In celebration of Meb Keflezighi’s 10 year anniversary of his 2014 Boston Marathon victory, we will be featuring a Celebration of Meb, highlighting and sharing an aspect of Meb’s life on and off the track and roads leading up to the 2024 Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15. We are thankful to both Meb and Hawi (Meb’s brother and agent) for their partnership on this feature.
I am fortunate to have had coaches and mentors from the early stages of running, seventh grade through professional my professional career. Each has guided for me to be the best version of myself, from telling me, ‘You are going to be an Olympian,’ to helping me achieve my state and national titles in high school and college. Or Coach Larsen mentoring me and letting me know that sometimes, when I have a tough day, to revisit where I was, ‘Did you ever think you would be at this position – setting an American record and earning 23 national titles?’ My work ethic was relentless, but they also helped me realize that good things take time.
There are so many people who guided me through the years are were part of my success and development. I am thankful to everyone who was with me along the way.
Meb Keflezighi
Dick Lord
“We’ve got an Olympian here.”
Dick Lord was Meb’s seventh grade PE teacher who first introduced him to running seriously. In class, they were to run a mile for a grade. Meb’s academic rigor had him continually striving for an A, so there was little doubt he would push for a top mark.
Following his running a 5:20 mile, Lord called the San Diego High School track coach, Eduardo Ramos, and told him of what he just saw and foretold Meb’s future right there. Meb stated in Run to Overcome, “A PE class had turned my life around, though I didn’t know it at the time.”
Eduardo Ramos
“Meb was always very analytical. He didn’t just plunge into something. He’d study things and analyze them before making a deision. I thought he was sometimes too conversative in race tactics. I’d tell him, “Just go for it.”
Ramos was the San Diego High School track and cross country coach. He would coach Meb through his prep running days, to state titles, a runner-up finish at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships, and national track titles in the mile and 3000 meters.
Ron Tabb
“I had the opportunity to train and coach Meb during his junior and senior years, evaluating his strengths and weaknesses. Though he was the number-one ranked high school runner in the country, I felt he didn’t have the necessary speed to be a world-class 1500 meter runner. I told him ‘You and I have a lot of similarities, and I think you’d be more suited to be a 5000 and 10,000 meter runner in college and eventually move up to the marathon.’ On some of those 8 to 10 mile runes, we’d get down to a 5:10 or 5:20 pace and he was able to maintain it. That’s the reason I told people he would eventually become a marathon runner.”
Tabb trained Meb during the high school off-season and was instrumental in teaching him patience, discipline, and pace.
Bob Larsen
“He didn’t know it, but when Meb told him he never wanted to run another marathon [after NYC 2002], I was chuckling inside. I knew that in a short time Meb would remember the feeling of flying with those guys through miles 17, 18, and 19. That would get him back to the marathon. Plus, I heard the same claim for Meb about the 10,000 on the track in 1995.”
Larsen would be Meb’s coach from his college days at UCLA through his professional running career. Together, they would earn All-American honors, NCAA titles, an Olympic medal, and Boston and NYC Marathon victories.
