Running has taken Abdi Abdirahman to a wide range of destinations, whether traveling to compete in road races or in Olympic stadiums.
Even so, he was somewhat taken aback when he arrived in Honolulu on Wednesday.
"It looks like something out of a picture or a movie scene to me," Abdirahman said. "I’ve been to many cities but this is beyond my imagination, beyond what I thought I was going to see."
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, but raised in Tucson, Ariz., Abdirahman has competed in some of the world’s top races, won multiple national championships and represented the U.S. in four Olympic Games. He’ll add the Honolulu Marathon to the list of events on Sunday when he lines up for the 41st annual race in his first visit to Hawaii.
"I have a lot of options, a lot of marathons I want to do, and I always hear a lot of great things about Honolulu and everybody talks highly of the meet," Abdirahman said. "Just the way they treat people … and also being in Honolulu doesn’t hurt."
Three-time champion Mbarak Hussein was among those who touted the race’s attributes, and Abdirahman will be part of the group of eight professional runners leading the throng toward the finish at Kapiolani Park on Sunday. That pack includes Kenyan Martin Lel, a three-time London Marathon and two-time New York City Marathon champion who Abdirahman refers to as "a legend in marathon running."
Abdirahman, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000, splits his training between the desert in Tucson and the thin air of Flagstaff, Ariz. But he noted that he’s run well in humid conditions in past races as he attempts to become the first American to win the Honolulu Marathon’s men’s race since David Gordon’s victory in 1982.
"I do well in Arizona, which is hot, but at the same time being hot and being humid is totally two different things," said Abdirahman, 36. "But that’s something we can’t control as an athlete. We all run in the same weather, it’ll affect everybody so I won’t look at the humidity or that kind of stuff."
Abdirahman arrived in the U.S. at age 7 after his family fled war-torn Somalia and his father’s job with an oil company allowed them to move to Arizona. He eventually ran for the track and field teams at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona, where he won three Pac-10 championships in 1998 and ’99.
He qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 10,000 meters in 2000, 2004 and 2008 and earned a trip to last year’s London Games by placing third in the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon. A knee injury prevented him from finishing in London, and Sunday’s race will be his first marathon since.
He also won the USA half-marathon championship last year (1:02:46) and was sixth in this year’s run on June 22.
Underlying the accomplishments is an appreciation of the opportunities he’s been afforded since moving to the U.S., including the chance to experience a race in Hawaii.
"I am very fortunate and thankful and appreciative of everything," Abdirahman said. "Being an American is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. I’m just one of those people who’s thankful for every little thing. … I never take anything for granted in life just because of where I’ve been in life, and where I’m from and what I could have been if I didn’t come to this country."
