A Legend's Race

Will experience give Khalid Khannouchi an upper hand on Nov. 3?

By Cecil Harris

For every athlete competing in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, it will be a race against time. But the task will be even tougher for American record-holder and former world record-holder Khalid Khannouchi. At age 35, he’ll also be running against Father Time.

“I would prefer to be 25 with fresh legs,” he said. “Having fresh legs is always very important in a marathon. We know how difficult the event is and how difficult the course is. When I had fresh legs, I didn’t really care who else was running.”

During his prime years, Khannouchi cemented his status as a racing legend. He won the 1997 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 2:07:10—then the fastest debut marathon ever. He won the same race two years later in world-record time, 2:05:42, and became the first marathoner to break 2:06. With his victory at the 2002 Flora London Marathon, he lowered the world record to 2:05:38. Six months later, his winning time of 2:05:56 in Chicago made him the first runner to break 2:06 twice in one year. He ended 2002 as the No. 1-ranked marathoner in the world, and he still holds the four fastest marathon times ever run by an American. He is also the former world record-holder in the 20K (57:37 in New Haven in 1998).

However, years of competition in a grueling sport have taken a physical toll. Khannouchi has run his last two races—the U.S. 10K Classic in Atlanta on Labor Day and the San Jose Rock ’N ’ Roll  Half-Marathon on October 14—while wearing custom-made orthotics designed to alleviate pain.

“No matter what medication you put in there, if you don’t correct the cause of the inflammation and the pain, then it’s going to be there forever,” said Khannouchi, who consulted with Dr. Eduardo Osorio of Spain. “We found out it was a biomechanical problem and we have to correct it with orthotics. I trained with orthotics in the past; now I am forced to wear new orthotics in my racing shoes.”

Two weeks before the Trials, Khannouchi expects to receive shoes specially designed by New Balance that will accommodate the orthotics. “You feel a little bit off-balance when you run in orthotics,” he said. “I will need time to adjust to them.”

Will two weeks before the Trials be enough time?

“It is probably going to take a six- month-to-one-year period before I’m pain-free,” he admits. “It’s very important to try. I feel like this is my last chance. There’s no harm in trying to make the team.”

Khannouchi will turn 36 on December 22. He is well aware of the younger runners who have emerged with their sights set on claiming the three coveted spots on the Team USA marathon squad for Beijing 2008. He’ll do his best to hold off the competition.

“Most of the qualifiers are much younger athletes, which is promising for the USA,” he said. “But sometimes, experience can play an important role. I believe in my experience.”

Khannouchi hails from Meknes, Morocco. He competed for Morocco until a disagreement with the athletics federation over training expenses prompted his move to Brooklyn, New York, in 1992. He became a U.S. citizen in May 2000. He and his wife-manager, Sandra, live in the New York City suburb of Ossining.

“I’m honored to be in the U.S. Olympic Trials,” he said. “Hopefully, I can make the U.S. Olympic team. That would be great for me and for all the people who have supported me along the way, especially when I was injured. It’s not like before when I knew that I could run for another five or six years. Now, I take it year by year. If I stay healthy, you never know what could happen.”

At the October 14 tune-up race in San Jose, Khannouchi expected to run a 1:03 but finished in 1:05:04. The disappointing time resulted  from his not being used to competing in orthotics and the race occurring at the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, devout Muslims like Khannouchi do not eat or drink from dawn until sunset.

“It was very challenging,” he said, “because I had to make adjustments as far as when I could have food and drink and when I could do my hard runs. I was running at midnight during Ramadan, so it was pretty difficult. I managed to train really hard for about three weeks, but the last week of Ramadan was pretty hard. My body felt some fatigue in the week prior to the half-marathon.”

Now that he is back on a regular training and nutritional schedule, and with his custom-made shoes on the way, Khannouchi believes he is ready to run well at the Trials.

“It’s going to be challenging because we have only that one day of opportunity,” he said. “I wish we had more than one day, but that’s the rule . The USA has eight to 10 athletes who could represent us really well in the marathon—Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, Abdi Abdirahman, Alan Culpepper, Brian Sell, Dan Browne, and some good guys coming up from 10,000 meters to run their first marathon.”

Even if Father Time finally catches up to Khannouchi, he would still have the option of running the Olympic marathon for his native Morocco.

“I don’t want to think about that right now,” he said. “It’s very important for me to go out there on November 3 and do my best. I believe that I have good support in both countries, and both countries would love to see me running for them. But I want to do it for the United States. I want to keep my focus on that.”