A Review Of Fasil’s New York City Marathon

[Scott Simmons]

A Review Of Fasil’s New York City Marathon

While many of you cheered on Fasil from home as he raced and finished the New York City Marathon, I can say that both of us, Fasil and myself, limped away unhappy with the ultimate outcome, a 2-hour 30-minute time and much less competitive than we had hoped. That he finished such a long race that started to go bad so early, at 10-miles in fact, is a testament to his tenacity and strong will. When I asked him afterwards as he sat exhausted on the couch of his hotel room why he didn’t just drop out, Fasil responded that he has never quit any race in his fifteen-year running career. That says a lot about him.

To put our disappointment into perspective we need to look at the day’s champion, Meb Kheflizigi. Meb won the New York City Marathon in a personal best time of 2:09 after struggling through a year of injuries, becoming the first American winner in New York in 27 years. What an accomplishment! But as excited as we are for Meb’s achievement, you can understand Fasil’s disappointment in light of the fact that in 2007 Fasil out-kicked Meb for second place at the U.S. ½ Marathon Championships. Fasil’s dreams for the past six-months have been on him performing at a level he had never before. That did not happen and not for lack of trying. He trained very hard.

As members of Twit2Fit, we all set personal goals that for us are equally challenging. Whether it’s losing 20-pounds or finishing a 10k, if we fail in our attempts we feel the same as Fasil. As a coach, it is my role to always look for the silver lining even when the storm is heaviest.

What can we say are positive outcomes of Fasil’s marathon experience? While for one, we can learn from what happened. As a matter of fact today we talked about exactly that… what went wrong in training and how we can adjust for the future. Indeed, we tried some new training techniques and learned that the timing of them is most crucial. Fasil learned a lot about himself and his philosophy through this very tough training. He pushed himself in ways that he had never done before.

We can learn from Meb’s own struggles and his late-in-career success. Meb had not won a marathon until Sunday and most people had written him off a year ago. And that is what makes his success even more meaningful today. The sport of distance running at its most basic is nothing more than overcoming adversity. And if Fasil sticks with it, he will have his day. So will we all if we just keep trying.

Having coached Fasil for several years I can also point to other aspects of the process that were personally rewarding for him. Fasil has lived and trained in Flagstaff, Arizona since 2006 which has kept him at quite a distance, both geographically and personally, from his parents and younger brother in Indianapolis and his older brother here in Charlotte. His training plan for this marathon, however, had him spend nearly six weeks at sea-level in Charlotte living with his brother and his brother’s new family that includes Fasil’s 9-month old nephew Caleb. During that time, grandmother Bizuneh also visited giving Fasil rich and rare family time.

There are several other positive results for Fasil and I, both, as a result of his training efforts to realize a great marathon performance in New York besides that elusive great finish. And even as of today we are both asking, “Where do we go from here?” We aren’t quite sure just as of yet as his legs are not in a state to begin training again, but we have discussed several options. We will keep you posted as he first concentrates on recovery and then moves onto planning his next goals. I guess the biggest lesson to learn is that you have to keep on trying. You only truly lose if you give up. And as we all know now, Fasil is not a quitter.