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Bekele's Tough Transition to the Marathon

Published by
DyeStatPRO.com   Dec 18th 2014, 6:14pm
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Kenenisa Bekele's Wake-Up Call

Published by Running Times on December 16, 2014

Kenenisa Bekele announced this week that he will chase a PR on January 23, 2015 at the Dubai Marathon, under his new coach Renato Canova. This comes after a disappointing performance at the 2014 Chicago Marathon, from the man who owns the world records at 5,000m and 10,000m, three Olympic gold medals and 11 world cross country titles. For a moment in October, he appeared mortal and that is where Running Times found him, contemplating his future in competing at the perplexing distance.

***

It’s 2:30 p.m. on a sunny Chicago Sunday, and the greatest distance runner of this generation is asleep. This is an immediate, face-to-the-pillow, one-minute-you’re-getting-dressed-and-then-you’re-horizontal kind of sleep. It is a sleep without dreams.

Several floors below, running celebrities and amateurs alike mill around the Hilton Chicago’s concourse in various states of disrepair after that morning’s 2014 Chicago Marathon. Men’s champion Eliud Kipchoge is reclining on carpeted stairs beside his training partner, Bernard Koech. They laugh and chat in Swahili while U.S. Olympians Deena Kastor and Dathan Ritzenhein—brought in for publicity—line up for coffee across the hall. Five-hour marathoners with large medals draped around their necks enter the hotel and head straight for the elevators. Carey Pinkowski, race director, is chatting up one of the world’s most powerful agents. 

Everywhere there is hustle and bustle and Mylar, except upstairs where Kenenisa Bekele sleeps in silence. He’s just run 2:05:51 for fourth place in his second marathon, 47 seconds slower than his debut at the 2014 Paris Marathon in April. 

Jet-lagged. Exhausted. Inexperienced. Undertrained. The explanations for his lackluster performance—and, by extension, this nap—swirl online and downstairs among the media, coaches and runners. When push came to shove, a trio of Kenyans ran away from Bekele. His coronation as the GOAT—Greatest of All Time—is on hold. 



Read the full article at: www.runnersworld.com

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