NYC bound: Bolota Asmerom

Bolota Asmerom, who was fourth in the 5000 at the 2009 USATF Championships on the track in 13:24.00 and second in the USA 5K on the roads in Providence, will run at the USA Men's Marathon Championships, which are in conjunction with the ING New York City Marathon on November 1. Asmerom, 31, made his marathon debut in New York in 2008 with a 2:16:37 for tenth place. He's been third twice at the USA 8K on the roads in New York. His personal best for 5000 meters is 13:15.16. Asmerom was fourth in the 5000 at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and third in the 2004 Trials but did not have a qualifying time to get him to the Athens Games. He came to the U.S. in 1989 from what is now Eritrea, and before becoming a U.S. citizen, he competed for that country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, running in the first round of the 5000. He has represented the U.S. twice in the 3000 at the World Indoor Championships. Asmerom attended the University of California-Berkeley; he was the 2001 Pac-10 champion in the 5000 and a runnerup at the NCAA Championships. He resides in Oakland, California.

This is your second marathon. Obviously, last year's in New York City came after your track season. Were you pretty happy with your build-up to the marathon, and did you think you got through the 26.2 miles okay or did you start to have problems near the end?
Bolota Asmerom: I wasn't as prepared as I should have been, but I was starting to get the hang of the workouts and felt I had a better chance of running around 2:12, maybe 2:13. But a couple of nights before the race, I didn't sleep well, and then halfway through the race, I realized I wore the wrong shoes because they were way too thin. I was making all these rookie mistakes, like equipment stuff. The first half was okay. I think we went through in 66-something. And then in the second half, the pounding started to get to my legs and I was just hanging on. I was happy with it, though, because I was able to finish. I wasn't the only one to feel bad that day, I guess, because I got tenth place. So a lot of guys were having a rough day also.

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