The man is here in Singapore this weekend, he’s running Stan Chart with us all on Sunday.
So I thought it would be great to finish the series of running heroes with a real legend of the long distance scene.
Haile was born in 1973, one of ten children in Asella, Ethiopia. Legend has it he ran 10k each way to school as a boy, which contributed to his unique crooked left arm runnign style, apparently due to carrying books to school as he ran.
Not much has been recorded about his childhood, but aged 18 he won the 5k and 10k at the Youth World Championships – this set the tone for a glittering 1990’s, when he won 4 world championships and 2 olympic gold’s at 10,000m and was pretty much unbeatable over 5000 and 10,000 metres.
His track career came to an end in 2004, when he failed in his quest to win gold three olympics in a row at 10,000m, beaten by his protege Kenise Bekele – with a pretty impressive set of PB’s : 5k 12.41 10K 26.22
At the grand old age of 31, Haile did what many of us do in our thirties – he started road running, specifically marathoning.
Except unlike us, he started at the top – and stayed there.
Haile and I have one thing in common……we both made our marathon debut in the 2002 London Marathon. That’s where the similarities end though, whilst I was very happy with 3:32 and something like 2000th place, Haile was finishing 1 hour and 26 minutes ahead of me, in 3rd place.
He then won 9 Global Marathons over the next 8 years, winning the Berlin Marathon a record 4 times and setting a then World Record of 2:03:59 aong the way.
Eventually, time has caught up with Haile and he isnt winning marathons any longer, but he is still keeping the young guys honest and can still run a sub 2:06 at the age of 40.
What next for Haile?
From his twitter feed it seems a career in Ethiopian politics is possible
“A lot of messages in the news about me going into politics. Yes, I want to be in the parliament in 2015 to help my country to move forward.”
There’s no doubt in my mind he will be successful.
Meanwhile, Haile and I will do another race together this weekend, although I’ll be sticking to the 42k while he steps down to the 10k.
Maybe I can take that as my own little victory over the great man 🙂
That’s the end of my series, I hope you have enjoyed reading about my running heroes, Pre, Steve Ovett and Haile Gebreselassie – all individuals, all talents, all amazingly inspirational!
Good luck to everyone running on Sunday, may the force be with you.
great writeup …. and the timing of the post is immaculate !
all the best for your run tomorrow John !
i sense a PB on the cards …..
cheers Jason, all the best to you too! fast times for us all!
Nice article.
The one important fact you missed is that Haile’s favourite running tune is ‘Scatman’ by the now sadly departed Scatman John. I remember watching him trying to break an indoor world record on more than one ocassion at the NIA in Birmingham and they put that tune on the PA system to spur him on. I think it worked at least once. He was probably quoted afterwards as saying he couldn’t have done it without Scatman….
Not just the greatest male distance runner of my youth, but also outstanding music taste.
and that, my friends, is the beauty of social media!
I had no idea he was a fan of such a fine tune, but now the image of you and him humming along to bebedeedeedeedeebabadoodapbop will surely motivate me even more tomorrow morning 🙂
Have a great run, see u at the padang
great post. now i know the story behind most raved runner in town -> haile!
Sorry I’m late to the party… hope you had a good run yesterday!
Also, can’t believe Haile clocked 30 minutes in 10km given the atrocious heat.
Thanks for the write up. Being new to running, most of these guys don’t mean much to me but reading about their story gives me an insight to a whole new set of athletes I didn’t know about before. Hope you had a great run. Mine left a lot to be desired but enjoyed the event anyway. Cheers.