Honoring Meb: What was your favorite moment his career?

Although he has had success in the last 17 years, there is someone extra special I can think of who has also being the world's best since the last 17 years. Bekele has being literally the best runner in the world for the whole century so far(was quickly reaching the top in late 90s). Meb is great and has a heart of gold. He is a great Eritrean, like Zerseney Tadese, so being from there literally will make him better than American. Although I think Bekele has been the greatest runner since letsrun was discovered, he is mind boggling. I know his year has being disappointing, but still running 2:05:57 with blistered feat, hardly any training and recovering from a nasty fall followed by 14 miles of hard running, literally is way more better than anything nearly all elites will do. If Meb made a book about his career I would be interested in reading it. But if Bekele had a book literally, I'd be sprinting to the shop faster than Meb to buy it. Does anyone have any information about these runners from more then 17 years ago when they started to become really good. I'd love to learn about race performances say from mid 90s onwards, when they would have been quickly rising, especially Bekele tough? What kind of times did he run at different distances before he started winning all the cross country.

Admittedly yes, I cried when he carried that flag. But then when Zerseney Tadese raised to fame I thought, wait Tadese is literally running for his own country and not the USA, so that seemed ironic looking back, that Meb would not also be running for his own country to. But he is still great, nobody is perfect. I'm understandable in a way that he chose the USA , because it is the most famous country in the world, so being the best there will give you more success then someone at the identical running level in east Africa countries. Anyway, as I said before nobody's performance is like Bekele's achievements. Everything is just nothing compared to him.

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Banana Bread wrote:

Although he has had success in the last 17 years, there is someone extra special I can think of who has also being the world's best since the last 17 years. Bekele has being literally the best runner in the world for the whole century so far(was quickly reaching the top in late 90s). Meb is great and has a heart of gold. He is a great Eritrean, like Zerseney Tadese, so being from there literally will make him better than American. Although I think Bekele has been the greatest runner since letsrun was discovered, he is mind boggling. I know his year has being disappointing, but still running 2:05:57 with blistered feat, hardly any training and recovering from a nasty fall followed by 14 miles of hard running, literally is way more better than anything nearly all elites will do. If Meb made a book about his career I would be interested in reading it. But if Bekele had a book literally, I'd be sprinting to the shop faster than Meb to buy it. Does anyone have any information about these runners from more then 17 years ago when they started to become really good. I'd love to learn about race performances say from mid 90s onwards, when they would have been quickly rising, especially Bekele tough? What kind of times did he run at different distances before he started winning all the cross country.

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Either Boston 2014 (for obvious reasons) or maybe his last marathon at NYC. Why the NYC? Because he had to stop and walk multiple times and still finished. He clearly gave everything as he barely had enough to finish and collapsed at the finish line, but still played up the crowd as he came toward the finish. That is Meb, in a nutshell.

I remember going the Rock N Roll Las Vegas Marathon one year and there he was signing autographs. I didn't ask for one. But I pap'd him all the same. Good times.

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Banana Bread wrote:

I look forward to getting back to you next year, when literally Bekele has the marathon world record finally, as deserved and expected. Oh and also to mention sub 2 marathon if he decides to do a breaking2 next year. We will have to wait 4 years to the olympics but I'm sure the olympic gold is his, if he decides he wants to run there.

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"Remembering Meb" ... thought he died or something by this headline.

I'll share a non-running moment.

At the elite athlete meeting in 2012, Mary W. had to get up in front of the whole elite field and tell them the Marathon had been canceled due to hurricane Sandy. The room, as you can imagine, was stunned. This race represents close to 1/2 these athletes income for the year. No one knew what to do next, the room was silent, and nothing else was planned.

Without being asked, Meb goes to the podium to address is fellow athletes, and says something like the following. (paraphrased)

"Everyone in this room has been injured, and come back. And the NYCRR invited you to this great event. Well this year the NYCM is injured, and when it has recovered, me and all of you will come back."

With that he put the situation in a light that all the athletes could relate to and caused a few tears to be shed.

The moment he and Boit went for it in Boston 2014. Made an early break that stunned pretty much everyone. After Boit faded (halfway?), Meb kept getting faster and increased his lead. It was, at least to me, "old school, i'm going for the win screw what everyone else is doing" racing. He went for it and it worked. So much better than what we saw the women do at NYC this year, which is just everyone plod along until 15 or 16 miles (that being said, their plodding is still way faster than what I would have run for that mileage...ha).

Speaking to Meb's character, if in a very small way. My wife and I were having lunch in Eugene at the Trials in 2012, I believe. Meb walks in, and my impulsive self decides to interrupt his lunch and ask for an autograph (my wife didn't want me to bother him, she's much more thoughtful than I am). He politely declined, but said he would come over after lunch and provide one to us. His was not a short lunch, he takes his time, so I was ready to leave and accept that I had been a bit too aggressive. Then he arrives. He not only signs both of our gear, he spends 5 or 10 minutes with us becoming acquainted, like a friend would be! He's not in a rush to go to some function, he's treating us like another human being.
I am not sure I am getting across how this has left an impression on me, but over the years and meeting many fellow runners, famous and infamous, Meb showed interest in us and not just pushing a pen and pushing us away. Again, speaks to Meb's character. It'll be fun to see him in his next roles as a great U.S. distance runner. Enjoy yourself, Meb, you have earned it and thank you again, as well as thank you to your parents and family.

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vivalarepublica wrote:

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Banana Bread wrote:

I look forward to getting back to you next year, when literally Bekele has the marathon world record finally, as deserved and expected. Oh and also to mention sub 2 marathon if he decides to do a breaking2 next year. We will have to wait 4 years to the olympics but I'm sure the olympic gold is his, if he decides he wants to run there.

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Bekele has yet to win an unpaced marathon like the Olympics. And I could care less about marathon time trials, they are boring.

I prefer marathoners that finish their races. Go Meb.

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In 2008 I had qualified for the Olympic Trials 10k for the first time. The emotions of qualifying at a young age and the unbelievable pulse of Eugene that night was almost too much to take in. I had no ambition of making the team as Abdi, Galen, and Jorge were the obvious favorites and I was still only a 28:22 10k'er. The race had me battling Jorge's brother, Ed, for almost the entire way. It wasn't until about 300m to go that we caught then American 10k record holder, Meb Keflezighi. It was surreal for me to be passing someone who was already an icon in the sport and someone who was probably the current face of Runner's World magazine at my local running shop. But it wasn't until we finished that I came to realize how humble and respectful Meb was as a competitor. In what became my 'Mean Joe Green" moment, Meb slapped me on the back as I stood, out of breath, and said great job kid. This may not seem like a lot to most of you, but it had a profound effect on the rest of my running life. Here I was a young 28 min 10k kid that I'm sure Meb had never heard of in his life, and who he had just lost to and he still felt the need to congratulate me on beating him. This may have shocked me a bit more then you'd think, but in my early career I was shunned more from my running idols when I beat them as some upstart kid in a WV singlet that no one had heard of.

Meb's career is an interesting one. We will always remember his Olympic Medals, USA championships, USA records, when we all cried watching him win Boston, don't lie, you did. But what is interesting in a sport and world where we usually villainize the ones at the top, i.e. Galen Rupp , for not only maybe living too much in the grey area of training, but the fact that they are usually very inaccessible to the rest of us and appear cold and nonchalant about their successes; we had Meb. Meb made you care because he never hid from the rest of us how much he cared. He was honest, compassionate, and emotional every step of the way. You knew Meb was going to give everything he had to a sport he loves, but also....for some reason....he wanted you to succeed just as much. Meb has been our shining light for so very damn long in this, tiny, distance running world we live in, and it's going to be hard to say goodbye. So instead of saying that I will reciprocate the words Meb said to me 9 years ago.... Good Job Kid.

So we all know Meb ran 26 marathons...can someone list all of them (date, race, time)?

Favorite moment of his career? The moment he retired.

Boston win

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hurtin wrote:

I'll share a non-running moment.

At the elite athlete meeting in 2012, Mary W. had to get up in front of the whole elite field and tell them the Marathon had been canceled due to hurricane Sandy. The room, as you can imagine, was stunned. This race represents close to 1/2 these athletes income for the year. No one knew what to do next, the room was silent, and nothing else was planned.

Without being asked, Meb goes to the podium to address is fellow athletes, and says something like the following. (paraphrased)

"Everyone in this room has been injured, and come back. And the NYCRR invited you to this great event. Well this year the NYCM is injured, and when it has recovered, me and all of you will come back."

With that he put the situation in a light that all the athletes could relate to and caused a few tears to be shed.

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Not Really a Brojo wrote:

The moment he and Boit went for it in Boston 2014.

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In 2003 I was stationed in Hawaii with the Army. My son was a senior in high school attending Redford High School.

One of the guys in our training group was Army 2LT Mike Baskins, from San Diego, also a recent West Point grad. At the state track meet that year my son and his teammate were in the 3000m final. Both were seeded in the top 3 but were very nervous. About an hour before their race we were all sitting in the bleachers and the boys were looking like they were gonna be sick. Mike shows up and tries to get them to loosen up with no success. He thens proceeds to take out his phone and called Meb and asked him to talk with the boys. Men spent 20 minutes or so just chatting about stuff with them and got them to relax. They went out to and placed 1st and 3rd. I've spoken to Meb in recent years about that phone call and he clearly recalls talking to them. For me it just shows how kind he truly is.

This may come across as weird favorite moment, but here goes....

After the 2008 Marathon Trials, where Meb did not make the team, and much more importantly a friend of his, Ryan Shay, died, Meb showed so much grace.

We were lingering around the finish are and saw him and my girlfriend asked me if she should ask for a picture with Meb. I told her no, given the very hard day he must have been having.

She walked up to him anyway, asked for a photo, and through the sadest eyes he said, “yes.” I took the photo and they hugged. They shared this very human moment. We feel like we know Meb, but to him we were total strangers. There was this really amazing emotional energy, and I think it infers so much about the content of Meb’s character that he was willing to take the photo and more so that he sort of trusted she was going to respect and sympathize with him at that moment....and she did.

And Meb will forever be one of my favorite people on the planet, and really, it’s got nothing to do with his accomplishments, but everything to do with how he has achieved what he has.