Runner makes 60+ personal best in Osaka

“It was hard, but I’m glad I could improve my best,” she said.

Yugeta’s training load is incredible. In the summer she runs 800km per month and she typically runs a marathon every month. Her new record was the result of hard work. Where she has had problems with slowing down after 20km in the past, this time that didn’t happen.

But at the same time she experienced fatigue in her build-up to the race, and on 3 January she felt pain in her right gluteus maximus. For two weeks she had acupuncture treatments and went to hot springs to try to take care of the problems. For the race she also used taping, and she was able to run it pain-free.

Yugeta is entered in the Nagoya Women’s Marathon on 14 March. Ever ambitious, she said: “I want to keep my legs in perfect condition and go for 2:50 or 2:51.”