Posted on 04/21/2014 11:07:08 AM PDT by Theoria
In the men's field of the 118th Boston Marathon, American Meb Keflezighi ended a 31-year drought for U.S. runners, after holding off Wilson Chebet of Kenya in a race that came down to the final mile.
According to race officials, Keflezighi, 38, ran a 4:56 split at mile 23, when he built a 20-second lead. That lead dwindled as the runners neared the finish line, but Keflezighi held off all challengers to win the race with an unofficial finishing time of 2:08:37.
The crowd roared as the Eritrean-born runner who lives in San Diego crossed the finish line, celebrating a much-needed victory in the historic race.
Update at 12:25 p.m. ET: Emotions At The Finish Line
It was an emotional scene as the crowd and the runner realized that, yes, this was actually happening: a U.S. man was winning the Boston Marathon. Keflezighi broke the tape near the site of a makeshift memorial to the four people who died because of last year's attack on the race.
Holding his trophy as the U.S. national anthem played, Keflezighi's face was contorted with emotion, tears streaming down his face.
"We are resilient; we never gave up," he said after the race. "My whole run is to run strong — Boston strong, Meb strong."
Keflezighi also said that he was aware he was being chased neared the finish line.
"If somebody beat me," Keflezighi recalls thinking, "I'm going to inspire others to do it."
Instead, the man whose family immigrated to the U.S. after fleeing violence in Eritrea in the 1980s has inspired others by winning the race outright.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Never! Death before dishonor!
That's a phrase I have heard at least 10,000 times over the past 48 hours...
Why would he?
You should read his story. It’s incredible.
On a more serious note...National Guard MPs have always been stationed along the route but this year I noticed they were carrying sidearms.I talked to a group of them and said "in the nine years I've lived here I've never seen you guys with sidearms".A Staff Sergent replied "this is the first time in history that we have".
So just because it was Boston you're OK with what those 9th Century knuckledraggers did last year??? Geeze Louise!
A few years ago I stumbled upon an article that said that something like a third of Ethiopians are Christians.Being in Africa,and so close to Saudi Arabia,I was stunned to see this.I know there are a good number of Christians in central Africa,thanks to French and Belgian colonization but they're found in Ethiopia too.
Where did I say that? I said I am NOT a 'Bostonian' (in spirit or whatever)...today, or any other day.
Evidently.
I learned where Eritrea is located in the book”Cutting for Stone”
‘
Old Farts Rule!
It's actually about two thirds. They are fiercely proud of being the home of the Ark of the Covenant.
First of all, Eritrea (where Meb Keflezighi hailed from) became independent from Ethiopia in 1993, after a long war. But Eritrea is culturally very closely related to Ethiopia.
When Meb was born, Eritrea was part of Ethiopia, under the horrific communist Derg dictatorship. Since he left Eritrea with his family when he was 12 years old (in 1987), he never resided in an independent Eritrea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meb_Keflezighi
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea are majority Christian, but with a large and growing muslim population. The traditional Ethiopian Church is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, from which the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church split and received autocephaly with Eritrean independence in 1993.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrean_Orthodox_Tewahedo_Church
Both of these “Tewahedo” (”One Nature” of Christ) churches are not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, bring considered “Non-Chalcedonian” and “monophysite”. They are often called Oriental Orthodox Churches. However, there are some moves to try to reunite the two families of Churches.
https://www.svots.edu/content/beyond-dialogue-quest-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-unity-today
In the United States, immigrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt, etc. especially those who cannot find or easily attend an Oriental Orthodox Church of their nationality, or who no longer understand their languages, often may be received into an Eastern Orthodox Church (e.g., Orthodox Church in America, Greek, Serbian, Antiochian, etc.)
I therefore do not know whether Meb is a Eastern Orthodox or a Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Christian. But he is an Orthodox Christian either way.
Learn something everyday, thank you.
They were there, and Christian, long before the French, British, and Belgians came to Sub Saharan Africa...
the infowarrior
What a truly awesome accomplishment at the end of the Great Fast!
A lot of them were forced out of Ethiopia because they are orthodox christian (typically)
Was that during the Haile Mengistu regime? Mengistu was a Soviet client.
The history of Christianity in Ethiopia goes back about 1500 years.
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