Virgin London Marathon – Caution is the watchword for former sports stars

Kelly Sotherton insists her experience as a professional athlete won't make her debut over 26.2 miles in this Sunday's Virgin London Marathon any easier.

"It's just as hard for me as everyone else," said Sotherton. "People have been asking me about times, but just because I've run in the Olympics, it doesn't mean it's easy to run a marathon. I've trained a lot on my own, so it's been daunting at times."

The 2004 Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist will run for Age UK and YouthNet, the official charity partnership of the 2013 Virgin London Marathon. Age UK is the leading charity for older people in the country, while YouthNet is a pioneering online young people's charity. Together they are Run For It and their goal is to raise £1 million to tackle loneliness and isolation across the generations through a digital scheme that will see young volunteers help isolated older people to get online in their local communities.

Sotherton aims to finish in around four hours which could see her cross the line just behind fellow Olympian Iwan Thomas, who's aiming to duck under the four-hour barrier.

Thomas, the current UK record holder over 400m, is a former European and Commonwealth champion, who finished fifth at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Thomas will run his fourth London Marathon for Macmillan Cancer Support and is aiming for his best ever time.

"If I'm not an idiot, I'd love to run 3:40 or 3:45," he said. "Every year I go off too hard at the start, but this year I'm planning to run steady for the first 10 miles. The problem is that it's such an amazing event with the crowd and the atmosphere. If you run just one mile too quickly you can ruin the whole thing.

"I've trained properly this time, but you've got to stop yourself from getting carried away on the day. As Kelly said, people will slap me on the back and say, ‘Surely you can run quicker than that.' But just because I've been a track runner doesn't mean I can run a marathon.

"I'll always be a competitor, though, and while I'm never going to be great at marathons, I've got a benchmark from the last three years, and I want to better that."

Most of all, however, Thomas believes the London Marathon will help the city relive the atmosphere of last summer's Olympic Games.

"We're putting our faith in the people of London to get out and support this event like they always do," he said. "The Olympic spirit is still out there and I think it'll return in force this Sunday."

Sotherton and Thomas were joined by double World Superbike champion James Toseland and former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss.

Toseland is an experienced marathon runner confident of breaking three hours for the first time this year having cut down on weight training in order to lighten up for the run. He certainly won't be repeating the error he made in 2012 when he ate Vaseline by mistake, thinking it was isotonic gel.

"I know it sounds simple, but the key is just about getting some miles in the legs," says the keen pianist and singer-songwriter who will run for CLIC Sargent.

"I'm in good shape, and I know that after 18 miles it's never going to be easy, but with my experience and without the Vaseline incident, I'm hoping for an improvement."

Strauss, on the other hand, is making his marathon debut, running for The Lord's Taverners charity. "I didn't understand what a huge undertaking the marathon is," he said. "You see 40,000 people every year and you think it can't be that difficult, but when you start training you soon realise how hard it is.

"You don't really know what you're letting yourself in for, but I've been training with my wife, so we've kept each other going. We've done the work, and now I can't wait."

Source:  Virgin London Marathon Organisers