ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 6, 2005

Abdi Abdirahman

Jen Rhines

JEN RHINES: Yeah, my plan was to run a negative split, but I just didn't have a good day. I never felt good out there, and I tried to switch paces and get into a rhythm that I was comfortable with, and it just didn't work out. It was just the marathon got the best of me today.

JEN RHINES: Yes, I was running with them for a while. Because we started a little slow up the bridge, we were running a hair quicker than I wanted to run, so I backed off and never got back into the rhythm I was trying to find.

JEN RHINES: Right now I'm not really sure because I had a good preparation and like I said, I think for some reason, I don't know why, the marathon just got the best of me today.

ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: It's a good pr for me. I'm happy to run 2:11:20 something, it's better than my pr before, but I was hoping to run under 2:10 because I kind of lost momentum, coming down First Avenue, my plan was just to maintain it, because we make like -- because the Italian guy make a big move at the 15-mile mark, he started to sprint up the hill and when we all sprint up the hill, when we were running as a group, and Ramaala made a big move, he put like a 4:21 mile. I backed off from that one because I didn't want to kill myself. Meb went with him and that's when I couldn't close the gap. I tried but I didn't have any help so I just run solo the last six miles and I run pretty strong. I feel pretty good.

ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yes, I was alone, yeah.

ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: The heat didn't bother me at all. It was one of those days, I feel good. My training was going so well. I'm from Tucson, Arizona so I get used to heat but the humidity a little bit bothered me. But it's not something that you make excuses. It didn't affect my performances and it didn't affect other people's performances. Meb run well, Tergat run well, so I thought the heat wasn't affecting anyone.

JEN RHINES: I didn't feel like it did. I didn't feel like I was overheated or not or getting overly dehydrated.

ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: You know, I'm still young in the marathon. This only is my second marathon. Hopefully I'm coming back to New York next year and improve my pr and that's my main goal. Marathon, it takes you a long time until you get the pr. I'm just going to take it step by step. I'm going to keep running track, keep running the 10,000, start shorter distance and hopefully I'll move to marathon permanently after the 2008 Olympics hopefully.

JEN RHINES: I did end up running most of the race by myself. But it was by choice, because I didn't feel comfortable with the pace the pack I was running with, so I was trying to get my rhythm back and I was by myself from there on in.

JEN RHINES: Well, I was trying to stay really positive because I was a little off of the pace I wanted for the first half. But actually, did I work with Marie Davenport for a little while, and then I fell back behind her by a little bit. But I was trying to stay positive and I was trying to surge coming off the bridge to get back on pace, and just trying not to let the race go, so I did the best I could to finish as well as I could.