Since I achieved something, running has exploded in my country. For me sometimes it is difficult even to know who the athletes are who are competing at the highest level. There are thousands.
I think if you come first with a new world record, that is the best.
What can you do if a part of it is uphill? You can't work out another route. You've just got to run the one they give you. But they tell me London is a nice course. Even the cobbles, I hope, are not very much of a problem for me.
He was not a runner, my father, but he was quick. I always remember it was very difficult to escape from him when he was angry. If he wanted to beat us he would always catch us. Even me, he could always catch me.
I will always listen to my coaches. But first I listen to my body. If what they tell me suits my body, great. If my body doesn't feel good with what they say, then always my body comes first.
My father thought sport was something fun - he didn't know it was a way to make money. Then I won a Mercedes at the world championships and I gave it to him. From the moment it arrived my father said: 'Good, you can support not just yourself but me too'.
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.
You know, I want to help my country. Definitely I can help them, simply by winning races. Sure, they can follow my path to a good career. But for me it is not enough. I want to be more than that. In everything I want to be a role model.
Eradicate poverty. This is all that matters in my country. When I am out training I think about this a lot; when I am running it is going over in my mind. As a country we cannot move forward until we eradicate poverty.
I haven't done a marathon for a long time. So we'll see. I will need good luck.
I have to change a lot of things before I become a good marathon runner.
When we race in London a world record will be the last thing on our minds.
I wanted to experience New York, to look up and see buildings.
You lose the speed before the stamina.
It is not my duty to spend my money in my country, but it is what I want to do. There is nowhere else I would like to invest.
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.
Athletes have to be confident and I am thinking like that.
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.
The more you are getting older, you lose a little something. Of course there is another advantage, because of your long experience you can use it.
What is important is to win.
