Abdi Abdirahman: Insights into Running Excellence

Finn Melanson [00:00:13]: Hello, fellow runners. I'm your host, Finn Melancon, and this is the Run to the Top podcast, the podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. We are created and produced by the expert team of coaches at runnersconnect.net, where you can find the best running information on the Internet as well as training plans to fit every runner and every budget. To many of you listening, Abdi Abdirman is a household name. He's the 1st American distance runner to make 5 Olympic teams as well as the oldest American distance runner ever to make an Olympic team. The list of impressive accomplishments goes on. Few years ago, he wrote a book called Abdi's World, which chronicles his upbringing and that impressive career in running, and it's why I wanted to have him on the show. In this conversation, we discuss not taking the sport too seriously, actually as a strategy to stay competitive, self belief in why he's never lacked motivation to be a pro runner, the importance of a team environment, and the positive psychological challenges of group workouts, rules to live by in running, and what's next for his pro career.

Finn Melanson [00:01:25]: Like probably everyone else, I found Abdi to be equal parts generous, joyful, introspective, and excited in this conversation, and I hope you take as much from it for your own running life as I did for mine. Alright, Abdi, it is great to have you on the show. And I was telling you before I hit record here, I know the book, Abdi's World, has been out for a while, but I just personally read it. I got a lot out of it. It inspired me to reach out to see if we could chat, and we're here. How are you doing today?

Guest [00:01:59]: Oh, I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me. I'm in, you know, great Tucson, Arizona, great weather, and, you know, it's just a beautiful day. Can't complain.

Finn Melanson [00:02:08]: Meanwhile, I'm based up here in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is it's sunny, but it's frigid cold, and I'm eagerly awaiting Tucson like conditions hopefully, with spring on the near horizon. This is an extremely quick summary, but for those in the audience that aren't familiar, 2 of my favorite sort of running stats about you and I'm sure you've heard people talk about this a lot, but you are the 1st American distance runner to make 5 Olympic teams, you're the oldest American distance runner to ever qualify for the Olympics as well. And I say that because reading the book, it's interesting that given that that age and longevity have been such an interesting factor in your career, It also doesn't seem to be something you think much about. It's it's something more that people like myself will comment on, and then you're sort of forced to respond. How come you don't give age much thought when it comes to running and sort of, like, what you could or should be doing at any given point in your career?

Guest [00:03:11]: You know, 1st and foremost, like to be honest, and thanks for bringing that, that, bringing that question for me first. 1st, I love running. I enjoy running. It's passion of mine. It's not something I do for the money, you know, I don't do for the glory. I don't do for making Olympic team. I just, I love competing. And sometimes I just love getting, giving myself an opportunity to compete.

Guest [00:03:33]: While I compete, you know, just I I said my I want to accomplish some goals, but if I don't accomplish those goals, they do not define me like as a person or as a human being, you know, just at the end of and I say that because maybe I'm able to say that because I already made like couple Olympics at that time. But I'm talking about towards the end of my career, you know, I got- and that just I think maybe I was just running freely, and no one will, like, just I wasn't, you know, I wasn't in it for the, you know, just say, hey. I didn't have, like, the biggest shoe contract, and I was not under a lot of pressure. Most of the time, a lot of people don't know that. And maybe I put the book, I have faced obstacles from the shoe contract from the shoe company while they tell me I'm old enough. There's a point I'm making a number to my I didn't even have a contract, you know, just and I told them, you know what? I wanna do it for myself. You know what? If I make the Olympic team, you give me that. And if I don't make it, I can just walk away.

Guest [00:04:27]: Just and that's the free spirit that I was going through. And age, age is just a number, to be honest. If you feel like, you know, if you feel like you're old and you cannot do it anymore, it's all about the mindset. It's just like a formula, like and and it's hard. Like, to be honest, being old is hard sometimes, it us than be a professional runner. Like, you know, when when you like your late forties or early forties, you know, the recovery takes longer period of time, you know, you know, that's fast as you used to be. But for me, one thing I had to flag up, plus everybody else in my mind is as fast as I used to be. My mind always tell me I still got that.

Guest [00:05:06]: You know. And and thank God my I keep my weight, you know, on the on the you know, it's also controlling your, you know, weight, how, you know, how big you are, you know, just being light, you know, like when you stop running, you gain some weight and or when you get older, it's hard to get rid of that weight. And you'll be able to, but it would take you like a couple, couple, couple months. So I was good at maintaining certain weight, you know, just like I'm, you know, staying motivated and just don't even think about the age.

Finn Melanson [00:05:37]: I was just gonna say, I'm probably 15 years younger than you, but you look younger than me. You look great.

Guest [00:05:44]: Oh, thank you, Ed. Thank you. Bye.

Finn Melanson [00:05:47]: Yeah. But it it it is an interesting idea to me that what you the the narratives that you create in your mind and the beliefs you have in your mind, how that can sort of, flow down into your body and it can be a sort of predetermination of whether you're gonna be successful or unsuccessful at something and whether, you know, for example, your legs will obey you. Like, if you have this thought pattern that, you know, at the age of whatever 42 or 43, I am gonna make another Olympic team. You can sort of get your, your legs to abide, your body to abide, you can do all the key workouts. Whereas if you kinda write yourself off or have this idea that, you know, by the time I hit age 40, my best days are behind me, That is gonna come true as well. That that's so interesting to me.

Guest [00:06:33]: Yeah. The on on on 100% true, you know, if you write yourself out. And that's all about the mindset. If you give up before you get to the starting lineup, you already lost the race or you already lost, like, in general, not only the race, just like, even training, you're not as motivated as you want to be. And for me, the good thing is for me, I had while I was training for the Olympic trial in in 2020, even 2024, I was training for it. I have a high hope of making 2024, to be honest, like, you know, and I had a great build up, but sometimes things just don't go your way. And that's just life in general. And you cannot beat yourself.

Guest [00:07:12]: And, you know, we can talk about all the great work at that day that you did everything. But you- in a- and what makes about a marathon or Olympic travel marathon, what makes it great is doesn't matter what you have done, what you have done, what do you have done before, or how many Olympic you make. You have to be ready for that one day to perform your best. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the one thing I was trying to get out of myself, you know, like even 2024, it didn't go my way. But in 2020 Olympic trials, I knew I was the fittest as I can be. And at the end of the day, like I, if I take all the credit and I say, you know what? I did that.

Guest [00:07:49]: Just believe in myself. I'll be lying to you, to be honest. Like, you have to surround yourself like the people who are around you. Those are the people who know you the best, and they will tell you the truth. And if they're not telling you the truth, they know you're real good friend. But for me and my friends, they were telling me, Abdi, you're so fit, man. You have an opportunity. They never told me I was gonna make the team, but they say your chance of making the team is higher, and you have as good chance as anyone else.

Guest [00:08:12]: And when your good friends or your training partners tell you that, you have to take down and run with it. And that's the and that's where I get, like, you know, I also get the support and, you know, the confidence, the people who are surrounding me.

Finn Melanson [00:08:26]: I'm a big Boston Red Sox fan, and I love that you include Manny Ramirez in the book and how, you know, he a lot of fans, myself included, would say, that's just Manny being Manny, which is a compliment because he approaches the game with such lightheartedness, a bit of carefreeness, and I think that did contribute to how successful he was and how consistent he was for a pretty long period of time. And you also say in the book that, you know, one of the reasons you could keep beating people that were 10 or 20 years younger than you is because you didn't take the sport too seriously. So talk about how that was helpful.

Guest [00:09:01]: You know, like running is simple. Running is like it's not that it's not like complicated sports. Not like a football or, you know, when you have to land on to play out the run route. So, you know, like, you know, soccer, you know, you'll be on football. You know, it just is a team sports or basketball. Running is just it's just one of those sports that you can do while you enjoy, while you're just being in the outdoor, you know, just like and also if you get injured, you know, just there's so many times that I was injured, but people say, hey, the quickest way to fix this, you go under that, get surgery, do this, do that. And for me, I said, you know what? I wouldn't do surgery. Like I don't want to get a lot.

Guest [00:09:40]: I never like to be honest, I've been running track and field since like 1995. And I never had a worst surgery in my whole life. And the worst and the worst thing I had was like a stress fracture, which is a normal thing. It's not even a stress fracture, a stress reaction. Yeah. Never had a reaction, but never fracture. So you know just, I listen to my body for me if I get injured. So that's just, the way I look at it is just like, your body's telling you that, hey.

Guest [00:10:10]: You overdoing it. You have done it too much. I just need a break. That's just the way I look at it. I don't know how the other people look at it, but that's just my perspective. And but it just needed time. And when, you know, when that's happened, I don't stress about it. If I have a stress reaction or just like, hey, I'll just go do something fun, go hang out with my friends, just go out.

Guest [00:10:28]: Just instead of instead of thinking about running, think something else in life. You know, just go play some golf or just hang out with your friend, go hike. Just and also just, you know, just don't talk about running all the time. Just like it should not be everything how fast you run. If you wanna go around, even sometimes, like, you know, it's good to have a, like, a workout plan and routines make everything perfect. But sometimes be able to change, you know, if you come to that track one day and then say, hey, I don't feel- I'm- I'm kind of feel a little tired today, or the workout's not, you know, it's not gonna go as good as it will go. Most of the time, if I feel that good, I say, you know what, I can move to work tomorrow. Just body need a little bit more rest.

Guest [00:11:08]: I'm always flexible and open.

Finn Melanson [00:11:11]: One of the coaches it might have been a coach or an interviewer. They had you had those, like, little mini sections called, like, Abdi's Corner, Chasing Abdi in the book. And one of the comments was that you don't really have motivational problems. And that generally throughout your career, you've been pretty excited to to do what you're doing, and you haven't really had doubts along the way. Is is that true? Like, have you been a pretty, like, happy runner throughout your career?

Guest [00:11:36]: Oh, yeah. I've always been a happy runner and motivate and and motivational. You know, I run I run some of the I I run against some of the best runners the US have. You've seen I run against Meb. I run against Adam Goucher. I get I run against Bob Kennedy, Todd William. Just I run some of I runs, but I get up those names when I won't whenever Bob I remember, like, Bob was towards the end of his career. I remember, like, you know, just looking forward to raising up a Bob Kendrick, you know, because that's someone that you look up to, you know, just like say, oh, Bob Kendrick is gonna be running again, the thinking.

Guest [00:12:09]: I remember, like, when Bakken was making his debut marathon in New York when he was training in Colorado. Same time, I used to look at it when he's doing what his workout was. You know? At the same time I was doing, I was doing Chicago. So he was training with some kid, can be a group. So, you know, I just like the thing that motivational, just what I see, like, my competitor do, like, when they do something special, I'm I always get motivated even through this day. I see, like, Clayton Young, you know, Connor Manns. I see some I think that they do an amazing thing, man. Just like, to be honest, for me, it's just an honor to run the same course that they run even though those guys come to me and they say, hey, Abdi.

Guest [00:12:46]: You remember me when I was in high school. You were, you were our ambassador. You know, just come to football. You know, just like telling you that isn't amazing. Just, you know, When we get to the starting lineup, I don't look out at the kid that I mentored, like, when he was in high school, I just I forgot for them. I know it's someone who would have beat me, and I wanna beat them. When the when the gun goes up, I I go there and congratulate them, you know, just to be honest. And the sports is really fun to be honest.

Guest [00:13:13]: This is the one of the best is a pure sports that you can do, like a man to man, macho, macho, and, you know, just so you want to beat each other up, but when the race is over, you can come and congratulate each other. That's, that's the, that's the beauty of this sports.

Finn Melanson [00:13:30]: I'm a big, I'm I'm slowly getting more interested in running history, And I find it interesting that sort of you started to peak in the sport right around when American distance running was getting good again. And there were those 2 decades like the 19 eighties and the 19 nineties where, some people called it the dark ages. There was a lot of struggle. You know, there wasn't much Olympic representation or success. Have you thought much about that? And and what are what are your theories for, you know, why we struggled in those decades?

Guest [00:14:07]: You know, just I think, like, man, I really don't know the theory why we struggle. Maybe just so we didn't like, you know, the back in the day, just like George Young, Frank Shorter, you know, my juice to all those great runners, Mark Davies, Those guys, they were like, you know, they were good in college, but I think like a muscle does compete, they didn't have the training, like, you know, the training, like, you know, the like a training group set up, like everybody was training their own. So we will have one of the one of the best runners. We have one of the 1 we have. We want great runners, but we never have, like, a 5 or 6 guys at one time who can make the Olympic or a world championship standards until like early nineties, late 1990s when when Meb came out of college, I came out of college, Adam Gaucher came out of college. Also like an Arnold Cottamaker came out of college. You know, Nick Rogers. You know, there's a lot of guys just like and and then, like, the Hansen's Brook Hansen's project, you know, Hansen's brothers.

Guest [00:15:14]: Like, in Michigan, they have their Brooks running project, you know, and then we started, and then coach Joe Vigil or Bob Larson started, you know, they started, the the Mammoth track club with Dina, May and myself included. I was a part of it for dinner, but you know, just when we figure out like you know just training group makes perfect, it does when everything started good. And then, like, me and Nip start running, you know, the 10 k, like, a 20. Before that, no one even like, for us, someone to break 28 or even 28, 20 was amazing in early nineties. You know, just and me and Mir came out start running like a 27, 20 daily basis. Me run like a 27/13. Like, couple couple like, year later, I run like a 27 14. You know, just everything from there on, like, you know, just paid Dayton came out out of college.

Guest [00:16:05]: You know, just it was amazing. And Yeah. With Galen Rob still running. I think the, you know, it was like just a window because of the training system. I think that that change and the group that helped a lot, the US distance running. And that thing, coach Bob Larson and Joe Behold and Hanson's brothers, they were a part of it and also Oregon Project. Yeah.

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Finn Melanson [00:18:42]: The running team's theory is interesting. We just had Michael Crowley on the podcast. He wrote Into Thin Air, you know, about, like, the Ethiopian running culture. And and one of his, like, takeaways from from studying those runners was that, athletic potential can flow out of people, and it can sort of be shared in the group as opposed to being, like, individually contained. And I thought that was really interesting. And and maybe that was happening in your case with, like, Mammoth Track Club and and Hansen's. And I don't know if I don't know what you think about that, but I found that really interesting.

Guest [00:19:19]: I think that's a I think that's I think that's great, man. It's just like for me, like, you know, when I get out of college, I have around, like, a 20, 2750 something, but that was the best. And then I saw Meb running like a 2740, and I say, if Mehmed did it, why not me? You know, just like it just it was like a running. It's just something that need. It's like, okay. Someone just have to do that, then you would do it. And even, like, an example these days, like, you see you see all the college kids these days. The college kids are running, like, under 13 minute for 5 k.

Guest [00:19:48]: Someone has done it, like, about a year or 2 ago. Now everyone is doing it. Grant Fisher has done it. He's running 1251. Yeah. Yeah. Someone just have to open the door or someone just have to lead the way. It just when someone does it, it doesn't become like, you know, that part of everything just, like, rolling.

Finn Melanson [00:20:08]: And that that was something you did too. Right? Like, you really I I feel like from the book, you really challenged people to be more aggressive early in races and to sort of, like, change the mindset of being more conservative or, you know, starting from the middle of the pack in a race and then expecting to come into each race that you're gonna win or that you're gonna be really pushing the race to sort of the best potential possible?

Guest [00:20:35]: Yeah. That's the main thing for me was to win the race and, you know, just I never went out the race just to finish like a top 10 or the 20th or just run certain times. I always give myself a and I put I'm my number one a lot of races, but I finish high enough to be respected and to be one of the best, you know, just a marathon. In Chicago, I finished 4th place. In New York City, I finished 3rd. I finished 5th, 6th. You know, I finished top 10 many times, but I put a New York City half marathon, I finished 2nd to Haile many times, you know, just I have run 60. Just and this was early 2,005, 2,006, finished like a top 5 at the World 10 k championship.

Guest [00:21:15]: You know, I give myself an opportunity to win the race and go. If you already give up, like and I never thought the guys were running the race at that time. Ayla was running, the killer was running. I know they were great runners, but do I respect them as an athlete? Yes. But I ever thought they were better than me? Not really. I say something can happen. I was always looking for that one day I can beat them, but never happened, but I always give it like an opportunity to run well. And I run well for myself just so you can Sometimes you have to give, like, you will never know your potential until you give yourself a chance.

Finn Melanson [00:21:48]: And and you and I'm I'm guessing you would agree here, but, like, you can't get too psyched out just because in some other context, they're a 203 marathoner.

Guest [00:21:57]: Exactly. Like, if it was if it was base time, like, you're gonna lose like, Mehul have not won the New York City marathon or the Boston marathon if it was just based on performance, and he never give you know what? He ran to win. Like, Mebb says before, he said run to win, which is the which is one of the best codes. You know? You give yourself run. You you wanna win. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don't. But for him, the good thing is he has won twice of 2 bigger what, 2 of the biggest races of his life, you know, and and the times of win win is always better than time to me.

Guest [00:22:30]: Like, for me, I don't have a one New York, but I have finished the podium. A lot of people, like, even some of the best distance run through this day, not that we just to this generation who think they are the best man, that they haven't been to the podium, the New York City, or I've they haven't finished the podium in in, you know, like, Chicago. So I have done that. So

Finn Melanson [00:22:49]: Couple more questions about sort of, pros and cons of running teams. 1 of another thing I took from the book that was really interesting is you are really humble, it seems, when it comes to putting yourself into a group workout. And maybe on a particular day, 1 or 2 runners will beat you. They might beat you pretty badly, but you actually take a lot more positives from that than you do negatives. And so so why is that the case? Like, why for people that are listening and watching this interview, why should people be okay with, being made maybe to look bad during a group workout?

Guest [00:23:26]: You know, the group is like, like I said before, like sometimes thing I'm not they might not be going well. Like some days if I'm if I work by myself and I'm real tired, I might even take the day off. But sometimes you can if if you're in a group, what makes the best in the group is sometimes you're not having your best day, but you came to the group as a member of the group. You did the workout. You might did you you might never did your best. You know, you might be in the back of the bag. You might not have any good day. There's something happening.

Guest [00:23:55]: And the reason just for the main thing is just to finish the workout. Just for me, the the goal is to be just to finish the workout, you know, just without without any injury or just feeling good. And when you cross that finish line, you should be proud of your we should be you should be proud of your teammate or whoever was ever pushing was pushing the workout because one day will be yours too. Some days you are having a great day and some your team is having a great day, and that's what makes the best. If you if you're having a problem being like, you know, last that day, I think you should should examine your ego and, you know, just you should be you should be you're not a good teammate when you chose with your own teammate. So yeah.

Finn Melanson [00:24:37]: Well, somebody and again, I'm just sort of playing devil's advocate here, but I'm sure there's at least 1 or 2 people listening who might say, if you aren't studying your competition in how they're training, what their strategies are, how they're performing, if you don't really compare yourself to that or try to, you know, copy some of their journey, What do you use to gain sort of a sense of direction for your career? Like like, what do you follow? What do you listen to when you're deciding what kind of runner you wanna be and what you wanna accomplish and stuff like that?

Guest [00:25:13]: You know, running is running is, it's individual sports. Everybody takes a different path. There's a, like, for me, my path is different from a lot of other guys who are running now. A lot of it's different path from cornermans, like Clayton Yam. We all have like just like our map. Just who else that says like Grant Fisher. Just like, you know, just like some of the guys, they focus on 10 ks or 5 ks. You know, some people are just going straight from college to marathon.

Guest [00:25:42]: You know, just like everybody takes a different path. Like, at the end of the day, you cannot look at someone and they say, I want to be like him while you are marathoner. So you cannot run the 5 ks. You have to find what's worked for you, what's your best distance. And to find out that is to listen to your coach and also just, you know, just to and that's why you have a people surrounding you. You don't make a decision by yourself. That's the reason of having a coach. I'm not gonna put you like every day a 5 ks while you're running like a like a 28, 40, 10 ks all the time while the standard is like a 20, 20705.

Guest [00:26:18]: What's the reason? Like, you wanna get to the loan because so you have to find your sweet spot.

Finn Melanson [00:26:23]: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have a couple of rules to live by in the book that I would love for you to explain a bit more. The first one is there is no such thing as a quick fix. What do you mean here and what should listeners take from that?

Guest [00:26:38]: There's no yeah. There's no quick fix. Like, at the end of the day, Aza, like, for me, like, I see a lot of what in my career, I have seen, like, when people see, like, someone having so much successful, so much success to other group, you know, someone's by just they just get out of high no. They just get out of college. They they are new they have a new night new deals with the shoe company. So for them, they want to run fast. They see someone running fast instead of just giving them, like, you know, just working hard to see giving them like, you know, 2 or 3 years to see how far it goes. They will go they wanna go join that guy because that guy's running fast.

Guest [00:27:16]: Because not him. There's nothing that's gonna happen if you go there and train with him. Just you might you just go backwards. Yeah. So quick fix. Yeah. Don't do quick fix. It's just like don't don't look what other people are doing and they're running fast and you want to join them.

Finn Melanson [00:27:34]: How about a setback is a setup for a comeback? Explain that one more.

Guest [00:27:39]: Yeah. It's not like, you know, a step back is like when you get injury, you know, just like when when you've been training so hard and then you have a stress fracture and then you're not running for like a you're not running for like a 6, 7 weeks. At that time, you're thinking about what you wanna accomplish. You you just go back and then think about it just like you get more hungry, you get more motivated. And then when you start training, you want it more than before.

Finn Melanson [00:28:05]: Yeah. Last one, give yourself 10 minutes.

Guest [00:28:09]: Give yourself a 10 minute. That's that's the best one. I that's that's one of my that's actually my favorite, to be honest. Even at this point of my at this point of my career, I'm still I still run every day, like, 10 to 12 miles. I'm trying to compete. But, you know, the hardest thing, sometimes I don't feel like running. Like this morning, I didn't wanna, like, I didn't want to go for a run. Just and I said, you know what, let me just do 5 miles.

Guest [00:28:32]: Let me just do 5 miles, just 5 miles. 5 even 5 miles was a lot. I said, But after 10 minutes, as, you know, my body warmed up, everything, all the muscles fire, I end up running 12 miles.

Finn Melanson [00:28:49]: Beautiful. I love it. Alright. Couple couple more questions before we wrap up. I mean, we're we're just a few weeks removed from the Olympic marathon trials. February 23, 2024, plenty of this year left. What is your immediate future look like in the sport? And, how about long term? Like, do you have any other, like, performance goals that are really motivating you on a day to day basis?

Guest [00:29:16]: I just love running, man. It's just like there's nothing that that motivates me at this time besides besides the love of love of other sports. Like, you know, I to be honest, I would like if I didn't if if I say I wasn't motivated for the trials to come this year, I would be lying to you. I was super motivated. I was I was told I was gonna do something special, something that never been done before, but unfortunately, I did not make it to the finish line. I got little problem, back issues, so but that's that's behind me now. I cannot change it, but yeah, I want to get involved in running, you know, just, also I wanna like, you know, just I'm I'm helping like I'm helping coach now. You know, just I have a lot of guys who are back home in Ethiopia.

Guest [00:30:05]: I just like, you know, I'm a mentor for them, big brother, you know, the coach, but just almost like a mentor brother. Just showing them the ropes, what to do, you know, just how to how to set goals, and just hopefully help them get into races. And hopefully, we'll have a group in Ethiopia just hopefully in the next year or 2. And just being around those guys to give me a peace of mind. And also, you know, the foundation, I wanna start my foundation, the papers on the work. Hopefully, I'll get my papers, C1, 2 papers. I should I should have them end of the year this year hopefully. And also, Wright Park Hope Foundation.

Guest [00:30:49]: Yeah. That would be good one. And also have a race in Tucson. I'm working on having a 10 k road race. Yeah. I wanna there's a lot of stuff I wanna do, but like Yeah. So I love running, and I'm you will see me just I might not I might not be running at the front group, but I will out here doesn't from now on, the thing is gonna be moving backwards. You know, the first group, second group, 3rd group until I do it to the, you know, couple hours group.

Guest [00:31:15]: You know, it's just I just love the sport that much.

Finn Melanson [00:31:18]: Yeah. Would you ever because you live in a beautiful area of the country, Tucson. Great trails down there.

Guest [00:31:24]: Would you

Finn Melanson [00:31:24]: ever consider getting into trail running?

Guest [00:31:26]: I love trail running. I I live, like, less than a mile from trails, but it just for me, I love trail running. What is it? Something maybe. Why not? But I long runs, I'll go for I'll do the 50 mile on maybe. Yeah. 50 mile car, I'll do that. But 100 miles, nah.

Finn Melanson [00:31:44]: I was just at a race up the road from you called the Black Canyon 100 k. And, Andrew Bumbleo was racing from, from Bowerman Track.

Guest [00:31:54]: Oh, yeah. I know Andrew Bumble. Yes. Yes. I know him. So it was cool it

Finn Melanson [00:31:59]: was cool to see someone, you know, in that, like, 210 to 213 marathon range say, I'm I'm gonna give, like, a long distance trail effort to trust. I I just anytime I come come across someone like you or just a really accomplished marathon, I'm like, like, once you've done what you wanna do on the roads, would you ever consider trails? So it's 50 miles is pretty cool.

Guest [00:32:20]: Yeah. I would definitely do that. That was something that's like for me, I love running, to be honest. Running is one of the, like, for me, just that's why I'm still doing it. And that's why I every day I wake up, like, just, you know, I could do anywhere from 10 to 12 miles. I'm going to Ethiopia. Actually, on Wednesday, I'm leaving for Addis Ababa just to be with the guys and help, you know, and just for me, it's just like just being around that environment, giving me a peace of mind, you know, just like also seen and I also have become a good friend with Kananisa Pequela now. So now he's kinda I get to hang out with him a lot in Addis.

Guest [00:32:55]: So he's he's one of the nicest people, and he always give me he say, you still got you're still young, man, even though I'm my forties.

Finn Melanson [00:33:04]: You look great. Yeah. Well, anyways, I think my favorite takeaway from the book, and it was a great book, like I said, book is called Abdi's World Willing TO it in the show notes, is that, you know, you say you enter the world with nothing, you leave the world with nothing. It's what we contribute to our community that is our legacy. And just from what you said there, kinda getting into coaching, going back to Ethiopia, doing some organizing there, it sounds like this is something that is very present in mind for you and, I think if there's one thing that I would love for the audience to think about is, what does that community element of running look like in your life? Because that's really the most important thing I think we can do with this sport while we have our time here.

Guest [00:33:46]: Yeah. We can do a lot, man. We can do a lot, you know, just especially me right now. Just the foundation. I wanna I wanna give back to be honest. I just like even even like I did I wrote this book, it was a fun project. It was during the pandemic, you know, just I say, you know, Miles, we talk about it and say, you know, I think it's great. Let's do it.

Guest [00:34:06]: And this was a book we did it like less than maybe 3 months. We met at the park every day, talked, write, did, you know, pass to each other notes. And also I think if if if I can give, like, if if if I can give advice like a 100 kids and I can make one of them to be successful in life, not only in running but everything in life, just like in business, just become something in your leg. Just like contribute to society. And that's the main thing for me. I'm not looking to change, like, 100 people's mind. If I if I go 100 and I get one successful, that's a win for me. And also this book, I think everything that 100% of the foresee the book, it will go to the foundation, and it's gonna be building that school.

Guest [00:34:48]: And that's the main thing for me just so they have an opportunity to change their life.

Finn Melanson [00:34:54]: Abdi, it's a pleasure to chat with you today. Thank you so much for your time.

Guest [00:34:57]: Well, thank you, man. Thanks for having me, man. Thank you.

Finn Melanson [00:35:15]: Thanks for listening to the Run to the Top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become a better runner with every episode. Please consider connecting with me on Instagram at wasatch fin and the rest of our team at runners connect. Also consider supporting our show for free with a rating on the Spotify and Apple podcast players. And lastly, if you love the show and want bonus content, behind the scenes experiences with our guests, and premier your access to contests and giveaways, then subscribe to our newsletter by going to runnersconnect.netback/podcast. Until next time. Happy trading.