The current world best for the women’s marathon has now stood for 13
years - longer than any other marathon best in history. Paul Gains talks to Ingrid
Kristiansen about her competitive career and obtained her forthright views about the way
women’s distance running has developed since she retired
Strolling down a suburban Oslo street, hand in hand with her four year old daughter, Ingrid Kristiansen could be any mother on her way to the local kindergarten. They hurry to be on time. They talk about the teachers, make plans for lunch. That sort of thing. Once the kids are safely ensconced in the classroom, however, it's not many mothers who then set off on a punishing one hour run!
It's a schedule Kristiansen happily repeats each morning; no longer with the aim of being a world class runner but to be fit for life. And, also, to encourage her three children.
"In western culture it's too easy to drive to school, to take buses. They don't use their feet when they are young," says Kristiansen. "They will never be good marathoners, that's for sure! In western culture children are watching too much television and they are sitting, sitting, sitting. To be a good marathon runner you need to do a little bit of work when you are young."
This lady knows what she is talking about. Thirteen years ago she pushed herself to the limit darting around the historical sites of London to record a world best marathon of 2:21:06. A time that has withstood the efforts of many legends of women's distance running and is now the longest standing marathon time ever - male or female.
Joan Benoit-Samuelson has come closest to the London time - within fifteen seconds to be exact - in Chicago later the same year. The Norwegian was a distant second in that contest. Uta Pippig made a noble attempt at Boston four years ago when she ran 2:21:45 but that was with the help of a tail wind and a notoriously downhill course. Interestingly enough, after Kristiansen broke the previous record, she expected it would fall within a year.
"I thought when I ran 2:21 I could break it myself the year after," she laughs without a trace of arrogance. "I thought it was an easy record to break. But maybe it's a better time than I thought."
"I think there are many reasons why no woman has run as fast. One of the reasons is that there are too many races and the runners either run the marathon or the 10,000m or the 5,000m They are not running all these distances. And I think if you want to run under 2:20 you need to run a fast 5,000m and 10,000m on the track. The other reason is that maybe there is too much money in the market now."
To this day Kristiansen is the only athlete to have held world records/bests at all three distances. Her versatility was beyond reproach. She also showed that she was capable of winning championship races too, most notably the 1987 World Championships 10,000m and the World Cross Country Championships in 1988. Aggressive front running was her trademark and she plied her trade in front of European track audiences and American road race fans.
In today's climate she would be a millionaire. In actual fact, she and her contemporaries were slightly ahead of their time, picking up decent appearance fees but nothing like what is on offer today.
Beating the world record in London, for instance, earned her a $30,000 bonus on top of the first place prize of $20,000. Yet Liz McColgan earned $500,000 for agreeing to start three London marathons. With prize money and bonuses, her earnings from that event alone must have approached one million dollars. Again, Kristiansen is philosophical about the influx of money.
"Of course I think it's easier when you know you can earn a lot of money to run a race but I think it can be a sleeping pill too," she explains. "I think it is better to have a really good bonus if you run fast and less money for appearing. I think a lot of the good racers know they can earn so much money just going into the race - they don't need to run fast. Maybe that is a bad thing for the records."
Money won't make runners push themselves to exhaustion day in day out in all types of conditions. At least it was not Kristiansen's primary focus. In preparation for her London race she found another way to motivate herself. Running on a treadmill in her home for the better part of a year she pinned a picture of Joan Benoit-Samuelson on the wall in front of her. The picture showed the American's own world best run. Every day Kristiansen imagined herself running through the streets of London. She visualised herself at each of the historical landmarks which mark the course. Her dream always ended the same. Victory in a world best time.
While her compatriot Grete Waitz would venture abroad to warmer climates during the long Norwegian winter, Kristiansen was happier to stay at home. Grete had no children and her husband travelled freely with her. In comparison, Kristiansen’s husband Arne is a consultant in the oil business and is effectively tied to the city of Oslo. Ingrid did not want to be apart from her family, nor did she want to risk injury on the days when ice and snow made the ground treacherous. Hence the well-used treadmill.
That's not to say she reluctantly accepted her circumstances. Ingrid was a winter athlete long before she turned to athletics. As a junior she won the European Cross Country Skiing Championship and also represented Norway at the 1976 Olympic Games. These days she often goes skiing with her fourteen year old son, Gaute, who is a promising young athlete in his own right.
Many of today's marathon races segregate the women's field from the men's. This was the case in London in 1984 when Kristiansen beat Grete Waitz's European record with a time of 2:24:24. Afterwards she approached race director Chris Brasher and asked that he combine the fields the following year. If that happened, she told him, a world best was possible. He agreed. The rest is history.
But Kristiansen is able to compare fast times with gold medals. Had it been more satisfying to set a historic mark than to win the World Championships, for instance?
"It’s a different way of winning. I feel London had been something that nobody has done before and it was a great pleasure for me," she recalls. "If you are the first, hopefully somebody will come after you. It's like the first four minute mile. One person did it and a lot of people came after. So that's why it's nice to break world records, you show the way for the next generation of runners."
Except that a generation of runners has come and gone and the record remains intact. Perhaps this is why Kristiansen is a popular motivational speaker attending school sports days, speaking to employees at corporations and generally making appearances at events like the Bislett Games. Her contribution goes farther than that. She’s also a member of the IAAF’s Cross Country and Road Running Committee.
The Committee meets a couple of times a year and she minces no words when she is in the company of her fellow members. This unbridled passion for distance running has often found her in conflict with the running establishment but she means no harm. Western runners, she maintains, are falling further behind the Africans because of a soft lifestyle and the pursuit of money. When African women are able to continue running into their 30s, she says, that is when the records will really tumble.
"I try to tell of my experiences as a runner. But to be in a committee is also political and I am maybe not the best diplomat," she says laughing. "Maybe I am too direct when I speak. I am too concerned about doping and about EPO, because I think this is a big problem in the sport now, especially in the long distances. That's the bad thing with the sport; you have some people who want to cheat the system. It's O.K. for people to break records but I hope they break them without doping."
These days she stays in touch with the running community by turning out in the odd road race. She often runs with Gaute. In the past two years she has competed in the Oslo Half Marathon, winning races in the 40-44 age group. Kristiansen’s time in the 1996 event was a very respectable 1:14:28 and she won her age class by a mile. This event has a particular attraction for her. Proceeds go to the Norwegian Cancer Society for research. Two and a half years ago her mother died from the disease and her father has been diagnosed with it too.
Kristiansen’s record will not stand forever. That is a fact. But this 42 year-old housewife has plenty of memories anyway. How does she want to be remembered?
"I think it was nice to win marathons and to be a good marathon runner, track runner, cross country runner and road racer all at the same time. That's one of the things I like best about my running career. I was the runner who could do everything."
Paul Gains is a freelance journalist based in Ontario, Canada
