Haile Gebrselassie, the greatest road runner ever on two feet, on Sunday will race the New York City Marathon for the first time. And yesterday, for the last time, the defending champion warned the world record holder he’s in for an uphill battle.
“Haile is Haile,” said Meb Keflezighi, “but New York is New York.”
If that sounds a little cold, you should know Keflezighi does 15-minute sessions in ice baths.
Yikes, when Keflezighi last November became the first American to win New York since Alberto Salazar in 1982, we all got goosebumps, naturally. But except to guess that the snow-melt creek where Meb does his soft-tissue recovery in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., is almost as chilly as Brian Cashman’s box when Joe Torre drops by, do we really have any idea?
“The first three minutes are the toughest,” said Keflezighi. “And, especially when you haven’t done it for a long time, the first three or four days are brutal.
“I told my wife, ‘One thing about retirement, I won’t have to sit in an ice bath.’
“I read my Bible. It becomes like brushing your teeth every day.”
With a cement slab maybe. But if that’s what it took for an American male to win after such a numbingly long time, then that’s what it took, just like it will require a comparable effort Sunday to hold off Gebrselassie; 2006 and 2008 New York winner Marilson Gomes dos Santos; plus 2004 winner Hendrick Ramaala and become the first repeat NYC champion since John Kagwe in 1997-98.
His third top-three finish here hit the jackpot. But after the cheering stopped Keflezighi fell on — what else? — ice and took time to heal knee tendinitis and a quad tear. He still finished fifth in Boston, and says he is in superior shape to 2006 when he ran 20th here with a hamstring pull.
This guy recovered from a fractured pelvis to win silver at the Athens Olympics in 2008. Obviously they haven’t filled a bucket yet with enough cubes to douse Keflezighi’s ardor.
“He’s a coach’s dream,” said Bob Larsen, who has trained Keflezighi following his days at UCLA, which followed hard days in war-torn Eritrea for a family with 10 children.
“He not only will do everything you suggest as totally as possible but then delivers on race days.
“Sometime you have athletes come up short on race days so you wonder ‘Were the workouts and sleep right, the way you set up the race in the athlete’s mind correct?’ Meb, you get what’s in his tank that day,” Larsen said.
“He has been very good at handling surges in a calm fashion and saving something for the end.”
We’ll see what he is saving for Gebrselassie who, it says here, will go down like the Titanic when he challenges Keflezighi down Fifth Avenue.
Whatever happens, afterwards Meb will settle into a bathtub to prepare for Boston.
“Bought all these icebags once, and the clerk said ‘that’s going to be quite the party,’ ” Keflezighi recalled. “I said. ‘Not the kind you think.’ ”
The guy’s career has been on the rocks so many times. And, at 35, he’s kicking probably better than ever.