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Haile Gebrselassie Takes on the Big Apple: Talks About Abdi, The Marathon Distance, Dan Komen, and the Short Careers of Many Kenyans
by: LetsRun.com
August 3, 2007
New York , NY

Haile Gebrselassie is such a star in our sport that he had his own press conference Friday in the Big Apple in preparation for Sunday's New York City Half Marathon.

Sunday's field is a tremendous field and features the top marathoner in the World, Robert Cheruyiot (who has the inaugural World Marathon Majors title locked up), 2004 NYC champ Hendrick Ramaala, the top long distance runner the last 2 years, Abdi Abdirahman (exclusive interview with Abdi here), plus American star Alan Culpepper,  John Korir (road wins at Blooomsday and Bay to Breakers this year) and James Kwambai (2nd in Boston this year, 1:00:22 half best).

Haile however rightfully got his own press conference. You know he's a big star when Mary Wittenburg, the director of the NY Road Runners and NYC Marathon, is a bit star struck at all of his accomplishments as she introduces him. There may never be another runner like him.

The problem with a big press conference is usually there aren't too many interesting questions asked. The more interesting questions and answers usually come out in a free flowing conversation. So we've edited out some of the highlights and made a shorter video below, but also have a longer one.

Here are some of the highlights for some of you with limited time:

Haile G on the differences between the half marathon and the marathon:
"The good thing for the 10000m and 5000m athletes like me is, the half marathon is almost the distance you are training every day when you are preparing for the 10 or 5k."

And for those of you who have struggled with the marathon distance, take heart, Haile Gebrselassie (like Hendrick Ramaala yesterday) has tremendous respect for the distance:
Haile G on the Marathon:
"The marathon when you talk about the marathon, the marathon (is all after) 30k, 35k....When you run the marathon, you are running against the distance, not against the other athletes, not against the time."

On his competition this weekend. We're sure some of you perhaps thought American Abdi Abdirahman was a bit nuts for saying he was coming to NY hoping to beat Gebrselassie, but when Haile was asked who he thought might be his toughest competition he pointed to Abdi: " All of them are very good. If you ask me right now, (who is the best). I've checked (the results) Abdi is a good one, he's in really good shape."