Why should I say I will retire in three or four years? You retire the very moment you utter those words.

You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three. Sport teaches you that.

In my life I do a lot of things but I never forget my training.

When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.

I'm lucky. The best possible place in the world for training is Addis Ababa, so I am home all the time except when I am racing. I like to be there, near my family, my kids, also the real estate business I run with my wife.

If your body is damaged, wounded, it can be fixed, but if inside, mentally, you are wounded you cannot fix it, it's hard.

In the marathon a crazy athlete can just keep pushing from the beginning, at a championship you don't need a time just to win the race.