Haile Gebrselassie is Awesome!

Haile Gebrselassie won the Berlin Marathon this past weekend in a time of 2:06:08. He was trying to break his own world record of 2:03:59 (set last year in Berlin). He was on record pace through 33km, but faltered and ended up with "just" a win and a finish time of 2:06. Immediately after the race he said, "I was very tired, I pushed too much.” That's an understatement. This guy is simply awesome! One of my all-time favorite runners and probably one of the friendliest and nicest runners alive. Not a hint of arrogance in this man. Haile is 36 years old and keeps cranking out win after win at near world-record times. I hope he is still competing in the 2012 Olympics.

If you want to learn a bit more about Gebrselassie, especially his early life, check out the 1999 film "Endurance." It has some great scenery from Ethiopia and an interesting back-story for this Olympian and world champion. Very motivational.

Here is a clip from the post-race press conference (via YouTube):