Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 4/6/09

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Andrea Mayr – from the Steeplechase to mountains and up the Empire State 
       Building to the ultimate destination: Marathon in Vienna

There could hardly be a more complete elite runner than her: Andrea Mayr 
ran middle and long distances on the track, she is the national record 
holder in the Steeple Chase, she did cross country races, she is Austria's 
fastest half marathon runner ever, one of the strongest mountain runners 
worldwide and on top of that she is the holder of the course record of the 
Empire States Buidling run-up in New York. Now the 29 year-old goes for the 
one obvious challenge left: the marathon. On 19th April Andrea Mayr will 
run the Vienna City Marathon, competing in a unique debutants only race.

"A year ago I would never have imagined that I would run a marathon this 
April," says Andrea Mayr, who had too much respect of the heavy training 
loads in the built-up to a marathon. "But meanwhile this has changed and it 
actually appeals to me." Grown-up in Linz she moved to Vienna to study 
medicine. She finished her studies in 2004 and continued living in the 
city. With the Vienna City Marathon more or less at her doorstep she has 
watched the event as a spectator at the roadside in the past, enjoying the 
great atmosphere. "I am really looking forward to this race because people 
will cheer me on in my hometown. It will be something special." Andrea Mayr 
does not care much about her rivals and about possible chances concerning 
places. "I will not study my opponents beforehand. I simply want to run a 
good time and a fine debut marathon." Also she does not want to give 
predictions regarding times since the marathon will be something new for 
her. 

Originally Andrea Mayr had planned to end her career in August 2008 – after 
running the steeple chase at the Olympic Games. But she never made it to 
Beijing. The Austrian record holder in the steeple (9:47.61 minutes) missed 
the qualifying time by 1.61 seconds and was not picked for the team. "Then 
I thought that this would not really be a suitable end to my career, having 
missed the Olympics and running nowhere again. So I decided to add some 
mountain races." Andrea Mayr then won the World Road Running Trophy for the 
second time after 2006. "But even after winning this one I did not want to 
retire. That was when I thought I should go for the Vienna City Marathon. 
In December I started training for the marathon and from January onwards I 
trained very seriously for Vienna."

Already as a child Andrea Mayr was a good runner. Her parents had taken her 
with them when they went mountain climbing. And when they took her to 
children's races she was always winning. "It was great fun and I never was 
doing any training." She continued winning cross country races at primary 
school, but it was gymnastics that was her first sport at that time. "But 
then I became too tall for gymnastics and finally stopped it at the age of 
15. I had done well at regional level, but there would have been no way of 
competing internationally." After that she started training and first was a 
middle distance runner. Later she ran the steeple chase, where she 
qualified for the World Championships in 2005 and 2007. On both occassions 
she did not make the final.

When she was about 20 she had entered her first mountain race. "It was a 
coincidence, because the regional championships took place in Linz. So I 
thought I should just go and run since Linz is my hometown. But I finished 
so far down the field that I felt really embarresed. I thought I should do 
much better. So I came back to the same race one year later and won – 
though it was no championship race this time," Andrea Mayr recalls. That 
was the start of her successful mountain running career, during which she 
also won the famous ,Obudu Ranch' race in Nigeria. Here she beat a number 
of prominent African athletes in autumn 2008. "That was a great success, 
because often people had said: you are only winning in the moutains because 
the African runners are not competing. But this time I had beaten a number 
of them." 

It was this year, when Andrea Mayr improved the Austrian half marathon 
record to 1:12:14. Back in 2006 she had another remarkable success at yet 
another discipline: The Austrian took the Empire State Building run-up in 
New York. She covered the 1,576 steps (102 floors) in 11:23 minutes. This 
course record still stands today.

More information and online entry for the Vienna City Marathon is available 
at: www.vienna-marathon.com 

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