Gebre Gebremariam sat in the lobby of a Philadelphia hotel just hours after his second-place finish in the city's half-marathon last month. He was disappointed.
"I wanted to win," said the 26-year-old Ethiopian runner with a tired smile.
Next to him sat the third-place finisher on the women's side, Werknesh Kidane, who was far happier with her time of 1:08:30, which put her just ahead of American star Shalane Flanagan. Why was she so pleased?
"Now she has two babies, very, very beautiful babies," Mr. Gebremariam translated for his fellow Ethiopian, explaining that the 28-year-old Ms. Kidane had just returned to competitive running from a multiyear break after becoming a mother. She had led for large chunks of the race and so, he said, "she's very happy."
What he didn't need to add—but his broad smile suggested—was that the babies were also his.
Like many of the world's elite runners, Mr. Gebremariam and Ms. Kidane will be traveling to New York in November to compete in the ING New York City Marathon, where both will be making their debut at that distance. But the two Ethiopians share an unusual connection among the race's top contenders: They are also married.
After their dual strong showings in Philadelphia, Ms. Kidane, clad in a white tracksuit and delicate gold earrings, her long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, and Mr. Gebremariam, sporting cropped, curly hair, a dusting of mustache and dark straight brows, talked about their courtship and the challenges of running a household with two elite athletes and two young children.
They grew up about 70 miles apart in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. When she was 13 years old, Ms. Kidane's uncle spotted her chasing after livestock on her family's farm and convinced her mother—over strenuous objections—to allow him to move her to the capital city of Addis Ababa, where he promised to fund her education.
Her uncle was in the military, Ms. Kidane recalled, and lived on a nearby base while she stayed with his wife. But he would arrive at their house every morning between 5:30 and 6:30 to rouse Ms. Kidane for daily runs. Afraid to disobey him, she agreed.
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Associated Press
Gebre Gebremariam (7), below, in a 10K in Maine last month
"I don't know about running at that time," said the slight Ms. Kidane, as her husband translated. "I run to get the sheep, to get the goat, to follow with them very fast, but I don't know the meaning of running."
"He force her, 'You have to run, you have to run,' " added Mr. Gebremariam.
But once she started winning—and traveling to competitions outside Africa—Ms. Kidane began to realize why her uncle had pushed her so hard.
"She's very happy and she's very satisfied," Mr. Gebremariam said. "So she turn to her uncle and said, 'Oh, my uncle, he do very well.' "
Mr. Gebremariam also grew up on a farm. His family had no electricity and no running water, he recalled. He began running in high school, training in the forest where he'd run barefoot for hours. He had heard of Ms. Kidane, who by that time was a famous runner in Ethiopia, featured on television and spotlighted in newspaper articles.
He moved to the capital to advance his running career and ended up training at Ms. Kidane's club. He approached her when he arrived, unsure how to navigate the capital, new coaches, an unfamiliar training regimen.
The quiet, pretty Ms. Kidane offered advice to the young runner, who spoke the same dialect, Tigrigna, a language common in their region.
Though most of the training was segregated by gender, they spent meal times together and went on training runs during off days. They fell in love and moved in together in 2004. Two years later, on Feb. 4, 2006, they were married.
Ms. Kidane blushed and laughed when asked to describe how they fell in love.
"We work together all the time and we are in the same club," said Ms. Kidane through her husband. "Because of this I love him."
"I talk to her just like my sister," Mr. Gebremariam said. "I meet her and I'm very happy because she's famous and she's my wife."
Their quiet, understated manner and mutual support has enabled them to navigate a course that might have proved treacherous for other elite athletes, who frequently require sacrifice from the nonathletic spouse.
"They're both gentle sorts, which is interesting in athletes of their caliber," said Mary Wittenberg, the president and CEO of New York Road Runners. "They seem very suited for each other."
Family members and hired help have filled in some of the gaps, cooking and helping to care for the children. Still, Mr. Gebremariam said, their young sons frequently have their own ideas.
"They need love, they need to play with us, so we are very tired," he said, laughing.
The children crawl into bed and sleep beside their parents, watch movies from under the covers and wish their parents luck as they leave to fly off to the next competition. "It's very hard for them," he said. And, he added, "to leave them is hard for us."One thing, though, is not difficult, he said: marriage to another elite runner.
"It's easy," he said. "I know about her. She know about me and we know each other."
They aren't competitive with each other, but they do offer advice, shared during leisurely training runs through the Ethiopian forest on their off days.
"I accept her ideas and she accept my ideas, but we take the better ones," Mr. Gebremariam said, grinning.
It seems to be working. Last year, Mr. Gebremariam won a gold medal at the World Cross Country Championships.
In May, he won the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park, setting a course record time of 27:42. Ms. Wittenberg walked back with him to the hotel and made sure he had a cellphone so that he could call Ms. Kidane, who was in Manchester, England, preparing for her own 10K run the next day.
Ms. Kidane went on to win with a time of 31:19, the second-fastest women's time on the course since the race was inaugurated in 2003.
It was during a luncheon held in conjunction with Central Park 10K that Ms. Wittenberg said she broached the idea of the couple making a double debut this November.
"He said, 'That's actually our preference, we'd like to both be in New York.' " Ms. Wittenberg recalled. "I was really happy and a little surprised."
Both will face long odds. No one has won the New York race in a marathon debut since Tegla Loroupe stunned the field in 1994.
But Ms. Wittenberg isn't counting out Mr. Gebremariam, who started 2010 with four straight wins before finishing second in Philadelphia, or Ms. Kidane, who has finally achieved peak conditioning since returning from pregnancy and still holds the women's record for most medals at the World Cross Country Championships.
"They are very much legitimate threats," Ms. Wittenberg said. "To have a couple that's able to be on the podium and in their ideal situation win the race is unheard of."
For their part, Ms. Kidane surprised her husband during an interview with a reporter, announcing that winning the same marathon—either this one, or perhaps their second attempt some time in the future—was her intention all along.
"We have an idea to win together," Mr. Gebremariam translated for his wife. "That's the goal."
He laughed. "Not me," he said.
If all goes well, he may not have a choice.
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