ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 7, 2004

Meb Keflezighi

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: I just tried to be smart today. There was a really hard surge and I was struggling with a gap and had a gap right away. For me it's a lot of energy to be able to catch up to those two guys, the other guys, so there was more room. Potentially. I mean, I think my last run, it was his day today and I'm still happy to be here. I say thank you to New York Road Runners for bringing me back and having the confidence in me to do well, since the Olympics to do well. They gave me my favorite number, number two. And for the stats, this is the worst place I've finished all year, second place. I've been first or second all year long. Everyone did a great job, it was an outstanding field and thank you to Mary and the rest of the Road Runners for making it a great run. I'm just delighted to be able to finish -- people had doubts about what I was going to do, but now it's been answered.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Yeah, it was in the upper left. But I had it today, and Abdi, you know, he said let's go, on 15, 16. "I'm trying," you know, but I'd just rather be smart. Had a plan to see all of the possibilities, a, b, c, and d, and again, if you try to do the best you can, I was able to overcome the doubts, people were saying, "can he recover?" This and that. Some people pointed out at the press conference before.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Left side, it was pretty high.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: It never really went away. Whatever that mile it went in, it really hammered and I was hoping it would stop. The kids were talking among each other and whatnot. I don't know what they were saying, but, you know, we were trying to be prepared for it.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Again, I took a lot of effort to be able to catch up to the lead guys. At one point, I thought I might be out of it, but the rabbit, he had a consistent pace for me. Some of the mile marks I did not see. I didn't get -- like 2002, I got all of my splits every mile. This time, 15 mile I didn't. I was wondering like, when am I at the halfway point, so there was confusion, also.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Once again, I mean, I don't know I'd run 13 miles, some people bring the questions and made me think and I just tried to do the best thing in terms of, you know, in terms of preparation, just talked a lot with coach. Two more weeks, high miles, I could have done it. But we knew Athens was going to be hard, you just try to do the best you can and work together with coach and my teammates and, you know, have the support, have the confidence, road runners be able to have confidence to say, hey, I decided way before. Sorry think the preparation for Athens helped me do well. We talked with coach, also, sometimes took for a place, this time I was looking for a place and sometimes I'll go for time. Stop at 2:10, I'd look at my watch, as I turned in the circle, 10, I think it's possible, but 2:30 was not. So I relaxed a little bit.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: I'm a big God believer and did my prayers and just said, "hang in there," on that main straightaway, I tried for a little bit but it was pretty windy to get to down to two people if we can or one person. I tried and we were actually delayed but Ramaala, he didn't take a last water stop, by the way, both Timothy did, he made a move but that's unexpected. I didn't know he was going to do that, but he made such a big gap and that won the race.

MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Thank you very much for all of your support.