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NYC HALF MARATHON


March 15, 2013


Guor Marial


NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

Q.  Welcome.  We're glad you're here.
GUOR MARIAL:  I'm really glad you're having me here.  It's really great.

Q.  Can you talk about‑‑ have you thought about how you're going to approach Sunday or your strategy or your goals.  Can you just talk a little bit about what you want to accomplish on Sunday.
GUOR MARIAL:  The first thing I wanted to do is to just go out with all the group of guys who are in‑‑ who will be in the race.  I'm pretty sure it's going to be‑‑ it's a deep field.  The way I see it, it's a very strong field.  And for my time and me, it will help me to go with the guys, and just the goal for me is to make sure that I can be there and see if I'm capable to taking the lead and see how my body can tell me to do that long.
It's very‑‑ it's going to be an experience for me.  It's my first time to be in this kind of competition, especially in New York City.  So it's really amazing.
And the goal is for the time‑wise, 62 to 63 will be reasonable because I'm going to prepare myself for the Boston marathon.  So running that kind of time is going to give me a good indication what kind of shape I am in right now.

Q.  Great.  Gosh, Boston is just around the corner, isn't it?
GUOR MARIAL:  It is.  It's only four weeks away from today actually.  So I'm very excited for that, and I'm real excited for this race as well, that's the reason.  And I'm glad for that and I'm thankful for you having me here.  And looking forward to this Sunday.

Q.  Great.  You have such a great, compelling, wonderful story in London.  Since your story was told on an international stage, what kind of changes has that meant for you personally?  How has that changed your life?
GUOR MARIAL:  I'm more concerned with how it changed the people that I represent, such as people of South Sudanese.  But I would say I'm still the same person before the Olympics and before the story went out, but the key thing is how that story changed the people of South Sudanese and the refugees there.
So I would say it's allowed me to focus and allowed me to know, okay, the world is behind me, and the world is supporting me that much.  So now is my opportunity to reflect that back and play a wider role to keep representing the people that I was fighting for to the world.

Q.  I know you talk about going back and showing your parents a tape of your race.  Has that happened yet?
GUOR MARIAL:  All of the guys, one guy in the sports that was interviewing me, he sent me a copy of that and the race and stuff.  So I will take that with me when I go back home and go and show it to my parents.  They have yet to see it all.  It's not a complete, whole tape for the race, but some couple of shots here.

Q.  Like some highlights?
GUOR MARIAL:  Yes, some highlights, which is a great story, but I'm going to show it to them.  But I'm more excited to see them than show them the video.  They feel the same way too as well.

Q.  And when are you going home?
GUOR MARIAL:  I'm leaving right after Boston, maybe first week of May.  So that's the plan right now to go and see them.  And then from there, I'll come back and start doing more training.  Hopefully come back to New York.

Q.  That would be fantastic.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that you're here in November.
GUOR MARIAL:  Yes, yes.  I'm just going to be there only two to three months at home and then come back.  It depends on how the world championship turns out.

Q.  I was going to ask you.  That was my next question about World Championships.  What have you thought about that, and what are your goals for that?
GUOR MARIAL:  The goal is for me to go to World Championships, but at the moment, I don't know which one I will go with, whether United States or the South Sudanese.  Everything is still on hold.  South Sudan has to submit some paperwork, and they're the team I need to find out how far they are now in terms of world process.  So once I know for sure, it's going to help me a lot to decide what I need to do.

Q.  Good.
GUOR MARIAL:  It's not only just about the World Championship‑‑

Q.  The rest of it, right?
GUOR MARIAL:  The rest of it, like 2016 is a big deal for me to do something great for either the United States or South Sudanese.

Q.  Good.  Well, this is great.  Thank you so much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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