If you are a really good marathoner, you have to run New York.

I wanted to be famous. I wanted people to talk about me.

That is not enough. Sport has been great for me, a great learning place that if you want to achieve you can, even if you are from the poorest part of Africa.

I have seen things few of my countrymen have. The first time I went on an aeroplane I couldn't work out how the lavatories worked up in the sky.

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

I feel a social responsibility. We need to open people's eyes. There is a lack of education in Ethiopia.

In the rainy season, sometimes to get to the first lesson we had to run really quick, because we had to cross the river to school and we'd have to go up and down the bank to find a place to cross because there is no bridge.