PUBLISHED 10/20/2006
She's been compared to the "Energizer Bunny" for her ability to run well in distances a half marathon or longer within a short period of time. This year, however, Romania's Constantina Tomescu-Dita has altered her racing schedule to come into Sunday's LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon well rested.
Instead of a summer marathon, followed by a half marathon a week before Chicago, Tomescu-Dita ran the 10K at the European Championships in the summer and the 20K IAAF World Road Racing Championships on October 8. "I concluded last year that this year I should get more rest, time to recover, before running another marathon," said Tomescu-Dita. "Last year there wasn't enough time after the World Championships Marathon in the summer to recover fully."
Instead of high mileage training during spring and summer, Tomescu-Dita instead did shorter, faster work in preparation for the EC 10K. There she ran 31:49, a personal best for the distance on the track, in 11th place. She then resumed her high mileage training to prepare for Chicago. The result was a 1:03:23, better than the existing record, but a few seconds behind Lornah Kiplagat's new world best in the IAAF 20K World Road Race Championships.
After that effort, Tomescu-Dita believes that she is in shape to run under 2:20 for the marathon. Whether or not she will achieve that goal, however, depends on the fickle nature of the marathon and the weather.
Tomescu-Dita won Chicago in 2004 and was a close second to Deena Kastor at last year's race. Seeing Kastor run a world leading 2:19:36 at April's Flora London Marathon as she finished 7th in 2:27:51, Tomescu-Dita believes she is capable of running as fast or faster than Kastor. The question being can she do it on Sunday.
"I hope so," she says. "I will try, but it all depends on how things go on the day."
