Unfinished Business : Nadia Prasad Is Still Trying to Understand the Marathon

Nadia Prasad, born in France and raised in New Caledonia, was training for her beloved Paris Marathon when she came to Los Angeles to watch her husband, Binesh, run in 1992. Mark Plaatjes, then the elite athlete coordinator, dragooned her into running half of the Los Angeles Marathon as part of her training.

As she ran she felt poorly and didn’t know why. It was a relief when the 13-mile mark came.

She continued to train, then in Cedar City, Utah, running 100 miles a week, feeling worse every time.

Still, she ran at Paris--for half the race. She was third, running the best pace of her life over a flat course on a cloudy day, when she couldn’t run any more. Her knees hurt, and she checked with a doctor. It’s not your knees, he said.

“I was five months pregnant with my second daughter and didn’t know it,” she said.

Because of the strain on the system, female marathoners sometimes have their menstrual cycles disrupted.

Prasad, 27, was a 1,500- and 3,000-meter runner in the South Pacific, taking up the marathon only after she moved to the United States.

When she lines up Sunday in the L.A. Marathon, she will be trying to gain a greater understanding of the discipline as well as make amends with those who work with her.

One of them is Plaatjes, the 1991 L.A. Marathon winner, reigning world champion and her coach and counselor.

“He was a nice person when we met him in L.A.,” Prasad said. “He said come to Boulder (Colo.), it’s a nice place to train. We came there in 1993, before New York.”

She had been working out as best she could in Utah, still not completely understanding the demands of the marathon, but with a talent that cried for development.

She had run 2:37:11 in Boston, seventh place in ‘93, on talent alone, five months after Anita Prasad was born.

After working with Plaatjes, she ran 2:30:16 in New York, finishing third behind Uta Pippig and Olga Appell.

“As much as anything, (Plaatjes) has done things with her head,” said Binesh, a two-time Fiji Olympian. “She began to understand that this was somebody who was one of the best runners in the world, and he was helping her and giving her confidence.”

From Boston to New York in 1993, improving all the way, it seemed her marathon career could go nowhere but up.

Not so, said her body. All of the training in the world couldn’t help in Boston, where the night before the 1994 marathon, she began cramping. The next day it got worse, and she dropped out at eight miles, distraught. It was the kind of day runners dream about--cool, with a tail wind on the world’s most famous course in a race in which records would be set.

Still, the setback was temporary. There were road races to run and win, including the Bolder Boulder 10K, which she won in 33:28 to deal Pippig--who also had won at Boston--her first loss on the road in two years; and the Barrios 10K at Carlsbad, prelude to the New York Marathon, in 31:38, eight seconds faster than Appell, last year’s L.A. Marathon winner.

On the night before the New York race in November, a chiropractor manipulated Prasad’s back, an exercise designed to help an athlete get loose for the thousands of arm swings that will accompany a long-distance run. She resisted and felt the pull in her back.

The next day, at 13 miles, she learned why. She pulled a back muscle, then pulled out of yet another marathon.

Two marathons in 1994, two “DNFs,” the runner’s dreaded “did not finish.”

She was disconsolate, repairing to Boulder and wondering about her career, while Plaatjes tried to repair her psyche.

“Nadia is an incredible talent,” said Plaatjes, who is still trying to make her understand it.

She was set to run the Osaka International Ladies Marathon on Jan. 29 before the earthquake that devastated the region forced cancellation of the race.

Los Angeles was next on the calendar, so she changed plans. They now coincide with those of Plaatjes, who joins the men’s field.

“Los Angeles is lucky to get her,” he said. “The way she is training now, I think she can run a 2:28 or 2:27, if the weather is right.”

The best time in the field belongs to Lyuov Klochko of Ukraine, who has run 2:28:47. But Klochko is 35, with her best races behind her. One of those was a 1993 L.A. Marathon victory, in 2:39:49, the slowest winning time in the history of the race, in 87-degree heat on the hottest day on which the race has been run.

Kirsi Rauta of Finland is close, with a 2:31:23 personal best while finishing fourth in Berlin last year.

Prasad’s goals are more modest. “I would like to break the French record,” she said. “It was set by Maria Rebelo in London in 1991, 2:29:12. And I would like to qualify for the world championship marathon.”

She needs a time of 2:35.

Still, there is something more important to do to repair her career and reward her investment.

“No matter what happens, I will finish this race,” she said. “Even if I am on my knees, I will finish.”