One of the world’s premier distance runners came to the United States out of chaos. But he’s found tranquility on the most challenging marathon courses that the sport has to offer.
War is hell. But when all the mortars are spent and the guns have gone silent, long after land grabs have been finalized and treaties have been signed, there’s the echo of the human impact — not just in the stories of displaced families or still-rising casualty counts but also in the amazing tales of survival and the dawn of new opportunities. Distance runner Meb Keflezighi, whose family fled a decades-long conflict between his home country of Eritrea and neighboring Ethiopia, arrived in the U.S. via Italy on shaky but hopeful ground in 1987. Leaving behind all that they’d known, it was uncertain whether Meb and his family would flourish or simply find new struggles.
Today, in the wide wake of Meb’s astonishing win at the 2009 New York City Marathon — and considering the mounting successes of his 10 siblings on their own chosen paths — it is clear that the hell of war wasn’t enough to tear away at the fabric of the Keflezighi clan.
Meb, whose running resume included little more than the start-and-stop sprints of soccer, found his niche on the track of his junior high school.
“I discovered my running ability by accident,” he says. “My parents taught us all to do our best in academics and in athletics. So in P.E. class, I was trying to get an ‘A’ too. In the seventh grade, I ran a 5:20 mile. I became known as the fast kid in school and I improved that time by 10 seconds by the end of the year.”
The rest is a history still in the making. An Olympic silver medalist in the marathon in 2004 — a feat that ended a 28-year medal drought for the Americans in that event — Meb has also managed first- (2009), second- (2005), and third-place (2004) finishes at the NYC Marathon, one of the most competitive in the world. Now he has his sights set on the Boston Marathon in April, and his training is right on track.
Meb Keflezighi
Birthdate: May 5, 1975
Birthplace: Eritrea
Current residence: Mammoth Lakes, California
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 127 lbs
Website:
www.marathonmeb.com
Q: You weren’t born in the U.S., but now you’re celebrated as a hero in the American running community. Is that a point of pride for you?
Meb: It’s great to be an American. I want to represent our country as best as I can. Every time since my high school days, you take pride and responsibility in the jersey you wear. It’s my honor to follow a lot of great athletes in American distance running. I grew up reading about them and seeing how they’ve achieved their dreams by working hard and being persistent. To do what I did in New York, where everyone comes to be the best in the world, was rewarding. That’s where I did my first marathon in 2002, which I thought would be my first and last because it was an incredibly difficult event.
Q: The 2004 Olympics was a special event for you too, correct?
Meb: Yes. I had a choice in Athens to run 10K or the marathon. I wanted to put the marathon on the map for the U.S. and do it in Athens — the original place for the Olympics — on the original course of the marathon.
Q: How is your training going for the Boston Marathon on April 19?
Meb: It’s been a good buildup after New York — I recovered well from that race. My IT band has been a bit tight and my knee is a bit sore, but we’ve still got a little less than 10 weeks to go and I’m excited to do it. I’m running 110 miles a week right now, and it’ll be 60 miles per week before the marathon, cutting back from 120. I have a chance to do what I did in New York, and hopefully [training partner] Ryan Hall and I can come across 1–2. Greg Meyer was the last American runner to do it, in 1983. Ryan and I will train hard and try to get it done. First things first — and that’s getting to that starting line healthy — and that’s what I’m doing. I love that I have the chance to do something as special as winning the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon.
Q: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by what it takes physically to run 26.2 miles?
Meb: I’m used to the marathon. It’s a grueling event — very challenging. Not everyone can do it well. At the speed that we’re going, your body is going through a lot. It’s a test of the human body, and everything has to click. Training and preparation are huge, and the mental aspect becomes important the day of the race. I love being on competitive courses like Boston, New York, or the Olympics, where it takes a lot of tactics. You just control what you can. But at the end of the day, there are many thousands of people that are doing it. It’s a huge accomplishment of sport.
Q: What other kind of training does your preparation involve? Weights? Sprints?
Meb: With Mammoth Club, we meet every afternoon at 4:30 and we do weights and core training. I do sprint intervals. I just try to be strong but not too bulky, because I have to carry it 26.2 miles. I did that at UCLA — I was really into weights. I was probably around 135 in high school, but I was doing just 25–45 miles a week. Now I’m doing 120, 130-plus.
Q: How important is rest when training for a marathon?
Meb: Unfortunately, sometimes we wait until we’re forced to rest because of injury. I don’t take any days off. I take some easy days. I’ll just go on how I feel with my tempos and intervals and just push as hard as I can. Rest is important, but sometimes we try to go through the pain so much that we don’t know when to stop. But I’d recommend before a marathon to take one day off before the race. I try to take a day off every two months — but I don’t like it, because I can get out of rhythm.
Q: A 130-lb man burns almost 2,600 calories according to Runner’s World (www.runnersworld.com). How do you approach your in-race nutrition and hydration to make sure that you perform your best?
Meb: Preparation is the key. I have my drinks every 20 minutes, whether it’s my long runs or my training. Come race day, I try to have the same product that I used in training. As an elite athlete, you take something every four miles or 5K, because the body does need it, and you try not to miss ‘em. If we do, we try to get some water. Obviously, I do big meals the morning of the race and the night of. I do take the PowerBar
® Energy Gels during the race, to keep me strong to the end.
Q: What do you usually eat the morning of a big race?
Meb: I usually have homemade bread that my wife or my mom makes, with some honey in it. I’ll also have a banana. For New York, I had pancakes with syrup to get sugar in me. You try to eat as much as you can because your body is gonna need it.
Q: Do you have a favorite post-race meal?
Meb: Before I get home, I have a PowerBar
® Performance Energy bar, PowerBar ProteinPlus
® protein bar, or PowerBar
® Recovery beverage. Then I’ll usually have protein — steak or something. Sometimes I’ll go get a carne asada burrito. Right away after the race, I don’t feel like eating for 3–4 hours, except Performance Energy bars.
Q: What else do you hope to accomplish as a runner before your career is over?
Meb: I’ve been blessed with the career that I have — thank God for that. I’ve been fortunate enough to win national titles and win records. The one missing link is probably a win in Boston. Anything that I do from here on is the icing on the cake. I told God after my injury that if He gave me a second chance, I’d use all the ability he’s given me to do my best. But I have so many people to help me. I may run the race alone, but I have a great supporting cast every step of the way.
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