Abdi Abdirahman fit, healthy, confident ahead of NYC Marathon
​Transcript by ASAP Sports
Q. How many marathons have you done so far in your career?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: In my career?
Q. Yeah.
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Eight.
Q. Eight?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Yeah, not that much.
Q. When was your last one?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Boston.
Q. Is Boston this year?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No, 2013.
Q. When was your first one?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: 2004 in New York City.
Q. So what's new? What's going on? How's your training been?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Training's been going well. I've been healthy. It's been great. I'm just excited to be back in New York City.
Q. What were you doing during Rio? Where were you?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I was in it Flagstaff training, watching the Olympics, like everyone else, having fun. Hanging out with friends. Rooting for my teammates, my former teammates.
Q. Did anything surprise you in Rio that you saw?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Nothing surprised me, to be honest, in Rio. It was a great Olympics. Like the 5K, 10K, like you expected Mo to win it and also -- like I think Galen to get the medal was kind of a little bit surprised, but it was something we knew it could happen. We just weren't sure. At the same time, we knew he had the talent to get gold in that race. It happened for him. So I was happy for him.
Q. Are you doing anything different with your diet? And what's your basic routine on your food and nutrition?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I'm not doing anything different in my diet, to be honest. I'm always a firm believer of like I'm just going to do whatever gets me to this point in my career, just eat what I usually eat. First and foremost, people know that I'm an athlete. I've been an athlete for almost 20 years now. I eat the same thing I eat, just take a little bit more rest now. That's the one thing.
Q. So are you a vegan? Do you eat meat?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I love meat. Yeah, meat's my favorite food actually.
Q. What kind of meat?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I love red meat, chicken, fish, everything.
Q. Steak?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Steak's my favorite, yeah.
Q. Do you eat meat like five days a week?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: Sometimes. Sometimes I eat like three times a day meat. I eat meat in the morning. Sometimes I eat with my scrambled eggs, just some steak in there. It's a good source of protein for me.
Q. And how about vitamins? Are you doing anything special in terms of vitamins?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I don't take any supplements. Zero supplements, just like nothing extra, besides Gatorade and energy drinks during the race. Other than that, I don't do anything recovery. I try to get everything I can from just regular food.
Q. So have you happened to have had a nutritionist that you work with, or have you calculated the number of calories on average that you consume in a day?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No.
Q. No?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: No.
Q. I do wonder, what is your race weight? What do you think you weigh right now?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I weigh 130.
Q. How tall are you?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I'm 5'11", almost 6 foot actually.
Q. You're 37. How much longer are you going to keep going?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I'm still doing well. To be honest, I'm still feeling good. I have like just -- I have one of my best buildup for a marathon for this race, I think, just the workout was perfect. Everything was perfect. And I've been healthy for the whole year. Just things have been going well.
My recovery, just like -- I think I have struggled the last three or four years, just injury here or there, like I was healthy but I wasn't 100 percent. But I feel like this year I was 100 percent healthy. Just everything was going well, training, buildup. I think this was a perfect buildup for the marathon for me.
Q. What do you think that translates for the race? What is the goal?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: The goal is to compete, be competitive. Go out there and give yourself a chance. That's my goal, to be honest. I wish I knew the outcome of the race when I cross the finish line, but it's a marathon at the end of the day. You've got to respect the distance. Anything can go wrong, but I do everything I can do under my control to get ready for this race.
Q. Give yourself to do what? Be top American? Win the race?
ABDI ABDIRAHMAN: I'm not here to say I'm going to be top American. That's not my goal. I want to compete with everyone else. It's a race, and my main competition is not the marathon guys. I want to compete. I want to be first. As an athlete, you compete to be first, so that's my main goal.