“ I've never raced more than a 12km distance, so to go straight into a half marathon is going to be quite a big leap,” admits Hugo Milner. A rising star in the British Triathlon ranks, Milner made his World Cup debut in 2023 and won in Miyazaki three months later. At the end of 2024, he rocketed to a top 10 Grand Final finish in Torremolinos.
His time of 28m47s over the 10km run in that final? The quickest in the field and a full 30 seconds. Next fastest time? That of teammate Alex Yee.
Now, after two unsuccessful applications, the 26-year-old has been selected as a London Marathon pacer on Sunday 27 April. Destiny has written that 2025 is the year that he will be taking a select group to the halfway mark of a 2h08m marathon. Among them could just be the reigning Olympic and World Triathlon Champion.
“When I first found out Alex was doing the marathon, I was probably quite surprised, but I think it's an exciting challenge… he's really stepping into the unknown so it is hard to gauge how he's going to do. I'm just excited to be part of it and hopefully I can pace well in that group and if he's there, then he's there and I'll be excited to pace him.”
Hugo and Alex were also able to benefit from each other’s eye-popping speed in some remarkable and unprecedented training sessions the duo went through in preparation. There weren’t many people that Yee's team could call upon to do that job, and ‘The Metronome’ stepped into the breach.
“I went to Loughborough two or three times over the last couple of months, just to help Alex prepare for the marathon in some of his big sessions. It also helped me prepare for pacing the half. We did 10 x 1 mile one week, and then 15 x 1km the other week, so really big volume sessions… quite brutal in a way.'
With Milner charged with setting a pace of 64 minutes for the half marathon and then easing off and (probably) out, that group will start to build into the second half. That 2h08m milestone was just inside the qualification time for the GB team at Paris 2024, and has been floated as a target for Yee in London. If or how he gets there only time will tell.
Even in that now full familiar flow, keeping in check with his Brit Tri teammate for the first half and without breaking the bank will be the aim. A negative split to come in under that time would be a colossal achievement for a man who has only been training at the distance a matter of months. And all straight off the back of the biggest double in his number one sport.
And for Milner, how far away on that hugely exciting personal horizon of his is a first marathon?
“I'm probably in a similar situation to Alex, where I'm not really sure what I'm truly capable of over the marathon. That does excite me and I do think my skill set probably lends itself to doing the longer distances. At the minute… it would be really difficult to quantify what I could do. I guess we'll see on Sunday when I pace through halfway, if I feel fantastic, then you never know… but 2h08m is pretty fast!
Watch the Alex Yee 'London Detour' documentary about his preparations for London on YouTube.
