"retirement is the way forward" - Yelling
Hayley Yelling - second wind
Yesterday I reported that the run of Hayley Yelling at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships should go down as one of the most gutsy performances in the last 20 years of international cross country racing, certainly that I have seen…
To take on a one of the classiest women’s fields ever assembled from the gun may have looked almost contemptuous to some, however it is only at the age of 35 that one begins to know one’s body and mind well enough to know if such a tactic was well judged – or plain madness.
Luckily for Yelling is was the latter, though I must admit that the Briton’s running style dictates that she always looks like she is trying very hard and is ready to succumb at any moment. Still, none of that was to be the case on the heavy Santry Park course, as she judged her race perfectly, and to be honest never really looked like being caught.
Yelling is XC queen once again
Speaking afterwards she said:
“It was fantastic. I think retirement is the way forward but I guess I’m not retired any more. It wasn’t a deliberate tactic to go to the front, it was just that I wanted to run hard and see how far I could go
Yellings exploits could hardly have been different to Toro in 2006 where she literally won the race in the last few strides, yesterday her margin was 6 seconds, but in reality was bigger than that. Her ‘second wind’ in career terms is a great demonstration that ‘less is more’ in certain situations and will be an interesting aside for new UKA endurance supremo Ian Stewart, who is advocating long, hard yards for Britain’s current future ling-distance talent.
Future is something that Yelling may not call herself, but running like she is, with minimal training and maximum enjoyment, shows that this running lark really is horses for courses, and also shows that when the pressure is off, we really do run at our best…
