BEVERLY HILLS >> Do not expect Meb Keflezighi to keep at the training regime like he did when he competed in his first Olympic marathon 12 years ago at the age of 29.
The 41-year-old former UCLA standout and San Diego resident will be trying to become the oldest to win an Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 21. He qualified for his third Games by finishing second at the U.S. Trials in February in the streets of downtown L.A.
“The biggest thing (between the 2004 Games and now is that) I have no hair,” he joked.
But then he got serious about the difference.
“I used to collect mile repeats of 4:08, 4:12,” he recalled. “I would go to (UCLA’s) Drake (Stadium) and run five or six 2:02s (800 meters) and then let loose with a 1:53. Those things are not possible anymore. I could do 15 miles at a 4:57 tempo before (the) Athens (Olympics). Now I cannot do that. If I can run a 5:02 for 14 miles I’m happy with it.
“To come back and make the Olympics is exciting.”
Keflezighi, who will be 41 years, 108 days old when he races in Rio, has seen a lot of marathoners retire at his age.
“As I’ve gotten older, my nutrition has changed, my training has changed, my recovery has changed,” he said. “I used to do Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday-Sunday long runs. I can’t do that anymore. After every two days of hard intensity I ask my body what it needs.
“I’m thankful I do not have to prove anything. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, there is another day. The clock doesn’t lie. I look forward to exercise every day because that is life. Most people who do retire give up when they are injured, but injuries are part of life. Disappointment is part of life. But you wake up the next day and follow the sun. The next day is brighter. It might be a bad day, but it’s OK. Tomorrow will get better.”
Carlos Alberto de Sousa Lopes of Portugal is the oldest to have won the Olympic marathon, winning on the streets of Los Angeles in 1984 at the age of 37. There have been four Olympic marathon winners older than age 35. Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda won the 26.2-mile race four years ago in London at the age of 23. Keflezighi took fourth in that race.
Degaga Wolde of Ethiopia is the oldest Olympic medalist, taking the silver in 1972 at age 40. Clarence DeMar is the oldest U.S. medalist in the event, taking silver in 1924 at the age of 36.
Keflezighi may not be the only 40-year-old Olympian in Rio, either. He will likely be joined by Ruggero Pertile of Italy, who was fourth in the world championships in Beijing last year and 10th in the London Games.
Antoni Bernado of Andorra finished 74th in London at age 45, his last marathon. He competed in the 5,000 and 10,000 in 2013. Juan Carlos Cardona of Colombia was 83rd in London at age 37 and last ran a marathon in 2014.
Keflezighi will be joined by 30-year-old Galen Rupp and 27-year-old Jared Ward from the U.S.
Ward was not even in school when Keflezighi won a CIF State cross country title for San Diego High School.
“He is obviously a tremendous competitor and I think it really speak volumes about him and his coach that he is consistently good for so long,” said Rupp, who won the Trials in his first marathon. “He never has a bad run ever. He is always right up there and always a tough competitor. He has had great races over the years and definitely it is something to be admired.”
Keflezighi won a silver medal at the ’04 Games in Athens and broke his hip during the ’08 Trials, missing those Games.
He was born in Eritrea and escaped to the U.S. as a toddler, the family fleeing persecution. He because a U.S. citizen when he graduated from UCLA.
He won the New York Marathon in 2009 and then took the Boston Marathon in 2014, the first American to accomplish the feat in 19 years.
“I’m a different kind of runner. I’ve done it from the front, done it from the back, done it from the middle,” he said. “As people get older, they get more wisdom. You have to be healthy and use training to sustain your consistency. You do not have to have your A-plus game, but you have to have a consistent B-plus average in your training.”
The Games will be his 24th career marathon.
“Going to a race you have plans and strategies,” he said. “You never really own a race. You have to cover something when someone makes a move.
“Honestly the only marathon where I have run my own race was when I won Boston. We have a plan, A to Z, but you have to try to execute in that moment.”
