RT: Benita, thanks for your time. What is the latest?
BW: I’ve actually been home in Australia for 3 weeks visiting my family in Mackay and Brisbane. Was a lovely time and always enjoy being home and seeing everyone! Was training a bit with my little ‘speedy’ sister in Brisbane! Fun times.
RT: How has the training been going?
BW: My training was going great ahead of my target, Chicago marathon in early October but unfortunately I got a foot injury which forced me out of Chicago. I was pretty disappointed to miss that race.
RT: How are you finding Boulder, Colorado for training?
BW: Colorado is a lovely place for training – Boulder is really nice and a beautiful part of the world to live. It is not busy like big cities but you have everything you need. Feels like a big country town really. I am not here all year round as will go to sea level in the Winter but for the most part of the year when I am here, it’s awesome.
RT: Do you miss Australia?
BW: Yes but at the moment, as an elite athlete, I feel there are more competition opportunities overseas so that is why I am happy to base overseas for now. You have to make many sacrifices to be an elite athlete, and living away from home is unfortunately one of them. I am lucky to have a great support network here in Boulder though, and some awesome friends.
RT: Are you still hoping to quality for the London Olympics? What race are you going to target for the qualifier?
BW: Yes, very much so. I have been to the past 3 Olympics, but qualifying for London and being there at my 4th Olympics would mean more to me, then the other 3 I’ve already been to. I’ve had to deal with a lot of hard times personally since the Beijing Olympics, so to come out of this, with a berth on the Olympic team in London, would be an amazing and a test of my strength of character. I am determined to be there but I know you can only get there if you are prepared to work harder then ever before.
RT: How has your training changed under Brad Hudson compared to Nic Bideau?
BW: It’s quite similar really. Nic still has a lot to do with my career and I owe so many of my past achievements to his help and support as a great coach. We both just felt that having a coach here in Boulder on the spot, would benefit me immensely rather than do everything by correspondance. Brad is a great coach with huge success here in the US and is at all my training sessions with our group here in Boulder. He is always open to talking about training, what has worked for me in the past and adjusts things accordingly. He also understands very well about how to train at altitude – this is helpful for me as I have never really lived at altitude before this, so you have to be careful about doing too many sessions jammed into a week. Recovery is even more important up here. It is all going well – Brad and Nic communicate regularly which makes things very easy for me. Just need to go about getting back to my best form. Keeping my head down and working hard.
RT: Thanks again for you time and all the best.
