European Champion Ulrike Maisch ahead of the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon: The castle in Gotha is her lucky charm

Ulrike Maisch had achieved one of the most surprising results at the European Championships in Gothenburg 2006 when winning the gold medal in the marathon. In Sweden she set a personal best with 2:30:01. Due to injuries the German runner from Rostock since then could not finish any marathon. On Sunday Ulrike Maisch runs the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon – ahead of it she answered the following questions.

How is the feeling before your marathon comeback at the Dresdner Kleinwort Frankfurt Marathon?

Ulrike Maisch: „It is a bit strange, because somehow I can’t imagine that finally I will be running a marathon again this on Sunday. But the excitement will come.“

How is your foot, how was your training?

Ulrike Maisch: „I have been to St. Moritz a couple of times for a high altitude training. Recently I have trained there three and a half weeks. In order not to put too much pressure on my foot, I partly did mountain walking. The foot problem is much better now; it feels fine at the moment. I went to Oberhof for the week before coming here, it was freezing cold there – so I am fully prepared for cold weather.”

Irina Mikitenko and Sabrina Mockenhaupt also trained in St. Moritz for their recent races – did you train together?

Ulrike Maisch: „No, we trained individually. I have not even seen the others a lot.”

In an interview with ,Leichtathletik’ [German Athletics Magazine] you were telling about a visit to castles as a lucky charm. What is that about?

Ulrike Maisch: „Yes, that is right. Before my best marathon races I had always visited a castle. Before the World Championships in Paris, where I finished 20th, I was at Versailles, and before the European Championships in Gothenburg I was in Marburg. That is why we visited a castle again when I was in Oberhof. We drove to Gotha and were surprised how big the castle was – it was a kind of a cultural shock.”

Is Ulrike Maisch able to shock the favourites again on Sunday?

Ulrike Maisch: „I don’t think that I am able to run sub 2:30 hours at present. Given my foot problem in the past I don’t think it is possible yet. I don’t want to run faster than 1:15 hours for the first half together with my pacemaker Martin Beckmann, probably slower. Maybe I can accelerate towards the end a little bit.”

Due to the strong debut from Irina Mikitenko in Berlin there a surely just two remaining tickets for the Olympics in Beijing.

Ulrike Maisch: „Yes, that is how I see it as well. And I think that you have to run 2:28 to join the team. I would love to compete at the Olympics again but the climate is not really good for me in Beijing. But for me even more important than the Olympics is the qualification for the World Championships in 2009 in Berlin – I definitely want to run this one, because that is a home game.”

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