universalsports.com - ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Twenty-one years after his first professional race and a further decade since he started trotting ten kilometers a day just to get to and from school, Ethiopian distance running great Haile Gebrselassie keeps on running. He runs every morning, and when he exchanges his track suits for a business suit, his running does not stop."Running isn't something you decide to stop," he said on Monday as he sat in his office situated inside one of his three high-rise buildings here in the Ethiopian capital. "It is like eating for me."
Gebrselassie is just days from again taking on the clock at the 2010 Standard Charted Dubai Marathon in the United Arab Emirates on Friday where he will attempt to lower his own world marathon record for the third successive year in the small, but rich Middle Eastern business hub.
Yet he manages, with seeming ease, to maintain a delicate balance between his goals on the road and business interests that many others in the sport fail to manage. In addition to training twice a day, for as long as six hours, he spends the rest of the day at the office overseeing the expansion of his business empire, and the unusual scheduling conflicts that goes with it.
"For example, most of the things I am doing today were unplanned," he says. "What I had in mind was after training in the morning was to do simple office work. But I was told there is a need for more cement and iron in one of my projects and I had to give that a priority. Usually site managers don't tell you ahead and they inform me after they run out of materials. So you can't plan all ahead for tomorrow.
"But I won't miss training for anything. I don't take any engagement or take invitations after down. Some people don't understand and complain I don't respect their invitations, but running is my top priority. It is after training I will be engaged with other things."
Training in the wee hours of the morning has been a tradition of Gebrselassie's for as long as he has been running. He usually likes to start early in the morning at 6 a.m. in one of the training locations on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, and run for as much as three hours before heading to his fitness center for a shower and massage.
He quickly dresses up into a business suit and heads upstairs to his office, where he engages himself in a series of business meetings until lunch time. The 36-year old then heads home for lunch and a nap before he goes back to training early in the afternoon. He then heads back home early in the evening to spend time with his wife and four children.
"Being a father isn't easy," he admits. "It is tough for me. It is difficult to know all the needs of your children. If you ask me why, [it is because] my children are at different ages and their needs change from time to time as they grow up and your responsibility gets more difficult and difficult."
Focus on the marathon
For the immediate future at least, Gebrselassie is focused on the marathon and this Friday's race in Dubai provides him the chance to lower his world record time of 2:03.59 under expected favorable conditions.
"You can never say for certain that you will break the world record in the marathon," he says. "I have to use all my maximum efforts. If the weather is good, I feel the Dubai Marathon will be good. I have trained well."
Gebrselassie has every reason to be freely and cautiously optimistic in equal measure about this race. He has failed to grab the record in his last two visits. Two years ago, he had the misfortune of chasing pacemakers who went too fast in the opening part of the race. Last year, he was on record pace until 30km before an unlikely rain began pouring down from skies in a place that receives an average of just three days of rain per year. Nevertheless, Gebrselassie clocked 2:04.52 and 2:05.06 in the last two years.
"Actually, I did quite well running in the rain," he said, trying to put a positive spin on last year's race. "A few years ago, I ran the London Marathon and I walked to the finish line when it started to rain and finished ninth. It was a big improvement for me."
Chasing the marathon record
No matter what happens in Dubai this week, Gebrselassie says he will continue to chase world records for as long as he can.
"I don't know when, but I know I will break my own record again," he says. "If I keep on my training as a full time job, I know I can run faster than the time I already have. If things go as planned, I will do it."
Another motivation to keep Gebrselassie going is the pursuit of world records in shorter events like the half marathon, the 20km, 25km, and 15km. Although Gebrselassie admits that he wants to attack world records at these events, he says that training for them may jeopardize his marathon prospects.
"Trainings you do for short runs like 20km and 10km really exhausts my body and might affect me for the marathon," he said. "It is easy to break 21km and 25km records, and I already have the 30km record. Shorter distances might be difficult for me now because they need intensive training, which might cause me injury on my leg. I train taking care of my leg and I don't want to get injured now."
Gebrselassie believes he is in a transitional phase of his life, but remains addicted to running.
"These days, it looks like I am changing from full time athlete to being investor," he said. "But I will never quit running. Because we work 24-7, running takes me away from all the routine. But I know through time my business will have effect on the running."
Tadele Assefa contributed to this report.
ShareThis