Gebrselassie is to athletics what Lance Armstrong is to cycling. I really admire this guy. He sets a goal and achieves it through sheer iron will. Awesome.
Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia again showed why many consider him the greatest distance runner ever, breaking his own world record in the marathon in Berlin on Sunday and becoming the first person to run the 26.2-mile race under 2 hours 4 minutes.
With a victory on the accommodatingly flat course in 2:03:59, Gebrselassie shattered by 27 seconds his previous mark of 2:04:26, run last year in Berlin. Last month, Gebrselassie skipped the Olympic marathon in Beijing, fearing — perhaps too alarmingly, in retrospect — that the air pollution would exacerbate his problems with asthma. Instead, he signed to run in Berlin.
“I’m so happy,” Gebrselassie told reporters. “Everything was perfect. I started again a week ago, and had some doubts today, but in the end everything was fine.”
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clipped from www.nytimes.com
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