Lisa Dobriskey: "I can't wait to come back [to NYC]!"

courtesy of Runner'sWorld

Lisa Dobriskey of Great Britain, the 2009 World Championships silver medalist in the 1500-meter run, will return on September 26 to the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in New York where, in 2008, she narrowly defeated Shannon Rowbury in 4:18.6, the second fastest women's time in the road mile's history. Dobriskey, now 25, was fourth in the 1500 in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Besides her Worlds silver medal, her 2009 highlights include a 3:59.50 for 1500 meters in Zurich, her first time under 4:00 for the distance, and a September 6 victory in Rieti, Italy over World Champion Maryam Jamal of Bahrain, 4:01.23 to 4:01.29. She's been running since age 11 and was a national age group champion at age 15, competed internationally against Germany and France at 16, and was the United Kingdom's best under-17 runner in the 800. Dobriskey was the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist in the 1500. In December, she'll marry former 800-meter star Ricky Soos in her hometown of Loughborough, England. We interviewed Dobriskey on Sunday after a disappointing anticlimax to her track season; she was eighth in a slow-paced 1500 at the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, Greece in 4:15.94.


You're returning to the Fifth Avenue Mile. Was the one you did last year your first road mile, and your first time in the United States?
Lisa Dobriskey: I'd done a road mile before. We have one in Newcastle in England, but it's slightly different because it's a loop around and this (Fifth Avenue) is a straight line. So this was the first time I'd ever done a road race that started at one end of the street and ended at the other (20 blocks away). So it was quite daunting, the prospect of just running down a straight line for a mile as fast as you could. It was my first time in New York. I'd been to America once before. I'd been to Albuquerque, a complete contrast. I really, really enjoyed being in New York. I can't wait to come back.

You and Shannon Rowbury ran very, very fast on Fifth Avenue, faster than you were racing on the track at that point. Why do you think you ran that fast? Is it because you don't worry about splits in a road mile like that - you just basically take off?
LD: I think so. I think you're just completely uninhibited by (the usual) thinking too much. Sometimes in a track race, tactics play a big part. In this race, you have no way of getting boxed in because there are so few athletes and only so many places that you can go. And also, you're not aware of lap times in the same way as you are on the track. You're not reserving your assets in the same way that you are on the track. You just kind of go for it and get your head down and run, basically. That's what makes it different. I think that's why the time reflected that.

They do have "400 meters to go" or "200 meters to go" marked off with signs, but you don't respond to that the same as on a track, do you?
LD: Totally not, because each quarter is different. I think the start's slightly downhill, and then its goes slightly up. On the track, you kind of just have to do the job and just completely repeat what you've done and wound it up. On Fifth Avenue, I remember glancing at the clock once or twice but it not really meaning very much.

Were you surprised the time in 2008 turned out to as fast as it was?
LD: Yes, really. Beforehand, I didn't expect it to be that quick. When we were actually running, with about 200 to go. I did think "gosh, we're really fast." I felt really tired. It was such a battle to the end. When I saw the time, I felt really surprised and really pleased. But the pace was swift right from the word "go," really.

You'd been having a really good stretch of your 2009 track season until yesterday at the World Athletics Final, which didn't go so well. Was it just a question of being tired, really?
LD: I think so. There's always been a bit of a risk that the wheels were going to come off at some point. I've just strung together so many races consecutively. And with the World Championships being three rounds, and then going on to Zurich, everything's been getting better and better. There was a sense of having such a high. I found it really, really difficult yesterday to lift myself before the race. I felt tired before it even started. I felt a little bit like that during the week and I've done quite a lot of traveling., I just generally feel it was maybe one race too many. It was worth the risk, because you never know. Sometimes something special can happen in those circumstances when you least expect it. But I kind of knew in warm-up that I wasn't 100 percent there. I just felt a little but out of sorts. I didn't feel myself when I was running, even at the slow pace. It was a shame, really, to finish my track season on a slight disappointment. On reflection on the whole season, I really can't complain.

Are you going to do the road mile again in Newcastle? What's it called?
LD: Yes, it's next Saturday. It's the Great North Mile.

Did you win it last year? What was your time?
LD: I did win. I don't remember the time. It's never very fast. I was much, much slower than Fifth Avenue.

So do you think you'll be okay for these road miles even though you were tired yesterday in Greece?
LD: I think so. It's just having a slightly fresh perspective on things now. The road miles are always a bit more fun. I'm a lot more relaxed for them and can enjoy them. I notice I'd been getting a little bit stressed for this last week because I've known that I've been feeling quite tired. It's been worrying me a little bit. But I'm going into the Newcastle mile with the attitude that I'm just really going to enjoy myself, and that usually works well for me. I've got a few days to relax and unwind a little bit and feel a little bit more settled. I think just drawing the line under the track season (ie, it's end) is going to be a big step.

For someone as young as you, coming in a close fourth in the Olympics is hardly such a tragedy, but in the UK, there's a lot of pressure and much more written about running than in the U.S. So when all is said and done, getting a silver medal in Berlin at the World Championships must have been a form of redemption for you.
LD: Oh yeah. It was really important that I medaled in Berlin. As soon as I got in the final, I took the attitude that if I finished fourth, I might as well have finished 12th. Like you say, I just needed to redeem myself, more mentally than anything. I really struggled last year after Beijing, feeling like I maybe I missed a really big opportunity, feeling like I was capable of getting a medal and not quite delivering on the day. I really just knew it was all of nothing in the final this year.

From your vantage point, how did you interpret the whole Natalia Rodriguez-Gelete Burka situation in the World Championships final (Rodriguez of Spain passed leader Burka of Ethiopia on the inside and Burka fell; Rodriguez went on to finish first but was disqualified). Did you expect there would be a disqualification?
LD: It was a difficult one because it kind of took the edge off the whole race at the end. I must admit, I do sympathize with both athletes. Obviously for Burka; she lost a chance to show potentially what she was capable of. And for Rodriguez, when you look at the race and watch the final 200 meters, she was actually inhibited by the fall and she didn't have any advantage through Burka falling down. If anything, she came out of the fall worse than (Maryam) Jamal and myself. I think Jamal got a clean run and got a couple of meters on us because she was on the outside, and I got away reasonably unscathed. Rodriguez was caught and held up a little bit, yet she still came through and still won and she won by quite a clear margin. She didn't just dip at the finish; she did get between herself and Jamal and myself.

If you were to ask me "do you think Rodriguez was the best athlete on the day in that race," I'd have to say "yes" because I really do believe she was. But in the way that she pushed, she didn't win in a fair way. I don't think that she meant to do that. You could just see on her face afterward that she knew that she was in the wrong. In the situation that she was in, she must have just felt so desperate. She was just so boxed in. There was a slight, slight gap there but it just wasn't big enough for someone to fit through.

In Zurich, you broke 4:00 for the 1500 and in Rieti, you beat the World Championships gold medalist, Jamal. You managed to keep going over the Championships and managed to get two more results at that high level.
LD: Yeah, I'm really pleased with Zurich, although I did make a slight error in the final 100 meters and I felt that maybe there's a little extra there. I got myself in the wrong position at the wrong time, but to break 4:00 was amazing. That was really something I wanted to do this season. And then to have a head-to-head with Jamal in Rieti was really exciting. It was great to go from last year, when I was not really being anywhere near her, to being in a situation where I was challenging to beat her. That was a completely different experience for me. I really thrilled being in that head-to-head environment. And then I got here (Greece). I had too many highs, and it just got better and better and better. I just knew there was going to come a point when it was going to have to drop a little bit. As an athlete, you're always used to bouncing back from things when they're not quite going your way, and I do tend to pride myself on being able to do that. So I think I'll come out okay.

From what I read, you seem to think the kind of stride you have might be the reason for the injuries you've had, like the sacrum (lower) back stress fracture. Can you explain that?
LD: It's just because I literally bound when I run, like really heavily. A lot of people have a little less impact and a little less bounce, but how you see me run on the track is pretty much how I run every step of early run. If you're doing 60 miles a week with that kind of impact going to your body, it's not very good for your bones. I'm going to have to look for ways I can compensate. I've been using the Alter-G treadmill and a cross trainer and a ski machine and they seem to have really helped so far. So that's what I'm going to really have to look into. Either that or learn how to jog. But that just doesn't come naturally.

We're aware that running gets a lot more media coverage in the UK and in the U.S. That means a lot of people know you and reporters may write nice things about you, but it also means a lot of pressure, especially with London hosting the 2012 Olympics. People are already writing about you with great expectations. How does that all feel to you?
LD: You know, it's nice to actually be asked a question from that side of things, because often the first thing people ask is "oh, you must be really excited about London 2012." So it's nice that somebody understands there's a lot of pressure that goes with that. The way my coach and I work is on the philosophy that you take each step as it comes. We're very much like that. Through the rounds in Berlin, you don't talk about the final before you're even in the semi-final. I've learned this year that you can't ever take anything for granted in this sport. Particularly with the injuries I've had, I've been so fortunate even to be able to compete this year, and I realize that. And I realize that significant injuries are just a step away. You just need to have a virus or be ill and not make the team. That can all happen. I never forget that.

So when people talk about winning medals in an Olympic Games in three years time, you have to think, "well,there's a long process before that." I like to take things one step at a time, so for me, next year, the focus is obviously going to be the Europeans (Championships) and the Commonwealth (Games). Even before, that we're just concentrating on making sure I survive this winter without a huge injury like I have been getting in the past. We try not to think too much about the long term, but it is inevitable that I'll have questions asked about it. And it is nice, in a way. I wouldn't change the fact that there's this pressure on me, because it means that people expect me to run well and my performances are speaking for themselves, which is great and I'm really happy about that. But I dare not make assumptions or take things for granted. I'm very aware of that, especially with how British distance running is at the moment. You never know who's going to be coming up next.

Do you stay in Britain for the winter?
LD: We stay in Britain. We train with the (Loughborough) University group, so we're got quite a few people to train with. And then we go away around Easter time for warm weather training, in South Africa in Stellenbosch.

You're from a very athletic family, and you started running very early. And you had success very early on, didn't you?
LD: Yeah. I was really lucky ,actually. It was recommended that I join my local athletics club, and it just took off from there, and I had success at English Schools (Championships) and internationally as a junior (under age 20). I was very lucky to experience that. To deal with that pressure at a very young age was very important and it put me in good stead for where I am now. I just see this as an extension and a development of what I was as a youngster on a much bigger and grander scale. It does bode well for my future development, definitely.