'Things will be different this time' - Lipschitz sets sights on Olympic qualifier at Hamburg Marathon

South African Middle-distance starlet Adam Lipschitz is determined not to repeat the same mistakes he made during his debut marathon when he takes on his second one this weekend. Lipschitz is on the starting list for the flat and fast World Athletics Gold Label Hamburg Marathon which is scheduled for the  28th of April in Germany. The 30-year-old made ran his first 42,2km race at the iconic Valencia Marathon last December where he clocked a time of 2:13:01 to settle for the 56th position overall. 

"I think things will be quite different this time around. On my first marathon, I didn't have some basic knowledge of things which help you avoid obvious mistakes. Firstly, I didn't do enough mileage heading before the race. Didn't do quite enough long runs so I didn't train enough for the distance. Secondly, my nutrition during the race was lacking. There are important nutrients that you must have if you are doing long distance, more especially carbohydrates. At 32km, my body wasn't reacting because I didn't have anything left. So I learnt some lessons. This time, I have covered those areas quite well and feel ready to race," he told #TheTopRunner. 

His pre-marathon form shows that he could be ready to produce a stellar performance on Sunday. In the Durban City Marathon last month, Lipschitz did a lightning fast time of 1:2:50 to win the 21km race. It was the second fastest half marathon time of his career after his lifetime best of 01:01:31 achieved at the Nelson Mandela Bay Half-Marathon three years ago in Gqerbeha. 

"In that race (Durban City Marathon), I went there as part of the training. For the first 2km, I looked backwards, I realised there is one runner close to me. I decided to continue with my pace. Then at around 6km, two runners were at least 200m behind me. From there onwards, I was alone till the finish line. In the end, I was quite happy with the performance overall which and indicates I'm in the right shape. I think I'm on the right track as part of the preparations for the marathon. So I'm quite certain things will go accordingly in my next mission," he explained. 

With Lipschitz quite positive that training has gone quite well and armed with good knowledge of the route since he paced the Hamburg Marathon in 2022, it looks like the stars are aligning for him to dip under that automatic Olympic qualification standard of 2:08:10. What is his target on race day? 

"I understand the route as I paced through 33km there before. Its quite a good and flat route so even if you can check the course record (2:04:09) it shows that," said Lipschitz, who is the founder of the Durban-based Social Runners Running Club. "So I'm looking to run a time of 2:08 there. I believe it's quite achievable with the training I have done to get ready for the event. If I can qualify for the Olympics then it would nice. That is tricky though because guys like Elroy Gelant are still in line to qualify. So it shall go down to many factors including the points ranking. If I could achieve that goal (Olympics) then I would be happy, "