Tatyana McFadden.Photo: Elsa/Getty
WhenTatyana McFaddenlines up at the start of the 2021New York City Marathonon Sunday, she’ll have a record-breaking win in mind.
The five-time Paralympian— who has more medals than she could count on multiple sets of hands — has the chance to make history with a 25th win in a World Marathon Major (AKA the Berlin, London, Chicago, Boston, Tokyo and N.Y.C. marathons) and a sixth victory in NYC.
“It would be pretty special,” McFadden, 32, tells PEOPLE. “I’m always thinking about it in the back of my mind, as I’m trying to reach certain goals in training and during race day. But there’s a lot of factors as well. You have to see how the race unfolds during the actual day and see what happens.”
“That’s the fun part about racing,” she adds. “You just don’t know.”
And even if McFaddendoesn’t take first place, she’ll still reach another incredible goal when she finishes. With all of the World Marathon Majors coinciding in fall 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (other than Tokyo, which was later canceled), she set out to race them all and make the podium. A top-three finish on Sunday would do it, and make her the only professional female athlete to achieve the feat (Shalane Flanagan is doing the same, but as a retired athlete).
“I wanted to do it because it’s the only time that this marathon schedule will be like this. It’s one of the biggest challenges to conquer all these majors,” she says. “And I felt like I needed to do it, in a way, because last year we didn’t have any competitions. And I’m an athlete that really thrives on competing.”
So far, McFadden came in second in Berlin, took bronze in London and Boston, and won Chicago. She says that doing Chicago and Boston back-to-back — they fell on Oct. 10 and 11 this year — was “very challenging.”
“I was really nervous about if I was going to wake up on time [for Boston] or not,” she says, with a laugh.
McFadden is looking forward to N.Y.C., though, which she says is “one of my favorites.”
“I love starting out with a climb,” she says, referring to the first mile of the race that heads up the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn. And those hills continue throughout the race, McFadden warns.
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“As I tell people, when they’re pacing for the marathon, ‘Don’t go all out at first,’ " she says. “There will be more bridges and the ending in Central Park is a sneaky, sneaky little climb.”
Overall, McFadden is just thrilled thatthe N.Y.C. Marathon is backafter 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic — and that it will be the 50th running this year.
source: people.com
