Gebrslassie's focus: "Only Marathon" Berlin marathon challenge. World record holder

September 18, 2009
Posted by simpsoka

Gebrslassie’s focus: “I have no other distance, only marathon.”

World record holder for the marathon distance, Haile Gebrselassie, will be running the Berlin marathon on Sunday, September 20th and the man is driven.

I consume a lot of running news, blogs, videos, books, magazines, short stories, photographs, etc., and I’ve come across some bold statements (mostly from the mouth of Steve Prefontaine), but Gebrselassie takes confidence to a new level. “Berlin is not a problem – it is more like flying,“ he says with a smile on his face and you can see the ambition twinkling in his eyes. The man is an animal, a machine, a running fool. It’s as if God said, “Here is a marathoner!” and he gave the world Haile Gebrselassie. (Note – in this case God is gender neutral, and religion agnostic).

Gebrselassie (pronunciation) set the world record last year by running the marathon in 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds. He missed the Beijing Olympics because of pollution, but this year he’s planning on doing it again. He has some stiff competition from Kenyan Duncan Kibet who is currently 28 seconds slower than Gebrselassie. But the world record holder isn’t concerned about competition, “my concentration is in the distance itself and not the athletes. Athletes are one thing but the distance is the most important one. If you only think about Duncan Kibet, what about the rest. We all are doing our best race.”

Gebrselassie wants to prove himself to the world in the only distance he runs, the marathon, and he has the determination to do it. “I have two plans,” the 36-year-old said on Friday. “Breaking the world record is one thing and to win the Olympic title (in 2012). This is a very important thing for me. I have no other distance, only marathon.”