They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes and I admit that if Michael Stipe or Neil Young bumped into me at the bakery I would go all tongue tied and probably swoon. But great runners tend to be slightly more accessible so it was a relaxed pleasure to work with former GB Marathon star Paul Evans at a marathon workshop last weekend. Given that I am in no position to give first hand experience of what a 2.08 marathon feels like or what it takes to prepare for one, I tend to look more at the underpinning sports science, and the evidence of what may help find the extra few percenters in physiological terms. Paul is very high on motivation and inspiration, with his own tale of going from 27 year old fun runner to Olympic 10,000m runner in 5 years as a shining example of what can be done if you combine hard work, perseverance, ability to learn and reflect, with the basic physical talent.

 http://www.englandathletics.org/news.asp?itemid=9627&itemTitle=Marathon+talk+goes+the+distance§ion=86

 And yes, there are 20 coaches for whom this is apparently seen as a good way of spending Friday night.