PUBLISHED 10/06/2007
When the other athletes took their seats on the stage in front of the press room for Friday's elite athlete interviews, they all had a traditional upright posture and varying degrees of emotion. Felix Limo, the 2005 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon champion, sprawled across his chair in a relaxed posture that displayed confidence and the pent up energy of a finely tuned competitive athlete.
"I don't have to worry about the heat," Limo said. "Because all my top competitors are Kenyans and if I will suffer, they will suffer too. It will be a group suffering."
Having already won three of the World Marathon Majors events(London, Chicago, and Berlin), as well as defeated current marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie while setting a world best of his own at 15K in 2001, Limo says he does not fear his fellow competitors. "I should not fear others, I should try to fight with them," he said. "I don't fear anybody, but I respect them. Fear is different from respect."
Limo is inspired by the challenge of racing against top competition. "Competition keeps me going," he said. "I like the challenge. When you get a challenge you have to start thinking."
"I've prepared well in my training," he said. "I am ready." Last year Limo was forced to withdraw from the race because he injured his back during a fartlek run on a rainy day. His foot slipped on the mud and damaged his back, he said. No such problems this year, he says.
Limo has only run in big city races, not championship events, because "the Kenyan federation is so funny" in its method of picking teams, he says. "They will tell you one time that you will be on the team for a championship, then the time comes and you are not.," "So, I prepare for what is guaranteed. I would like to run in the (major) championships, but with the Big City races you always know that you are going to be able to run."
