Imagine diving into a pool and swimming alongside Michael Phelps at a swim meet; or suiting up to play in the same basketball game as LeBron James; or perhaps bouncing nervously opposite the net of Roger Federer at a tennis tournament.

Chances are those scenarios are purely hypothetical, the dreams of average athletes worldwide who can only wonder what it’s like to compete against or alongside the best. But on Sunday morning in Washington, an elite runner will be among the nearly 17,000 amateurs at the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run.

For a group of runners, Olympian Meb Keflezighi will be their guide, giving them words of encouragement and inspiring them with his smooth, effortless stride. For at least one morning, there will be no barriers between a professional and his fans.

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Less than two months after qualifying for his fourth Olympic team at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles, Keflezighi will be making his 10-mile road race debut in the nation’s capital. The event, which is in its 44th year and also includes a 5K run-walk and 1K kids’ run, has been on his bucket list for years, but it has often conflicted with other races on his schedule.

With the Olympics in August and the trials behind him, Keflezighi saw an opportunity to come to District, where his extended family lives, and use the 10-mile race as a tempo run. Keflezighi took three weeks off to recover after his second-place finish at the trials in mid-February and only recently began running 10 miles or more during workouts.

On Sunday, Keflezighi will be pacing runners in the six-minute-per-mile pace group with the intention of helping others break the one-hour mark.

“I love doing those kind of things and interacting and hearing amazing stories,” Keflezighi said. “People enjoy running next to me, and I definitely sure enjoy doing that.”

Now known simply as a “Meb,” the 40-year-old Keflezighi has not always been the gregarious personality that he grew into as his running career progressed. Born in Eritrea as one of 11 children, Keflezighi and his family moved to San Diego in 1987 when Keflezighi was just 12 years old.

Sporting a large Afro and struggling with the language barrier, Keflezighi kept to himself. It wasn’t until physical education class that the ice began to break and Keflezighi, who became a U.S. citizen in 1998, discovered his passion for running.

“Throughout Meb’s life, he’s just kind of blossomed into being the public figure that he is,” said younger brother Hawi Keflezighi, who is also Meb’s agent. “And as he’s gotten more popular, starting from his middle school all the way to high school to college and after college, it’s kind of been a bridge for people to get to know him and for Meb to get to know other people.”

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Phil Stewart, the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run race director since 1991, met Keflezighi briefly in 2007 at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials held in New York City. They kept in touch and Keflezighi eventually told Stewart of his desire to run the race in D.C. one day.

The Cherry Blossom event has attracted high-profile elite runners and is part of the Professional Road Running Organization Championship Circuit. Former winners include Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa (2011), a two-time Boston Marathon champion, and American Bill Rodgers, a four-time winner (1978-1981) who is best known for his four Boston Marathon victories. Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, 58, is expected to run the women’s race this year.

But even with the prestige, Keflezighi stands out.

“The sport is much bigger than it was in the 1970s,” Stewart said. “In many ways, Meb has transcended from someone revered in running circles to even broader. The American public and most of the people know him as Meb; they may not even know his last name.”

Ben Beach remembers running next to Rodgers one year nearly a decade ago. Beach, a 66-year-old Bethesda resident who is the only person to have run all 43 editions of the 10-mile run, recalls that the former Olympian snuck by him over the Memorial Bridge.

It was a fleeting moment, but one that Beach still recalls fondly. Beach, who has also run 48 consecutive Boston Marathons, understands just how special running with a professional runner can be.

“It’s exciting to run with somebody who’s an Olympian and who’s outstanding,” he said. “I think it’s great that he’s doing that.”

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Heading into the home stretch at this year’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on the winding roads of downtown Los Angeles, Keflezighi clutched onto a small American flag with one hand and repeatedly pumped his fist in the air with the other.

He pointed at spectators along the course and implored them to cheer even louder. They obliged.

This is the Keflezighi that fans have come to adore – the one with unbridled enthusiasm even when the stakes are the highest. In addition to his bronze medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics, Keflezighi became the first American man to the win the Boston Marathon since 1983 when he won the race in 2014, one year after the bombings – further cementing his status as an emotional and fan favorite.

At the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon last year, Keflezighi paced a group that included a woman who handed her his phone. Her husband was stationed in Afghanistan and she wanted Keflezighi to leave him a voicemail. The woman began to cry tears of joy as Keflezighi thanked her husband for his service. It is moments like these that Keflezighi says he treasures.

“I really enjoy it, I really do,” he said. “Whether it’s hearing those stories or trying to give them feedback on their form or mechanics and things like that. . . . I love it personally. I enjoy winning. I enjoy going very fast, and I try to run to the podium or finish top 10, and things like that. But there’s also another natural high just running with people.”

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