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“Lance took Jimmy V’s message and ran with it (ESPN Magazine)
By Chris Fowler

Lance Armstrong was suffering big time. He had collapsed into a hotel bathtub loaded with ice cubes. The tough facade, maintained for the crowds and cameras, had been stripped away. After 26.2 miles of punishment from New York City pavement, his legs screamed in pain. This was agony he never felt on the bike.

Those same legs dominated the planet’s supreme sporting test seven times and made it seem pretty easy.

I’ll never forget Lance strolling into the small, elegant bar in the Hotel du Crillon, fresh off the post-race podium on the Champs-Elysees in 2003. Just minutes earlier, he had finished his most demanding and frightening Tour de France. In three tumultuous weeks, he had fended off constant attacks from rivals, swerved down a steep grassy slope in the Alps to avoid a crash, and been slammed to the pavement after hooking his handlebar on a spectator’s souvenir.

And there he was in the bar, still in his cycling shorts and yellow jersey, settling into a red velvet chair to chat, downing a beer while his three kids climbed into his lap. The only evidence of the huge strain was the relief in his smile. But that’s how it always went: race like hell for three weeks, crush the competition, then party into the Parisian night.

So the e-mails after last November’s New York City Marathon were surprising. “Dude, it was pure hell!” … “The hardest thing ever.” ”

“Of course, Lance never let on that his preparation for the marathon included not a single run longer than 13 miles. Saddled by the busiest “post-retirement” schedule imaginable, he basically mailed in his training. He somehow broke three hours. But he paid for it. The day after, he jetted to Phoenix but he couldn’t walk. A hotel luggage cart was needed to roll him back to his room following a speech.

Another e-mail summed up his first marathon experience: “Never, ever again.” But this November, he will return, running the five boroughs again. What about the hellish agony? The shin splints? The humbling luggage cart episode? All forgotten. Champions have short memories.

“I’ve gotta do it,” he explained. “It raises so much money.” Without cycling, Lance needs new podiums to keep pushing The Cause. Plus, he loves the energetic New York crowds that kept pushing him last year. This November, he won’t underestimate the marathon.”