Podcast Guest “It's a long road” is the mountain running and Marathon champion, Dimitris Theodorakakos.
Dimitris is an international athlete, winner of the Mountain Running World Cup, Balkan champion, Greek champion in Marathon (and mountain running).
With his own special history in the classical sports of our country, he has won the Panhellenic Road Marathon Championship twice in 2009 and 2011, while another 6 times he has come 2nd and once 3rd, all in the Authentic Athens Marathon with a better performance in 2: 19':17''.
He has participated in international multi-day and demanding mountain running races and has won 6 times the Panhellenic Mountain Running Championship, 7 times the Panhellenic Skyrunning Championship and 5 times he was the winner of the international Olympus Marathon race and as many times in the also demanding and competitive Zagori Race of 80 km. In addition to his other awards, in 2013 he won the Chinese Walls marathon (he still holds the course record) and the 8-day Trans Alpine Run
In mountain running he has been placed 1st and 2nd in the World Cup, in Olympus in 2018 and Madeira, Portugal in 2016 respectively, while he has several first places in many middle and long distance races around the world.
In his rich sports career he has also been a Rowing Champion with participations and distinctions with the National team in World Championships, Cups, Balkan and Mediterranean Games and other international meetings.
Dimitris is a Sports Science graduate student at the State University of Strasbourg, a certified Sports Nutrition Specialist and also a lecturer at mountain running seminars and schools in Greece and abroad.
He serves in the P.N. since 1997 and has completed the basic and operational training of UK, as well as the basic training of Paratroopers.
We will have an interesting discussion with Dimitris Theodorakakos after we will refer to moments of his rich sports career, how he experienced them, the experiences he gained and how they defined him as a person and a runner, while he himself will answer various questions you have sent by all you listeners of the show.
Podcast Interview Highlights “It's a long road” with runner and coach Dimitris Theodorakakos.
10:00 Dimitris, do you remember what prompted you to start it run and when did this happen? How did running come into your life?
13:20 What is it for you? run;
16:40 The name Theodorakakos, however we do it, is more intertwined with mountain running, although you also have incredible times in Marathon races and a long career there. Which of the two do you really prefer? Mountain running or on the road?
19:00 What is the most important difficulty compared to running on asphalt? In general what are its important differences mountain running with that of asphalt?
21:40 By achieving all these competitions in your sports career, do you think that your way of thinking has been positively shaped? Do you think that the different challenges that each mountain brings and each race that you have participated in, strengthened your character even a little? In general, someone who starts running, is it a factor that can change his life?
26:25 How can a runner in a big race manage to overcome them his negative thoughts;
28:05 Really, why do you think some runners put themselves through tough tests, like long distances both on the mountain and on the road?
29:30 When everything goes wrong on long distances, what is it that keeps him in the game?
33:58 Have you ever given up a race?
36:20 What are the feelings you have during periods of inactivity because of someone injury; How do you experience the abstinence from the games?
39:40 One day before the race you notice a pull in training. On match day you feel it being there and you don't know what it means. How will you manage the race physically and psychologically?
41:30 Dimitris is a legendary athlete especially in the mountains... a fantastic person and a terrible runner. I am lucky to have known him. Ask him how he feels now that he's not starring like he used to? Is he packed like an athlete now? Does he have a race pushed back that he didn't get to run?
44:20 It's to go for a leisurely 30-minute long run... with which athlete of any independent sport, era, alive or not, would you like to go for a chat and exchange of views and why?
48:00 Why don't you upload your races to Strava?
49:20 Will we see him in a long distance race? Every year we wait for him at Spartathlon!
52:00 Ask him how much the UK education has influenced him in his sports career
53:50 I would like you to ask him how he feels every time he climbs the Skurta during OM. Year after year has it been easier, harder or is it a matter of the day?
55:00 Who was your athlete (person) role model, since you are a role model for many of us. As well as a more internal component for a man who has achieved so much at a high level, to stay humble as well as get that extra push in matches to bring out his best. Which I imagine is something different from the competition.
57:44 How did you always manage to prioritize your training - and we are talking about a training without beginning and end - while at the same time you had so many obligations, as well as living in a difficult sports environment like that of the city. It is difficult to combine things, especially when one of them is so exhausting because we are not talking about training that someone will do "just" to finish a race.
01:00:40 When the motivation, how easily do you find it again? Have you had such phases?
01:01:25 Is patience something that dries up after the end of days?
01:02:15 How do you handle a failure? What motivates you more: Failure or success?
01:04:14 Can running actually make you a lonelier person?
01:04:50 When the mind stops, how do the legs continue and vice versa?
01:05:40 How is it possible to be top and at the same time giving and humble?
01:07:44 How much role does mind set play in the final performance?
01:08:15 What was it that made you keep going no matter how hard things got?
01:08:50 What has been your toughest race to date?
01:12:15 Some instructions for mountain running beginners.
01:14:30 What's more stressful? Race or train?
01:15:50 Do you have a favorite place where you train?
01:17:00 What is more that an athlete can do to improve?
01:18:00 Advice for the first marathon and key points in running and psychological training.
01:20:35 He had made some comment about doping and objected to the notion that many of us have about doping that "everyone takes". Some comment on that.
Dimitris Theodorakakos
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theod.Dimi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theodorakakos_dimitris/
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