The Great One is going for it this weekend at the Phoenix 1/2 marathon. I hope that anyone going will be able to see history in the making when Geb goes for the 1/2 marathon world record. To go sub 59:17 he will have to do better than 4:30 miles the whole way for 13.1 miles! Yikes!
Fleck
In my opinion he’s the best overall distance runner ever.
If I did not have plans for this weekend, I was thinking of jumping on a plane just to catch this live. I have never seen him run in person.
Fleck
Two of my friends from school here in Iowa are running the full marathon. He’s looking to run 2:30, she’s looking for 2:46. You might say they are a fast couple.
And he defines sportmanship…an overall great person.
Bekele is already a better overall distance runner than Geb…
in terms of records yes, hard to judge different eras against each other, though these two are racing against each other now they are at way different ends of their careers. I am a huge bekele fan though
Not just records, but you also have to factor in Bekele’s XC world titles…Geb never did anything off the track.
Ben and his wife are fast, no doubt.
I still can’t agree with you after watching the 96 olympics…10k against Tergat…24.3 last 200. Stunning. He willed himself to victory. Apples and oranges my friend.
Eric
Guess we’ll see in April when geb/tergat race head to head again.
And BTW, in Athens Bekele ran a 53 second last lap…and Geb finished 5th.
Anyone know if we can catch this on TV?
–Marcus George, President
UCLA Triathlon
http://www.triathlon.ucla.edu
Not that it is relevant…but let’s remember Bekele is Gebrselassie’s protege. Bekele is indebted to him. That’s not to say Bekele would not have become the world’s best runner, but I do believe the path would have been much much much harder for him otherwise.
I disagree with you. Yes, Ken has a little faster times at the 5k & 10K but you look judge both of them in their primes from 1500 - Marathon Haile would prevail… Also, remember times don’t mean everything it’s winning races. Also, keep in mind we Ken & Haile went through their head to head battles Ken was in his prime and Haile was on his way out.
Don’t get me wrong Ken is an awesome runner and none compare except Haile.
This sounds like a lot of hype. Geb is one of the greatest ever, but he probably not in the top three in the world anymore at any distance. I was at the Boston Indoor games two years ago when he was “going for a 3000m WR” and he didn’t even win the race. It was still a great race to watch and if you get a chance to see him run it is well worth it, but his record setting days are over.
That may be. His track days certainly are over. He is 33 now I think. But searching I see his 2:06.20 marathon was run just a year ago so who knows how sharp he will be. He has 2 more years to get a 1/2 or full world record. Regardless he is about the greatest.
Bekele had a great race today at the Edinburgh Cross country International sprinting clear of Shaheen who kept trying to surge clear but couldn’t drop Bekele. Tadesse came in 3rd with have lost contact on the last lap when Shaheen put in a big sprint.
Taking distance guys in their prime I’ll go with Said Aouita.
Unless you count numerous road world records and wins as something ;-).
Styrrell
Gebrselassie Prepares to Rock Desert Ethiopian legend to seek half-marathon mark in Valley
Jeff Metcalfe
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 16, 2005 12:00 AM
The music is pumping in the Little Emperor’s home gym in Addis Ababa, so loud that he apologizes for the noise to a caller from the United States.
It’s 6:30 p.m. Ethiopia time. Haile Gebrselassie is finishing his second workout of the day. The first was a 44K (27.2-mile) run at a place that the locals call 4,000 feet, meaning 4,000 above Addis Ababa, which sits at a Flagstaff-like elevation of 7,000 feet. That’s like running a marathon at the African training pace above the timberline of Humphreys Peak, where most hikers are winded.
Fellow Ethiopian Millon Wolde returned from such an endeavor with foam and blood flecks on his lips, begging for water. He’s the 2000 Olympic 5,000-meter champion. advertisement
“That’s what he’s doing,” Elite Racing’s Mike Long said of Gebrselassie. “That’s how motivated he is. It’s amazing when you see his house. It’s the nicest I’ve ever been in. He has a beautiful family and successful businesses, but the first thing in the morning he’s out the door for hellacious training sessions.”
All with Arizona in mind.
By the time he gets to Phoenix next month, the 5-foot-3 Gebrselassie expects to be in world-record half-marathon shape. If he runs faster than 59 minutes, 16 seconds on the back half of the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon course on Jan. 15, he’ll set his 19th world record. That would push him past the great Emil Zátopek, the Czech legend who won triple gold at the 1952 Olympics in the 5,000-meter, 10,000 and marathon; and within three of Paavo Nurmi, who won nine Olympic gold medals for Finland in the 1920s.
“It’s good for the collection,” Gebrselassie joked. “World records are something special. It’s a pride thing. I like to do something special. One thing I want to tell you about breaking a world record: You have to be in shape and have the right weather and a good course. Then it’s easy to do something special.”
Long first met Gebrselassie seven years ago when Long began traveling to Africa to recruit runners for Elite’s music marathons. To sign Gebrselassie for just his fourth appearance ever in the United States and first road race is a coup for Elite and for Phoenix, which is without a running world record since Arturo Barrios’ 1986 mark for a 10K loop course. Galvanizing his country
“We’ve gotten him all the information on weather patterns and wind direction in January,” Long said. "He’s pored over it. This is a serious, serious attempt at the record. He’s left nothing to chance and didn’t pick this race lightly. It really legitimizes Phoenix as a big-time event.
“Anybody that knows the sport knows that he’s an icon. He’s not only in my mind the greatest distance runner in history, but he’s a great, great man who’s done so much for his country.”
Gebrselassie, 32, founded the Great Ethiopian Run and uses the event to partner with UNICEF in combating AIDS in his country. He supports famine relief and Ethiopian orphans. His family-operated construction company builds schools. Some believe the boy who grew up as one of 10 children in a one-room mud hut eventually will rise to become president or prime minister of Ethiopia.
“When I help people, I help myself,” Gebrselassie told the New York Times in 2004. “I can’t change a country as a single person, but I have to do my part.”
What Gebrselassie still can do is galvanize his country - such as after his first Olympic 10,000 gold medal in 1996, when an estimated million people greeted his return and airport proposal to his wife, Alem. ‘It’s a big thing’
Gebrselassie is chasing Kenyan Paul Tergat, who holds the world marathon record (2:04:55). Wind knocked down Gebrselassie’s chance to better that in Amsterdam Oct. 16, but he still ran the best time of the year (2:06:20).
Tergat has run 59:17 in the half-marathon, the existing world record until the international track federation (IAAF) ratifies Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru’s 59:16.
“I am not so happy,” Gebrselassie said after Amsterdam, a remark that started Long thinking about pitching a try at the half-marathon record. Long knew that Gebrselassie was contractually bound to run in the London Marathon in April, but that “was a long time to wait. He was just chomping at the bit to go and get something else done.”
Jos Hermes, Gebrselassie’s agent, and Long began talks about the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona 1/2 Marathon. The course, however, is not IAAF world-record eligible, so Elite Racing will set up a separate start line near 44th Streetand Thomas.
“We’d like to have 12 to 15 people in this race,” Long said. “We especially want to get some Americans, so they can say I was there when.”
Some who train regularly with Gebrselassie will be here, and other Africans are asking to participate.
“It’s a big thing in the athletics world,” Long said.
Gebrselassie, whose only U.S. race since the 1996 Olympics was at the Boston Indoor Games in 2004, must average faster than 4 minutes, 32 seconds per mile over 13.1 miles to succeed.
“Since I start road racing, it’s a possibility to run many competitions in the U.S.,” said Gebrselassie, who plans to race at least through the 2008 Olympic marathon. “This is the beginning. When I come to Phoenix, I’ll be perfect.” Haile Gebrselassie Pronunciation: HI-lee GEB-ra-sal-lah-see. Age: 32 Country: Ethiopia. Career highlights: 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000-meter champion; 1993, '95, '97, '99 World Championships 10,000 winner; 2001 World Championships half-marathon winner. 2005 highlights: World-best marathon time (2 hours, 6 minutes, 20 seconds); world-best 15K (41:57); world-best 10-mile (44:24). Third in IAAF road running rankings. Personal: Father of three daughters and a newborn son, Nathan, who was to have been nicknamed Amsterdam if Gebrselassie set the world marathon record in October at the Amsterdam Marathon. He was on pace at the half-marathon but slowed by wind over the final half to miss the record by 85 seconds. His story through the 1996 Olympics is told in the Disney movie Endurance. Runs with a crooked left arm because of carrying books while running six miles to and from school as a child.
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Napoleon
Unless you count numerous road world records and wins as something ;-).
Styrrell