Haile Gebrselassie

Today I came across this documentary on Haile Gebrselassie, one of Ethiopia's national heros. He has won many medals in the past for distance running and is the current men's marathon world record holder with a time of 2:04:26. Unfortunately, because of Beijing's air pollution levels, Gebrselassie decided to withdraw from the marathon there. At the end of this Sept he is to participate in the Berlin marathon.

In the documentary he talks about how as a child growing up on a farm there was a period of 10 yrs where he had to run ten kilometres to school each day and another ten kilometres back home. As a result he explains how he still runs with his left arm crooked as though he is carrying his school books. Wow, 20K each day as a child, that tops any story my parents have ever told me about walking through snow banks to get to school.

- Part 1 -


- Part 2 -


- Part 3 -