2004 FOOT LOCKER CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Pre-race interview with Yosef Ghebray

by Ricky Quintana

Yosef Ghebray, click to enlarge. (Photo: Alison Wade/NYRR)

Yosef Ghebray, a senior at James Logan High School in Union City, California, finished second at the Foot Locker West Regional.

MensRacing.com: How are you feeling?
Yosef Ghebray: I'm feeling pretty good right now. It's been a nice weekend and a nice experience. The hotel is great and the people are fine.

MR: I guess it was a thrill for you to qualify.
YG: Yes, it was. I had a pretty bad race at state and to bounce back and make it to Foot Lockers is pretty good.

MR: What happened at your state cross country meet?
YG: It was raining during our race and I slipped at the beginning. It was kind of over from there. I was in 40th and had to work my way up. It was pretty bad.

MR: Making Foot Locker kind of washes away all the bad memories.
YG: Oh definitely [laughs].

MR: Do you have high expectations for this race?
YG: I'm going to go out and run my best and see what happens. Hopefully a top 10 finish will be good.

MR: Does doing well at Arcadia in the two mile (third in 8:55) give you confidence going into a race like this?
YG: Oh yeah. [Andrew] Bumbalough was pretty close to me at Arcadia, so it's not like he's this huge unkown being that I can't run with. If I'm up there, I know that I can probably hang with him.

MR: What do you think of the course?
YG: It's pretty good. But we ran last week at Mt. SAC and nothing is harder than that course. Looking at this course, it's tough, but Mt. SAC is really really hard. This is just a smaller version of that.

MR: There are some wet spots on there. Do you think the softness will affect you at all?
YG: Yeah, but I plan on wearing spikes and I'll just grip in, so I don't think it will be much of a problem.

MR: How do you think the race will play out?
YG: It definitely will go out pretty hard. The second mile, I heard, is the hardest because of the hill and what not. We'll see. I'll try to make my move in the second mile.

MR: Who has been giving you advice?
YG: I came up with it myself. I was walking around and I saw the hill so I decided to go there.

MR: Are you a hill runner?
YG: Yeah, I guess I consider myself a hill runner. Definitely.

MR: What do you think it will take to be the winner or in the top 10?
YG: The winner will probably go mid to high 14:40 and the top 10 will probably be right around 15:00-05.

(Interview conducted and posted December 10, 2004)