Possible Retirement
On 7 November, after dropping out of the 2010 New York City Marathon with an inflamed knee, Gebrselassie announced his retirement. Days later, he posted to his Twitter account that he was reconsidering his decision and wanted to run in the 2012 London Olympics. Gebrselassie had stated previously that after retiring he would like to enter politics,with skepticism from the public about his knowledge on politics and the unfamiliar culture of celebrities holding public office in Ethiopia. However he won his first race back in a 10k road race in Angola with a new course record of 28.05 and beat countryman Deriba Merga and the Kenyan Josphat Menjo who had run the fastest 10000m of that year.
Gebrselassie missed the 2011 Tokyo Marathon due to an injury, but won the half marathon at the Vienna City Marathon on 17 April 2011. About a month later Gebrselassie easily won the Great Manchester Run in England for the fourth time, finishing in 28:10. On September 26 he suffered a double setback when he dropped out of the Berlin Marathon (again suffering from respiratory difficulties of exercise-induced asthma) and saw his world records for 30 kilometers and the marathon broken by the man with whom he had been duelling, Patrick Makau. Gebrselassie was absent from the press conference later that day, but his manager Jos Hermens announced that while it was "the end of an era of record breaking for Haile, it's not the end of his career". He returned to his winning ways at the Birmingham half marathon with a new course record and followed that up with a win at the Zevenheuvelenloop in November, taking his third career victory at the Dutch 15K race.
In 2012, Gebrselassie ran in the Tokyo Marathon and, after surging to the lead and putting a gap on the field with 6 km to go, faded and finished in 4th, in a time of 2:08:17. However, he bounced back to win the Vienna Half Marathon in 1:00:52, catching Paula Radcliffe who was given a 7.52 minute head-start. He was not selected for the Olympic marathon team, but after winning the Manchester Run beating marathon world record holder Patrick Makau,world leader Ayele Abshero and Olympic marathon medallist Tsegay Kebede, he decided to aim for a place in the 10,000 m.
Read more about this topic: Haile Gebrselassie
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)