It became the question of the day at the New York City Marathon, when the guy few had heard of, the one wearing an off-the-rack singlet rather than one from a fancy sponsor, claimed third place in the world’s biggest marathon. Then he walked into the postrace news conference wearing the most basic pair of sweatpants and a pullover. I just compete individually.”These were the words of Girma Bekele Gebre, 26, an Ethiopian sub-elite runner who runs with the West Side Runners club when he is in New York. What separates marathoning from virtually every other sport is that all of the competitors — crazy fast runners, really fast runners and those who are not very fast at all — run the same 26.2-mile course. And every once in a while someone who doesn’t have his name on his bib, someone who has to pay the entry fee rather than earn an appearance fee, lands on the podium.

Source: Ethiopian News November 04, 2019 15:22 UTC