Quotes by Haile Gebrselassie

I'm never satisfied.

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.

I haven’t done a marathon for a long time. So we’ll see. I will need good luck.

Like some high official, you have to tell your brain: ‘Do it. Come on. I have to do it.’

What can you do if a part of it is uphill? You can’t work out another route. You’ve just got to run the one they give you. But they tell me London is a nice course. Even the cobbles, I hope, are not very much of a problem for me.

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.

I always tell young athletes the same thing, ‘Wherever you go, whatever you do, what must your top priority be? Running.’

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.

I was the kind of child who worked hard every day with the cows and sheep – I was a very aggressive boy.

I’m lucky. The best possible place in the world for training is Addis Ababa, so I am home all the time except when I am racing. I like to be there, near my family, my kids, also the real estate business I run with my wife.