World record is worth a million to Haile

[Ryan]

Dubai, UAE - Haile Gebrselassie pronounced his preparation “perfect” for Friday’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon (22), but reminded everyone at today’s press conference that all the other elements had to be perfect too, even for an attempt on his World record of 2:03:59, set in Berlin 18 months ago.

“I’ve made sure I’m in perfect shape,” said the 36 year old Ethiopian, who will be running in Dubai for the third year in succession. “But everything has to be perfect, the weather, the pacemakers. If everything is perfect, I can run 2:03:30. I don’t promise, if I promise and fail, we’ll all be disappointed. Two years ago, it was a little bit warm at the end (he ran 2:04:53, then second fastest in history), last year, it was raining (he ‘only’ ran 2:05:29, eighth fastest)”.

He dismissed the notion that his first half in 61min 45sec, 2:03:30 pace, in 2008 might have been too fast. “I didn’t run too fast, I want to do the same on Friday. It’s good the race starts at 6.30(am), but above all, I want to keep to the schedule all the way through. Even if you run the first kilometre to slow, you’re catching up all the way.”

IAAF article

[Ed]

I see he ran this in 2:06 - and the article said it was relatively slow!!!!  That pace is less than 5 seconds per mile off of the World Record pace. 

I guess it was "realtively slow" compared to what he wanted to run.

[Ryan]

Relatively slow is a relative term. Also, when running on the edge like that, even 1 second per mile can be a big deal. There's a reason the world record hasn't been broken by as much as 2 seconds per mile since 1985 (2:08:05 to 2:07:12, a 53 second or almost exactly 2 second per mile improvement).