‘A different kind of pain’: Alex Yee prepares for London Marathon debut

Alex Yee near his home in Loughborough. ‘The nerves are definitely there but I’m excited too,’ he says of Sunday’s London Marathon. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

There is a beautiful book about suffering on Alex Yee’s coffee table in his front room on the outskirts of Loughborough. It’s a massive book about cycling and riding up imposing mountains that look gorgeous in black‑and‑white photographs even as they bring down almost unbearable pain on those cyclists brave and crazy enough to confront them.

Yee, the Olympic triathlon champion, is steeling himself for a new start as a novice long‑distance runner who will enter similarly dark terrain in the London Marathon on Sunday.