Ambassadors Paul Navesey and Tom Evans talk about their build up to the Frankfurt Marathon

Paul Navesey: The Frankfurt Marathon will be one of my main races over the autumn. I am away training with Tom during September so will be looking to capitalise on that by running well over 10k & HM on route to a PB run at Frankfurt at the end of Oct. I will then be able to focus on XC & 10k road racing over the winter.

Tom Evans: The Frankfurt Marathon is a key race for me this season. It’s a great opportunity to get some ‘speed’ back in my legs after a long season on multi stage and 100km + races.

Paul Navesey: So far I have had an up & down year with a couple of niggles. Unfortunately I missed London Marathon but then had the great opportunity to run at the Stockholm Marathon. The course is not as fast as London but the trip to Stockholm was fantastic. I ran at the fantastic ‘Highgate Night of 10,000m  PB’ event in May along with a handful of my AB Training Group partners which was great, managing to use some good marathon training to bag a new 10,000m PB… as the event is intended to do I guess!

Tom Evans: My year has been really busy since MDS where I placed 3rd. I am racing CCC before the Frankfurt Marathon and then Ultra Trail Cape Town in December. It will be my first trip down there and I am really looking forward to it.

Paul Navesey: From the events I have run, I certainly feel running a marathon has been the hardest on the body both toward the end of the race & recovering afterwards. Longer events provide the element of hours & hours of repetition, the shorter races provide the burning legs & lungs but the marathon combines both. For me, it is the most taxing event on the body that I have done.

Tom Evans: I think marathon training is tougher! Training at speed on roads is sometimes not the most exciting of sessions compared to the views you get in the mountains. Having said that, I like putting myself in that dark place during marathon tempo sessions.

Paul Navesey: Following my run at Stockholm where I felt I was in better shape than my time suggested, my coach (Allison Benton) and I felt it would be good to find an autumn marathon to run closer to what I am capable of. Frankfurt is well timed, flat, fast and there is a nice buzz about running European races. Now I just need to get in shape!

Paul Navesey: Our club record at Crawley AC is 2:23:38 set by Dave Cowell at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. I will be working as hard as possible to dip below that.

Tom Evans: The Frankfurt Marathon worked well with timings and it’s a city that I love. It’s also a quick course so fingers crossed I will run a good time.

Paul Navesey: I swear by Adidas shoes for training & racing. I was recommended the Adios Boost by Profeet about three years ago & have used them in races ever since from 5k  to 100k. For my day-to-day training runs I run in either the Adidas Boston Boost or Tempo Boost. Come the morning of October 28th I will be lacing up the Adios for sure!

Tom Evans: I am doing my training in Adidas Adios Boosts and the Hoka Tracer 2. I haven’t decided on the race day shoe yet.