Eradicate poverty. This is all that matters in my country. When I am out training I think about this a lot; when I am running it is going over in my mind. As a country we cannot move forward until we eradicate poverty.
This is what I wanted. They tell me that London is the best field in history. I wanted to be part of that. Because everyone will be there it will be a wonderful challenge for me. You can see the best runners, how they look, how they run. For me to beat the best is what counts.
What can you do if a part of it is uphill? You can’t work out another route. You’ve just got to run the one they give you. But they tell me London is a nice course. Even the cobbles, I hope, are not very much of a problem for me.
What is important is to win.
You know, I want to help my country. Definitely I can help them, simply by winning races. Sure, they can follow my path to a good career. But for me it is not enough. I want to be more than that. In everything I want to be a role model.
I haven’t done a marathon for a long time. So we’ll see. I will need good luck.
If I don’t train enough, of course I’m nervous.
I want to go down in history.
In the marathon a crazy athlete can just keep pushing from the beginning, at a championship you don’t need a time just to win the race.
My father didn’t think running was sensible. He told me running is just wasting time.
Many people know that Ethiopia is poor. When I break a world record, maybe people get to know something else about Ethiopia, something good. We can’t make planes or cars, we don’t have the materials. We do what we can.
I feel a social responsibility. We need to open people’s eyes. There is a lack of education in Ethiopia.
I want to avoid injuries by running only road.
At the end of the day, people want to see how fast you run.
Athletes have to be confident and I am thinking like that.
I wanted to be famous. I wanted people to talk about me.
I have seen things few of my countrymen have. The first time I went on an aeroplane I couldn’t work out how the lavatories worked up in the sky.
If you are a really good marathoner, you have to run New York.
I remember in particular my first victory when I achieved a very fast time in what were perfect conditions but since then the wind has always been a factor against me.
When I run in Ethiopia, I look out and see eucalyptus trees and rivers.