Here is an interesting article i read online about Gebre
She has come a long way in the last 2 years
http://rinkandrun.areavoices.com/2009/06/17/running-in-america/
Wednesday’s News Tribune features an entrant in Saturday’s Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon, who is adjusting to life in the United States, seeking political asylum after leaving Ethiopia:
Riding a bus for 24 hours to a race. Training in three-year-old running shoes.Competing on an empty stomach.
That’s been the life of Belianesh Gebre, who came to the United States from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2006 and gained political asylum to build a career as a professional athlete. She’s 21 and just now is seeing some encouraging signs.
“Belianesh has a story that should be told, because you cannot believe all that she has been through,” says Haddis Tafari, a native of Ethiopia, who has lived in of Washington, D.C., for 18 years and met Gebre two years ago. “It is terribly difficult to make a life in a new country, especially at her age and under her circumstances.”
Gebre now lives and trains at altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz., along with countryman Ezkyas Sisay, 20, and both are among the favorites in Saturday’s 19th Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon.
Her life, in just one year, from 2008 to 2009, has gone from night to day.
The wrong race
A trip to Duluth a year ago epitomized how things were going for Gebre, a star junior cross country and track runner at home, who traveled to America because of political differences in Ethiopia. She entered the 2008 Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon, but on race day, got in the elite runner van for Grandma’s Marathon, which has a separate starting line and an hour-later start time.
By the time the mistake was realized, and race organizers attempted to get her to the right spot farther down North Shore Drive, it was too late. The half-marathon had started and Gebre said she sat on the side of the road crying uncontrollably, until seeing wheelchair athletes from the marathon speed by.
“I started to think ‘Why am I crying?’ Look at these guys, they are showing the human spirit. They are not letting anything stop them. I should not feel sorry for myself,” Gebre told the News Tribune with interpreting help from Tafari, an accountant.
Gebre said she cheered the wheelchair racers and had her spirits lifted when race officials reimbursed part of her $750 travel expenses, as agreed on, even though she didn’t compete.
What remained critical last summer, however, was the need for prize money to pay for daily necessities like apartment rent and food. She took a 24-hour bus ride to Arkansas in July for a five-kilometer race, and ran on an empty stomach and finished out of the money. Later in July she was in California for a six-mile race, finishing fifth and only the top three earned checks.
“Some of Belianesh’s Ethiopian friends held a fundraiser for her, and Ezkyas, and [the runners] took time to rest and not race. Many of their problems came from financial stress,” said Tafari.
Turning around
After a break, Gebre returned to racing last August and her luck changed – third place in a half-marathon in San Diego and a victory in a five-kilometer race in Boise, Idaho. In October there were half-marathon wins in Maryland and California, improving her personal best time for 13.1 miles to 1 hour, 13 minutes and 11 seconds, and a 5K course-record win in California.
She looks back at her misstep last June in Duluth as one turning point.
“I told myself, ‘I must not let anything, like making a mistake, stop me,’ ” she said.
And 2009 has been better.
In 10 races this year, Gebre has six victories, two course records and $11,000 in prize money. Her wins have come in Florida, Iowa, Texas (two), Missouri and Colorado, including Sunday’s Garden of the Gods 10-Mile Run in 58:49 in Manitou Springs, Colo., where Sisay was third overall.
Gebre and Sisay still have no coach or sponsors to offset travel and equipment expenses, yet Tafari says there’s been quite a quality-of-life improvement. Gebre says she would like to become an American citizen and ultimately represent the U.S. in a Summer Olympics.
“Belianesh’s life here has been getting on a bus, packing her own lunch, not having the best nutrition and burning herself out,” said Tafari. “She’s come back from adversity, but she still does the same thing in a race, she runs as fast as she can.”