Fuelling Secrets for a 2:04 Marathon & Best Running Shoes | Amanal Petros

0:00Ah, good fun. Amanal Petros, welcome to Untappd. Thank you for having me, bro. Thank you for your invitation. It's such a pleasure. European champion. Since yesterday. A marathon major. It's crazy, right? Congratulations. Honestly, it's... what an extraordinary feat. I have a question for you, though. So, you know, recently you become... You win the gold in the marathon major, Birmingham, European champs. Your PB is significantly faster than the time you ran in Birmingham to win gold. Which is more important to you? I think both of it is very important. So the time you run yesterday, the PB, maybe it's one of the important things, but maybe someone is going to break it.

0:49So I think for me, both of it is one of the important things. but I think the championships are like very historical. When you run your PB in Valencia, 2.04 and 3 seconds, you came second in that race. You came second by 11 seconds, something like that. As a professional athlete, setting your fastest time but not winning gold, does that weigh on your mind or are you just happy that you ran the fastest marathon you could have possibly ran on the day? I'm trying to be better than myself, better than the time I ran yesterday. I challenge myself and learning always from my mistakes the way I do yesterday, trying to make it better.

1:37And that's what I did also last year and before last year. And I hope I'm going to do also next year the same thing. Can you break down how you would strategize a race like that? So the marathon is very punishing, can be a very cruel race. How do you set about running the perfect marathon? Are you looking to negative split the race? Are you looking to hold steady for the whole race? Does it depend on the day? How do you, European champion, approach the race? It's very tough. It's not easy. You have to decide for yourself. If you're going to stay until the end, so you've got to lose. Yeah, I pushed like the last 15k and that was a very, very long way for me.

2:25Like 15k is like very long. So the last 3k I was very, very tired. If you see me like they close it even, they came like the cup was like one minute and they close it like up to 20 seconds. So I was very lucky. Could you feel that happening at the time? Like or were you just focused on your race? Bro, I was done. Like, I was very happy that I see the goal. And I see, oh, God, Lord, thank you so much. I'm done. Do you still find joy in running? You know, your life has been incredibly interesting. You were a refugee. You fled to Germany when you were a teenager. you obviously now are an elite marathoner I'd love to dig into what running has really given you and what you gain from running do you still love lacing up and just going for a run or is it very much is it work does it feel like work for you I mean running is like my life it's it's like my freedom I used to run even when I was young like from home to school like going in back like 6k and 6k back.

3:39It's so beautiful when you run like in the natural, like with the landscape and you meet like a lot of people, you run with them, you try to have like fun. It's such beautiful. I mean, I'm a professional marathon runner and sometimes it's not easy, of course. Like we train like 200 kilometers per week, which is like 28, 30 kilometers per day, morning and afternoon. It's a kind of tough, I have to say that. But I'm very honest, mostly I enjoy like really. So even yesterday was very tough. The road was so tough, like hilly up and down. But I was trying to enjoy myself, the atmosphere, especially the last two Ks enjoy and looking like back and left and right.

4:29And that's a kind of beautiful life. It's very tough to be a marathona. but you also meet like a lot of people you run together with them you you share like a lot of experience even you feel the pain sometimes which is beautiful you know it's a part of life yeah so i really enjoy always i have my freedom i sleep so well when i'm going running and i feel really free also like in my mind nobody can do it for you and there isn't really luck involved exactly It's just, I'm going to work this hard and I'm going to receive this. Like in many things, if you really, really dial into something and you give it your all, you should be rewarded with…

5:14You explained this very well, bro. I think it's cool. And it doesn't matter which time did you run. It doesn't matter. You just came, you reached the goal. You just came, you finished it. And that makes you happy. It doesn't matter which time you run.

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7:46It is an extraordinary sport, though, because you can't really put it down and pick it up. You either run or you don't run, you know, really. and kind of it will reward you when you're disciplined and it'll punish you when you're not. And that's the harsh reality of the sport. It's why I kind of love it so much. I noticed you've got your Puma Fastars in here. Can we have a look at these? Are these your race shoes? It's behind me, right? Yeah, yeah. We put them up for you. These are crazy, right? You raced in these, yeah? Yes, yeah. I used to run yesterday even. They're my, I can't believe I'm about to say this.

8:21I'm cheating on the Prime X3. These are my favorite shoe at the moment. Mine too, bro. My boys think that they're the Sonic the Hedgehog shoes. Yeah. You know, the blue hedgehog. It's very fast. He has red and white shoes. And so mine are red and white. You want to teach it? Yeah, no, please. It's very light also. I'm racing in... I feel really weird when I'm telling you that I'm racing. I'm running a 10K race tomorrow evening in my Puma Fast Hours. I just find them fascinating. I know that you tested and developed and helped develop these. Yes, yeah. I'm a part of the development of these shoes, yeah.

9:00They're just a marvel. Like, I think they're so exciting. And we've had a number of discussions around the fast fast in here. It's one of the aggressive shoes. Yeah. Alfie Manthorpe was in here. He's a big shoehead. And he was saying that unless you're an excellent runner, they're a little bit harsh. And so he was basically implying that I shouldn't run in them. he was like they're pretty they're a little bit they're quite full-on if you're not on it i was like all right fine thanks um but uh no i love them can you tell us what kind of a difference a super shoe like this makes in a race you know where where are the advantages coming from and what is the edge that it can give a good runner i was having a chat with with bella our producer trying to explain the difference between yeah yeah of course you know uh an incredibly aggressive racing shoe and for example a nike vamiro plus you know something what are the core differences that you're going to experience when running in two completely different shoes like i think like i mean it's very aggressive and they have a very special form do you know the way you like you land on the area and then you just try to run to the front they're gonna push you and you gotta come out also like higher so that's one of the important thing but also like they give you like more comfort for your legs.

10:20So it's very light and aggressive and they have very special form. And even you can train and run for even more than like almost 2 ,000 kilometers with the shoes. Really? Yes. I used to run also, by the way, in rough road in Kenya. Imagine. So it's like with a lot of stones even. Nothing has happened. I have a box fresh purple pair that Puma very kindly sent me. I also bought a red pair because I didn't know when they would arrive. So now I have two pairs. And I've only ever used the red pair. And I've got the purple pair. So I'm going to wear the purple pair tomorrow night. And we're going to light up Battersea Park and leave a trail of fire behind us.

10:59I used to run with that one last year, 2025, in the World Championship Tokyo. I lost like for three seconds, but that was the same shoes like Fast Airy 3. So even that one is one of the best and faster shoes. I have conversations with my brother about running sometimes. because he used to love running, right? This is a long time ago now. He's 51 or something now. He'll love that. But so he doesn't run that much anymore. But he kind of predates the super shoe. He would run like a 302, 303 or something like that. And I was saying to him, if you had super shoes, you would have been running like six, seven minutes faster.

11:34And he was like, no, there's no way. Like it wouldn't make that big a difference. And it definitely would. Like he was running in these ridiculous, like boaty, heavy, crap shoes. I love the idea of a super shoe it's almost how much of it do you think is mental? like when you lace up a pair of fast stars like you feel like you're going like a fighter jet immediately you feel very light even you feel more comfortable also in adrenaline in your mind so that's how it works also with the mental and hard work I think I always believe like hard work is like maybe 75 % 35 % is like mental thing and so you have to believe it Is there anything that you do when the mind turns a bit dark and does that happen to you?

12:21So when you're racing do you get the intrusive negative thoughts or not really? Yes, even yesterday I can't explain you like the last four cases was very tough and I was very tired and I have to think like the way I was working hard in E10 the way I worked like over 200km, 200km per week and 30 kilometers per day. It was because of the running, sleeping, eating and sleeping. And tomorrow exactly the same. I never did something. And the way my family, my mom was like, always think of me. And she pray every day for me. And I have to think about it. And that helped me sometimes mentally, you know, when I feel a little bit tired.

13:01It's a kind of like a very special motivation. I imagine that most of your 200 kilometers is kind of zone two, early zone three work for you? Yeah, 6.30 is the first workout and the second is like at four. Okay. So we are like in a very big groups in Kenya and over like over 20 people. So we meet just in one point. It's called the home. By the way, I would love to invite you to Kenya, the home of champion, to Ite in the home of champion. I swear to God, you're going to love it. I'd love to come. When are we going? Come like October. October is one of the best. We have like one of the beautiful weathers.

13:42It's always good. So we have like 20 people group. We meet in one point, always there, like over 400 athletes. Are you going with Puma? Yeah. Okay. So you could be like the kind of Puma elite, you know, marathoner. And I can be the like Puma average Joe. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, I can be the guy who - very cool. I can sell shoes to like your average dude that wants to run like a 245, three hour marathon. I can be that guy. And you're the like, you know, European goals. So I think the two of us could work very well together just in passing. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I think they're going to be cool.

14:22Yeah. For your information, but it's not like bling bling like here in London. It's just like, it's a very village. You never see like a Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz BMW. It's just like animals. That's for me, brother. Yes. I don't need the Lamborghinis. I don't know. Yeah. Okay. No, no, no. Listen, I drive a German car, actually. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't need the Italian flash. Okay, yeah. I drive a German. I drive an Audi. No, Audi, yeah. Yeah. A black one? RS6. Wow. Like a big one. That's cool. It's good stuff, mate. Yeah. So, unfortunately, you will not get this insane. we have like a mini bus it's called Motatu Motatu Motatu it's by the way like for 6 % here in European but we are gaining there like 15 % by the way I'm gonna come like you've made a mistake you will by suggesting I'm so excited bro yeah listen Puma yeah I'll pay for my own flight I'll put myself up in the Motatu I'll sleep in the Motatu is that what you said perfect yes yeah yeah I don't need a bed or anything I spent 30 days I spent 30 days Running a marathon every day Through the Jordanian desert And we slept rough For the whole thing No toilets No showers I'm good to go brother That's tough yeah I've got it You can't make it this one No no no We're here I'm with you I'm very excited yeah That's cool I think that sounds So next That sounds like some pretty Banging social content For humor I have to say I think that that's gonna be Yeah We're having our fourth child In about two weeks Four kids no yeah um but that's like early september so that's fine i can go yeah i can go i'll just i'll clear it with the boss at home but but that's fine it's only what listen the boss say yes yeah yeah say yes boss i'm fascinated by your fueling so you run 28 30 kilometers every day obviously you race marathons uh where i was getting at with the zone two training like would you know roughly what your average heart rate was like across that 200k or not really are you are you are you um depleting your glycogen stores basically a lot throughout the week are you having to carb load throughout the week or not really what i uh eat in eating i mean in the training camp uh all all of them like like organic so you cannot make some wrong thing but I used to take also like a like a ministry it's a kind of recovery shake and uh b-carb also and that helped me a lot there is like a coffee in and a normal gel energy drinks yeah and I used to do this one like by workouts yeah and they helped me a lot you know for the regeneration is one of the important things.

17:15And during the race itself, are you gelling every 20 minutes? I can show you my experiment for the competition. You know what I did? I wake up like three, two hours before the competition. So I take my B-carb, especially the last years. That one is like a kind of for short distance, mostly. What does that do? It's make you free like in the stomach. Okay. So that it gives you like a kind of more power or energy. And that's mostly like for, yeah, for short distance. For 10K? For 10K, yeah, also. When do you take this thing? And where can I purchase one? Three hours before or two hours before. I literally can't wait.

18:02I said to my friend the other night, I was like, is there like an equivalent of like a jetpack that we can put on? It's a new system, by the way. I know this one even since last year. Buy Cub. Bicarb, yeah. And it works for a marathon too. I mean, for me, it works. Like I used to do this since last year and I tested yesterday too. Is it a gel or is it food or what is it? There is a different, there is some supplement or there is also a gel and there is also like an ingiver shot. So you have to decide, yeah. Sick. Okay, so it's three hours before we're doing some Bicarb. Yeah, yeah. And then what?

18:44And then I just eat my breakfast, like three bread toast with butter and malmalade or honey. I have a friend and a good friend. His name is Kai Flama. He's a kind of famous to buy TV. And he used to come also to Kenya. He stayed like one week with me and he was throwing hard. And then he ran his first marathon in Berlin. and he ran like over 30, even over one minute PB. That was crazy. So I shared him my experiment, coffee in. So I told him, take like double espresso. Yeah, lovely. And then one coffee in gel. Yeah. Like from ministry or wherever you want before the competition. Yeah. And then I tell him like in every 10K, a coffee in gel again.

19:35And he couldn't sleep like the next two days, but it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, PB, brother. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I couldn't even sleep yesterday and today I'm still awake. You look fantastic, by the way. I literally can't believe you did this yesterday. It's a sight, you're a sight to behold. Thanks so much. So bicarb three hours before, caffeine gels. Yeah, I couldn't care less if I'm high as hell, like going to sleep. Plus, don't forget the Fast Air A3. Oh, yeah, yeah. Don't worry. Those are polished up, ready. You know, they're good to go. That's cool. They're good to go. But I'm brand new to Puma.

20:08I love the DV8 Pures as well. Like they're fantastic. Yes. I really struggled to find a like recovery shoe, like a slow shoe just for like 80 % of your runs. And I was kind of, I was rotating between Vemiro Plus, Vemiro Premium, like other kind of like larger, bulkier shoes, some Sockney, some Asics stuff. But no, the DV8 is like, when I first put it on, And I was like, because it's quite small, you know, and it's quite compact. And I just thought it doesn't feel like it's going to have the support for the longer runs. But it does. It's fantastic. It's really good. Recovery is also not like by B-carb or recovery shake.

20:54Also, the recovery is coming also from the shoes. I can't wait for this bicarb thing. I mean, you know exactly what I'm talking, right? I think so. Yeah. I'm going to don't worry. I'm going to I'm going to. So I change the name sometimes between English. Sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate. We can definitely do a session on extra mile with it. I can show you, yeah. Sodium bicarbonate. What, you just put it into like a shake or something? Sodium bicarbonate. Fucking hell. Yeah. I'm going to set an Olympic record tomorrow night. It's really, really, really, really important, especially for 10K or 1 ,500 metre or 3 ,000 metre.

21:28It's cool. But you need to be taken care. I forget to tell you this. You have to make sure you go to toilet. Yeah. But don't worry. I mean, listen, if that happens, it happens, you know, whatever. I just want to let you know everything. So I want to give you the whole information. It's healthy. It's give you like a lot of energy. You feel it like immediately with the coffee in, with the shoes all together. You got to push it. No, no, I'm going to. I can't wait. But the funny thing is... Wait, you have to be taken care of like that. You have to make it sure you go to toilet. Yeah, yeah. And stay long there.

22:01It's okay. I kind of feel like um like even just the mental edge of drinking this stuff for the first time is going to make me I'm crazy with stuff like this so like like it's like the first time I ever took a gel was only quite recently so like I gelled for the first time ever in London 25 so last year's London Marathon was the first time I'd ever taken a gel ever right and uh I literally couldn't believe it. Like, literally, I took a job. Oh my God, I feel like Superman. I literally couldn't believe it. And I had eight that race or something. Felt fantastic. I wasn't ready or going for sub three, but I ran like 307.

22:42And I was just like, oh my God, great. I'm going to aim for sub three now, then 257 Tokyo with gels. But gels makes a huge difference. But now that you've told me about this bicarb thing, I'm going to drink it and feel like, like Asterix on the magic potion. I can send you like a package from Ministry. They have also like a ministry. They have everything. Pella. Yeah, right. Pella. Can you find out where they're selling that just down the road? And I'll hit Regent Street in my lunch break. No, we can send you something. You mentioned that Bicarb is good for kind of shorter distances. So like, you know, power in shorter distances, 5k, 10k.

23:20We ask all of our guests what their 5k PB is. Do you know yours? My PB. Your 5k PB. 13-22 13-22 yeah it's for a long time it's lovely stuff yeah yeah yeah that's good stuff and that's just like flat out right you just you just you know pedal to the metal you're going as hard as you can just just keep running with the fast L83 you're going to reach it okay well I don't think there's any guarantee of that but we shall we'll continue to chip away at the goal can I just ask you a very quick question again a little bit selfish on the whole 10k thing just because it's tomorrow night how just what what is the in your opinion the perfect 10k race strategy like do you come out hard settle try and finish hard do you try and run a progressive race do you stick at the same pace i already explained the strategies like with the coffee in you you have to use this one first and i think after you use this coffee in strategy you're gonna feel it like very very uh very strong like even adrenaline and yeah you need to be taken care just don't push that much yeah and it's better yeah like you after you reach like the 6k i'm so excited yeah you just keep the time very professionally until 6k and then you gotta push everything you give everything like the the last 4ks the problem with racing right is that like things that should feel hard don't to begin with because you're full of adrenaline you're very excited the heart rate's elevated so you set off the adrenaline is low also very high like for me my 5k pace is like 330 to 335 i know that i'm gonna want to set off at that like tomorrow but i wouldn't i probably can't hold that for 10k so like would you set off at like 340 and just no i I would love to do this.

25:15Like you need to follow your feeling. It's better you feel like just follow your feeling. But just go comfortable. A little reserved. Yes. Like control the, don't be emotionally and, and control your feeling. But like the way you feel very comfortable, you used to just keep going and running. Just run it. And then the last, the last 4k, you just give everything because you will not die. I can, I can barely sit still with excitement. Yeah. We appear to have a new shoe and a couple of new medals on set today. Can we? Oh, yeah. They're hiding behind me. I noticed them when we sat down. That's the crazy shoes.

25:56What is this? This is from Usain Bolt, bro. That's absolutely crazy. Signed? That is crazy. Yeah, it's with sign. Congratulations, man. This is crazy. So this is a prototype spike, is it? Yeah. Usain Bolt. look at that that's amazing even though it's like a golden colour you know I know look at that it's a belt puma exactly black cat black cat yes Usain Bolt's shoe sick will keep is this for is this for me yeah it's for you it's for you bro it's a gold it's like one of those things absolutely on an airplane yeah Vogue's gonna love it when you're just sleeping in bed tonight Vogue literally cannot bear how many shoes are in the house like it's boxes and boxes of shoes like i need to i need to do a a bit of an audit i think there's but there's probably like 30 pairs of running shoes just like in the room yeah but this is you gotta call if we ever have a really boring guest on i'll just uh i'll whack this up there thanks and the are these your this is the the gold from yesterday oh yes yeah you gotta get you gotta get it already the gold shoes so let me show you the gold uh the gold uh medal from yesterday like imagine winning a gold in the european championships of the marathon like it's crazy how many marathons have you won have you come first in quite a few yeah it's pretty sick like yeah like uh i see like uh seven six seven like imagine imagine setting off for a marathon and crossing the finish line first yeah sick isn't it yeah so cool proud yeah yeah absolutely it's amazing and to think that your first pb was similar to mine let's go like come on man hey listen maybe who knows i'm sorry yeah when are you going to begin to deteriorate how old are you?

28:00now 31 you're 31 so never basically so I'm just older than you great I have 10 years more I'm 38 oh seriously I'm looking older than you so it's safe to say that I will never be faster than you I was thinking if you were a bit older you might go downhill and I could get you when we're like 80 but the chances of that are pretty slim you can't you can't everything is possible trust me okay alright well everything is possible I believe that everything is possible I believe in great big goals, just not like impossible stuff. It's like, I'm going to be an astronaut. It's like, I'm not going to be an astronaut.

28:37So we may as well focus on something else. This is cool. Can I put it on? Please. Yeah. But you can take it and I can take this one too because we have another one here. You are. This is mine, is it? Thank you. Look at this thing. That's such beautiful.

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29:35No endless searching required. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire highly skilled freelance professionals for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up, and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com, Upwork dot com. Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms.

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31:03When you won your gold medal? Yesterday. Who was the first person that you called? My mom. Bro, my mom. She's in my home. She's like in a very small village, which is, there is an abuzz situation at the moment. There is a small war, like a region war. It's in Africa, you know, it's always happened this one, which is very sad, unfortunately. So she, you know, during I'm training every day, I prepare for some important competitions. You have some bad days sometimes. And she's always for me there. She prays for me. and I see her like very, not that much. She's very far away and I'm always, she's in my heart, bro.

31:48And immediately when I won and after I get my bag and my phone, I was calling my mom. You said you don't see her very often, but when will you next see her? Yeah, unfortunately like not that much, like every five years, every four years. It's not easy. Do you know, Africa is sometimes like not easy when we are talking about politics. It's a bad situation at the moment. And where are you based? Do you live in Germany? Yes. Yeah. I live in Germany. But as I say, like I'm at the moment because of the professional athletics, like in everywhere, you know. Tomorrow I'm here and tomorrow I'm in Germany.

32:30Mostly in Kenya, like training. That's my freedom place. We're going to have the time of our lives. Absolutely, yeah. In Kenya. What do we drink in Kenya? Do we drink milk? Yeah, they're called mursi. Mursi? Mursi. What's that? It's give you like energy. It's like a kind of a traditional drink. Can we get some of that for tomorrow night as well? Mursi. I'm looking forward to this mursi. Mursi and the altitude training. Can you, whether or not I'm in Kenya or not, can you tell me what the camp is going to be like? So what is training like? How many Ks are covered? What is the difference? Like, by the way, I have, I've ran at altitude before, but I sort of know how that feels.

33:14I went to a track in Kenya. I think I ran like a 19 minute 5k something ages ago. It was rough. Like it was rough. Like you can't breathe. The way we train like a minimum four times per week, it's four days. It's like a rough road. It's like in the city. Up, down, up, down. Up, down and up, down. Yeah. All of them. You never found like some flat roads, but that makes you strong. that make you strong like you think like you're very tired and you couldn't even keep going but when you come like to sea level bro you feel like you are you're flying like a jumbo jet I'm serious like you feel very very light yeah by the way I always come to competitions direct yeah from the high altitude like three days before the competition I'm in sea level yeah so that's like the way you feel also very light or two weeks before I was on Everest base camp for like five weeks.

34:08We were making a film a few years ago up on Everest and it's very thin air up there. And yeah, when I got back down, I went for a run. It was just like crazy. I wasn't even training up there, just living, you know, but you lose all your weight as well. You lose weight. Oh yeah, of course. Your body chucks off muscles. It doesn't need it. Yeah. Which is a shame, of course, for, you know, the German machine. You see here my chicken legs, bro. Crikey, brother. Look at these. Have you got tattoos? oh yeah have you actually let's have a look you wanna see yeah seriously let me see I have a very big let me show you bro here Olympic rings of course it's big enough see I once had a dream I have also another tattoo like maybe it's like covering with hair yeah like it's with bad smell and good smell like it's called like you decide yeah yeah yeah you got a happy or sad whatever you decide I like it that's it Like you decide for something to be happy or sad, but you decide something.

35:09To our listeners, many of whom run, we have a very strong running community that listen to this show. What could they learn from your training? So what advice, simple advice could you give to people who are looking to get better at running? I think it's helped like to see a running community, like to train with them together, to share some experience. and trying having fun and keeping going, like working hard every day, running community, having fun. That's the best thing. Yeah. A lot of amateur runners, they're very busy. They have a big family. They don't have time. But if you really have time, it's the best thing.

35:49Sometimes it's like you're tired. It's a bit like a kind of painful. So you are boring or you just want like on the bed. But as long as you just getting out from the bed and then starting to train, you feel so good, especially when you finish it, like you feel like you're one of the best person ever. Like you feel like a big freedom in your mind. I messaged Stephen Scullion yesterday and I said, do you ever just feel tired, slow, heavy? And he was like, every day. So yeah, I think it's normal to have ups and downs as well with running. Yeah, that's what I feel also like every morning. You know, I'm so tired sometimes and I have to wake up like at 6.30.

36:39But, you know, my mom is like my big energy, like my sisters and a lot of friends also. They support me sometimes. And I have a dream, you know, I just want to reach my dream. I have a dream. Like I want to be like European champion. I want to run like five seconds than last year. You know, it's a kind of motivation also. So you take it this one and that help you not only in running, the way you train every day, the way you train hard, it's helped you also mentally, like even in a private life. Yeah, absolutely. So everyone have like some situation in a private life. And the way you were, you was working hard, like the way you run like 40K, it doesn't make you only strong by running.

37:26It does, it make you also strong mentally and physically also in a private life. Yeah, it has a net positive knock-on effect. Yes, you will not fall down by a simple situation. You will make it. Your autobiography is out, 42.195km, my long run to freedom. To freedom, yeah. Unfortunately, it's in Germany. It's in German? Yeah, but if you come to Kenya, I'm going to translate you by every kilometer. Like you just run, I'm sitting in the motorbike and then I can't read and then explain you. I'm so, listen, I'm coming. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, bro. Yeah. We got to make. This is good news.

38:09What are you hoping that people will learn from reading your book? Never give up. Never stop to dream. That's one of the important things. and do you know the way the way you fall down is absolutely okay because you're gonna learn like how to fall down and to wake up and then keep going tomorrow it's always the best thing you learn from your own mistake and because that make you also strong and to never forget like where you came from because yesterday you was another person and tomorrow you're gonna be like another one. So I think just believe on yourself, believe on your family, believe on your God, and you're going to reach your goal.

38:57Can you describe those early feelings of leaving Africa and arriving in Germany when you're 16? That was one of the biggest challenge for me. I grew in a village. There was nothing there. There was no electric. there was not even asphalt, a car or a motorbike, whatever. So I used to run with the Barfoot sometimes to school and going back. With the what? Barfoot. Oh, Barfoot. Yeah, Barfoot, yeah. And it was in a very, very different world. And Germany is like, you know, Germany, you know, it's like a modern country. and the huge challenge was for me, especially the language, the mentality and the culture.

39:47And I couldn't even like understand everything. The weather even like it was so cold and I just had like a normal T-shirt and the language, I couldn't even nothing understand. And especially the mentality of German or European, whatever, it's not easy. The way we think and you think is a very huge difference. What kind of running level were you at at that time? I was like in, just like as a beginner, you know, for me was one of the important things just to have some connection with people. You know, I was boring alone and I couldn't talk like with anyone. So for me, it was like important to learn the language and the mentality and the culture of the German people, you know.

40:34You now hold the German national record for the half marathon, no? 59.22 Amazing It's such an incredible story And the first running 10k Was 60 No 36 minutes something No way Yes My first My first Pokal And I was I was in the newspaper That's what I'm going for Yes And let me tell you A day later They give me like a Pokal And a newspaper I used to run in the city And I'm showing people Hey bro This is me look at me and this is my Pokal I won yesterday I was so proud and and this Pokal and this newspaper they bring me to this level and if you see like in my house like I have like a lot of Pokals and like medals from the World Championship European German Championship the first Pokal you see over is like the the 36 for the first time It would be a real shame not to ask you about this year's London Marathon.

41:41And Sebastian Saue, Kajelcha, both breaking the two-hour mark. First time in history, 159.30. What a performance. Do you ever think that you might break the two-hour mark? Is that an ambition of yours? Yeah, I mean, like, I'm looking always, like, for a new challenge. I told you before, everything is possible. Like I believe on me and everything is possible. For me, like, you know, for three years, I run like a two, five, two, six. And to run like two, four was like unbelievable, like a kind of impossible. But I make it. So I believe also to run like two hours on marathon, I believe. because my next goal in 26th of October in Frankfurt Marathon is to break the European record.

42:38I hope I can make it. It's like, I didn't say like, I'm trying to make it. And this is possible. I believe this is possible. Do you think that when you saw that happen, elite marathoners all over the world shifted their ambition and their goals? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I saw them. I used to run with them too many times. They are doing exactly what I'm doing too. They train in Kenya or in Ethiopian or wherever. It's a kind of like I have to change some small things. The whole result is coming from different things, from different structures. So to be faster, to be better, you need to change some small things like from different things, from regeneration, from the food, from the way you train, from the gym, from the stress factor, from mental.

43:32That's like how you bring them together to be faster. I know, I know I'm not perfect. I will be not perfect. I don't want to be perfect even. But I know I have to make better in some points. I'm on my way to do this. And that's why I'm telling you, it's absolutely possible to make it. when I was in London I was very disappointed I was not happy I just ran 2.8 I decided to run on my pace I decided to finish the program the competition with the freedom with happiness with the beautiful atmosphere but I was not happy with my time but it doesn't mean that I it doesn't mean that I give up it didn't work sometimes you work hard and if you feel it didn't work or it can't work, it's absolutely okay.

44:30Then let it just be ready for tomorrow. And that's exactly what I did. I was disappointed from London Marathon, but I never give up. I try to work hard. I wake up 6.30 every day for the last three months long and working 200 kilometers and I make it yesterday. And I'm very glad and happy. Do never give up. Do never stop to dream of tomorrow. Because you are a human. You will have a bad day today for sure. You will never ever be perfect. But tomorrow you're going to be happy. But the only thing, you have to try to keep going and work hard. And believe always on yourself and God. That's it. And you got to make it this tomorrow.

45:19Thank you, man. Cheers, dude. Thank you.

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