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Austin triathlete Ficker takes second place
By Jake Trotter - AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
19 February 2007
Had it not been for a kindly Austin taxicab driver, Zebenaye Moges might not have won the AT&T Austin Marathon on Sunday.
Because of a nine-hour delay caused by snowy weather in New York, the 22-year-old Moges' flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, took almost 30 hours, putting her in Austin about 5 a.m. Thursday.
Marathon organizers didn't know she had arrived, and because she doesn't speak English, Moges — in the United States for the first time — didn't know how to let anyone know of her predicament.
But cab driver Imran Ismail found out which hotel Moges was staying at and took her there. He helped her check in and didn't charge her for anything, in part because Moges had no way of paying him.
With an assist from Ismail, Moges cruised to a winning time of 2 hours, 39 minutes and 46 seconds in the women's race, holding off second-place Desiree Ficker, an Austinite better known as a world-class triathlete.
"The taxi driver was nice," said Moges, through a translator — her older brother Tesafaye, who arrived in Austin from California later that Thursday. "I am very grateful."
Austin mayor Will Wynn — who ran in the half-marathon portion of Sunday's event — called Ismail to thank him for taking care of Moges, who earned $7,000 for her victory.
"I was quite shocked the mayor called," Ismail said. "He was very thankful I did such a favor to this lady."
Ficker, meanwhile, shocked the elite women's field in her first competitive marathon, notching a time of 2:40:28 to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic marathon trials.
"I think I could've gone faster," said the 30-year-old Ficker, who was among approximately 12,000 marathoners or half marathoners to race Sunday. "I was afraid of going too fast and blowing up and having an embarrassing finish."
Her finish was anything but embarrassing. With her friends lining Congress Avenue to cheer her on — and at least two telling her to "drop the bomb" — Ficker pulled away from Firaya Sultanova, the third-place finisher, in the final mile.
"(Sultanova) was suffering," said Ficker, who ran cross country and track at the University of Alabama. "I'm so competitive — I would've been disappointed in myself if I hadn't beat her."
Not having to travel to the race, Ficker said, gave her a tremendous edge over the field.
"It meant a lot having that home-course advantage," said Ficker, who had participated in two previous marathons on a whim but didn't train hard for either. "The other girls didn't have anyone cheering for them. I felt sorry for them."
As impressive as Ficker was in her marathon debut, her primary sport — and probably her best chance of representing the U.S. at the 2008 Summer Olympics — is the triathlon, a combination of long-distance swimming, biking and running.
This past October in Hawaii, Ficker was second at the Ironman World Championships, becoming the first American to finish among the top-three women since 1998.
"She's an amazing athlete. She really goes all out," said her boyfriend, Paul Pugh, who posted the top time by an Austin runner in the men's marathon field. The two met as members of Gilbert's Gazelles, an Austin running group that trains under Gilbert Tuhabonye.
Ficker must now figure out how to balance her commitment to the triathlon with her newfound prowess in the marathon. Training for two dissimilar, yet equally rigorous sports, will pose a challenge, but if anyone can do it, perhaps it's Ficker.
"I don't know," she said. "Two sports is going to be tough."
jtrotter@statesman.com; 445-3952