To hear Meb Keflezighi tell it, his triumphant run through the Five Boroughs in last autumn's ING New York City Marathon was a dream come true. But the year of prosperity that has come as a result of that victory, has far exceeded his wildest expectations.
"So many great things have happened since New York," Keflezighi said. "It is such an honor to be the defending champion."
With that honor, has come more outside responsibility than Keflezighi has ever experienced, including after his silver-medal victory at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
There have been appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, and on a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. He has been inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame, has signed new endorsement deals with Sony, Subway, and Generation UCan, and has started a foundation to promote health, fitness, and education. His biography, Run to Overcome hits bookstores on Nov. 1.
You might think that all of these outside opportunities have to be detracting from Keflezighi's training or, at the very least, his recovery time.
Rest assured, the 35-year-old is as focused as ever on repeating as champion on Nov. 7.
"I don't look at any of these as being a distraction," Keflezighi said. "I always say that unlike pilots or CEOs or other people who travel, the beauty of our sport is that you can take it with you. We don't need to take equipment. It's just your shoes and your tights, if it's cold, or your shorts and t-shirt. I'm not going to lie, there are more demands on my time, but people are also understanding about me making sure that I put my training first because they know that the best thing is for me to perform."
If there has been any hiccup to Keflezighi's training, injury has been the cause.
Over the winter, he slipped on a patch of black ice while leaving the gym following a late training session one night. A short time later, he slipped and fell on ice again while cleaning snow off his car. The two falls resulted in knee pain that kept him out of training which in turn yielded a fifth-place finish in 2:09:26 at the Boston Marathon in April.
"I didn't see the video but people said I hobbled in," Keflezighi explained. "I did an MRI on my knee after ward and everything was fine, my tendons were great. It turned out to be a longitudinal tear up higher in my quad, so we misdiagnosed that one. That injury kept me out for a while, because I was very careful with it."
After Boston, Keflezighi was committed to run the inaugural Rock ‘n Roll in San Diego Half-Marathon, the Bix 7-miler and the Falmouth Road Race, but scratched from each one as a precaution. That manifested itself at the San Jose Half-Marathon last month, where he won in 1:01:45, a time 45 seconds slower than he ran in 2009. Nevertheless, Keflezighi feels like that one race was enough to sharpen up.
"Before Athens and before New York in '04 and '05 when I finished second and third, I really didn't have any tune-up races," he said. "In the marathon, you can go the race pace or faster at altitude or in training, so if you have the time and it fits in to have a tune-up, great. But I don't think it's necessary."
In a year where so much in Keflezighi's life has changed, the one constant remains his confidence.
"I personally think I'm ready," he said. "There are going to be many factors with how the race strategy is going to go. But in terms of fitness, I feel like I am ready to run faster than last year."
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