#112 - Abdi Abdirahman - How to overcome adversity, lessons from a five-time Olympian

A Runner’s Life

In episode 112, I spoke with elite runner Abdihakim “Abdi” Abdirahman.

With a Olympic trials marathon time of 2:10:03, Abdirahman earned his place on the US Olympic team for the fifth time. He was 43 then, which not only made him the elder statesman on the 2020 US Olympic marathon team, but the oldest American runner ever to qualify for an Olympic marathon. Aged 44, Abdirahman is also the oldest American runner to make an Olympic team.

In this conversation we spoke about:

• Questions from the audience;
• Diversity in running and changes he’d like to see;
• Marathon training tips;
• What motivates him and what keeps him running;
• What he’d like to do when he stops competing as an elite athlete;
• Shoutout to his training partner with Sir Mo Farah;
• His reflection on the Tokyo Olympic Marathon;
• How he views failure;
• Discusses his new book Abdi’s World: The Black Cactus on Life, Running, and Fun;
• What’s next post Olympics;
• What he’d like to see for the future of running;
• Plus so much more.

You can follow him on Instagram @abdiruns

Photo by Kevin C. Cod

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