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June 02, 2010

Haile to Run the ING New York City Marathon!

Written by Kate Tenforde

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

By Jane McManus
ESPNNewYork.com
Archive

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.

Last modified on October 10, 2010
Kate Tenforde

Kate Tenforde

2004 Olympian Kate O’Neill Tenforde joined the runcoach staff in April, 2010. Having grown up outside of Boston, her earliest running memory is traveling downtown every spring to watch the end of the Boston Marathon.

Kate competed for Yale University, where she was a seven-time All-American, ten-time Ivy League Champion, and was named NCAA Woman of the Year for Connecticut in 2003. During Kate’s senior year she was a three-time runner-up at the NCAA championships. She was also awarded Academic All-American honors three times and was a two-time Academic All-Ivy.

In the lead up to the 2004 Olympics, she dropped over a minute from her previous best in the 10,000 meters, with a time of 31:34 which eclipsed the Olympic A qualifying standard. She later cinched her spot on the Olympic roster by finishing third at the 2004 Olympic Trials and finished the year ranked third for American women at the distance.

In 2007, Kate made her marathon debut at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon and finished 3rd. In 2010 she returned to competition after a long layoff due to injury and finished 7th at the Bay to Breakers and 14th at the Peachtree Road Race.

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