‘Don’t meet your heroes’ goes the phrase – but Alex Yee for one definitely doesn’t believe in it, especially now.
Yee has inspired many people himself, all the more so after his incredible gold medal in the triathlon at the Paris Olympics in 2024, which was voted as Team GB’s moment of the Games.
But he got the opportunity to catch up with one of his own idols when he sat down after his London Marathon debut with the GOAT that is Eliud Kipchoge, twice an Olympic champion at the distance.
Bike ride on the cards with Kipchoge?
While Yee was going into uncharted waters over 26.2 miles as opposed to the 10k run at the end of an Olympic-distance triathlon, 40-year-old Kipchoge was returning to London for the first time since 2020 as a four-time winner.
Both clocked impressive performances too – a 2:11:08 for Yee and 14th place, while Kipchoge was sixth in 2:05:25.
The duo have similar mindsets when it comes to taking running to a wider audience and when we here at RUN247 sat down with Alex to chat all things London, that meeting with Kipchoge was clearly one of the big highlights from a day which more than lived up to expectations as he ticked off a lifelong ambition.
Alex told us: “It was a very, very surreal experience. Sometimes you meet people and they talk one way on TV and then you meet them and they’re slightly different. But he is one of those people who is truly authentic. I felt like everything that came out of his mouth could have been a bit of holy scripture or something.
“In my opinion he’s the greatest of all time so it was incredible to share that moment with him and him to acknowledge and appreciate the balance of working towards all three disciplines in triathlon and understanding that.
“He told me he does a little bit on the static trainer himself so he was saying that maybe one day we’ll be able to go for a bike ride together so that’d be quite cool. They say don’t meet your heroes, but I disagree.”
Learning all the time
There’s clearly huge mutual respect between the pair and Yee added: “I think Eliud is somebody who shares a very similar philosophical approach towards training. And also I think he is an incredible inspiration to a lot of people – and I’m definitely one of those.
“And I’d love to be able to do as well. I also have goals to inspire people to try triathlon and sport in general, to help them find their purpose and their why. I think he is one of those people who started that and has been a catalyst for us to be in this incredible running space now where we’re looking at the London ballot and seeing another record entry.”
The meeting between Alex and Eliud was facilitated by COROS, for whom they are both athletes, and there was an early learning for Alex as the duo pored over his London data.
Yee explained: “The thing I found interesting from it was my stride length. You can see as I go on, you can see when I get tired because it goes down and down. So I think for me, that would be something I’ll maybe work on in the future.
“I would have never known this if it wasn’t for the watch – the cadence actually stayed okay, it was the stride length which decreased and then the heart rate at the end was 195bpm. You can see I was at my limit.”
‘The godfather of ultrarunning’
And Kipchoge wasn’t the only sporting legend to interact with Yee as the great Kilian Jornet also congratulated him on his London performance.
Alex told us: “He is somebody who I definitely also appreciate. He’s also very internally driven, very motivated. It’s not about an individual discipline for him – it’s about movement, the way you travel efficiently through the mountains.
“He’s a pretty incredible endurance athlete as well, definitely the godfather of ultrarunning, so that was pretty cool too.”
Yee’s build up to London – and the interviews since then – have helped take the sport of triathlon to a wider audience, something which is hugely important to him.
He’s set up his own YouTube channel for the first time and his three ‘London Detour’ videos have already had nearly a quarter of a million views.
Asked about that, he explained: “I’ve often found that we have two opportunities to express ourselves and our personalities and that is through our racing and probably a very short interview after the race.
“That means you don’t actually get to see the real people. I want people to understand me because I do feel like I’m a normal person and I want people to realise that and think, why can’t I be like Alex Yee? Why can’t I be the next triathlete, like Beth Potter or whoever.
“I think it’s important that we show the normality of ourselves and for me in the build up to London I was able to show a place for me where I was a complete novice again which was great – all the unknowns and learnings.
“It’s definitely unnerving showing yourself for the first time and you don’t know how it’s going to be received, but there’s been so much appreciation for it so far and that’s been great.”
Eagles flying high
The return to triathlon and the start of the next Olympic cycle to LA 2028 will have to wait a little while longer for Alex, though he is already dialling up his swim and bike levels.
The WTCS race in Yokohama on May 17th is definitely not on the agenda – instead there’s the small matter of the FA Cup Final at Wembley that day as his beloved Crystal Palace take on Manchester City.
Palace booked their place the evening before the London Marathon, with Yee admitting: “I was getting a little bit too excited at times, just when I was trying to keep everything more calm!
“But I’m obviously very excited for the final and we’ll see what happens.”
And then after that it was announced this week that Alex will make a return to racing on the track as he is entered for the British 10,000m Championships in Birmingham on Saturday 14 June.
His PB is currently 27:51 from the British Champs in 2018 and he clocked 28:07 on the road in the Valencia 10k earlier this year.
