Some Moroccan Running Olympic Champions: Said Aouita, Hicham El Guerouj, Khalid Skah, Salah Hissou, Nezha Beduane (World Champion 1997), Nawal ElMoutawakil, Ibrahim Boutayeb
My story with running
When not thinking about mathematics, I am a fan of running. My running adventure started when I was 5 years old and my big brother Larbi who himself was a runner and he used to take me with him for a run as early as 6:00 am. I remember running with him between olive and orange trees and we used to take oranges with us to eat once we get tired. I started running seriously when I was in high school back in Morocco: At age 14, I remember in one summer when we did not have anything much to do because of school summer hollidays, I used to like just running in the morning and coming back home reading news-papers and doing math problems for my next grade as a morning relaxation. Then I met a friend whose name is Moustapha El Moussaoui while running in the bushes and I was just very impressed by his talent. Just to give you an idea about his incredible talent, he ran Marrakech Marathon at age 17 with a time of 2 hours 21 minutes !! then Dr. Rosa the famous sport doctor in Italy gave him a sponsor to run with "Ellesse" and took him to Italy where he did 28 min 11 s in 10 K and 1 h 02 min 10s in half marathon.
We were challenging each other and trying to improve our times in 1500m and 5000m. There was a whole team running with us (Magha in 400m, Ait Benbala, Moujdali, Lhia, Mouhdit, Wadih) all these athletes ended up leaving Morocco and running in France and Italy and doing very well at international level. I remember back then the Moroccan legend Said Aouita won the olympic Games in Los Angeles and this gave us a real motivation to do like him. Moustapha was much talented than me and he ended up winning Moroccan championships at age 17 and even clocking 2H 19 mins in Marrakech Marathon and ending up 5th overall (all at age 17). Moustapha gave me the discipline to train hard and I have never met someone who train as hard as him. He used to do 10 times 1000m at 2 mins 40 s with cross-country world champion and 1000m world champion Khalid Skah !! He then joined Said Aouita team for training. Said Aouita was the first athlete to initiate running at an international level and be at the level of the British Steve Cram, Steve Ovet, he even break 1500m and 5000m world records. I have to run when it rains or shines. Running is built on patience and guts ! Most part of running is to learn how to cope with pain and no pain no gain. Pain makes you stronger ! Running is all about holding a pace no matter what ! Training on treshold pace make it easy to race. The weather in El Paso, TX is really nice from mid-September to April - In July and August you should go to California instead ! It is fairly close to Abuquerque where most professional runners go for their ultimate high altitude training to enhance their VO2 max. I am aiming to run US championships this year in Denver, Colorado. My advice for any runner is to be consistent and "Train Hard Win Easy !".