Pain Fills Lisa Martin's Private World
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 12, 1988
SEOUL, Monday: Lisa Martin lives in her own private world, a world described by fellow marathon runners as a "tunnel of pain".
It is soundproof and lonely. Even when things are going well, as they are for Martin in Seoul, contorted facial expressions mirror the fact that it's not a terribly nice place to be.
Martin has just finished reading the autobiography of former Formula One world champion Nicki Lauda. She is not a car racing buff and let Lauda into her world only because of the title of his book To Hell And Back.
Like Lauda, Martin finds it difficult to slow down. Even when she stops to talk, as she did for the Herald, it is as though her mind is still racing off down the road.
"I could go straight past my mother on the 35k run around Lake Burley Griffin and not notice her," Martin said.
"Concentration is so important in my event because for 2 1/2 hours I have to be in another world and that takes a lot of practice.
"It is a pretty lonely sport. I walk past good friends without saying'hello' and they don't know what to think."
At ease with Australia's expectations of her winning a medal next week, Martin is frustrated by what she calls a communication problem.
No, she didn't mind walking down Pitt Street unnoticed and had never felt the urge to sign autographs, but she did crave another form of recognition.
"Sometimes it is frustrating when I beat the likes of Grete Waitz and Mary Decker-Slaney in big road races in America and no-one at home knows about it,"she said. "I mean, we are talking about some of the biggest road races in the world."
Martin seemed tense today, performing stretching exercises as she spoke. Coach Dick Telford has ordered her to limit training to just two track sessions between now and the marathon on Friday week.
"I started running so much faster after Osaka," said Martin, who clocked the fourth fastest marathon of all time (2hr 23min 51s) in winning the Japanese race in a course record time on January 31.
"My 15k time trial in Canberra last month was 50 seconds faster than the one I ran before Osaka and 50 seconds is a long time over that distance.
"Dick feared I had peaked too early and I must admit that also crossed my mind. In the last 10 days or so before a race it is not so much what you do but more what goes on around you."
So she stays away from people with minor ailments, such as colds, and eats bread and fruit, as well as meats with low fat and salt content.
"It really wouldn't matter if I didn't run again before the race," she said. "I could go and sit in my room. I feel as if all my money is in the bank and that there is a lot there. Everything is going so well."
Portugal's world champion, Rosa Mota, and Norway's Grete Waitz, the 1983 world champion, won the silver and bronze medals respectively at the Los Angeles Games and are the obvious obstacles between Martin and a gold medal here.
Having finished seventh in Los Angeles, she believes that the two greats of women's distance running may have run their race at the top.
The fact that Waitz underwent a cartilage operation on her right knee last month certainly penetrated Martin's private world.
"Still," she said, "you could not run past either of them and be confident they would just go away.
"I have never beaten Rosa, but this will be the first time I have gone into a race against her confident of winning.
"Standing on that starting line I will know no-one, except maybe Rosa, can get from point A to point B faster than me.
"While it might not work out that way I will be standing there with the knowledge that no-one has had a better preparation than Lisa Martin."
* PAGE 46: Cold shivers over flu drug.
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald