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When I had no shoes I was comfortable - I used to run barefoot. When I wore shoes it was difficult. To run in shoes was ok, but at the beginning of my career it was hard.

Haile Gebrselassie

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Haile Gebrselassie
Age: 51
Born: 1973
Born: April 18
Athletics Competitor
Long-Distance Runner
Marathon Runner
Olympic Athlete
Asela
Haile Gebrselassie
Used
Wore
Hard
Shoes
Beginning
Career
Careers
Comfortable
Difficult
Running
Barefoot

More quotes by Haile Gebrselassie

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Why should I say I will retire in three or four years? You retire the very moment you utter those words.
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Always, if you win mentally, you can win physically as well.
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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.
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I know what I want when I start a marathon: to win! But what do you want? Make sure you're clear in advance and don't go out too fast.
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You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three. Sport teaches you that.
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When I wake up at 5 in the morning is it just to jog? Definitely not, I give it all of my efforts.
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If your body is damaged, wounded, it can be fixed, but if inside, mentally, you are wounded you cannot fix it, it's hard.
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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.
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When you promise something, you must fulfill it.
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You must do as your people do. If my people are poor, I must be poor. People ask me, 'Why don't you find a personal coach or a private car?' I can't. Then I won't be part of my people.
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You know the marathon in my country is just exceptional. It's like soccer in England. If England win the world cup and Ethiopia win the marathon - it's the same.
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When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.
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What is important is to win.
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Since I achieved something, running has exploded in my country. For me sometimes it is difficult even to know who the athletes are who are competing at the highest level. There are thousands.
Haile Gebrselassie
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Like some high official, you have to tell your brain: 'Do it. Come on. I have to do it.'
Haile Gebrselassie
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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.
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I used to run to school, 10k every day. And this at altitude, perfect preparation, really.
Haile Gebrselassie
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In the rainy season, sometimes to get to the first lesson we had to run really quick, because we had to cross the river to school and we'd have to go up and down the bank to find a place to cross because there is no bridge.
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My father thought sport was something fun - he didn't know it was a way to make money.
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First, do enough training. Then believe in yourself and say: I can do it. Tomorrow is my day. And then say: the person in front of me, he is just a human being as well he has two legs, I have two legs, that is all. That is mentally how you prepare.
Haile Gebrselassie