Even for Olympic champions, the days before running the London Marathon bring a mixture of nerves and excitement. Alex Yee is no exception. The world triathlon champion and gold medal winner in Paris last summer, his first attempt at the marathon distance will start on home turf: Lewisham’s own will join line up alongside the elites at Blackheath, a few miles from the hospital where he was born and the running track in Ladywell where he started out, and which now bears his name.
Yee remembers watching the marathon from a young age, leaning over the barriers to watch the fastest in the world fly through the south London streets before crossing Tower Bridge. It will be surreal to join them now, and he has hinted at feeling a sense of impostor syndrome, given that he will be starting in the strongest marathon field ever assembled, including the greatest of all time in Eliud Kipchoge. “It feels like I’ve taken a wrong turn to get here,” he told BBC 5 Live this week.
