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TCS NYC MARATHON

November 4, 2016

Ghirmay Ghebreslassie

New York, New York

Q. Was it frustrating?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. What were you expecting? You mean you didn't hit the time or you didn't hit the place you wanted in Rio?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Sorry?

Q. In Rio, you were expecting a better time or a better place in the results?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: As you know, in the Olympics, in the World Championships, nobody run a good time. We got in the debate that everybody cannot because without pace or something, it's not easy to run a good time.

Q. How has training been the last two months?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: It was nice. It was very nice.

Q. Where were you doing most of your training?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Just in my homeland, in Eritrea.

Q. Is there a city, a town?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: It's a city.

Q. Do you want to say what it's called?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Asmara.

Q. The capital?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. Do you train alone or with a group?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: A group.

Q. How big of a group? How many? Is it?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Sometimes we train with about 15 or 10 athletes.

Q. All the training or just long or the hard stuff?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Especially for the long runs, we train all together.

Q. And do you come from a large family? Do you have many brothers and sisters?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I have three brothers and four sisters.

Q. Where are you, the age?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Second one.

Q. Second oldest?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I'm second.

Q. Older brother or older sister?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I have an older sister.

Q. So you're the oldest male, the oldest boy?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. In your family, do you have other Olympic runners?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: No, I'm the first one.

Q. Are you married?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. Do you have children?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: No. Just I'm married one month before.

Q. Just one month ago?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. What is your wife's name?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Bietel.

Q. How many people at the wedding?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I don't know the number.

Q. Thousands?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I don't know exactly the number.

Q. Many, many, many?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. Did you take some time off after the wedding from running? Or will you take some time off after this?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I'm sorry?

Q. Did you keep training right after the wedding?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. Your wife understands?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yeah. The wedding ceremony it was on Saturday and Sunday. I start my training on Monday.

Q. There's no pacers in New York City, but there's no pacers in Beijing either. So time would not be important here, just position?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I'm going to run for time and for position.

Q. Just position, no time?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: The same importance for me.

Q. Would you prefer pacers, or do you prefer no pacers?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I prefer to have the pacing, but even if there's no pacing, no matter for me.

Q. You had no preparation race after Rio, right? Is?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: No. Just only training.

Q. What was your high kilometers? What was your maximum kilometer training per week before Rio and now after Rio?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Just my training was the usual.

Q. So no different?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. Same volume?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: The same.

Q. Are you tired?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: No. I'm not tired.

Q. It's your debut here at New York City Marathon. How does it feel to be here?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: It's just a normal feeling, like what I feel everywhere.

Q. So how did you prepare for this race?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: My preparation was good.

Q. Between today and Sunday, what are you going to do? Sunday's race, what are your plans?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Everybody can have a special plan for Sunday. As an athlete, just what's my plan for Sunday? We're going to see together. It's easy to explain that.

Q. So you are going to run with Stanley and Lelisa. Who are your biggest competition, do you think?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: I know them very well and they know me. We run together in the previous races like Beijing and London. So who is going to be the strongest competitor with me on Sunday, they don't know what shape I'm in now, and I don't know their shape. All we know is we're going to run together on Sunday, and the one who is in special shape is going to do something special on Sunday.

Q. One thing that's been in a lot of media lately in New York is the beefed up security. There's going to be extra police in New York City because it's the biggest marathon in the world. Are you ever concerned about security when you run?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: No, because I believe that's everybody. Not only the police, even the civil people, I believe that they are police. So it's not a problem for me with security.

Q. You said you can't know what shape Stanley and Lelisa are in, but are you in special shape?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes, I'm in shape.

Q. How do you know you're in it special shape?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: It's easy for me to know how my shape is because the training that I did for this preparation and the previous preparation for the other races. So during the long runs and speed work for every training that I did for this preparation is better than the other times. Confidently, I can explain now that I'm in better shape than last time.

Q. For many years, the big marathon racers were all Kenyans, Ethiopians, Kenyans and Ethiopians, as you know. Do you and the other Eritreans feel you're ready to compete with the other East Africans?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes. Especially for Kenya and Ethiopia, they have good at the long runs, especially marathon, 10,000 meters. But the athletes from my country, they're much better in half marathon. Now, meanwhile, so many athletes are coming now in the long distance. So in the coming two, three years, for sure, we are going to be one of the most competitive countries with athletes from east Africa.

Q. You have had a very short time between Olympics and now. Why did you decide to do another marathon so quickly?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Of course, we need recover time from one marathon to the next marathon, but in Rio, the pace was not so strong. The pace just wasn't like what we do in long run at the high altitude. So I didn't spend too much energy in Rio. That's why I prefer to run this marathon.

Q. How did you feel about your performance at the Olympics? You just missed the medal. Was it disappointing, or how did you feel about the Olympics?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: To participate in the Olympics itself is a special achievement. If you expect a medal, you may get or not, so just you have to accept for everything.

Q. Coming here now, you finished fourth in the Olympics, and you feel you didn't expend too much energy. Does that give you a good feeling about coming to this race? Does that give you confidence for this race?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes.

Q. In Kenya, there are many, many different training camps. Ethiopia, the program seems to be more a central nationalized program. What is it like in your country?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Most of us, we train in individual clubs.

Q. Do you have a coach who's leading the training?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: Yes. I have my coach from Netherlands. .

Q. Is he living there with the group?
GHIRMAY GHEBRESLASSIE: No, he's living in the Netherlands, but twice a year he came to us to see how my training is going along.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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