Motivation comes in many forms for sportspeople at the highest level.
The challenge for the very best is where to find that drive to succeed when they have already reached the summit.
That has been the puzzle Marcel Hug has been tasked with solving in the past few years of a glittering career.
In November last year he was on the verge of completing six wins in a row as the TCS New York City Marathon approached, with the Abbott World Marathons Majors series already sewn up for a third straight season.
In a tight race where he was still battling it out with Tomoki Suzuki, Daniel Romanchuk and David Weir, Hug clashed with the British racer and suffered damage to his hands that hampered his ability to keep pushing to the maximum.
He finished fourth, as Romanchuk went on to win, inflicting a blemish on Hug’s record he wasn’t expecting.
As the 2025 season opened in Tokyo in March, Hug and the other big hitters from Europe and the United States were absent from the start line in Japan, which gave the host nation’s Suzuki a clear run at the title.
And so the Swiss 39-year-old now finds himself in an unfamiliar position, chasing the leader in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series and without a victory since October last year.
Boston has been fertile territory for Hug, and provides the perfect stage to launch is 2025 defence. He has won seven of the last ten editions, and broke the course record last year with 1:15:33 that brought him home more than five minutes ahead of Romanchuk.
In fact, in the last 10 years, he has won more than 50% of all Abbott World Marathon Majors races that have taken place. That’s a staggering statistic.
The cast of contenders seeking to dethrone the great man is a familiar one, spearheaded once again by Romanchuk who was second on four occasions last year, three of them behind Hug.
Weir is also in the field, emboldened by the second place he secured in New York at the 2024 season finale. He also registered two second places and a third last year. The six-time Paralympic gold medalist will be 46 this year but seems to be enjoying a new lease of life with his track career behind him and a sole focus on the marathon.
There is no doubt that Hug will be the man to beat on Monday, however. And, as he takes aim at victory No.8 on Boylston Street, there are still some more records out there for him to chase.
Ernst van Dyke’s 10 wins in the city is still out there as the most by any racer, as is the South African’s six-in-a-row record set between 2001 and 2006.
As he plunges down the hill from that Hopkinton start line, Hug has made a habit of breaking away as early as possible.
If he can do so once again this year, there are plenty of sources of motivation left for him to draw on.
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