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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 2, 2012Meb KeflezighiNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Q. Do you want to start by talking a little bit about from the Olympics to now, how your health has been? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: First my thoughts and prayers for the people that are affected by Hurricane Sandy, the storm. Nobody wants to go through that. I mean, we have a choice to run races and which ones we wanted to do, but unfortunately those incidents happen and my thoughts and prayers are with them. But my race preparation has been good, better than the trials and better than the Olympic Games. I had a lot of setbacks. I could talk more about the details about setbacks were a year ago here when the breathe being stuff started and then the foot infection and then I got injured at the Olympic Games and things like that. But I felt confident coming in. I have covered the distance three times at least, but just how fast can I do it on Sunday is the question. Everybody would like to know that. I would like to know that. But I feel confident coming in here, and hopefully I know I'm going to get a lot of motivation from what has happened here because this is almost my second home. This is my 10‑year anniversary. I want to make it special, and for the situation that is going on here, and I want to be competitive, be able to run and see what happens. But I can't stop the other guys from having the race of their lifetime, but hopefully I'll be in the front and draw a little bit from the crowd. The vicinity and closeness of the people you are close to and chanting USA, I like hearing it, and I'm going to dig deeper to get to Central Park as fast as I can. Q. Do you feel any cumulative fatigue for training for so many marathons back to back to back? Are you feeling pop in your legs? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: Every training‑‑ people say marathon, you never know what's going to happen. You know what's going to happen. Depends how your training has been going. I really believe in training, I really believe in preparation is the key to success. If you don't do your homework then you don't know how it's going to go. But I felt decent enough to almost predict what's going to happen. But at the same time I covered that distance three times, 26 and a half or marathon or 24 miles, four of those or more. I've put my body through a lot and finished in fourth place. Yes, it was a fourth‑place finish. People saw me gaining, but I put everything on the line. I'm still paying for it for the wound that I got from cobble stones and cobble rocks and the turns that‑‑ I'm still dealing with it. Is it healed? Yes, but the last bit has not come up yet. A wound comes back and then comes smaller, smaller, smaller. It's still there, but I'm going to push it to the limit again on Sunday. To answer your question, this will be four marathons in one year. Could I ask for better? Yes, fourth place is fourth place. Everybody would like to be on the podium, but the Olympics in 2008 I thought I was capable of doing, come back, and I'm the only person to finish in eight years in the top four twice. Q. You were always labeled kind of the underdog, despite all the success you have. How do you explain that, that you feel like everybody is making you the underdog? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: I can explain it, but I don't know if the other people understand it. It takes‑‑ I do everything that I do when I started in seventh grade, getting the best out of myself, not only athletically, but academically, balanced life, socially. I just want to be the best human being I can be. I'm a runner, I try to be the best runner I can be. People have a tendency to count me out, but that's their‑‑ this is the land of opportunity and freedom of speech, people can do whatever they want to say and whatever. But for me when the gun goes off, I'm trying to be the best that I can be as Meb, nobody else. Q. So you think it's also a little bit the fault of the press itself that they don't declare you the favorite? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: For me is‑‑ the beauty of our sport is racing. I was a very good soccer player. You can read all about my overcoming‑‑ my book Run to Overcome. But I chose running versus soccer because I don't have to have somebody tell me when to get in, when to get out, when to play soccer. When the gun goes off, I control that, and I'm going to be the best that I can be. I can play defense against somebody else and what's that you are training. If I win, I congratulate myself and my teammate who helped me get there. If I don't win, I evaluate things, where I went wrong. In 2005 when I ran the New York City Marathon here, that gave me a confidence that I can win this race. Coach Larsen who I've been working with for 18 years feels the same way. If we can get you healthy, you can win this thing. Some things give you confidence. Who cares if you're underdog or not underdog when the gun goes off. You race. Unfortunately the Olympic Games I wasn't acknowledged, and that hurt. Q. A little disappointing for you after all those years with all the success you had? MEB KEFLEZIGHI: I am honored and blessed. My career has been fulfilled. Everything that I do from here is frosting on the cake. Whether people like it or not, look at the results, and the results speak for themselves. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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