Book About El Guerrouj, Hissou and Ezzine

Book has been on Amazon for a while now at $40. Anybody read it?

http://www.amazon.com/Moroccan-Success-Kada-Greg-Rowlerson/dp/1847479812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255135178&sr=1-1

On ebay I am now selling the book for $40 Australian (cheaper than $40 American) with no postage fees. I have managed to buy copies of the book myself from my publisher at a slightly cheaper price which is why I can on sell them cheaper.

My apologies for the delay in getting back to some of you. I thought that I might be selling the book from an Australian running website, but there have been hold ups with getting this up and running. I've also been slack with trying to promote the book (get it out there), having been busy with other writing projects. Anyway, below is another book extract.

'The clock was ticking ever so closer toward 8:15 pm, Hicham El Guerrouj's moment of truth. He had not lost a proper race for almost two years. Logic said that he should

win if he made the race suit him. Morceli was the big threat, though Cacho couldn't be totally discounted with his proven record in major championships. Rotich also had

good form this season. They were the three men for Kada and El Guerrouj to keep an eye on. Kibowen hadn't qualified, nor had Hicham's teammates Maazouzi and Seddiki.

Only Spain had two runners in the final so team tactics weren't expected to play a part. How slow was El Guerrouj willing to allow the race to be run?

Noureddine Morceli had the accolades going into the Athens final. Hicham El Guerrouj had the form. Would the champion hold onto his crown or would there be an emphatic takeover?

The final is a typically slow one early, but El Guerrouj places himself perfectly on the outside of the German Stenzel who leads through 400 metres in 61.08. Robert De

Castella comments on Morceli and El Guerrouj, "The big question is can this young Moroccan unseat Morceli from the throne that he’s had now for five or six years? Morceli has completely dominated this event winning world championships, Olympic Games and world records, but there is a bit of a question mark. Over the last couple of years he has been vulnerable, and the person he's been vulnerable to, is in second place there."

Estevez soon goes to the front and he takes them to 800 metres in 2:02.04. Suddenly El Guerrouj tears to the front with the clear intention of taking his eleven opponents past their pain threshold. There is no better way to do this than to run the third lap at an unbelievable pace.

With 600 metres to go the pressure is being firmly applied. Nobody in recent times would ever take a major championship 1,500 metres final on so far out. Morceli

usually went at the bell. Now he is forced to chase and go close to his red zone earlier than he wants. Initially Noureddine is able to follow the Moroccan into second place. These are good tactics from the Algerian.

Cacho has also passed Estevez to move to third and with 500 metres to go we have a real race on our hands. Then boom! El Guerrouj puts a couple of metres on Morceli in

no time. The advantage of youthful legs. Does the world champion really have the necessary speed anymore?'

I am not making any money from the book, but would just like to get it to those people who will be interested in it.

Got one from Amazon. Can't wait to check it out.

I feel the short Ngeny and El G rivalry was comparable to Ovett/Coe rivalry. It's a shame that more wasn't written about the two. They were both incredible competitors.

El G owes his records to Ngeny. He was El G's pacer for his 3:26 WR through almost 1300 meters. That is unheard of these days. He pushed El G to the wire in the 3:43 run. After his narrow loss in July 1999 in the WR mile, Ngeny went on to break the 1000m WR. I feel this was a indirect response to El G...as if to say "you need to be worried..very worried in Sydney."

The reason El G had pacers in 1999 Seville and 2000 Sydney was because of Ngeny. I doubt he was worried about the Spaniards or Lagat.

Albeit brief, it was a great rivalry. The 1999 WR mile was an incredible race with the win in doubt until the very last step. It's a shame the rivalry didn't live longer as we would have probably NOT seen the same race dodging that Coe/Ovett did, rather we would have seen fantastic races.

El G was not known to dodge racers...he took on anyone but on his terms (pace setters).

this is all anybody here is interested in :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hicham_El_Guerrouj#El_Guerrouj.27s_800m_Personal_Best

have you anything to add to it ?

As quality runners, Ngeny and El G can be compared to Ovett and Coe, but I wouldn't say that the rivalry was of an equal interest/intensity, and I'm not even an expert on the careers of the British guys (but still know the basics). They were 'rivals' at two Olympic distances (even though on time Coe was clearly superior in the 800) whereas the two Africans were only rivals over 1,500m. Also, the Brits had their rivalry building up for some time during the late '70's, before its cresendo in Moscow. And it still continued to some extent, all the way to Los Angeles. With the recent athletes there was a build up of rivalry in '98 and '99, then of course the drama of Sydney. But after that it was next to nothing. I would argue that Ngeny was more talented than Lagat, but I would say that Lagat probably had a better rivalry with El G, given that it built up from 2000 to 2004.

It was a shame that Ngeny didn't get to go to the 2001 World Champs, even if he wasn't in the same form as earlier.

El Guerrouj might owe some of the actual records that he set to Ngeny, but Hicham would still own these records regardless of whether Ngeny was around (they might just be fractionally slower). It was really just a matter of time before he took Morceli's records. What is more interesting is whether Morceli could have gone faster. Maybe he could have also run a 3:26 at his peak if he needed to do so to run a world record (pure speculation of course)?

El G continued to have rabbits in the '01 and '03 World Champs (at least I am pretty certain of that....Kaouch I'm sure) and only didn't in '04 because no other Moroccan made the final (I am not checking the facts, but that's from my memory). So Ngeny wasn't a special case in the sense of making Hicham run in a certain way. Sure, there was no real pace on early in Athens '97, but El G was clearly superior to his opponents that year, just as Morceli was in '95.

I think that by '99 El G was such a confident runner that he just wanted to blow the field away, and his greatest strength was in a fast race all the way, or at least a very long run for home. I could still imagine him running like that in Seville without Ngeny, but then again you might be right. We will probably never really know either way.

I agree with you on the race dodging stuff.

I have heard about the 1:42 800 time also. I don't consider it that big a deal. It's believable that he could have run something like 1:42.70. I find the 800 metres world record time to be of a more interesting discussion, as I see it as the weakest of the world records. Though this is because it is out of the range of the West Africans (and their descendents) and too short to truly suit the East Africans (and to a lesser extent the North Africans). But I think that sub 1:40 is possible, especially as Coe was sub 1:42 all those years ago. When you think of how many African Americans can run a sub 45 400, it just sounds feasible that one (we'd need more to give the event a try too) freak could hold it together for sub 50's back to back.

"But I think that sub 1:40 is possible, especially as Coe was sub 1:42 all those years ago. When you think of how many African Americans can run a sub 45 400, it just sounds feasible that one (we'd need more to give the event a try too) freak could hold it together for sub 50's back to back."

...you just took away any credibility you had built for yourself with this incredibly naive statement.

The weakest record are you kidding me? only 4 people have been sub 1.42.

Do you understand anything about running. You must be one of those if only wariner ran the 800 he'd run 1.38..If he can run 43 how easy would it be to run 49 twice...

ignorant.

I'm sure that I have some ignorance concerning this sort of thing. I am just a fan of the sport, not an elite athlete or doctor, scientist, coach etc. I probably shouldn't have said that I wasn't an expert on the 800m (suggesting that I see myself as an expert on longer distances)!

I just think it surprising that someone ran 1:41.73 in 1981, and yet with all the improvements in track surfaces (admittedly the improvements were greater in this area during the 60's, 70's), running shoes, huge influx of African participation, etc, that we (males) haven't been able to improve much on this time. You could say that Coe was a freak, but then again didn't his protoge Cram run 1:42 something (and he was a better miler)? Yet are there any British guys these days breaking 1:44 (I don't take that much notice of the track scene in recent years)? I don't think that Wariner could break the 1:40, in some part because he is at the high end of the scale in terms of 400m performance. But like I was sumising, what about all those guys running 44.5-45.5. How many of those have given the 800 a shot? So I am looking at guys who have 'slightly' less fast twitch fibres that might be able to hang on okay for 2 laps.

$65 for a book??? Yeah, only if it sucks and f***s me...

Smelly wrote:

$65 for a book??? Yeah, only if it sucks and f***s me...

I agree with your comment Smelly.....in regards to $65 being far too expensive for ANY book. It's a pity I made the book a little long. I wasn't aware that my publisher was going to have to sell it at such a high price to cover their costs. Well I knew that they had to cover their costs, but I still didn't think it would end up being so pricey.

And what if it sucks and f***s you? It still wouldn't be worth it. Sure, we usually end up paying for that in some way, but definitely if you have to pay for it in such a direct and obvious manner than it isn't worth it either. $65, even for an obedient mouth and vag (for a short period of time), is NOT worth it!

Hey, at least you know that you can open a book back up any number of times. You can plough through it however many times that you like.....you only have to pay for it the first time. And my book won't play games with you....

If anyone still wants the book just let me know and I'll repost it on ebay for $40 Australian.

I may learn to read just for this book...

60secsurge wrote:

Smelly wrote:

$65 for a book??? Yeah, only if it sucks and f***s me...

And what if it sucks and f***s you? It still wouldn't be worth it. Sure, we usually end up paying for that in some way, but definitely if you have to pay for it in such a direct and obvious manner than it isn't worth it either. $65, even for an obedient mouth and vag (for a short period of time), is NOT worth it!

Hahahahaha this shit just made my day

Hello

I m the Moroccan runner Driss Dacha

Mr Greg rowlerson ,the author of moroccan success ,stayed over my place for almost 6 months in Morocco ,to help write this book

I just convinced Mr Kadda abdelkader (friend for more than 30 years )to write w/collaboration of Mr ROWLERSON a BOOK about Elguerouj ,Hissou(my neighbor)training method

this book may take between 6months to 1 year

my sport regards ,fellow runners

Which chapter is the EPO?