I like a guy who doesn't give up, and the American record holder in the marathon in just one of those guys who doesn't quit. There is
a very good article on the "Races Like a Girl" blog on what is currently happening with Khalid Khannouchi. He still dreams of recovering from injuries and running fast times.
"You know what, I want to get back and compete!"
I have no clue what it is like to run at the level that Khalid Khannouchi competed at, but I can feel his pain about being injured and just wanting to get back to running and racing. It would be great to see him tearing up the roads again.
Here is a letter I wrote that got published in Sports Illustrated back in 2002 after the magazine failed to acknowledge Khalid Khannouci's world and American record being set at the London Marathon in the same week that an article lamented that Alberto Salazar was the last great American marathoner.
Marathon Man
It was nice to revisit Alberto Salazar (CATCHING UP WITH, April 22). However, the article begins, " Alberto Salazar has no desire to be known as the last great American marathoner, but that's exactly what he is." Well, in case you didn't notice—and it looks that way—an American set a world record in the London Marathon on April 14. Khalid Khannouchi broke his own mark in a long-anticipated, epic race against two of the greatest distance runners ever, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya's Paul Tergat. The often overlooked Khannouchi is an American citizen who was born and raised in Morocco, but this does not make him any less an American. Just ask Alberto Salazar, who was born in Cuba. The greatest marathoner in the world today is an American! JIM HANSEN, Nashua, N.H.
I had Khalid sign it before the Falmouth Road Race one year. He was sitting next to Alberto Salazar and I thought it would be funny to have him sign it too, but I didn't think that would be respectful of me.
Here is the Mark Beech article in Sports Illustrated that I was responding too. It is the only time in my life I wrote a letter to a magazine and I was very shocked to see it got published.
My letter was later quoted in a Running Times article in January of
2003: Foreign Born Americans: The Diverse Face of Team USA By Jonathan Beverly, Roger Robinson.
I cannot believe that there is no video to be found online of Khalid Khannouchi setting one of his marathon world records.
3 comments:
Thanks for highlighting my article -- and the oversight of SI all those years back. I enjoyed reading that exchange and was glad you took the time to call out the error.
So how effective has Postural Restoration been in the long run for you?
I have a somewhat similar problem, though a bit less "aggressive" and I'm considering my options.
I thought the postural restoration was great and well thought out. I wish the PT I had had more training in it. I think we had started going places, but she didn't have the knowlege to take it further than she did. It certainly has the potential to address issues in more creative and different ways then traditional PT. Try to get someone with lots of training in it if you go that way. Good luck.
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