U.S. men's marathoners prove achieving is all in believing

HOUSTON -- As each day spent nursing a foot infection passed by, leaving him one day closer and less-prepared for the Olympic Trials, Meb Keflezighi let doubt creep into his mind.

"Naturally, I had doubts," Keflezighi said. "There were days when I would tell Yordanos (his wife) ‘I don't think I am making it back in time.'"

When Ryan Hall decided in 2010 to split with proven coach Terrence Mahon to train on his own with his faith in God as his ultimate guide, many cynics (this writer included) questioned the sanity of that choice.

"I don't spend a lot of time thinking about people rolling their eyes or what not," Hall said recently. "I just think about what I'm doing and what's going to work for me."

When Abdi Abdirahman was sidelined by injury for the better part of 18 months, may people in running circles wondered if they had seen the last of the three-time Olympian.

"Injuries are something that you go through as an athlete," Abdirahman said. "You also always have those people who doubt you and tell you that you're done."

At one time or another during the last quadrennium, Keflezighi, Hall and Abdirahman have all had or faced moments of misgiving. That all three persevered and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team in the men's marathon - Keflezighi won in a personal-best 2:09:08, Hall was second in 2:09:30 and Abdirahman third in 2:09:47 - is a testament to the one trait each share in common.

Belief in themselves, against all odds.

"If you don't believe in what you are doing," Keflezighi said, "then what's the point?"

The biggest doubts about Keflezighi were actually four years ago when he suffered a fractured pelvis during the last Olympic Trials marathon in New York in 2007. He answered those who questioned his ability to recover with a resounding victory in the 2009 ING New York City Marathon.

That he has only gotten better since then defies logic.

His longtime shoe sponsor, Nike, must not have thought it was possible because they dropped him in 2010. But this past November he ran 2:09:13 -- then the fastest time of his career -- in a sixth-place finish in New York. He was five seconds faster here despite just 41 days of training due to a foot infection caused by forgetting his Breathe Right nasal strip in his racing flat in New York.

"For me, not making that (2008) team rejuvenated the power of not taking life for granted," Keflezighi said. "To make the comeback that I did, and to make this team, winning it with a PR is amazing."

In the last year, Hall has changed just about everything in his life to find the right recipe for success. He left his training group, moved from Mammoth Lakes to Redding, Calif. and altered his training methods to incorporate more rest and be able to enter races with fresher legs.

There were times when one had to question the veracity of his choices, like when he blew up in the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in 2010 and never contended at the 2011 New York City Half-Marathon. His fourth-place finish in the Boston Marathon in 2:04:58, the fastest by an American under any conditions, and his fifth-place effort in 2:08:08 in the Chicago Marathon in October began to change perceptions. Making a second straight Olympic Team won't hurt either.

"I don't have it all figured out," Hall said here on Thursday. "But I do think God just wants us to be us and as long as we are ourselves then he is happy. That's what success is. Was I who God made us to be in that moment? That's what defines success for me, not did I make the team or what place I finished."

Injury has been a thorn in the side of the "Black Cactus" since 2010, when Abdirahman suffered a stress reaction in his right femur. It was a weird injury in that it isn't something that plagues many runners and there wasn't much he could have done to prevent it. Knocking him out of commission for a year and half essentially knocked him off the radar.

"It was the longest I have ever gone without running," Abdirahman said in a prior interview. "I usually take off three weeks out of the year and during that time I start going stir crazy. Even when I am not running I go run like two or three miles, just to feel better. I couldn't even do that, and it messes with your head."

But Abdirahman didn't panic. Instead, he patiently eased back into training, all the while putting an emphasis on staying healthy. He said he arrived here as fit as he was when he won the 10,000m at the Olympic Track Trials in 2008.

"It's been a long journey for me," Abdirahman said. "If I listened to what people said, I would be done definitely. Meb went through the same thing. My injury was not as bad as what Meb went through, but it kept me out for almost a year and a half. When I started training at the beginning of this year, I stayed healthy for a period of a few months. I said, ‘If everything goes well, and I'm able to stay healthy I'm going to make the team because I know I am one of the premier marathoners in the U.S."

This trio has proven that you've got to believe to achieve.