Gebrselassie Hoping for Negative Split, World Record and $1,250,000 in Dubai on Friday By David Monti (c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved January 18, 2008
Setting
a world record is never easy, but it's particularly difficult in the
marathon. Not only must an athlete spend three to four injury-free
months training for a single competitive effort, he must have
near-perfect conditions: a flat course, excellent pacemaking, ideal
weather, and a well-marked and measured course. A little luck doesn't
hurt, either.
Heading into Friday's Standard Chartered Dubai
Marathon, Haile Gebrselassie is hoping that all of these factors will
line up in his favor so he can break his own world standard of 2:04:26
set in Berlin last September. In short, he's looking for the perfect
race.
"The top priority is not the money," Gebrselassie said
referring to the $1 million bonus for a new world record race
organizers have on offer. "It's the race. But the marathon is not an
easy event, you cannot predict. Everything is perfect, I hope it will be more perfect for the race."
Gebrselassie and his manager Jos Hermens are now focused on the unusually rainy weather in Dubai. "I've been coming here since 1991, and its the first time Ive seen rain," Gebrselassie remarked.
But the forecast, according to Weather.com,
is good for marathon running on Friday. The temperature for the 7h00
start should be 14°C (59°F), and only rise slightly for the following
two hours. However, the humidity should be over 60%, a bit higher than
ideal.
Gebrselassie plans to run the first half more
conservatively than the second, the proven formula used by both Paul
Tergat and Gebrselassie to set their previous world marathon records.
"We'll go for an negative split," Hermens explained. "He did 62:29 in
Berlin; I'd like him to do 62:15 here, but not too fast. The most
important thing is that he feels good at 30-K, when the pacemakers drop
out, and he has to do it himself." He ran 61:57 for the second half in
Berlin, a time which would win all but the best of the world's
half-marathons.
While there are others in the race, like Kenya's
Sammy Korir, the third-fastest marathon runner in history, all eyes
will be on the Ethiopian and his band of pacers. History is against
him. Only two men since 1936, James Henry Peters and Khalid
Khannouchi, have broken their own marathon world records. Peters, of
England, did it in 1952 then twice in 1953. Khannouchi, first
representing Morocco and then the United States, did it in 1999 then
again in 2002.
