Press Release - London Marathon - 4/21/10

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

      Yamauchi Arrives First For Sunday's Virgin London Marathon

Britain's Mara Yamauchi was the first 2010 Virgin London Marathon elite 
athlete to arrive for Sunday's race when she touched down at Shoreham 
airport outside Brighton in Sussex this afternoon at the end of a marathon 
six-day journey from her training base in New Mexico.

Yamauchi, the 2009 London Marathon runner-up, had moved from her home in 
Tokyo to train at altitude in Alberquerque. She and her husband, 
Shigetoshi, left there last Thursday and travelled to Denver, Colorado, 
only to find there were no flights to London because of the cloud of 
volcanic ash which forced the closure of airspace around northern Europe 
for almost six days.

They then travelled to New Jersey and tried to get a flight to Shannon 
airport in Ireland before eventually flying from New Jersey to Lisbon, 
Portugal, from where they rented a taxi which drove for six hours to 
Madrid.

When they discovered there were no seats available on ferries from Spain to 
Portsmouth, the Yamauchis rented a car and drove for two days to Paris 
before taking a taxi to Le Touquet near the French coast where the London 
Marathon organisers hired a private Piston propeller plane to fly them to 
Shoreham.

Yamauchi arrived at the Virgin London Marathon headquarters in London late 
on Wednesday afternoon saying she was "tired but relieved".

"It's been an interesting journey to say the least and hardly the best way 
to prepare for the race," she said. "I am tired but most of all just happy 
to be here. Now at least I have time to relax and begin to focus my mind on 
the race. I am confident I will be fully recovered and ready to run by 
Sunday morning."


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