Hellen Obiri has opened up on one mistake that made her 2024 season her ‘worst-ever experience’ even though it brought her three podium place finishes in marathons.
Two-time Boston Marathon champion Hellen Obiri regrets her decision to run three marathons last year despite performing exceptionally well in all of them.
Obiri took up a major challenge that marathoners rarely embrace, which is running three energy-sapping races in a year.
She signed up for the Boston Marathon in April, going on to defend her title, got selected to Team Kenya to the Paris Olympics, where she won bronze in August, before her attempts to retain her New York Marathon crown in November saw her fall just short to finish second.
Obiri says it was the worst-ever experience during her athletics career as the short time between the three races took its toll on her body.
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“Last year was a terrible experience for me. I have never experienced something like that one,” Obiri told NTV.
“Just imagine doing three marathons; doing Boston, going to Paris and New York. All of them are tough courses and I needed to see the experience but it was the worst experience for me.
“Because the body needs to recover. From Paris to New York, I did not recover so well because I needed to recover for like two months to start another training, but it took me like two weeks to recover and then start, seven weeks to New York. It is not good for an athlete to do three marathons in a year.”
The 35-year-old, however, defended her decision, saying she wanted to gauge the limits her body could take plus there was also the Marathon Majors bonus of $50,000 at stake.
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“I needed to see how far I can go with three marathons so that I can know if I can or cannot do three marathons a year,” she added.
“Coming from Paris, I wanted to defend my title in New York and all of them are major marathons. That is like a bonus so I said, being an Olympics year, let me try and do three marathons.”
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Obiri is among the most decorated Kenyan athletes, having won gold medals at World Indoor, cross-country, World Championships and Commonwealth Games but an Olympics title has always eluded her.
Paris was her third Olympics, having won two silver medals, both in 5,000, in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and she feels disappointed that her desire to get gold was not achieved although she seems to have made peace with it.
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“I felt so bad, you have worked so hard to get something but sometimes, things happen not the way you want,” the mother of one further said.
Obiri is currently in Kenya preparing for this year’s Boston Marathon where she is looking to join an exclusive club of runners who have won it in three straight years.