2013 Berkane Morocco Half Marathon

I finished 12th place in 1hr 03 min. (about 4:50 per mile)  The weather was very hot and humid. I'm so happy.  Now I know I can run 60 min in the half marathon.  The pace was very fast.  My pace:

 5km: 13:55

10km: 28:45

15km: 43:15  (=13:55 + 14:50 + 14:30)

Feyisa Lilesa



Aissa Dghoughi with Ethiopian marathoner Feyisa Lilesa

 I met up with Feyisa Lilesa, the winner of this year's Ethiopian national championship.  Lilesa ran 2:04:52 in the marathon last year which is one of the 20 fastest marathon times ever run.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feyisa_Lilesa

Lilesa finished 9th place in last week's World Cross Country Championships.  Here are the results ...

Berkane, Morocco

I will run a half marathon in Berkane, Morocco on Sunday.  That is the birthplace of Hicham El Guerrouj.  My training has been going very good and I think that I can run under 62 mintues.

Ethiopia 15k training run

Aissa is towards the front, red shirt, black shorts, and a stocking hat.

Ethiopia training run

I'm in the back, blue shirt, and a stocking cap.

Here is a video from my work out.  This was on March 9th.  It was a 30km tempo run at 2900 meter altitude or about 9000 feet.

Runner's World on-line article

I was mentioned at the end of a Runners World on-line article.  Link to article

The last few sentences said:

I'm still in touch with several of the elites I met in Puerto Rico, and a few have become close friends. Last July, two of them met me in Davenport, Iowa, for the Bix 7, a challenging 7-mile road race that each year draws a world-class field.

While visiting them in the elite-housing dorm the day before the race, I met a 30-year-old Moroccan named Aissa Dghoughi, who trains in Oregon and had recently run a 14:09 5K at altitude.

He asked me if I was in the elite field, too. "No," I said. "I'm competitive, but far from elite." I told him I run low 35 for the 10K and mid-16 for the 5K, and he smiled. "Then you know," he said, one runner talking to another. "It's not easy."