Meb to run last NYC Marathon, retire where he began in 2002

NEW YORK — He’ll wear the familiar “MEB” bib one final time at the New York City Marathon.

Meb Keflezighi, the face of American long-distance running, wraps up his marathon career where it began in 2002 on the multicultural streets of New York. An immigrant of war-torn Eritrea who became a U.S. citizen in 1998, he’ll be cheered by thousands of spectators and some 70 relatives and friends.

He vowed to never run the grueling 26.2 miles again after going out fast and hitting the wall at mile 21 in his first NYC Marathon. But 26 marathons later, he’s retiring at age 42 after Sunday’s race, capping a career as the only person to win an Olympic medal and New York and Boston titles.

“It’s very emotional coming back,” Keflezighi said. “I’m excited, but at the same time it’s bittersweet. It will be a sigh of relief when I get to the finish line.”

In 2009, Keflezighi became the first American man since Alberto Salazar in 1982 to win the NYC marathon. His most dramatic win came at the 2014 Boston Marathon, crossing the finish line with fists pumps and the names of three victims of the bombings and a slain police officer written on his bib. As a spectator in 2013, he stood in Copley Plaza to greet finishers and left only a short time before the bomb attack injured hundreds.

He kissed the pavement after a Boston Strong and personal-best time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, 37 seconds.

Keflezighi also won silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the first U.S. man since Frank Shorter in 1976 to win a medal in the marathon.

“Meb is the premier American distance runner of this generation,” said George Hirsch, who with Fred Lebow started the NYC Marathon in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial. “We have to really go back a long way to Frank and Bill (Rodgers) and Joanie (Benoit Samuelson) and Alberto.”

“That was a golden age of American distance running when we literally had Olympic champions in the marathon and runners ranked No. 1 in the world.”

Keflezighi says his parents and siblings could have stayed in Italy after escaping East Africa. But they traveled to the United States, settling in San Diego.

Keflezighi arrived at 12 in 1987, trading a likely future as a child soldier in his native country for good grades, a track scholarship at UCLA and transformation from miler to Olympic marathoner.