Boston bound: Defending Champ Merga Unlikely to Repeat

by Scott Douglas/Running Times

When Deriba Merga won the Boston Marathon last year, you wouldn’t have called him a surprise winner, as he had set a course record at the Houston Marathon three months earlier and had sub-hour half marathon credentials to his credit. But with a history of aggressive racing that often ends in not finishing, he wasn’t an obvious choice to prevail on the patience-rewarding Boston course. If he repeats as champion on Monday, however, that will definitely go down as a surprise.

Speaking through an interpreter at Friday’s elite press conference, Merga talked of family troubles at home in Ethiopia that have interfered with his training and racing. “I have had family troubles that I have had to spend time on,” he said. “This is 350 kilometers from Addis Ababa,” the Ethiopian capital where Merga prefers to train. Merga declined to say what the “family troubles” are, but they’ve been going on for most of the last year since his triumphal day in Boston.

Asked about his fitness this year compared to last year, Merga said, “I have not full confidence with my training this year.” His most recent race was a win at a 15K road race at altitude in Ethiopia, in a village 600 kilometers from Addis Ababa. His last international appearance was at February’s Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates. There Merga ran with the leaders through 18 kilometers before stepping off the course with less than 2 miles remaining.

Then again, maybe we shouldn’t read too much into Merga’s latest DNF, as he’s been known to not finish races even when in superb shape. “I always aim to win or break a world record,” Merga explained, “but I never finish unless I will finish in the top 3. If I anticipate ahead of time that I will not be top 3, I quit. That is my philosophy.”

Merga has one other bit of philosophy to share, this one more endearing. His fingernails are trimmed except for that of the pinky finger on his left hand. “When I was a child, they were all long,” he explained. “I keep this one long so that I remember my childhood and where I came from.”