{"id":18753,"date":"2026-03-11T06:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T06:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/meb-keflezighi-keeps-running-towards-success\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:06:26","slug":"meb-keflezighi-keeps-running-towards-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/entertainment\/sports\/meb-keflezighi-keeps-running-towards-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Meb Keflezighi Keeps Running Towards Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was one of the favorites to win the race that cool November day in New York City, the marathon to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d won the silver medal in Athens, and now my sights were set on Beijing 2008. All I needed was to finish in the top three here. I got off to a good start, looping around Central Park. I was in the front of the pack, right where I wanted to be. I felt good.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: HOW DANELL LEYVA IS CONTINUING A LEGACY<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Suddenly there was pain in my calves followed by a sharp pain in my right hip. Run through it<\/em>, I tried to convince myself. Ignore the pain. But it got worse. By mile 12 I knew I couldn\u2019t win the race. If I kept going, doing the best I could, maybe I could hang on to second place.<\/p>\n

One runner passed me. Then another. And another. By the end, guys were going by me like I was standing still. I came in eighth. No chance of making the Olympics, even as an alternate. I hobbled away from the finish line. The pain was excruciating.<\/p>\n

A friend rushed up to me. His face looked serious, and I assumed he was worried about me. Instead he asked, \u201cDid you hear about Ryan?\u201d Ryan Shay was a good friend, one of my training partners. He\u2019d been right next to me on the bus ride to the race. I shook my head.<\/p>\n

\u201cRyan collapsed maybe five miles in,\u201d he said. \u201cA heart attack. They couldn\u2019t do anything for him. He died.\u201d<\/p>\n

My mind refused to accept it. No, not Ryan. How could Ryan be dead?<\/em><\/p>\n

He and I had trained together in Mammoth, California, with Running USA, racing through the hot dry summer, the autumn when the aspens shimmered, the winter when we raced over snow.<\/p>\n

He was one of the strongest, toughest guys I knew. He\u2019d just gotten married. He had so much to live for. And now\u2026<\/p>\n

I went to pieces. Tears came so hard I couldn\u2019t stop them.<\/p>\n

My friend helped me to a taxi and took me back to my hotel. The pain in my hip had grown so bad I had to crawl around my room on my hands and knees. But the emotional anguish of losing my friend, that was even worse.<\/p>\n

My wife, Yordanos, tried to comfort me. \u201cMeb, you don\u2019t have to keep running. You have a college diploma. There are other things you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

True, I had a degree in communications. I could find a job in that field. But I kept thinking of something my father told me when I was growing up, \u201cGod has great plans for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only God could have brought my family safely from Africa to America, only he could have given me my talent for running. Was I wrong to believe he wanted me to make something more of that gift?<\/p>\n

READ MORE: DAGMARA WOZNIAK’S OLYMPIC JOURNEY IS THE AMERICAN DREAM<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If it hadn\u2019t been for the grace of God, I wouldn\u2019t have been running for America, or even running at all. I might still be in the farming village where I was born in Eritrea, a small country on the horn of Africa.<\/p>\n

We lived in a stone hut with no running water, no electricity, no TV, no phone. All my family had were a few cows, donkeys, sheep and goats. And the six of us children had the faith our parents nurtured in us.<\/p>\n

My father had been a freedom fighter in the war against Ethiopia and it wasn\u2019t safe for him in Eritrea. When I was five, he had to flee for his life. \u201cHow long will it be until we see you again?\u201d my oldest brother asked. My father couldn\u2019t answer. He hid his face, not wanting us to see him crying.<\/p>\n

After spending two years in Sudan, he settled in Italy and found work. For five years, our only connection was the letters and gifts he sent. Shirts, sweaters, pants, shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the salesman how old my children are,\u201d my dad wrote. \u201cHe thought these would be the proper sizes.\u201d The shoes were always too big.<\/p>\n

At last Dad saved enough money to send for us, but Italy was only a stop on our journey. Our destination was America, the land of freedom and opportunity, the country of my father\u2019s dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a beautiful place,\u201d he told us. \u201cEverybody can go to school and get an education. You can become whatever you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was 12 when we arrived in San Diego, California, on October 21, 1987\u2013a date I will never forget. A new sister had been born in Italy, so we were now a family of nine.<\/p>\n

We crowded into a small apartment. We walked everywhere, trying to understand this new land of big cars, tall buildings and fast food.<\/p>\n

One day my brothers and I went to the park near our apartment to play soccer. We saw dozens of kids running across the grass. A few years later I would find out it was the national high school crosscountry championships, but back then it just seemed strange to me.<\/p>\n

What are those crazy people running for?<\/em> I wondered. What are they chasing? <\/em>There was no ball, like in soccer. Just a trail through the eucalyptus and palms.<\/p>\n

What my father told us made much more sense to me. \u201cThe only way you\u2019ll get ahead is through education,\u201d he said. \u201cYou must work very hard and get the best grades.\u201d An A minus or a B plus would not do. It had to be an A.<\/p>\n

To make sure we learned English and did our homework, he woke us up at 4:30 in the morning to study. Yes, 4:30. It was the only time he had to help us between his night job cleaning offices and his day job driving a taxi.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwitch on the light,\u201d he said. \u201cTime to study.\u201d There was no argument. We sat at the kitchen table and worked until 6:45, then went off to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not able to stay in school past seventh grade,\u201d he told us. \u201cI want you to go further. I want your life to be better than mine. That is every father\u2019s dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every week in seventh grade we had races in gym class. One Friday the teacher said, \u201cToday we\u2019re going to do the mile. Do your best and I\u2019ll give you an A or a B. But if you just mess around, you\u2019ll get a D.\u201d I had never done a mile, but I knew I had to get an A, so I ran as hard as I could.<\/p>\n

I beat all the other boys. The teacher stared at his stopwatch. \u201cYou just ran a 5:20 mile…without any training!\u201d he said. He called the high school coach right away and told him, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a future Olympian here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That had to be part of God\u2019s plans. It was something I never would have dreamed myself! I joined the cross-country and track teams. I won races. Senior year, I was one of those kids running at the park in the high school championship.<\/p>\n

Bob Larsen, the track and field and cross-country coach at UCLA, gave me a full scholarship (he is still my coach today at Mammoth Track Club). I won four NCAA titles, but it wasn\u2019t just about doing well on the track. I did well in the classroom too.<\/p>\n

I was proud and grateful to receive my diploma in 1998, as proud and grateful as I was to become a U.S. citizen later that year.<\/p>\n

I knew my father spoke the truth: In America, my education would take me where I needed to go, even when my legs no longer could.<\/p>\n

Yet here I was in a New York City hotel room, nearly a decade after college, grieving the loss of my friend Ryan, nursing my battered body and wondering what I should do with my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d had an excellent career as an elite distance runner. Had the moment come when my legs could no longer carry me? Was it time to retire?<\/p>\n

Finally I said to Yordanos, \u201cLet\u2019s pray.\u201d We took each other\u2019s hands and closed our eyes. \u201cGod, thank you for the gift of running,\u201d I said. \u201cI have tried to do my best with it. If it is time for me to move on, please tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought of the many miles I had run with Ryan, stride by stride, seeing the sunlight coming through the trees, the breathtaking mountain views. I loved getting to know a town with each step I ran through its streets and parks and woods.<\/p>\n

Just thinking of how more of the world opens up when I\u2019m out running\u2013that filled me with joy, a joy that could only come from God. A joy that I wasn\u2019t ready to give up.<\/p>\n

I opened my eyes and looked at Yordanos. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m meant to quit,\u201d I said. \u201cNot yet. I have to keep trying.\u201d I believed that was what God wanted. I knew it was what Ryan would have wanted.<\/p>\n

I needed a year of rehab and physical therapy to recover from what turned out to be a stress fracture of my hip. But eventually I was training again on the trails I\u2019d run with Ryan.<\/p>\n

Last fall I went back to New York for a race that would take me through Central Park, where I\u2019d gotten the terrible news of his death. This time I was running the New York City Marathon. No American had won since Alberto Salazar in 1982.<\/p>\n

This time an American did, a man who was born in a tiny village halfway across the world. A man who did not make his long journey alone.<\/p>\n

He had a mother and father who taught him the power of faith and education, coaches and teachers who helped him believe in himself, good friends who trained with him, a wife who understands him in a way that goes beyond words and, most of all, a God who has boundless love for him.<\/p>\n

That cool November day last year, I turned into Central Park with two miles to go and pulled away from my closest competitor. On the homestretch, I passed the spot where my friend Ryan fell. I said a prayer and made the sign of the cross. Then I crossed the finish line first.<\/p>\n

Did you enjoy this story? Subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was one of the favorites to win the race that cool November day in New York City, the marathon to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. I\u2019d won the silver medal in Athens, and now my sights were set on Beijing 2008. All I needed was to finish in the top three here. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":28055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[44,258,36],"ppma_author":[1593],"class_list":["post-18753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-courage","tag-goals","tag-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeb Keflezighi Keeps Running Towards Success - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meb Keflezighi Keeps Running Towards Success\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was one of the favorites to win the race that cool November day in New York City, the marathon to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. 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