Khalid Khannouchi

By Parker Morse

On April 14, 2002, Paul Tergat and Haile Gebrselassie, the two fastest 10,000m runners in history, faced off again at the marathon distance in London, with Khalid Khannouchi's 2:05:42 world record their stated target. Instead, Khannouchi was the spoiler, dropping first the debutant Gebrselassie and then Tergat, the world record holder at half the distance. Closing fast, Khannouchi then shaved four seconds off his own record to become only the second man in history to lower his own world record.

That's quite a long haul from the young Moroccan who, nine years ago, came to America for the World University Games and didn't go back, washing dishes in Brooklyn and running road races. By 1996 Khannouchi was a dominant road racer; in 1997 he debuted at the marathon distance with a 2:07:10 in Chicago, at the time the third-fastest ever, and the fastest debut. In 1999 he topped that with his 2:05:42.

2000 and 2001 were turbulent years for Khannouchi. He struggled through London - his 2:08:36 for 3rd is his personal worst finish - and an even more bruising citizenship fight as he tried to become an American citizen in time to represent the U.S. in Sydney. Injuries aggravated in London prevented him from running the U.S. Trials in Pittsburgh; he came back to run a 2:07:01 American Record in Chicago, winning that race for the third time. In 2001, he ran on the U.S. team for the World Championships marathon in Edmonton, but dropped out.

Discouraged, he didn't run a fall marathon, but instead focused on rehabilitating his lingering injuries and building another solid base of training, which paid off in London. Now Khannouchi's impressive marathon record stands at four wins out of seven starts, twice under 2:06, five times under 2:08, two world records, and two American records.

Mensracing.com joined the pack of persistent media callers a month after the historic London race, and talked to Khannouchi by phone at his home in Ossining, New York. Khannouchi talked about how he put together a world-record training regimen, how his racing schedule changed as he became a marathoner, and the future of his world and American records.

Mensracing.com: When you race at the level you're racing at, do you find it difficult to find people to train with? We read on your website that you traveled a lot this winter to get ready for London, and that you were training in Mexico, San Diego, and Albuquerque, as well as in New York.
Khalid Khannouchi: Exactly. It's always difficult to find running partners, but I have friends that I train with. It doesn't matter what level they are to train with; it's just the fact that they are there with you at the track or on the trails that motivates you to do your best and to train hard.

You managed to put together a good string of training getting ready for London. How long do you feel you need to have uninterrupted training before you feel comfortable racing?
I prefer to have four months of training. I think that's good enough for a marathon. If I can get that time, including some races, and do the miles that I like to do, I think I would feel confident.

In 1997 you ran sixteen races before your Chicago debut, but each year you've done fewer. Do you like to race a lot during the build-up, or do you look for particular races?
I just look for three or four, to get away from the routine of the training.

The years when you ran best in Chicago were also years when you ran good half-marathons earlier in the fall. Now that you've made a name for yourself as a marathoner, what is it like to go to races at shorter distances? Do you feel like you're expected to be a world-class athlete at all distances, or can you train through?
The people expect that you're going to go in there and you're going to do well. And sometimes it doesn't work that way. When I was doing one marathon a year, I was able to train hard for short races and do my marathon in the fall, and it was working fine. But when you try to do something difficult -- which is two marathons a year -- it makes it harder, sometimes impossible, to compete over short distances. If you're trying to perform at short distances, you're putting your body in so much stress, and that's why I was getting hurt all the time. I decided not to focus one hundred percent on short distances, but just to make them part of training for my goal, which is the spring or the fall marathon.

So you were able to separate the races from the ultimate goal, to say you'll run the best you can at the shorter race but to keep that marathon goal in mind.
Yes, exactly. I mean, sometimes I go to races with quality training, and I don't worry about tapering. I just go there with the training that I have in my legs. And it doesn't matter. It's good when you have a good, short, race that you're peaking for, but you cannot peak for all of them.

You said that you knew you were ready for a good race in London. Do you have benchmark race times, or particular workouts, that show you how your training is coming along?
I think it's mostly the workouts. When you do workouts that make you feel good, timewise, the way that you feel, the way that you stride, and the way you manage to do the workout, that gives you an idea. The races sometimes give me an idea, especially when I'm peaking. But this year, going into the London marathon, I felt confident because this is the first year that I had great winter and spring training, and they were injury-free, which really makes a big difference. And that's why I thought I was going to do very well. So I went with hope and faith.

Is there a particular workout that gave you an idea what kind of shape you were in?
Definitely, when you do 1000s, 2000s, or 400s on the track, that really gives you an idea of exactly where you stand.

Speaking of training for two marathons a year, when are you likely to run the marathon again?
Well, I hope I can do a marathon in the fall, which I hope will be either New York or Chicago. We don't know yet. But I want to go for another marathon, if my body allows me to do it.

I feel that two marathons is the minimum and the maximum that I can do, because you don't want to do too much, you don't want to put your body and your mind in so much stress. But also, you don't want to do just one, because one, you are not going to be competitive at a high level. At least you have to do two, and your body has to adjust with two seasons a year. That's what I'm trying to do. I've been successful marathoning once a year, and I've done well on four occasions, and this time I'm trying to do two good marathons, and I hope that my body will allow it.

Do you have races picked out that aren't marathons, for the summer and the fall?
I haven't picked any races yet, but definitely I will pick out some races. I would say four races, no more than that. I am hoping that I can do short races, especially the half marathon, because that really gives you an idea of where you are, especially when you are in the middle of marathon training. You want to run a half marathon, that really gives you confidence.

You had a really spectacular half-marathon a couple of years ago in Philadelphia. Do you feel like you can run faster at the half-marathon than you have so far?
I think I did the best I could on the three occasions I ran in Philadelphia; I got to win. But my time in 1997 [1:00:27] was really spectacular. I feel that that year I was ready to run 2:06 in my first marathon, it's just I didn't have the experience. But I'll go back to what I said before, the body is fresh, you come in from short races, definitely you will perform very well over a half-marathon. But still, the more you train for a marathon, the more the body gets tired and beat-up. And that's why I'm not trying to push too hard, just do what I can do. Not to set too many goals and try to do a lot.

You're unique now in that there is only one other man alive who can claim to have run a marathon world record twice. Do you feel like there are times, still, that you want to reach? Put another way, do you still feel like every time you go to the line you might get a little better?
Yes, I think when you're healthy and when you're confident, you always feel that way. But when you're injured, and sometimes things seem impossible. But I feel that I can, I don't know, if God helps me, and if we get perfect weather, and everything's perfect, I think I can run faster. But how fast is a very difficult thing to predict.

You've run in seven marathons now.
Yes, I've finished six and dropped out of one.

In seven marathons you've really only run three courses, Chicago, London and Edmonton. Given your performances on fast courses in London and Chicago, you don't really have much reason to go anywhere else. But you've also run half-marathons like San Blas, which is by no means a fast course. Do you sometimes race just for the fun of racing, just to go out and be the fastest one on the day?
Yes. I think you don't want to keep putting pressure on yourself to just follow fast times. Sometimes I go to other races just to see. Especially, in the winter season, I like to go to San Blas because that's a race that is really tough. It tells me if I'm weak or if I need better winter training or not. That really tells me where and what I am. I like to go there because that's a hard race. You cannot [always] go to a fast course just because of the stress of chasing times or records. I don't like to do that. Most people think that it's always good to go and break a course record, and so on, but if I get to go there and win, I'll be always happy.

Did you run with Meb Keflezighi while you were in San Diego this winter? Your 10k time on the road is 27:45; have you ever thought about racing a 10,000m on the track?
No, Meb wasn't there, he was altitude training at Mammoth. That was too bad. My dream when I started running was to perform on the track. I didn't get a chance. I felt that I had the potential to do very well over 5k and 10k on the track, it doesn't matter that I didn't get the opportunities. But right now, I feel that the road and the track are totally different. Especially for the track, you have to use spikes. I haven't used spikes for more than six years. I don't want to take a chance. And sometimes the people coming from the track try to make transitions to perform on the road, and find it very difficult. I'm not trying to do something impossible. I'm just trying to be realistic and do what I can do, not to over-look and over-set goals.

One thing that didn't get mentioned much was that in addition to a world record, you set an American record in London.
Yes. (laughs)

Do you think that any of the Americans running now can even touch that?
It's not something that I worry about. The record is there to be beaten, and everybody can get motivated to go and do that. You know, with the improvement that we've gained over the track and cross country, there's probably somebody that can do it. If Khalid Khannouchi, a human being, can do it, I think anybody else can do it. However, you have to have the will, and you have to have luck, and everything perfect to run better than the time that I ran.

Is there anybody running now who's likely to reach that level?
I think so. Maybe Meb, maybe Alan, maybe Abdi. Who knows? The marathon is a different story. You can't take anybody out. It's up to you, and the training, and how mentally strong you are, and if you have a will to do things. I think if a human being can run 2:05, probably another human being can run 2:04. Who knows?

There are two or three Americans who have run as fast as you have for ten kilometers, but there's really no way of knowing how they're going to make the transition.
There's no way to predict. If you look at Paul [Tergat], he needs time to make adjustments to perform well over the distance. Gebrselassie's time at 10k could give him 2:04, perhaps, I don't know how fast he can run, but you definitely have to make adjustments. You have to go out there and try the distance, and from there you see if you can really do well or not. I could give you a lot of examples; Hendrick Ramaala runs 59-minute times over the half-marathon distance, but finds trouble running 2:09, 2:10. And some people with 28:20 or 28:30 were able to run 2:08. It's something that is up to ability. And people have different bodies.

Do you feel like you're still learning, like you're still adjusting? At age 30, you're still relatively young for the marathon.
Yes, I think I'm still learning. Every time you go out there and you experience the marathon you learn something. I learned that you can't trust the distance; I learned that you have to be really patient, both in the marathon and in the training, and I learned that you have to respect everybody because people have the same chance. There was a big example of that in London, people thought that Haile Gebrselassie would win easily, but you know, you just have to respect everybody, and most of all respect the distance.

Going into London, did you know how good it would be?
Well, I thought that I was able to run 2:06. And I thought that's what we would need to win, I thought probably the winning time would be 2:06. But when we got there, the race was set up for world-record pace, and you had a choice, either to go with the group or run a whole marathon by yourself. And I decided to go with the group, because the pace wasn't too bad for me. But coming from a bad year, coming from dealing with a lot of injuries, I was really happy to be out there, happy to be part of the marathon, and hoped to win. I didn't think about world records. Not at all. But I think to win it, I had to run a world record. When there's the pressure of a world record, it happens to many runners, they don't perform well. But when you go in with less pressure, and you know that you're ready, things can happen.

You've ended up in a bunch of races where there have been really strong fields. Chicago always has a deep field, London always has a deep field. It's as though you perform better when there's a strong field, with big-name contenders. When there are people who can run with you, does that take the pressure off?
I think that's one reason, but I think that what I find out when I'm training for the marathon is that I can keep up a certain pace for a long period of time. When I find the pace that suits me, I can go with no problems. That happens on many occasions. That's why I've been performing very well, especially in a really good marathon where you have rabbits keeping you in a set pace. The World Championships was an example of a race where we went too slow, and my body really didn't react the way that I wanted. I felt like it wasn't me running, like it was somebody else.

Speaking of the World Championships, I imagine that one of your long-term goals is to run the Olympics in Athens.
Yes, definitely, I want to be part of it.

That's going to be a pretty challenging course.
Yes, but first you look at making the team, then you think about the Olympics. As I said, you have to be realistic. The long-term goal is the Olympics, but you have to go step-by-step, and the first step is to make the team. And from there, if you make it you think about the Olympics, and how you're going to train and how you're going to handle the course and get all the information about the race over there.

Do you ever wonder how you got here? Six years ago you hadn't run your first marathon, but you were road racing well; now you're the best marathoner in the world. Do you ever wonder what happened?
When I arrived here in 1993, coming from my country, I knew that I had talent. My dream was to compete over the track, and in the track races hopefully I could be, one day, like all the Moroccan heroes, the champion that got to win a gold medal in the Olympics. I said I have talent, I knew that because I'd been in situations where I had trained with great athletes in Morocco, and that told me that I'm right there. But to be completely honest, I never thought about trying the marathon. And when I decided to go [to Chicago] in 1997, I had a long discussion with my wife. She really thought that I could do very well over the distance, but I wasn't confident. Because to me, the marathon was the ultimate goal. Now, when you're talking about 2002 with all the success that I've had, it's crazy. They say the world is crazy, but that's the reality, I think. I think about all the hard work, and all the support I've had from people, people here have really been so good to me, and because of that I think I had success. But it feels good. If you look at it and you try to analyze all the suffering that I went through, it seems impossible, it feels like a dream. But that's the American dream, I think.

(Interview conducted May 9, 2002, posted May 14, 2002)

Parker Morse is a freelance writer and web developer living in Amherst, Massachusetts.