leyland, Lancashire, don’t get to see me race very often so it will be nice to have them there.”
Dever, 29, finished sixth in the London Mini Marathon in 2012 and fifth in 2013, representing the North West of England. But from his early junior years with Preston Harriers, he went on to run at Loughborough and then at the University of Tulsa in the US, where he won the NCAA 10,000m title. He also won British titles in the 5,000m and 10,000m, competed at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and ran 27:08.81 for the 10,000m.
The London Marathon will also be a good opportunity for him to renew his long-standing rivalry with Emil Cares. (Note, since this interview took place, Keires has left London). The Yorkshireman is a year older than Dever and has previously qualified for the marathon, clocking 2:06:46 in London two years ago, before finishing fourth at the Olympics.
The pair have had a particularly close rivalry over the years. In the British Universities 5000m in Bedford in 2017, for example, Dever beat Keires by less than a tenth of a second, although the pair trailed Alice Cross by half a second. Later that summer, Keires beat Dever by 17 hundredths of a second in the British Millers Club 5000m in Manchester, while Dever beat Keires by five seconds in the 10km at Trafford.
Some of their toughest races have also come at cross country. At the 2018 European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg, Dever finished fifth and Keires eighth, just two seconds separating the pair.
Most memorably, the pair were separated by just one-tenth of a second at the 2019 British Universities Cross Country Championships, although organizers admitted it was technically one-thousandth, after a grueling half-hour race on the south Devon coast.
“If I see Emily at the races, I try to take the time to talk to her and ask her how things are going,” says Dever. “I really like him and the way he handles his training and races. It’s been great to watch him over the last few years.”
Both athletes have come a long way since their student days seven years ago when they wrestled with their faces covered in the colors of their respective universities.
“One hundred percent,” agrees Dever when asked how much stronger he is today. “The level at which I can train consistently now is much higher than what I could do back then. The quality of sessions I do now and can bounce back from is head and shoulders above what I could do just three or four years ago.
“I’ve really found a sweet spot in my training. I know how hard it is to push the easy days to make my core workouts count. I still have a lot to learn about the marathon and raising my voice, but I’m really confident that I’ve worked hard over the last few years.”
He adds: “The big role is to take regular breaks and let the training and racing work their way out. After New York I did a really good job of taking a good break and everything else has been really smooth since then.”
Dever talks to AW from his Albuquerque, New Mexico altitude training camp. The Puma athlete has already completed his first run of the day and is relaxing on the terrace outside his apartment, wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes from the bright sun.
His friends often call him “Paddy”, but he doesn’t mind Patrick either. Her father is apparently a stickler for pronouncing his last name correctly, though. Over the years, many people have mistakenly said “Deever” when it should rhyme with “never” instead.
He is part of Puma’s elite running team and is coached by Alistair and Amy Craig with a group that includes British runner Jack Rowe. A few days ago at the NYC Half, a bunch of race squads and Dever broke through with a 59:56 PB to finish sixth.
“Mentally, getting under the hour mark was good,” he says. “I knew it was only a matter of time before I got under that mark, but I wasn’t sure it would happen in New York because it’s a pretty tough course.”
It was his first race since the New York Marathon five months ago, where he finished fourth behind three Kenyans, Benson Kipruto, Alex Mutiso and Albert Korir, the latter of whom was suspended after testing positive for drugs in January and has since been banned from the sport for five years.
In New York, he says. “I parked it for a bit and tried not to think about it too much. I didn’t want to be complacent when training in London. Just because one went well doesn’t mean they all will.
In the middle of New York last month, he says: “When I finished, I was definitely completely gassed, although I could have run a little smarter in the beginning. I was probably a little too “busy” to begin with. In the marathon, I was mentally disconnected at the start of the race, but in the half marathon, I was too busy or realized too early in the half marathon because I was aware of all the people in the half marathon. I hope to carry that to the London Marathon.”
Dever looks quietly confident ahead of London. He will stay in Albuquerque until just a week before the race, then head down to North Carolina for a few days before arriving in Britain. “Most of the work will be done here and then I’ll come down to hopefully reap the rewards,” he says.
“A marathon is so long, and you might think your training has gone really well, but something can happen in the race that throws you off a bit,” she says. “All you can do is make the training as good as possible and learn what you can to feel as good as possible on the day, like the last few days and the fuel on the day itself.”
He adds: “There’s always going to be that element of the unknown, which I guess gives you those nerves.”
Caires was talking about beating Mo Farah’s British record of 2:05:11 set in Chicago in 2018. Given Dever’s neck-and-neck history with his ex, in addition to his stellar New York debut, it certainly makes him believe he can match whatever his British friend is up to.
“Absolutely,” he says. “In the age groups, we did a lot less training than we do now, but I don’t think there’s any reason why I can’t go up to those levels in the marathon.
“I just spent a little bit longer on the shorter distances and I feel like I have more room to grow in distances like the half marathon and 10,000 meters. Whether it’s now or 2027 or 2028, I feel like I have a ton more growth in the marathon distance.”
