# ITW LOURDÈS FERNANDO: FOUR MINUTES TOO MANY IN CHICAGO By Lionel Fracture · 11 November 2026 · Interviews [Lourdès Fernando](https://www.instagram.com/lourdesfernando/) is 28, a former 800 m specialist and the man behind [Eight Lines](https://www.instagram.com/eight8lines/), a crew that gets a good chunk of Paris running. This autumn, he took on his first marathon in Chicago, with a goal announced to his whole community (sub-3 hours) and thirty days of training documented day by day on social media. The verdict: 3:03. We asked him where those four minutes went. He answered with no filter, and announced his comeback while he was at it. ### The 92, the track and Madame Chailloux ***For those who don't know you yet (are there any left?), can you introduce yourself?*** Haha, not bad! I'm a man of the shadows, nobody knows me. My name is Suriyarathna Lakamge Fernando Nimeshaka Lourdes, but people call me Lourdès Fernando, it's a lot simpler. I'm French-Sri Lankan, a guy from the 92, born in Clichy and raised in Courbevoie. I'm 28 and I love way too many things: photography, food, sport, but above all shōnen manga. I started athletics at 16. In middle school, I was one of the fastest kids in town. From hanging around outside until all hours, I'd built up some pretty decent speed and aerobic capacity, I think. But back then, running meant absolutely nothing to me. Apart from racing in our socks outside the annexe in Bécon, I didn't find it particularly cool. Endurance even less so. Where I'm from, the stars were the footballers, the boxers, the guys making music, or the ones with a scooter and a Canada Goose. I had a PE teacher called Madame Chailloux. A passionate woman, but very strict. In my last year of middle school, we had a 50-metre test and I broke the school record. That was too much for her. She literally grabbed me by the ear and took me to athletics. I showed up at the club convinced I was going to be the best. I got smoked in the sprints. And I've never stopped since. That's where I met some of my closest friends, including several of the people I built Eight Lines with. People I grew up with, went through my first heartbreaks with, my best trips and my worst sporting defeats. When I think about it, athletics gave me much more than times. It gave me a family. And in that family, I'm surrounded by such strong people, who have always inspired me, on the track and off it. I think that's also why I'm still running today. ### From the 800 m to the marathon ***Before the marathon, you were an 800 m specialist. Tell us about your track career, and how do you go from two laps of the track to 42 km?*** Honestly, leaving the 800 m was hard. Ever since I started athletics, my goal has always been to go to the Olympics. That might sound crazy when you look at my times, but I've never been ashamed of aiming high. I'd rather go for something that looks impossible than set myself limits before I've even tried. I gave it everything for Paris 2024. As an athlete representing Sri Lanka, I was hoping to get a spot through the qualification schemes reserved for less represented countries. So I went to Sri Lanka to compete in the equivalent of their national elite championships. I finished last. A proper slap in the face. During that competition, I stayed with my uncle. He's a bit of a family legend: he ran the marathon in 2:25 or 2:27, one of the best times in the country in his day. When I got back, I asked him loads of questions. How he trained, whether he doubled up sessions, how many kilometres he ran, how he managed to hold that distance. And some of his answers still move me today. I told myself there might be something to go after there. A family story to carry on, a torch to pick up. And anyway, what did I have to lose? I'd already moved from sprinting to middle distance. Going from two laps of the track to 42 kilometres was another world, but it didn't scare me. I like breaking my habits, taking risks, putting myself in uncomfortable places. I think I actually need that to move forward. And the Olympics are still in the back of my mind. I've just decided to explore another path to try and get there. ***Copenhagen in 1:15 during the build-up. Was that your first half? And between us, when you crossed the line, didn't you think sub-3 was already in the bag?*** No, it wasn't my first half! I'd already done one in Copenhagen the year before, to pace my mate Elyees to his 1:21 goal. I loved it. Watching him hit his target, give everything, push past his limits without necessarily being in extreme pain. Well, except at the end when he threw up, but that's because he's a warrior. So I'd signed up for the Paris Half in March 2026. Except that just before, we'd gone to Lebanon with Eight Lines. And during our stay, there were the Israeli bombings on Beirut. It affected me deeply. When I got back, I couldn't run anymore. I was sincerely asking myself what the point was of running 100 kilometres a week in a world tearing itself apart like that. I'd lost the meaning of what I was doing. Then the Paris Half came around. Out of respect for my crew, and because a great Eight Lines team was running, I decided to go despite almost two weeks without training. In my head, I was going for a jog. And in the end, I had an incredible time. I finished in 1:18, but the time was almost beside the point. That day, I understood something. For a long time, I thought I was running to escape reality. Actually, I think I run to face it better. Keeping going when your legs are heavy, when your head tells you to stop, learning to be demanding with yourself without ever giving up. That determination is a form of personal freedom. Running doesn't necessarily change what's going on around you. But it can change the way you choose to face it. Anyway, I've gone down a rabbit hole again. Back to Copenhagen: it was my first half where I'd really come to perform, with a bit of nerves at the start, you know how it is. And when I crossed the line in 1:15, yes, I told myself 2:45 was well within reach in Chicago. Maybe a bit too easily, looking back. ***On paper you were more of a 2:45-2:50 runner, and you announced sub-3. Did you aim wide to play it safe, or was there a little doubt deep down?*** Honestly, it was to play it safe. I had no doubt. In my head, 2:45 was possible, but above all I wanted to get my first marathon right, learn the distance and come away with a time under three hours. I knew I had the speed and that I'd done the work in training. But there's a world between being able to run fast and knowing how to manage 42 kilometres. I learned that the hard way. ### Thirty days in public ***Thirty days of training documented day by day on social media. What was it like showing everything, bad days included? Did the worst moment of the build-up make it into one of the videos?*** Oh yes, it definitely made the cut! There was a key session of 1,000 m reps that I completely blew. I was in a terrible state, I looked awful on camera and honestly, I hesitated to post it. But that's exactly the point, I didn't want to show only the good sessions, the nice paces and the moments when everything goes well. On social media, you see a lot of results, rarely everything behind them. The failed sessions, the doubts, the days you have zero desire to go out running. I wanted to show that too. And I also found it interesting to document my first marathon without knowing how the story would end. It was a real gamble, with no script written in advance. Well, I hadn't pictured the ending like that. ***Announcing your goal to your whole community: motivating, or a hell of a lot of pressure? Was there a moment when you thought “why on earth did I say that”?*** Honestly, it gave me crazy strength. I received loads of messages of support, some I'll never forget. People telling me my videos made them want to run, get back into sport, or simply set themselves a goal. That's worth a lot more than a time. And in a way, having announced it publicly forced me to be even more disciplined. I couldn't talk about effort, perseverance and ambition, then disappear as soon as things got tough. That said, I think you have to accept one thing when you announce a goal: you're also taking the risk of failing in front of everyone. But I'd take that a thousand times over never trying out of fear of what people think. ***In practical terms, what did you put in place to get there: volume, sessions, coach, nutrition? Thirty days for a first marathon, looking back, was it enough?*** Volume-wise, I was around 90 to 100 kilometres a week, with fairly specific sessions set by my coach, Clément Deflandre. I've been working with him since February 2026 and I've improved on loads of things. I trust him completely. What I like about his approach is that he thinks long term. No junk kilometres just to post a big number on Strava. The goal is to progress, be consistent and above all stay healthy. Because if you get injured every two months, you can have the best plan in the world, it's useless. Nutrition, on the other hand… a disaster, haha. I hadn't prepared anything seriously enough, neither day to day nor for race day. I underestimated it, when in a marathon it's absolutely fundamental. I wasn't even as sharp as a blade… As for the thirty days, it was mostly thirty days of documenting it on social media, not thirty days of training from scratch. I already had a big athletic base behind me. Looking back, I think I had the legs to run fast, but not yet all the experience needed to make the most of my potential over the marathon. ### Chicago, 3:03 ***3:03. Four minutes. Tell us about your race. Where did those four minutes go?*** Honestly, I did some crazy stuff. I went out at 3:40 per kilometre, barely drank before 32 km, took only two gels, and even allowed myself to drop some kilometres around 3:30 near the 24th. In a first marathon. Genius, haha. I also lost my pacers. I was still on track for 2:45. And around the 32nd kilometre, everything fell apart. I started cramping like never before in my life. Right calf, then the left, then an arm, the hamstrings, both legs at once, the quads… I think I had ten or twelve bouts of cramp. From then on, it wasn't really a race anymore. It was a battle to keep moving. I could see the minutes ticking away, my body wasn't responding, but in my head I refused to let go of sub-3. Even in the last kilometre, I still believed. I'd just run some kilometres in 7:30, but I kept calculating, telling myself that if I could pick it up again, if I could pull out one last kilometre around 4 minutes, maybe… It was completely irrational, but I wanted to believe until the very end. And then I crossed the line in 3:03. Four minutes. It's hard to explain, that feeling of being so close to something and watching it slip away without being able to do anything. I felt so powerless. I cried. Really. So yes, it's only a race. There are infinitely more serious things in life, I'm aware of that. But it was my first marathon, I'd invested a huge amount emotionally in this challenge. What hurt the most wasn't just missing sub-3. It was knowing I probably had the ability to do much better, and that my own mistakes stopped me. But I think that's also why I love sport so much. You can have all the ambition in the world, the clock owes you absolutely nothing. ***Out there, you got the new Nike Apex, but you raced in the [Alphafly 4](https://joliefoulee.fr/en/articles/nike-alphafly-4-review). Were you tempted to take the risk, or did “nothing new on race day” win?*** Haha no, that was just for show! I didn't have the Apex, I just snapped them in a showroom. Goes to show, social media can be misleading. But if I'd had them, I think I'd have worn them straight away. I'd have taken the risk, for sure. Given the other decisions I made during the race, it would have been pretty on brand. ![Lourdès Fernando at the Chicago Marathon](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/75a05e6a4f35985feaa9addcba7d3827cc895f78-3024x4032.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando, former 800 m runner turned marathoner](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/33929d6c4d54f368039fcb73856da154cfc5fab6-4284x5712.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando's first marathon in Chicago, finished in 3:03](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/349f258ed149d0e76a274ce536ddb38aab429ce0-2048x3090.jpg?w=1600) ### What the marathon taught him ***Coming from the 800 m, what did the marathon teach you that you didn't see coming?*** Honestly, on suffering or defeat, not much that was new. The 800 m is a pretty brutal event. You get used to suffering, to hurting, to losing by a few hundredths after months of training. But what surprised me in the marathon was my relationship with time. In the 800 m, you're often in survival mode. You wonder when it's going to end, you count the metres, you fight the fatigue that comes on very fast. In Chicago, it was almost the opposite. I wanted the kilometres to fly by, I was chasing time, I was focused on my goal. For a good part of the race, I even felt like I could keep going for a long time. Until my body reminded me that you have to respect the marathon. ***One thing 800 m runners think about the marathon that's completely wrong?*** That it's necessarily harder than the 800 m? Honestly, I'm still not convinced. In the 800 m, you can go through two minutes of absolute violence. In the marathon, the suffering is different, it settles in, it lasts, it asks for another kind of resistance. Mostly I think we tend to rank events when they demand completely different qualities. But ask a marathoner to run an all-out 800 m, and we'll talk again afterwards. ### The comeback ***So, put off long distance for good, or plotting your revenge? And next time, will you announce it or keep it to yourself?*** Straight-up revenge. I've already got Valencia in mind, on 6 December. And since you're asking, I'm announcing it here with you, Lionel, haha. I don't want to stay on Chicago. Not because I'm ashamed of my time, but because I know I still have so much to go after over this distance. I learned a lot in a single race. Now I want to see what happens when I put those lessons into practice. ***Are we going to see more and more Eight Lines guys and girls on marathons? And what advice would you give them to beat 3:03?*** For sure. And beyond Eight Lines, what I really hope is that we'll see more and more young people, guys and girls from backgrounds that are still under-represented on start lines. Today, the half marathon and the marathon are still events with a lot of white-collar professionals in their crowd. There are financial and cultural barriers, sometimes even symbolic ones. When you grow up in certain neighbourhoods, you don't necessarily picture yourself running a marathon. Not because you can't, but because nobody around you has shown you it's a space for you too. And that's exactly what we want to change with Eight Lines. We want to break those stigmas, make running accessible, support people over months, years if need be, and show them they belong on a start line as much as anyone. That's also what “We Run The Town” means to me. The city belongs to all of us, and sport is a way to take it back. And to beat 3:03? First, don't do what I did. Sort out your nutrition, drink properly, start calmly and don't neglect any detail. And above all, listen to your coach rather than your ego at kilometre 24. ***Last question: we do this interview again in a year, to the day. Which marathon would you like to tell us about, and with what time?*** In a year? If I run Chicago again? Honestly, 2:30. And thanks for the question, because now that I've said it out loud, I'm going to do everything to make it real. I've always worked like that. I'd rather announce ambitions that might make people smile than spend my whole life wondering what would have happened if I'd really tried. Let's talk again in a year, Lio. *See you in Valencia on 6 December. We wish him all the best, and Lourdès, remember to drink from the very first aid station!* ![Lourdès Fernando and the Eight Lines crew](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/313a08aedcf8f4c24f92564a2cc211fab800ff5d-1206x905.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando during his marathon build-up](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/68bf44e5cf744567367566640ae5790e0fb99ebb-4284x5712.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando at the 2026 Chicago Marathon](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/2b98ed6894091c0593f4bf156ad94c134f0be448-4284x5712.jpg?w=1600) ![Eight Lines, the Paris running crew founded by Lourdès Fernando](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/581df522dd1621e8de3581536c061e3616d56722-3024x4032.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando, chasing sub-3 in Chicago](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/c0feed42f75f067d48e14a54df99fd6cf6c1a4ac-2048x3090.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando racing in Chicago](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/a0506d7e1a6dffffedfb5b4517f0060647460274-2048x3090.jpg?w=1600) ![The Chicago Marathon, Lourdès Fernando's first](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/789f72079a35c776687030baf7c4e0ff65c9930b-1860x2807.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando, from the track to the marathon](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/a5caa01d093aaa8ecefa9f6b9868f546b6c3fe90-2048x3090.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando, leader of Eight Lines](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/e6d519062098b8a21b4e85fc2291cf2920ec87be-1618x2441.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando in the streets of Chicago](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/d22d731060a00f67a72420120d6f933ee5db1f8f-2048x3090.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando, 3:03 in his first marathon](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/edfbb81660768009d64ddf5c9c099eeba7a852ae-1263x1905.jpg?w=1600) ![Lourdès Fernando, next goal the Valencia Marathon](https://joliefoulee.fr/media-proxy/images/2aurc9wy/production/1b2db84353356cb56c6e94c698ba3692e2d5a3c8-2048x3090.jpg?w=1600)