We speak to the Olympian who took some hugely encouraging first steps in her marathon career with a fourth place finish in New York.
The age. 29; Trainers: Alistair and Amy Craig
Patrick Dever made a conscious effort to prioritize consistency over perfection in 2025 and it paid off with a fourth-place finish in the New York Marathon, his time of 2:08:58 good enough for 10th on the UK all-time list.
An experienced international athlete – in 2022 he competed for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World Championships (10,000m) and European (5,000m) as well as the Commonwealth Games (5,000m) for England, while in 2024 he pulled on a British vest again at the European Championships (10,000m) and the Olympic Games (10,000m), having not lived up to his own big time at such high-profile events. expectations.
“One of the biggest lessons I learned (in 2024) was not to get too high or too low after a particular race or practice,” Preston Harrier said at the time. “I think just trying to stay a little more level-headed will allow me to really peak when it matters and not burn out emotionally.”
As it happened, marathon training, when the decision was finally made to walk the distance, perfectly supported such a rational approach.
Although Dever modestly claims that his lineup is “pretty good,” the bottom line was that he wasn’t missing anything. “I think that’s why I did so well in New York,” he says. “It probably didn’t happen everyone go as well as it could, but it examines the body of work over a longer period of time. I’ve definitely trained as hard as I’ve ever trained in the nine to 10 months before that, so it’s not just the sessions you do close to the race, it’s the consistency over a longer period of time.”
Dever, a member of the PUMA Elite Running Team coached by Alistair and Amy Craig in North Carolina, USA, had clear marathon potential; ran 60:11 at the Houston Half Marathon in January (fourth on the UK all-time list) and then 60:19 at the New York Half Marathon in March. As marathon training progressed, his consistency continued with a 60:17 at the Copenhagen Half Marathon in September.
He took over walking duties at the Chicago Marathon in October; he crossed the halfway point in 60:16, taking advantage of the opportunity to run fast while grabbing drinks, he knew he was ready.
“Alistair has wanted me to do a marathon for a long time,” says the 29-year-old, who admits that choosing to debut in New York, a notoriously difficult course, has over time removed his potentially destructive fixation. “I think the way we looked at it, if it (the marathon) was possible for the ’28 Olympics, it would be better to do it sooner rather than later, because I couldn’t expect to come in and qualify for the Olympics in the first step.
“The race itself was pretty incredible. Growing up in sports, I always thought that being in the stadium on the run was the biggest stage, and I guess it still is, in a way, but when you’re around a big marathon, that’s the scene in town. I can remember how many spectators were on the field. pretty cool.”
A typical school week (at Park City Heights, Utah, October 2025)
Dever’s New York City Marathon took over 12 weeks to build.
Easy runs felt more like pace (evening runs usually at a slower pace than mornings), while Friday’s described as a “turnaround session” aimed at cleaning up the legs, was introduced in the second half of the build-up and rarely ran faster than 5km.
Gym training was performed three times per week after the morning run on non-training days (including one optional training session during the marathon block). “We’ve done a lot of things with body weight, general condition and mobility,” he says; “Whenever we went into marathon training though, it was more about what we had to do and get home as quickly as possible to focus on recovery.”
- Monday: (morning) 75 minutes; (pm) 35 minutes
- Tuesday: (morning) 75 minutes; (pm) 35 minutes
- Wednesday. (hour) running session – eg 5 x (2km-3min recovery-1km-2min recovery); (pm) 35 minutes
- Thursday: (morning) 75 minutes
- Friday (am) a circuit session such as 16x400m on a 60-second track or 2x (8x300m) on a Park City bike track (alternating downhill/uphill); (pm) 35 minutes
- Saturday. (morning) 60 minutes
- Sunday. (today) this will be either a long run for time (“The best we’ve done was 2:30,” says Dever. “It didn’t matter the pace, though we’d naturally build faster towards the end.”) or a long run workout, like a 2-2.5 mile warm-up – 3 mile pace – 10 mile pace (4 mile pace at a slower pace) – 3 mile pace (standing recovery about 3 minutes between) – 2 miles (max) cool down, or 2.5 miles warm up – 5 x 4 miles at marathon pace 3 minutes – 2 miles cool down. (“I actually did 4 x 4 miles that day, then 2 miles in the fifth set, so that was an example of things not going exactly according to plan.”)
Favorite session: “Probably the day of the turnaround. Since I’m not that far off the track, it’s still nice to feel fast, and I definitely think that as a marathon runner, it’s still important to train for that stuff. Like some of the Kenyan guys competing in New York, it was a little fartlek-y; at some points we were running 65 second paces up to 400 minutes. things.”
Least favorite session. “A long run of time. Even in a marathon, you finish in a little over two hours … so having to keep going until 2:30, you’re just used to running for that long.”
