Micheal Aish more disappointed than anyone in withdrawing from marathon

New Zealand runner Michael Aish was more disappointed than anyone else when he pulled out of the World Championships marathon in Berlin.

The 33 year old was 60th out of 88 at the 5km mark in 15m 44s, by 10km he was in 71st in 31m 35s.

However from then on his pace progressively dropped. He was through the half-way in 1h 8m 39s in 69th place, but the writing was on the wall as he struggled through the 5km to the 25km mark in 18m 10s.

Shortly after this he called it quits and was transported back to the finish in a van.

Aish, who is based in Gunnison Colorado, was at a loss to know what went so very wrong.

"No matter what anyone says, I'm more disappointed, ten times more than anyone else," he said.
"I run more ks a week, than most people drive," he added.

The former 10,000m runner, who also withdrew during the 10,000m at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, is finding it difficult to understand.

"If I had a million dollars I wouldn't have done anything different, I did everything as well and as good as I possibly could.

"Every now and then you have a good day, but there are so many in between that don't go well, it's nobody's fault but mine.

"No one is to blame, I know that, I gave it everything and it was too much, broke before I got here," he said.
Aish said that he felt fine leading up to the race.

"I felt great the last couple of days, I get out and get going in the race and it just doesn't work."

Asked if he suffered any cramping in the race Aish said that he didn't want to offer any excuses.

"I could give you maybe excuses, but really I just train my arse off and probably left it all in training - I want to do well more than anyone, what can you do," he added.

The marathon was won by Abel Kirui of Kenya in 2h 6m 54s, from Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya 2h 7m 48s and Ethiopia's Tsegay Kebede 2h 8m 35s.