Exciting news for marathoners! Gebrselassie announced today that he will run his first marathon on US soil. See article below from ESPN.
Gebrselassie to run New York Marathon
NEW YORK -- Haile Gebrselassie, the world record-holder in the marathon, announced that he will run the New York City Marathon this fall.
"I have to run New York," he said Wednesday.
He has an eye on the record here, set by Tesfaye Jifar in 2001. When asked if he thought he'd break it, Gebrselassie said simply, "We'll see," with a telling smile.
Gebrselassie, 37, was at Icahn's Stadium for a New York Road Runners event with hundreds of fifth-graders.
This will be his first time running the NYC Marathon, although in 2007 he ran the NYRR half-marathon. He set the marathon world record of 2 hours, three minutes and 59 seconds in 2008 in Berlin, a time 3 minutes faster than the current NYC record.
The internationally acclaimed distance runner from Ethiopia has won 124 world-class races, but only a few in the United States.
"It's pretty much a thrill of a lifetime for us to host Haile in the marathon," NYRR CEO Mary Whittenberg said.
