Haile’s Whirlwind Visit to NYC
Haile Gebrselassie, the world record-holder in the marathon, may have set another record: 36 hours of travel time for a six-hour visit. Gebrselassie made his announcement to run the ING New York City Marathon 2010 in a news conference at New York’s famed Icahn Stadium on National Running Day, June 2.
Despite having just arrived after 18 hours of air travel from Addis Ababa, the 37-year-old Ethiopian champion preceded his announcement by taking part in the NYRR Mighty Milers Fun Run, a two-hour celebration with nearly 1,500 New York City public-schoolchildren ages 6–14. The always-cheerful “Geb” ran in relay races with the kids—always letting them finish ahead—and offered them encouragement and advice. Most of them didn’t know who he was when they arrived, but they warmed to him immediately as he joined in their games, and soon they were encircling him, waiting for him to sign their green T-shirts. True to his reputation for humility, the 2:03:59 marathoner knelt down to speak to them, patting them on the back and telling them to get out and run.
“I ran six miles back and forth every day to school for ten years,” Gebrselassie said. “Do you walk to school?”
“I do,” a small girl with pigtails told him.
“Good girl. Very good,” Gebrselassie said, nodding and smiling.
When it came time to tell the world why he’d chosen New York, Gebrselassie grabbed the microphone and looked out into the audience. “Everything in New York is big!” he said. “This is a big city. The New York Marathon is a big marathon. This is serious. I want to put my best results in. This year must be the one.” Asked about the race’s significance to him, Gebrselassie replied, “Someday someone will ask me, ‘Did you win New York City?’ If I don’t run New York, then my career cannot be complete.”
Due to his busy schedule back in Ethiopia, where he is opening a brand-new hotel, the Haile Resort, on Saturday, Gebrselassie didn’t have time to put in a training run on the tough, undulating New York course, but he was unconcerned. “Uphills and downhills are part of running. The hills in New York are nothing compared to what we have in Ethiopia,” he said. However, he has consulted his friend Paul Tergat of Kenya, the ING New York City Marathon champion in 2005, on how to best race the course. “He told me to be patient,” Gebrselassie said. “If you do a steady pace, you can win in New York.”
As the children walked from the field to their school buses, and as Gebrselassie prepared for another 18 hours of travel, the man often called the greatest runner of all time offered a final reflection on the importance of staying active: “To me, a day without running is like a day without food.”
He didn’t quite go hungry on National Running Day, as 1,500 children could tell you.
