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Khalid Khannouchi has been synonymous with greatness in the marathon for the past 10 years, ever since his phenomenal debut at the 1997 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, which he won in 2:07:10—the fastest debut marathon ever. Twice he has broken the world-record at 26.2 miles. He has also held the world record at 20K. Four times he has won the marathon in Chicago.
Khannouchi, 35, has lived in New York since severing ties with the athletic federation in his native Morocco 14 years ago. He now makes his home in Ossining, a town in Westchester County, north of New York City. Since becoming a U.S. citizen in May 2000, he has run the three fastest marathon times ever by an American—2:07:01 in winning in Chicago in 2000, a then-world record 2:05:38 in capturing the 2002 Flora London Marathon, and 2:05:56 in his 2002 triumph in Chicago. No one had ever run a marathon in under 2:06 before he did it twice in 2002.
However, injuries have plagued Khannouchi in recent years. And pain in his right foot last month caused him to drop out of the marathon in London. In search of a tune-up, he competed May 19 in the Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park. The race marked his New York City professional racing debut. He finished 14th in 30:06, far from his PR of 27:58 set in Atlanta in 1997. But he told reporters he was pleased with the outcome.
What Khannouchi is not so pleased with is the system under which athletes are chosen for the U.S. Olympic marathon team. That is one of the issues he discussed with MensRacing in an interview last week before running the Healthy Kidney 10K.
MensRacing.com: The Healthy Kidney 10K is your first competitive race since the Flora London Marathon. The London race obviously didn’t go the way you would have liked.
Khalid Khannouchi:
Yeah. I had a foot problem. My right foot was bothering me in the middle of the race. I didn’t feel comfortable running. There was a lot of pain. Sometimes there is pain that you can handle and pain that you cannot handle. The nature of the pain I felt in London was so different that I was scared to finish the race, to be honest. I just decided to drop out at the 18-mile mark and not take any chances. Right after the race, I went to visit the doctor. It was nothing serious. We had been told that it was going to be something serious, but it wasn’t.
MR: How does your foot feel now?
KK:
I got some treatment. It feels better. I’m going step by step and getting ready for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
MR:
How long did you go without running after dropping out in London?
KK:
I stopped for a week. Then I was getting rehab for another week. But before the marathon, I was really in very good shape. I was ready to perform well in London. It’s just that bad things happen sometimes and you’ve got to accept them. I haven’t been doing a lot of running since London, but I feel like the training I’ve done for the marathon is quite enough for me to compete over the 10K distance [in Central Park].
MR: How many miles did you run in preparation for London?
KK:
Marathon training is very brutal. We do a lot of miles. If you compare the way that I train with other people, you really can’t compare it because some of the athletes run more than what I run. I always feel like 120-130 miles a week is quite enough if you do quality training and quality miles. But other people, they still can do more. There are guys who can run 150-160 miles a week, which is a lot. What I recommend is to do few marathons a year. That way you can have a long-lasting career.
MR: How many marathons do you plan to run this year?
KK:
Well, I didn’t finish London. Hopefully, I will finish the U.S. Marathon Trials. Those will be my two marathons this year.
MR: Do you like the way the United States chooses its runners for the Olympic marathon—you have to finish in the top three in the Trials to make the team?
KK:
It is difficult. Knowing that you’re going to be training for five months for that Saturday and then, hopefully, it’s going to be your day. If you get a bad day, you have to wait another four years. I think the system is fair and not fair.
MR: What do you mean by that?
KK:
It’s fair for the people who are going to come and enjoy the party. But it’s not fair for the elite because, first of all, it doesn’t give you too many chances. And also because we have athletes who can get appearance fees in the races, so by running the Trials, the U.S. Olympic Trials, you are taking that chance away from other runners to make a living. We are one of the few nations that are doing the Trials at the marathon distance. All [other] big countries are picking the top three according to the fastest times. By having to run the Trials on a hard course, I feel that’s not fair to the athletes. But I think I have to go through the system and I’ll try my best.
MR: You have been an American citizen since 2000. Could you run in the Olympic marathon for Morocco if you wanted to?
KK:
If I want to, yes, I can.
MR: You would definitely make the Olympic team in the marathon for Morocco.
KK:
Oh, yeah. Definitely. But I want to do it for the United States.
MR: This is a worst-case scenario, I know. But I just want to ask you this: If you ran a great race in the U.S. Olympic Trials and finished fourth,
would you compete for Morocco?
KK: Well, I don’t think I would do it.
MR: Have you thought about that?
KK:
I don’t want to think about that. Because you want to wait and do the marathon first.
MR: Do you believe it’s fair for runners who have never completed a marathon to be eligible for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials?
KK: Look, you know, if you want to talk about fair or not fair, we are athletes. But we cannot get involved in something that we do not have control over. So talking is just going to make it more of a dilemma.
My point of view is I would be very happy for the top three who can qualify with the fastest times. I’ll be happy even if I’m fourth. If somebody runs faster than me, I’ll be happy for him to go because that’s the fairest way. In the marathon event, you can’t do too many. I’ve been doing an average of one marathon a year the past 10 years. So imagine if you have to do more marathons to qualify and run in the Olympics. It just doesn’t give our athletes a chance to compete on a high level with other nations.
MR: Is the difficulty of getting through the U.S. Trials a factor in America not winning the Olympic marathon for so many years now?
KK: Yeah. We have to think right. You can do the Trials for short events, where you can compare [times] week in and week out. But a marathon is very difficult, and it’s an event that you can’t predict. There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of crazy things that could go wrong on that day. And you’ll be regretting that day for the whole four years until the next Olympics. So it is difficult. It adds more pressure on all of us. But at the same time, that’s the way to qualify for the Olympics and we have to do it.
MR: Is the talent pool for American marathoners getting deeper?
KK: Yeah, deeper. And I think by running the Trials, the athletes are losing money. Because [runners from other countries] are able to go with good appearance fees and compete in [the marathon in] Chicago or New York, and they can run fast times that could make them qualify for the Olympics. But now, when we’re running in the Trials, you’re blocking the road for everybody. We have good, deep fields in America. We have good athletes that are maturing and improving. The future looks bright. But this idea that we’re running in the Trials, we’re going to see that there’s a better idea. Not now. But I think more toward the future—10, 20 years from now—we’re going to see that this system is not right. And I guarantee that.
MR: You’re guaranteeing that the current system will change?
KK: I guarantee that. We’re going to have people who can run 2:07, and we have a lot of them who can go and get money and make a good living, and we’re forcing them to do the Trials. For a lot of athletes, we feel like we have to come and earn our spot in the Trials. But in reality, it’s not a good solution. We are one of only about two countries that do the Trials for the marathon. You go and search. All the other countries pick their best athletes for the marathon because they know how hard this event is.
MR: You’re saying the top three finishers at the Trials on November 3 may not necessarily be America’s best marathoners?
KK: Exactly. It’s not necessarily fair to say that to them, but I will say the system is fair and it’s not fair. From my point of view, it’s not fair. But to other athletes, it’s fair because it gives them a chance. Maybe I can have trouble [at the Trials]. Maybe Meb can have trouble. Maybe another guy can have trouble. So you have two or three other guys who have a chance because [elite marathoners] are having trouble. To me, it’s not fair. I think we should stay with the safest way because the health of our athletes is very important. Running too many marathons and too many hard marathons is not really good.
MR: USA Track and Field came up with this system. Did they talk to you to get your opinion?
KK: I personally didn’t get any call or any e-mail talking about this. To be honest, I don’t know who’s making this decision.
MR: You’re one of the greats. I wish you well.
KK: Thank you.
Interview conducted May 17, 2007, and posted May 22, 2007.
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