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Molly Huddle and Emily Sisson Are Partners In London MarathonPublished by
Molly Huddle and Emily Sisson Are Training Partners and Racing PartnersBy Adam Kopet When Molly Huddle and Emily Sisson toe the line for Sunday's Virgin Money London Marathon, they will only be able to depend on each other. Competing in a race that includes the deepest women's field ever assembled, the American pair will need to within themselves if they are going to find success. For Huddle, London will be her fourth marathon. Her previous outings included a third place finish at the 2016 New York City Marathon in her debut and a fourth place finish at the 2018 New York City Marathon, where she ran a personal best 2:26:44. She also raced the 2018 Boston Marathon, but suffering from hypothermia symptoms, Huddle finished 15th in a race that featured severe weather conditions. In contrast, Sisson is making her marathon debut in London. In her build-up, she has run personal bests of 30:49.57 for 10,000 meters and 1:07:30 for half marathon. In the former, she beat Huddle and in the latter, she finished five seconds off Huddle's American record. However, despite their differences, the two athletes are training partners. They are both coached by Providence College coach Ray Treacy and they both complete most of their training in Arizona. Despite those similarities, Huddle and Sisson rarely complete workouts together. According to Erin Strout for Women's Running, the pair have different strengths requiring different workout plans. Huddle finds her best workouts come on the track and Sisson is better at the long tempo runs. That means the first workout the pair completed together did not happen until they traveled to London and ran their final speed workout before Sunday's race. Huddle and Sisson plan to work together as much as they can Sunday. With such a deep field assembled, they will need to focus on their own race and not get caught up in the pace of the top women. Huddle is looking to finally run a fast marathon. She views this as possibly her last chance to do so given her age, 34 years old, and with the Olympics coming next year. On the other hand, Sisson is viewing this race as a test of her ability at the marathon distance. At 27 years old, she still has choices ahead of her. If London does not go well, she can focus on the 10,000 meters next year before returning to the marathon after the 2020 Olympics. Sisson and Huddle both have the 2020 Olympic standard in the 10,000 meters. No matter what happens Sunday, Huddle and Sisson will be the two strongest Americans in the elite field. Brittany Charboneau is also scheduled to compete. Chris Derrick and Allie Kieffer have both withdrawn with injuries. In addition to not competing in London, Kieffer announced Wednesday that she has parted ways with coach Brad Hudson as she looks to break the injury cycle she has found herself since she began working with him at the end of 2017.
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