Press Release - Vienna City Marathon - 4/15/10

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                     VIENNA CITY MARATHON ON SUNDAY
Austrian stars Günther Weidlinger and Andrea Mayr Chasing History 

Live web stream and English information on Sunday on www.vienna-marathon.com 

Günther Weidlinger and Andrea Mayr are chasing Austrian athletics history 
in Sunday's Vienna City Marathon. Both of them are targeting their national 
records and if they are successful it would be the first time that both 
marks are broken in one race. Additionally the Austrian running stars hope 
to break time barriers and become the first runners of their country to run 
the marathon inside 2:10 and 2:30. 

A record number of around 32,500 runners have entered the 27th edition of 
the Vienna City Marathon. This figure includes races at shorter distances. 
Austria's biggest and best quality running event can be watched live on the 
internet. The live stream will be available on www.vienna-marathon.com from 
8.40 am on Sunday. While the TV coverage shown on the web will be in German 
there will be a live web report on the same page including information in 
English.

A year ago Günther Weidlinger had come to Vienna for his much anticipated 
debut marathon. But a hip muscle problem, which he had developed in the 
built-up and which had not been diagnosed correctly until some time after 
the marathon, made it a far from ideal debut for him. When the problem was 
finally solved and Günther Weidlinger could resume full training there was 
not too much time left to prepare for the Frankfurt Marathon. Despite this 
he smashed the 23 year-old Austrian record with a time of 2:10:47 in 
Frankfurt. Coming to the Vienna City Marathon in the year of the Europaen 
Championships Günther Weidlinger looks to be one of the continent's most 
promising marathon runners.

And despite a calf muscle problem which had forced him to stop training in 
March for ten days Günther Weidlinger's preparations for Vienna have gone 
very well. After increasing his weekly milage to more than 200 kilometres 
in some weeks the 32 year-old feels he is in better shape than last year. 
And he intends to make the spectators happy with a great performance. "This 
will be a home game for me. The atmosphere was thrilling last year, which 
was extremely motivating," says Günther Weidlinger. "Of course I am nervous 
- but if I would not be then I would not run a good race."

In his third marathon the former world-class steeple chaser is ready to 
take some risk. "My motto for Sunday will be: No risk, no fun! I am 
planning to run the first half in 64:30 to 64:45 minutes. If it should turn 
out that this is too fast for me it will get very tough in the final part 
of the race. But a marathon is not a children's birthday party! If I don't 
try going for 2:09 I will never find out if I am capable to do it. That is 
why the marathon is special - you can not try that in training before the 
race."

While Günther Weidlinger has confirmed that he will run the marathon in the 
European Championships in Barcelona in summer Andrea Mayr has not yet made 
up her mind. "I will decide this on Monday," said the 30 year-old, who has 
entered the Vienna City Marathon as the defending champion. In her first 
and only marathon so far Andrea Mayr had clocked 2:30:43, which is the 
current national record. Similar to Günther Weidlinger she had carried an 
injury when running her marathon debut in Vienna in 2009. "This time there 
is no stress fracture and no torn tendon," she answered, when asked to 
compare her situation to last year. "My training leading up to the race was 
as good as it was a year ago." But starting without a foot injury this 
time, the result should be better. 

"Of course breaking 2:30 is quite a goal. I have trained for that and 
calculated my split times accordingly," said Andrea Mayr, who had major 
international success as a mountain runner and also is the national 
steeplechase champion. With the goal of becoming Austria's first sub 2:30 
women marathon runner Andrea Mayr intends to run her own race and fully 
concentrate on the split times. "I plan not to care about the other runners 
until the final part of the race. I know this will not be easy but I hope I 
can stick to my plan."

More information about the Vienna City Marathon is available at: 
www.vienna-marathon.com


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