U.S. ATHLETE QUOTES – 25th LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Sunday, October 13, 2002
Men KHALID KHANNOUCHI, 1st, 2:05:56: “This is a magical place. When you come here, you know you’re going to compete against the best. I was emotional because you don’t imagine how many times I heard my name. It was 42 kilometers, and I probably heard my name thousands of times of there. “I wasn’t happy with the pacing today because the guys took it out faster than we thought. When we got to the 22nd mile, the Japanese athlete took off. But I wasn’t worried about him. Paul Tergat is one of the greatest athletes and he knows how to win. At 23 miles, I thought, I must make a decision, and I took off. You have to make the decision and have the confidence in yourself. I have confidence. The last three miles is the hardest of the race. “I looked back (after making his break) and saw an opening (the gap on his competitors), and I said wow. I was feeling good and said I think I can keep the pace. I didn’t pay attention (to his competitors) after that.” ALAN CULPEPPER, sixth, 2:09:41: “This is really awesome. The course was perfect, the crowd was awesome the whole way. It was really a special occasion. I ran in the 1:04:15 (halfway) group. It was actually a little faster than I had planned, but Rod (DeHaven) and Godfrey (Kiprotich) did a great job in bringing us through. “At no part of the race did I feel taxed in my breathing. At 20 miles, my legs just ran out of fuel. I think the one thing I would change in the future is I would do more of my long runs on the pavement. My legs were feeling the pavement early on. I was a little disappointed with how my legs felt at the end, but I was happy with the way I finished. I didn’t have any really bad miles – my slowest mile was 5:07, and that was into the win. In terms of my expectations, this is exactly what I wanted to run.” Women DEENA DROSSIN, sixth, 2:26:53: “Although I would have liked to have run a lot faster, I tried my hardest out there. That’s the nature of the beast of the marathon, and that’s why we respect the distance so much. I came through the half in 1:11:04, which is exactly what I wanted. I just didn’t run the second half as I wanted to. With six miles to go, my calves and feet were starting to cramp – it was just a sub-par day out there. The effort was out there, although the performance wasn’t where I’d like it to be.” # # #
