Nairobi Marathon 2014 – making teachers out of runners
Am tempted to let the story of this Sunday, October 26th run just go. Running the 8th consecutive Nairobi International marathon on its 12th edition is an achievement enough… and it is like I have seen it all. If anything, am more tempted to recount the recent run, two days prior, that I had at a top Nairobi hotel, where the IEEE was hosting a seminar, whose introduction was, “How many of you are teachers?”
With every few of the thirty of so hands raised, the speaker had to rejoin that, “We shall make teachers out of you by the end of session tomorrow.”
Being made teachers was quite an experience. The first task was to work in groups of two to three and make a wind mill out of the provided materials. And this was the list of materials – three pieces of cut carton pieces, about ten by twenty centimeters each, a piece of string, a piece of wire, some four wooden planks, each about 30cm, a pair of scissors, pins, masking tape, paper clips and some marker pens.
“Use the available materials only. Do not attempt to pick any extra from your neighbor,” the person supervising emphasized.
Hair drier
In reaction to what was going on, about twenty minutes into the exercise, the supervisor added, “We shall be testing the wind mills using a hair drier that shall be 30cm from the mill. The mill should be able to rotate on its own without any human intervention. Additionally, it should be able to lift a tea bag through a vertical height of 15cm.”
One hour later, the eight or so groups had come up with all manner of designs – from the good to the bad, from the comical to the absurd. At least my first lessons of being made a teacher did not go in vain, since the mill made by my group of three managed to achieve its objective with the constraints stated. I had a Ugandan and an Ethiopian in my team.
By day two we had done other practical work on mechanics and electricity, including an experiment on proving Ohm’s law and even moving a light tower from one side of ‘the river’ to another using some form of roller, without touching it and with due regard to the environment. We even built a robot arm to lift a cup full of sweets, with a twist that it should also lift an overturned cup! The ultimate good that came out of this was being allowed to take home the material to repeat all the experiments at our own convenience. Did I mention that Ohm’s law experiment came along with a digital meter, a 9V battery, an experimental board and resistors? All for keeps! We were reminded to stop by tryengineering site to try engineering with similar projects.
Winning time
Talking about keeps, let me revisit the Nairobi International Marathon, aka Stanchart Marathon, where I was donning runner no. 3598. This is the only run that I know of, where no one has been able to ‘keep’ the win on any two occasions ever. We have had 12 annual runs and 12 champions in each of the run categories: 42k men, 42k women, 42k tricycle men, 42k tricycle women, 21k men, 21k women, 21k wheelchair men, 21k wheelchair women, 10k men, 10k women. None, repeat, no one has ever managed to win twice.
This year was no different, when new faces won the 42k men’s event in 2.12.24, while the ladies event was won in 2.43.05. The half marathon was conquered in 1.03.12 and 1.14.52 for the men and women events. On my part, I stopped my timer at 1.40.53 as unofficial. This is because I did not even know when the 21k run started. I was milling around with the second half of the sea of runners, when I just started the timing and somehow the run also seemed to start. My group probably walked for a whole 5 minutes before getting a breakthrough to run within the multitude. I could blame this startup snarl-up as the cause of my 1.40. I had hoped to break last year’s time of 1.35, but it was not to be. However, my split times were quite impressive and am at a loss as to why I did not better my time. These were the splits:
0.19.24 – 4km
0.37.13 – 8km
0.48.16 – 10km
0.56.13 – 12km
1.06.04 – 14km (the last distance marker that I saw)
1.40.53 – finish
Champion finish
From the above analysis, my run was lost generally by slow pace, since my average run remained 4.8minutes per km from start to finish. The slow pace could have been due to the heat. The sun was just too hot. In fact, as I walked to the stadium around 6.30am with a colleague, having taken a matatu at 5.45am to make it in time, the colleague had joked that, “The sun seems unusually hot today,” and that was just before seven o’clock. The good news is that that last stretch past the stadium to Langata road and back to the stadium was no longer a surprise. I had prepared for it and I even liked it. I also managed to finish at the same time as the 42km men’s event champion. The stadium therefore cheered the two of us as we sprinted to the opposite sides of the stadium to finish our respective run.
Due to the closed roads, I had to walk with my two colleagues from Nyayo stadium to Westlands – additional torture for the already tired legs – but that is just an episode on the life of a runner. Can’t wait for 2015 run season. For now… let the Christmas festivities begin.
Barack Wamkaya Wanjawa, Nairobi, October 27, 2014
Am tempted to let the story of this Sunday, October 26th run just go. Running the 8th consecutive Nairobi International marathon on its 12th edition is an achievement enough… and it is like I have seen it all. If anything, am more tempted to recount the recent run, two days prior, that I had at a top Nairobi hotel, where the IEEE was hosting a seminar, whose introduction was, “How many of you are teachers?”
With every few of the thirty of so hands raised, the speaker had to rejoin that, “We shall make teachers out of you by the end of session tomorrow.”
Being made teachers was quite an experience. The first task was to work in groups of two to three and make a wind mill out of the provided materials. And this was the list of materials – three pieces of cut carton pieces, about ten by twenty centimeters each, a piece of string, a piece of wire, some four wooden planks, each about 30cm, a pair of scissors, pins, masking tape, paper clips and some marker pens.
“Use the available materials only. Do not attempt to pick any extra from your neighbor,” the person supervising emphasized.
Hair drier
In reaction to what was going on, about twenty minutes into the exercise, the supervisor added, “We shall be testing the wind mills using a hair drier that shall be 30cm from the mill. The mill should be able to rotate on its own without any human intervention. Additionally, it should be able to lift a tea bag through a vertical height of 15cm.”
One hour later, the eight or so groups had come up with all manner of designs – from the good to the bad, from the comical to the absurd. At least my first lessons of being made a teacher did not go in vain, since the mill made by my group of three managed to achieve its objective with the constraints stated. I had a Ugandan and an Ethiopian in my team.
By day two we had done other practical work on mechanics and electricity, including an experiment on proving Ohm’s law and even moving a light tower from one side of ‘the river’ to another using some form of roller, without touching it and with due regard to the environment. We even built a robot arm to lift a cup full of sweets, with a twist that it should also lift an overturned cup! The ultimate good that came out of this was being allowed to take home the material to repeat all the experiments at our own convenience. Did I mention that Ohm’s law experiment came along with a digital meter, a 9V battery, an experimental board and resistors? All for keeps! We were reminded to stop by tryengineering site to try engineering with similar projects.
Winning time
Talking about keeps, let me revisit the Nairobi International Marathon, aka Stanchart Marathon, where I was donning runner no. 3598. This is the only run that I know of, where no one has been able to ‘keep’ the win on any two occasions ever. We have had 12 annual runs and 12 champions in each of the run categories: 42k men, 42k women, 42k tricycle men, 42k tricycle women, 21k men, 21k women, 21k wheelchair men, 21k wheelchair women, 10k men, 10k women. None, repeat, no one has ever managed to win twice.
This year was no different, when new faces won the 42k men’s event in 2.12.24, while the ladies event was won in 2.43.05. The half marathon was conquered in 1.03.12 and 1.14.52 for the men and women events. On my part, I stopped my timer at 1.40.53 as unofficial. This is because I did not even know when the 21k run started. I was milling around with the second half of the sea of runners, when I just started the timing and somehow the run also seemed to start. My group probably walked for a whole 5 minutes before getting a breakthrough to run within the multitude. I could blame this startup snarl-up as the cause of my 1.40. I had hoped to break last year’s time of 1.35, but it was not to be. However, my split times were quite impressive and am at a loss as to why I did not better my time. These were the splits:
0.19.24 – 4km
0.37.13 – 8km
0.48.16 – 10km
0.56.13 – 12km
1.06.04 – 14km (the last distance marker that I saw)
1.40.53 – finish
Champion finish
From the above analysis, my run was lost generally by slow pace, since my average run remained 4.8minutes per km from start to finish. The slow pace could have been due to the heat. The sun was just too hot. In fact, as I walked to the stadium around 6.30am with a colleague, having taken a matatu at 5.45am to make it in time, the colleague had joked that, “The sun seems unusually hot today,” and that was just before seven o’clock. The good news is that that last stretch past the stadium to Langata road and back to the stadium was no longer a surprise. I had prepared for it and I even liked it. I also managed to finish at the same time as the 42km men’s event champion. The stadium therefore cheered the two of us as we sprinted to the opposite sides of the stadium to finish our respective run.
Due to the closed roads, I had to walk with my two colleagues from Nyayo stadium to Westlands – additional torture for the already tired legs – but that is just an episode on the life of a runner. Can’t wait for 2015 run season. For now… let the Christmas festivities begin.
Barack Wamkaya Wanjawa, Nairobi, October 27, 2014
