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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 6, 2005

Hendrick Ramaala

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Hendrick Ramaala, if ever there was a man to defend his title, this is the man. Boy, did he go down fighting. Who is going to offer first?
Q. Were the last few hundred meters painful?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: I gave myself a chance. I thought I would get it, but I knew it was going to be really hard, if not impossible. You know, we are trying to surge, and we just couldn't break each other. Meb tried, Paul tried, I tried, it was not working. The last hundred meters, who wants to go the last hundred meters with Paul? I gave it everything. That's it, yeah, he got it.

THE MODERATOR: Were you just focusing on breaking the tape on that last year? Is that what is going on?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: Get over the finish line first.

Q. How incredible is it after more than two hours that a race comes down to less than a third of a second? Is that something you've ever experienced before?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: Paul didn't want to lose. I didn't want to lose. I think Meb didn't want to lose, also. So got to give it everything. I gave it everything. He was better the last hundred meters. I wasn't going to give up, no way. I was beaten by a big champion. I can say, I know I respect Paul. He's one of the greatest runners ever, I think. He's up there. So I can't complain. I can't complain much.

Q. Would you talk about Paul's tactics throughout the race, he's really laid back, just talk about how that helped him.

HENDRICK RAMAALA: Yeah, I've raced Paul for, I don't know, many, many years. I know his strategy, his tactics. Because he's the fastest guy around, he can afford to relax and let everybody try all of these other tactics. Whenever you try, you always find him behind you. And he has speed, he has more speed than us, he has more endurance. He's won five cross-country titles. He's the world record-holder in marathon. He has the credentials, but his strategy, he sits behind and dominates. He sits back and dominates the race from behind. He just makes the group awareness, when he came back after the first time. I knew we were in for a tough race, because I thought he was broken, and then he came back slowly and caught up with us. Then I knew it was going to be very difficult to break him again.

Q. Were you diving for the tape or were you collapsing?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: I don't remember. (Laughter).

THE MODERATOR: I don't think he wants to be reminded of that.
Q. For a while on First Avenue, you looked like the one who was attempting to dominate. What was that about?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: That was breaking up the race, taking the best guys out of the group. It happened. The quickest guys came with, and the other guys dropped down. That's the idea, you break the race, and the rest of us will fight it out in Central Park.

THE MODERATOR: That was a 4:22 mile at 17 miles. Did you realize it was that fast?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: No, I didn't know how to count in miles. (Laughter).

Q. I don't remember there ever being a time like that.

HENDRICK RAMAALA: I use kilometers.

Q. As many times as we've seen some fast running on First Avenue, that's the fastest we've ever seen. You must have felt that would throw some guys off.

HENDRICK RAMAALA: Tried to do it.

Q. What was your feeling when you passed the line immediately behind Paul? What was your first thought?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: You know, coming in second is not nice. (Laughter) It's not nice.

Q. When you went up the little incline, 100 yards to the finish maybe, did you think you had won the race there? You pulled ahead on the slight incline, just before the finish line, did you think you had won the race there? Did you see Tergat coming at the end?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: No, the race was not won. He was there. He was just on my side. I mean, he was there. I was going all-out and I think he was also going all-out. I don't know, he won it.

Q. How many times did you feel you were ahead the last -- inside the park coming up north towards the finish? We're seeing it from straight ahead.

HENDRICK RAMAALA: I don't know. It was three guys racing, three-guy race, it was anybody's race in the pack, three guys. Then the last half a mile or something, I don't know where we broke Meb, I was not checking the miles, but I know on the last mile.

Q. Could you be any less disappointed right now because you didn't win last year?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: I would have loved to win. I came second. I have to be happy, because the marathon, you can train so hard and then get disappointed. I was second to the greatest of them all, so it's fine.

Q. You said finishing second is so painful, can you imagine Susan, who finished second for the third time, how painful that must be?
THE MODERATOR: The second time.
Q. Well, the second time, second in a row.

HENDRICK RAMAALA: Yeah, for sure, she lose, she will tell you about it, it's not a good feeling. Maybe when it's that close.

Q. Where are you running your next marathon?

HENDRICK RAMAALA: I'd love to meet Paul, I know he's running London. I'll meet him there for sure. For sure I'll be in my best shape.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks very much, Hendrick. Our congratulations to you. What a way to defend your title.

End of FastScripts...

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