Khalid Khannouchi How does he train & why we aren't on his jockstrap??

agreed

I often pondered the same question. The only answer I come up with is Khalid isn't the color thats in. Many people will get upset; however, look at the threads that are constantly getting praised and replys all pertain to white americans/foreigners. The sad thing is when most africans are mention in this post its only to-compare them to their light skin counterparts-in a negative manner MOST OF THE TIME!

Khalid is one of the best runners in the world in any event and an AMERICAN an get no interest from us, except an occassional comical thread! Regina Jacob one of the most hated athletes on this site-unjusticely. David Krummenacker no press here and the list goes on. All these black AMERICANS are world rankers yet recieve FAR less discussion than Webb, Solinsky, Milena, Suzy, Ritz, or the extras on any cancelled sitcom!

Vipam

Its not a colour thing, its a country of origin thing.

Its kind of like a rich country being so rich that everyone wants to compete for them. Kind of difficult to swallow I guess.

Here's my two cents, i'm sort of adding to what vipam was saying.

first, there's the "foreigner" aspect. even if he has a us citizenship, for the general, not nesessarily running, public, he's still a foreigner. he's not the american dream, although he washed dishes for a few bucks an hour in new york. people didn't know much about him before he settled in the us, and people don't kow much about him now. he's just another feller who came over from abroad, but he's still a foreigner.

second, and similar to the above, when he came here, he was already a complete athlete. the us didn't give him a whole lot. he needed an opportunity to show his talent, and he did that. but the us wasn't instrumental in his own running success; to put it this way, he's not a product of the "us running school."

third, KK himself keeps a distance. he doesn't have a whole squad of coaches and therapists. he didn't go to college in the us, so he had no relationship with the media, no classmates, or roommates. true, he has a web site, but he doesn't reveal much about himself. maybe he wants to train in peace and thinks the buzz will hurt him, this certainly makes sense. he is humble, like most of the african-born runners.

this is just an opinion, maybe other folks will disagree.

John Smith

You make some valid points; however, Paula is not an American or a product of the US and look at the love she gets. There have been other foreigners who recieved more acceptance than Khalid ie Coe, Cram, Ovett (etc all white).

The aspect about Khalid being isolated is not valid, being that all the other athletes are keep in the limelight by the media and fans. Paula, Ritz, Webb, Solinsky do not seek to inform fans of their training, lives, or anything else the media seeks them out. Perhaps if the media wanted to keep Khalid (US citizen and Worldrecord Holder) in the limelight he would oblige. Come on people why isn't Khalid Khannouchi a hot and positive topic with the majority of this site readers?

Vipam

He is, but leaves me speechless!

What about Tergat and Geb?

I get the impression that this site is a college/High School hero magnet. But its the best Ive seen.

To put it in other words more like why people either HATE the NY Yankees or Love them. I think you are right on.

trainer wrote:

http://www.khannouchi.com/

Its not a colour thing, its a country of origin thing.

Its kind of like a rich country being so rich that everyone wants to compete for them. Kind of difficult to swallow I guess.

This has nothing to do with the Yankees, Goldielocks, or

Gandalf. Its a color thang and I am very pleased that Khalid do not live or succeed off the love of POSTERS of this site and media!!! Stop sugarcoating why he is not a favorite despite being an AMERICAN.

We love Paula, a foreigner to most of us yet a white athlete.

We seem to have no feelings for KK, an American, yet of a different color than most of us.

Couldn't be race. Nah.

Why don't inner-city black kids study and emulate Bill Gates as a role model for success? Is it racism? Noooooo, it's just not "appropriate role modeling". So are young white suburban American kids racist for not doing the same with an imported Morroccan marathoner? Noooo, they MUST be racist, cuz they are white!

I don't think race is the total answer here, although it might figure into the equation for _some_ people. If it was all about race then we'd never see mention of Geb, Tergat, or El G either (but we do).

The time-honored tradition on this site has been that if you don't know who to blame, then blame Galloway and Gallowalkers. So, there it is. KK is the victim of a secret plan orchestrated by the Gallowalking masses who are jealous of the fact that his average marathon pace is faster than they can carry over a single 200 meter rep. Oh yeah, and Runner's World. They're responsible for it too.

who will be the first to beat Khannouchi, Ritz or Webb?

Yeah, why don't inner city kids idolize Bill Gates? Fuggin racists...

All i can tell you is that KK is one nice guy. For instance the morning of the Chicago marathon 2000 I was in a hotel 20 miles from the start, it was all i could get last moment. I took a cab to the start that morning arriving at 5:30 a.m it was chilly and the only thing I could do was jog to keep warm. So I start jogging torward the starting area from where I had been dropped off, as I am approaching the road that the race starts on I see some other poor guy out this early running toward me, it's still dark but by the street lights, I say to myself that guy moves just like KK. We continue getting closer as we run toward eachother, and sure enough, I can't believe it there in front of me warming up at 5:30 in the morning is the WR holder, all I can think of to say is "mr. Khanouchi!" he laughs and says "hi have a good race today" I say "you too" he says "thanks". And we continued on our merry warm up ways.

But I will never forget that the "man" was that down to earth and cool to take time to say hi to a little above average runner.

Personally, I would love to see some of JK's schedules. My Westchester Track Club friends see him blitzing through the trees of Rockefeller Estates, but, otherwise, his training is a mystery. Sandra even had a website for a while, pretending she was his coach. His body is probably Armstrongesque, so it might be hard to emulate his workouts, even way, WAY, scaled down.

i completely believe it, and im going to say it: KK doesnt get as much play because of the racial issue. americans should be slathering over his entrails and instead, the hansons are much ballyhooed (no offense).

Uuuuuuuhhhhh....Maybe because the Hanson's group takes guys who everyone here can relate to - far more than Khalid - and gets them nationally competitive performances. Khalid can run 4:47 pace for over 2 hours...how many of us message boarders can run that for 30:00?? 45 min?? 1 hour?? We can relate to the Hanson guys, and maybe possibly run like them someday....but is a guy asking about Khalid's training going to carry it out and run 2:05?? Hell no!!!

It's not a race thing. That's getting to be an old scape goat.

ahh Robbin dude, how many of us that post on here can run half of what PK ran, as in 68:39 for a 1/2Mth? It's not the carrying out of the workouts of the worlds fastest marathon runner but the interest in the work being done & how about a little coverage of the maybe the best there ever was in the event. The guy is simply the fastest ever & run under 2:06 3 x, time will tell after the 2004 games where he resides in the history books? I think it is a race thing or a not from this country thing.