Alex Yee to make marathon debut in London
Alex Yee will be making his debut over 26.2 miles at next year's TCS London Marathon.
The 26-year-old, who is the reigning Olympic and world triathlon champion, will be part of the elite field in the British capital.
Yee has had a remarkable 2024 season, culminating in two individual triathlon gold medals on the global stage.
The first came at the Paris Olympics, where the Brit quite literally turned on the turbo-boosters to chase down New Zealand's Hayden Wilde in the closing stages.
Yee looked like he’d have to settle for yet another silver – he finished second behind Kristian Blummenfelt in Tokyo three years ago – but overtook Wilde with just a few corners of the Parisian course left.
Then, back in October, the Brit secured a maiden world crown at the World Triathlon Championship Finals in Andalusia, Spain.
After missing out on the top of the world podium in both 2022 and 2023, victory this time round was even more special for Yee.
Now, looking ahead to 2025, he is up for a new challenge.
"London for me was a no-brainer," Yee said. "It's a place that has given me so much as a child and I remember racing the mini-marathon multiple times. It was one of my biggest and most exciting races of the year.
"With the London Marathon being such a big part of my life growing up, I’d love to come back and race well here. The marathon has always been an itch I’ve wanted to scratch and there wasn’t another place I wanted to start that journey."
Safe to say, Yee has running pedigree, boasting personal 5km and 10,000m bests of 13:26 and 27:51.94 respectively.
He also finished 14th for Great Britain over 10,000m at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin.
Yee is one of six nominees – alongside Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson – for tomorrow's BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The data behind the run
Alex Yee's Race Predictor estimates a 2:13 marathon time in London – he is targeting somewhere between 2:07 and 2:10 – at the beginning of his training.
The Brit, who usually runs around 60 miles per week for triathlon, will have to increase that to 90 miles for a marathon training block.
Yee's tools of choice will be the COROS HR Monitor and the new COROS PACE PRO as he prepares for the 26.2 mile course.
"I imagine as the sessions get more intense and longer in duration, I'll focus a lot more on my HR to make sure I’m staying in the right zone when training, so the COROS Heart Rate Monitor is essential," Yee added.
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"As for my training week, this will still be structured similar to how it has been, although there will be a conscious shift to run more volume and do longer marathon specific sessions.
"I will continue to swim and ride as this will form part of my aerobic base work. This is all completely new, so things will likely evolve as we go and see how I adapt but I’m excited to see what it entails!"
The above data has been provided by COROS
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