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NYC HALF MARATHON MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 16, 2012Meb KeflezighiDREA BRAXMEIER: Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Mary will join us in just a few moments. To get started we're going to have‑‑ Meb is going to be joining us for the New York City Half here on March 18, Sunday. We're very excited about him running the race. Meb, if you want to give some opening statements. MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Well, always a great honor to be in New York in person. This is a home away from home, and I got in last night. I had a full day of some fun shooting for sponsors, so I'm just thrilled to be here now with the New York Roadrunners who have given me an opportunity for many years, but the special one was in 2002. It's been ten years since I've had the start of my marathon, and now being back after winning the ING Marathon in 2009. I had a good year last year, obviously 69 days later of course with the trials, but now going London with another PR and winning the Olympic Trials marathon is a thrill and excited to be able to do a half marathon on March 18th. Q. I have vague memories of you in the first edition of this race. Didn't you come in a close second to Tom Nyariki? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yes, I was two seconds difference. Q. And you were chasing him all the way down the highway. I think the course was a little different then, I don't remember exactly, but you had him in your sights and just weren't quite there? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah, not quite there. I was runner up. I think it was 33 seconds, and came down probably a little late to the last 600, 700 meters or so. But that was actually when it was during August. Yeah, I think that might have been my first half marathon. I had just arrived to the marathon before I did the half, so that was my first‑‑ I guess New York was my first marathon and half marathon. Q. How often have you done half marathons? How many have you really done? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: I've done probably like six, six or seven, I think. Q. Do you like the distance? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah, I like the distance, especially the next day. Doing the marathon, it does beat you up, and definitely uncomfortable to walk the next day for how fast we do and how fast we go and then on pavement, but the half marathon I usually am able to go for a ten‑mile run or 12‑mile run the next day. I like the distance. Q. Can you talk a little bit about what you've done since the trials, and can you compare this period to your post‑trials in 2004? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: This time around and 2004 is very similar in many ways, just because I'm more up building of the training. I was definitely under‑trained going in in 2004. In fact, I called Coach Bob Larsen seven weeks prior to the 2004 trials and said I don't think I have it, so maybe we need to withdraw. He told me, no, just keep at it and we'll see how it comes around, and we turned it around really well and finished second. And this time around, three weeks off after New York with a foot infection, which luckily just cleared up about two days ago, because it got a blood blister underneath the infection after the trials, so since November until two days ago it's been kind of a wound that never healed really completely, but now the last skin dried is off. But it's an upswing, and that means I recover faster, and I think I did 8K here and 15K in Jacksonville in 2004, and now I'm very excited to test my body at the half marathon come March. But I've been running on a daily basis. After about five, six days off I ran six and a half miles and then the next day I ran nine miles. I've done one tempo run so far, and looking forward to hopefully staying healthy and just showing up to the line healthy in March and getting a good time hopefully. Q. Can you take us through any other racing plans that you may have, and how do you balance this long period of time before the Olympics with an eye on getting in some races to stay sharp but also trying to stay healthy? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Of course the last time I talked briefly about that. Just maybe run a few races in March and April and then take a little downtime, and then June and July will be a huge month for us in terms of getting ready for the Olympic Games. But just running is pretty simple. As long as you can stay healthy and consistent, my record shows that through racing I definitely get to another level of fitness by competing more, and I'm going to hopefully do shorter races to give us that edge, just like I did in 2004. I probably won't jump on the track yet but do other shorter races and stay healthy. If you can stay healthy, you can train, and if you can train, the performance will be good. Q. I've noticed that in your recent marathons you seem to take the probably smallest amount of time off your PR of any major marathoner I've watched. It goes down by two or three seconds for every major race. But it seems like your time is really not what it potentially could be yet. Do you think you have one of these sort of 2:06 type of times in you still, and would you go to a fast race like a Berlin or a London ‑ I don't know if the Olympic marathon course will be that fast ‑ to try to get a time like that? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: That's a great question. You know, it's not important that we chop off two, three seconds. We just compete and see what it takes me. In New York and at the trials, we were on 2:06 pace. In New York the reason I didn't run that 2:06 or 2:07, which Coach Larsen and I believed in 2005 that I could run the course record, but I made a mistake by having a dead ride and then obviously I had an upset stomach going that fast and stopped twice. My mile splits were 5:34 and 5:32 those two miles, and that's a minute off right there. And of course Coach Larsen and I and my wife and others close to me believe that I don't have to be at 100 percent for the trials. I've just got to be close to 85 percent to make the trials, and with the minimum training we got a PR and a win. So hopefully you never know what could be in London. That could be the day it comes, or some other event. But I'm just definitely excited to hopefully be a hope for others to keep running and not give up hope. I can still run PRs at a later age. Q. The beginning of 2011 was a little bit rough, but you turned around and you took all of that adversity and sort of hit it out of the park. You had the San Jose half and then the New York City Marathon and then of course your win and PR at the trials. What did it feel like after all of that, especially considering what you had gone through at the beginning of the year? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: 2011 was a very challenging year. I mean, to be an ING New York City Marathon champion just two years ago and to have a silver medal under your name and to go without a shoe contract for eight months, put yourself in my position; what would you feel like? Nobody will know except the people that are really close to me. But I work every day to get the best out of myself. That's my motivation. That's what my God‑given talent is. Coach makes sacrifices on his side to be able to be on my side every time, and people in the Mammoth Track Club. My wife gave up her career to have the life that we have and I can focus on the‑‑ the age that I am, I cannot go back to being a runner in 15 years the way I am running now. She understands that. But there were challenging moments, and things happen for a reason. But we were faithful and optimistic to our beliefs to give it a shot and other doors will open, and eventually it did. What a way to come back PR after PR after 68 days. I do what I do every day, work hard, and the rest is‑‑ if I can stay healthy‑‑ I keep saying it, but if I can stay healthy and consistent training, I'm a very reliable person or consistent performer. 2:09:08, 2:09:13, 2:09:15, 2:09:21, 2:09:26, 2:09:53, 2:09:56, 2:09:56. Think about it. I mean, you can't get any more consistent than that. I'm sorry, but to do it even better than I did in 2004 is more gratifying to me than what I do, and I wish somebody would ask me, hey, Meb, what's going on with your life and how are things coming around, and if I have a moment to explain, then they will understand why. Q. Marathoners are known for being so humble. You don't need to trash talk and say in your face; I guess sort of what happened at the end of the year spoke for itself. MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah, at the end of the day, it's train hard, and we all want to win, but it's not always getting first place but getting the best out of yourself. For me when I cross that finish line, no matter what happens obviously at the trials, I would have given it 110 percent going through that every day therapy or every other day. I prayed, I went and kissed the church before I left. I said, "Your will be done." It's going to happen what's going to happen, but we've got to do our part, and I was thrilled to just make the team and even more thrilled to have the win and a PR. But I was going to be happy regardless unless I finished fourth really bad. I didn't want to finish No.4. Going to Houston, that was my first visit to Houston. I didn't want to say that to everybody because 4th is a place I didn't want to be. I was trying to keep it on the down‑low not to say too much about No.4. But I went back and looked at the ranking, the odds of 2004, it was 3:2 odds, and guess who that person was; it was Dathan who had the 3:2 odds, and I was like, man, I just hope he doesn't get what I got, and now he ended up winning fourth place. But not saying I'm superstitious, but I just think things will turn out if you do the right thing, and I knew I gave it 110 percent going to the trials. So no matter what I was going to be‑‑ except No.4. I was happy that I was good enough to be on that team with Ryan and Abdi. Q. I haven't seen too much in the media about your foundation, so I was wondering if you could just say a couple words about it. MEB KEFLEZIGHI: The MEB Foundation promotes health, education and fitness. My running was discovered through physical education class, and many schools are cutting that, and my goal is to be able to encourage youth to have the lifestyle that most of 40,000 people that will half marathon or full marathon. But I want to start helping, realizing our youth through leading a balanced life. You have to be a good student, you have to have healthy nutrition and active, also, and that's what I want to do. And hopefully that's in the works and I'll be a lot more proactive once I'm done with my competing career. But it's a wonderful program that I hope inspires youngsters to be more active with their sports. Q. Could you maybe just provide an example? Have you met with any youngsters in person, or is it mostly just getting the foundation off the ground and then once you've finished your active racing career you'll do more? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: I have done a lot with young kids, whether it's in Cape Cod or whether it's in Flint, Michigan, or when I'm in Mammoth I'll do it a lot, or San Diego. In fact, this is way before the foundation, in 2001 or 2002, whenever I could spare time to go on a run with kids, I've done that many times. It's just part of who I am and giving back, give a little pep talk and then take them for a run, whether it's high school or college. But hopefully we want to start with the young kids. Also I do a lot of talks, motivational talks, to young kids. Q. In other words, the work you've been doing has been flying under the radar? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Correct. Q. In other words, it hasn't received a lot of recognition in the media? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah. Q. So it makes a big difference to the young people, but it hasn't been written up in the press? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah, I mean, I do what I do. You hear about the press when I'm running New York or others, but every day we do the work, whether there's cameras watching or not. So yeah, I do as much as I can to give back to the young‑‑ in Mammoth I went and talked to young football players, our youth. I didn't Tweet about it, but maybe someone picks up on it; if it doesn't, then that's the way life is. Q. You're the same person but a different person than you were eight years ago. How does it feel going into these Olympics compared to how it felt going into the '04 Olympics? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: You know, with the '04 Olympics, Deena Kastor, Coach Bob Larsen and myself, they are the ones that started Run USA, and with the support of New York Roadrunners, Atlanta track Club and many others, they wanted to change distance running. Part of it was just go out there and how we can get a medal. It happened really soon, and Deena and I were very capable of getting another medal in 2008, but things happen for a reason. I didn't make it out of the trials due to a pelvis fracture, and she had a stress fracture three miles or four miles into it. But that was‑‑ that made us realize how special it was in 2004, to hit those times and to hit those goals and come home with two medals. That doesn't happen every Olympic Games. In 2008 unfortunately I didn't make it, and now I'm more hungry. But more important, in 2004 I was single and not married and didn't have kids. So this time it's more for them more than for me. My wife has never been to the Olympics. My daughters have never been to the Olympics but we watched a lot of World Championships and Beijing Olympics, so now they're going to be remembered as the daughters of an Olympian or Medalist, and I want them to have that experience; yeah, we went to London and we cheered our daddy on. That's more what it's for. But I'm not going to give it 90 percent per se, I'm just going to give it 110 percent. But during the trials, all I was thinking was make the team for them, make the team for them, and I did. Q. I'm wondering whether it's important to you that the marathon as an event be popular among mainstream sports fans, and I'm wondering, also, along those lines whether you have a theory as to how an event like the marathon can keep a following and be popular in this sort of short attention span culture? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Well, in running or track and field there's three prime events, there's the 100‑meter, the mile and the marathon, and even with the others, they do get attention, but everybody knows how far 100 meters is, and if you can sprint it or not, and a mile the same way, and the marathon they know how far it is, how demanding it is. With the New York Roadrunners eliminating ‑‑ when the televising was eliminated on the pace‑making or rabbit, it makes it very interesting. They've made a big swing for that. People know when New York comes and everybody is competing it's going to be a challenge to the finish, versus saying, wait a minute, this guy is going to drop out at 15 miles or 16 miles. I think the key to that is‑‑ a key to why we do it, bringing distance running back. It has interest, and keep challenging to the finish line. If you can do that, you've done your part, and it's up to them if they want to follow or not because you're not going to twist anybody's arm to follow football or baseball; it's a passion. But runners can relate a lot, whether it's their kids or their relatives or whatever. Somebody mentions running, oh, yeah, I know somebody that runs. You don't hear that about football or baseball or whatever. But oh, yeah, my relative did a 5K or a 10K or a marathon, so you can really relate a lot and for the most part play the sport, and hopefully we can keep it that way. BOB LARSEN: I just wanted to add that probably most of you know that the numbers of people running the marathon have increased pretty dramatically in the last few years. We saw a huge surge after Frank Shorter got a medal way back in 1972, and of course Joanie and more. Those are big moments, and they kind of inspire not just other athletes but the running population in general. Deena and Meb being Medalists in Athens helped a lot and then a lot of other athletes are coming along. We've got some really great young talent coming up, and you saw that on display in Houston. These things help energize the distance of the marathon, and I think marathon distance is such a challenge to people that, like Meb pointed out, I think the 100, the mile and the marathon, even though the interest in track and field sometimes wanes or gets stronger depending on how close we are to the Olympic Games, the marathon and the wonderful events they have at a marathon now, especially the five major events, and the world, I think the press is doing quite a bit to keep it on everybody's mind. And again, we're getting more and more people that want to be part of it and complete the distance themselves. I think it'll continue to grow. I think we've got quite a ways to go yet, and there's an upside to all of this. DREA BRAXMEIER: We have Mary who has joined us and she's going to make a brief statement. MARY WITTENBERG: Thanks, Drea. It's great to talk to everybody. I walked in hearing Meb talk about eight years ago, and all I can think about is, wow, how things changed in eight years. Eight years ago nobody had any belief that Meb or Deena or any American would be anywhere near the podium except for insiders like us. We took out‑‑ I don't know if you remember this, we at New York Roadrunners, for Chicago, we took out an insurance contract where we said if an American won the gold medal they'd get $500,000, and I think it cost us all of $25,000 each. I don't think that would be the premium going into these games with Meb and the men's team and Shalane, Kara and Desiree on the women's team. So the American competitive sport has changed so drastically. And eight years ago half marathons were no big deal. The New York City Half didn't exist. And that growth of marathoning that Bob referred to has fueled a running boom àla Joan, where we're now well beyond the marathon. The half has become all the rage. And for us in New York it's now the spring bookend and the spring spectacle to the marathon. We're just really excited, and for us every day we're all about giving people reasons to run to give them chances to live better lives through running, and there's no better way for us to inspire people to run than to put the greatest athletes in the world and our top Americans who are now among the greatest athletes in the world center stage in New York. It's a huge treat today to announce our leading quartet with a whole supporting cast of top Americans, and of course the lead‑up here in Meb is always a huge treat to host, have in New York whenever we can. His fan following is massive here, simply massive here in New York City. I think Meb is now definitely the most recognizable running athlete. I think as you were saying, there's the 100 and there's Meb when it comes to New York City recognition today, and that was hard‑earned by him, and we appreciate his being here for the New York City Half. BOB LARSEN: I'd just like to add on what Mary was saying. The New York Marathon did more to promote American distance runners early on in this process than I think any other group. They deserve credit because they started doing that at a time when Americans were not producing very good times and were not very competitive. So the timing was excellent was when Joe Vigil and I and Deena got started, our training group, our visibility of American distance running was at an all‑time low around 2000 and 2001. Our objective was not just for our training group but in general to bring American distance running back to an internationally competitive level, and New York helped immensely financially in featuring our people in their races so that I think other races also saw the advantage of doing this and built up some of these American distance runners as noteworthy, and the media followed. So all this has come together in a wonderful way, but New York deserves a lot of that credit. MARY WITTENBERG: Thanks, Bob. A team effort. It's great today to be on a call with our friends at Peachtree and Twin Cities, and everybody today really is so excited to host Americans in support. It's a big team effort. Lastly, did we talk about broadcast at all? As you know, what we really believe at New York Roadrunners is now we've got these stars, we've really got to share them with the world and build the fan base at every turn that we can. So Drea and Richard will be sending more details as they get in front of us, but we will, once again, online have our digital shows that really help tell the story of the athletes leading into marathon day, and then hopefully New York City will be on‑‑ is going to be on NYRR.TV.org, or Raceweek Live as we call it, NYRRLive, as well as our Daily Cool Down show with Carrie Tollefson. On half marathon day we'll be live locally on WABC, and that will be streamed nationally and internationally, and we'll likely be in two places, likely on NYRR.TV.org and on 7 Online. But we'll send those details, but we'll make sure everybody can see this. Q. Just a couple of quick things: Meb, you talked about doing some shorter races. Does that mean you might be thinking about places like Bix and Falmouth and those kind of places? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Well, Falmouth is the same day as the Olympic Games. Q. I forgot it was that late, sorry. MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah, there's some races that I haven't done in the past. I actually talked to one of the hosts of Falmouth, and he's like, the Olympics or Falmouth? They're happy that I made the Olympic Games. There's other races whether half marathon or seven‑mile races that I've done in the past, so we'll test out‑‑ track is probably out of the question, but other than that, it's just stay healthy and consistent training and work out with Coach Larsen and kind of map out working backward from the Olympics backward. Q. In 2008 the Olympic men's marathon opened very, very quickly with a very large group going out fast. Obviously Sammy is not with us anymore, but it wasn't just him, it was a lot of other guys, as well. On the other hand, by the time the race is over, somebody who had run a fairly consistent race would have been able to get a bronze medal. How do you think you'll respond if that kind of thing happens again, if you get that? I think it's quite likely that there will be a group that will come out very, very hard. How do you think you will respond to that? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Well, may Sammy rest in peace in heaven. But yeah, he changed the marathon Olympic Games, and Beijing was huge, but like you said, I watched it on TV with my wife. And to see Kebede and Gharib finishing second and third and still winning bronze, I said, I would do this, I would do that, and I was running it in my head. I he's making too much of a drastic change now, be patient and things like that. I already have my silver medal. I can take a little more risk. It's just like New York. I already have the win, I can take more risk and do whatever‑‑ my record book is not going to improve anymore unless I don't personally finish in the front and the gold. But I'd like to get on the podium. Being on the podium is a huge accomplishment. If I can do it again I'd be thrilled, but I've just got to‑‑ that day I have to make that decision and talk a couple days maybe with Coach and see what they expect and modify it when I get to the race. That's dangerous right when the gun goes on, if two, three guys go, then you have no choice but to respond, and if I don't catch them at the end them I'm in the middle, and see‑‑ usually that's the part of the race that I like. If it's an even pace or consistent pace from the start, I think that's fine. It just depends on the temperature. Q. This is for Meb and even Bob. Seeing the kind of times that are being run at the front of these marathons, 2:04s and 2:05s, you alluded to Sammy's 2:06 in Beijing, I'm curious if you feel like, as a guy who's trained and been a consistent 2:09 runner as you said, if anything needs to change or be adjusted in your training to prepare you to contend at a time that's three minutes faster. MEB KEFLEZIGHI: You know, I could have run faster in Houston, but it wouldn't give me no thrill of a lifetime like grabbing the flag and chanting "USA, USA." For me it was just making the team. Obviously I had that opportunity for the win. It takes a lot of coordination to grab a flag and chant "USA, USA" and celebrate. But 2:08:58 wasn't anything, but it was a memory of a lifetime, just like winning New York. People aren't going to ask what my time was in New York or at the trials; they're going to say congratulations on the win. Times, if it comes, it comes. If it doesn't come, you can't hang a 2:03 or 2:05 or 2:07 on your neck. Hardware you can. Q. It looks like your wife finished Dash to the Finish Line 5K in 26:05. Did she have fun? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: My wife has the thrill of a lifetime any time she can go for a run. Yeah, she did that. I know she did a couple other races with me. She did the Sunday Bowl, Rock‑n‑Roll Half for her first one, then she went to Berlin, we both did a 10K‑‑ not in Berlin, in Madrid together the last year, and she did the Bay to Breakers. We did a lot of races together. If we can find a babysitter or family member who can hold the kids. But she did have a blast running the Dash to the Finish Line. BOB LARSEN: It's interesting to me a little bit here that if the early pace by Ryan Hall in Houston had been a little bit slower, we would have had four days probably run 2:08. With that fast early pace he was running 2:05 or 2:06 pace for quite a bit of the race, and that prevented two or three guys to stay under 2:09 pace. The last part then got a little bit slow. If we had four guys running 2:08 and in a faster race with more people pulling guys along and pushing the pace, I think all four of our Americans there, including Meb, could run quite a bit faster on a very fast course. I don't think we're that far away. Meb had alluded earlier to the fact he feels he can run‑‑ could have run even in maybe even that 2:07, 2:06 range. I think we're pretty close. We don't have to change anything. I think the right day, the right course with people running even pace up front, every race that Meb has been in has been very fast, has usually had quite a bit of surging in it and different things, maybe not a real fast course. I have confidence if it's very fast on a flat course, he will respond and he'll get a time that will be very impressive. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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