AMAM: What has the process been like leading up to this race especially when it comes to some of the things you’ve had to overcome recently?
ALIPHINE TULIAMUK: Over the last 14 months, I sustained a high grade hamstring tear and I’ve been dealing with that for a really long time. But it is coming around just in time for the New York City Marathon. So I’m very grateful — I always say that nothing makes an athlete as grateful as having an injury. So I’m very humbled and happy and excited.
AMAM: How does that tie into your training at this point in the year?
TULIAMUK: Training has gone well — not as well as I would have liked, but it’s gone well, especially with where I was, let’s say in February, for example. And of course, the time flies by. It’s February and all of a sudden we’re really in November tomorrow and today’s Halloween of all days. It’s kind of crazy.
AMAM: Let’s take things back to 2020 at the marathon trials in at Atlanta.
TULIAMUK: That was a magical day.
AMAM: Literally the last kind of big positive things before pandemic and you came away with the win. What about that moment?
TULIAMUK: That was an incredible moment. I always think about that moment, especially like, and that is ingrained in me because after COVID there was nothing else happening. I think some of [the impact] was kind of taken away by COVID and I wish that we hadn’t had COVID. But again, we can’t go back, right?
AMAM: But it was still an incredible point in your career.
TULIAMUK: Everything came together because when you run a marathon, there’s so many things that you have to deal with — the course, the distance, your competitors. And when it comes together, it’s special. That was one of my highlights.
AMAM: And with everything that followed the pandemic, the world stops but you also gave birth to a daughter. Did you ever wonder what kind of performance you would have had if they Tokyo Olympics were held in 2020 as scheduled?
TULIAMUK: I think I’m one of the very few people that took advantage of the situation and had my daughter and I will never trade that for anything else. But at the same time, I think about how much career would have unfolded.
I probably would have had an amazing Olympics because I was very healthy that year. I probably would have had an amazing race in Tokyo and then probably came back to New York and had an amazing race. And so I wonder about that. But I’m glad that I took a different route and I had my daughter, because that upset a lot of the what ifs.
AMAM: This upcoming race is days away and of course the field is always loaded. What are the feelings heading into the last big challenge of the year? And what’s your plan?
TULIAMUK: No plan at all.
AMAM: Seriously?
TULIAMUK: Like you said, it’s loaded every year and this year, for the first time, I get to run against is Tirunesh Dibaba. I watched her run in the Olympics when I was a little girl. And to think that I am literally here with her, I’m starstruck. And also I get to race against Vivian Cheruiyot who is also like an Olympic medalist — a champion.
It’s like I’ve never raced this week with women on a marathon before. I’ve raced Vivian in the half, but this is going to be the first time the both of them [Dibaba and Cheruiyot] are going to be in the same race with me.
AMAM: So you get to really soak in the weight of this experience.
TULIAMUK: I remember a couple of years ago thinking on my way to the start line that girls like me don’t make it to big stages like this. And then I watch myself running against people like Tirunesh Dibaba and I’m living my best life.
AMAM: After 2020 trials you become an immediate face of American distance running. You see the state of the the sport compared to the rest of the world. Can the gap in times get smaller?
TULIAMUK: Even though there’s still a big gap, we are definitely closing it. Not too long ago, our American record for the women was 2:19 and now it’s 2:18.
We’re improving — even the guys as well. I think it takes time. But then people are catching up, for example, to the country where I grew up — Kenya. People have been running and winning races and running fast for so long, but Americans are catching up to that. Now they’re learning how to train.
And I think that as time goes by, you know, that gap hopefully is going to get smaller.
So, I’m very hopeful. But at the same time that I will say this — I’m somebody who doesn’t care too much about time. I care about winning and I care about beating people. We’ve seen Des Linden win Boston in 2018 and Shalane Flanagan in 2017 winning the New York City Marathon. When you have head-to-head competition, that’s when you see who is good on that day.
So I don’t necessarily care too much about the times. I just like the fact that you can beat the big ones. And Americans, men and women are now watching these races and thinking ‘that could be me.’
