O’Sullivan and Johnson join forces in marathon
The training partners fully intend making their mark against the more established marathon stars contesting in the 25th anniversary race.
But it is understood O’Sullivan and Johnson, from Australian, are not prepared to follow the 68 minutes 30 seconds pacemakers Leah Malot and Restituta Joseph have been asked to cover for half the distance.
The two former World Cross Country champions have opted for a much slower - and safer - first 13.1miles in no faster than 71mins.
“I’ve given myself a window of times to aim for and it’s very wide. I guess anything between 2.15 and 2.32 would be good,” O’Sullivan joked.
However, after her highly successful track career where she was World and European 5000m champion, O’Sullivan knows Sunday’s race is important to her future.
She insisted: “London will tell me if I have a future at the marathon, although I certainly haven’t closed the door on the track. It’s still good to be involved in fast races on the track and I aim to keep running in the future.”
Next year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne could see O’Sullivan wearing the same green-and-gold Aussie colours alongside Johnson.
O’Sullivan, who has two young daughters with Australian partner Nic Bideau, has opted for dual nationality.
“I certainly plan to improve my visa situation,” she added. “When I’m in Australia I have to leave every three months which isn’t ideal when you’ve got children in school. I want to get permanent residency and I would then consider citizenship, and if they asked me to run for them in the Commonwealth Games I would definitely be interested.
“I live just a stone’s throw from the stadium being used for the Commonwealth Games and it would be great to compete.
“It wouldn’t affect my status with Ireland as it doesn’t come under the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations). It would just be a one-off.”
If O’Sullivan does get backing from the Aussie government, she is undecided what event she would favour in Melbourne.
With two marathon races under her belt, the transition she showed in those was not as she expected.
She said: “I ran my first in Dublin in 2000 and didn’t prepare for it other than running for two hours a week before, and I ran 2.35:40.
“Then I trained really hard for New York in 2002 and only ran three minutes quicker.
“So I’ve gone in between this time. I feel I’ve done enough training, but not too much.” Johnson also had a disaster when undertaking her first marathon in New York last November, finishing well down the field in 2.38:03.
Despite surrendering her World Cross Country title last month, she insisted: “I was disappointed to finish seventh but I had a great race.”
Johnson said: “I will look to go through halfway in 71mins and 72mins 30secs.”
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