Date: Tuesday, 21 March 2017
BOSTON (AP) - America’s premier marathoner is taking his victory lap.
Meb Keflezighi says he’ll hang up his racing shoes for good after running next month’s Boston Marathon and the TCS New York City Marathon in November.
By then, he’ll have racked up 26 marathons and he’ll be 42. Considering the metric equivalent of the classic 26.2-mile distance is 42.2 kilometers, it feels to Keflezighi like the universe is saying it’s time to call it a career.
“People say, ‘Why stop? You’re still at a high level.’ But it takes a lot out of you,” the four-time Olympian told The Associated Press in an interview.
“Even when my family gets together, I’ve got to get my run in,” he said. “I love the sport. I had the best job in the world for a long, long time. But I have to be fair to my wife and my three daughters.”
Keflezighi was born in Eritrea, but his family fled the Horn of Africa’s war and poverty and eventually settled in San Diego. A U.S. citizen, he was a high school standout who went on to break records at UCLA and win four NCAA titles before turning pro in 1998.
