NLLV – when love is better than run
The second international marathon of 2019, code name NLLV was held a day after the day of love. The Thursday ‘love day’ was marked by a ‘Friday event’ by the employer, being held on a Thursday. However, the marathon was not going to be pushed from its traditional Friday slot, despite it being a marathon for love. I had to endure another day of wait after the day of love, but the duel would be on nonetheless. The day would come and go.
On Friday when we were all back from our red attires, there was little doubt that the only way to fully shed the red was to run it out. That is how the ‘no love lost’ Valentines marathon (NLLV) was crafted.
The rules were simple and three – leave the starting point at 4.35pm, run your pace without looking back and turn back at the one hour mark if you cannot do the distance. The distance was a 21km road run on the ‘new international’ route that majorly runs on Kanyariri road, from Ndumbo to Nakuru highway, loop round Gitaru market, and back through the same Kanyariri.
Good start
The turnout was encouraging. I have on previous occasions run twice with only 2 runners. Having six starters and four joiners was therefore a big deal. Though we were ‘generated’ i.e. ‘we were at the generator starting point’ by 4.33pm, the run could not start until 4.40pm as we had to wait for a few more runners to make the grand start. Since there was no looking back, we wanted this start to be as fair and inclusive as possible.
After the now compulsory selfie, groupie shot, the countdown to zero was done and we set off. The no-turning-back seemed to have been taken seriously, since for the first time I saw everyone just set off speedily toward the exit on the 500m mark, and were soon out onto the tarmac towards Kabete Poly. Normally, we would form groups of like-paced-runners and keep to them, slowing and fasting up as the group dictated. On this one - no, no. All just left and kept going.
I was among the first runners out of the gate. Paul, a guest runner was on my neck, more of ‘to know the route’, but actually to pace me up. Edu and Chris were not far behind. Fay and Fay’s friend, Joy were a duo not far behind. Joy still owed us the Teq, which she was to have tabled after the first international of 2019, as per the promise that she had made during the sixth international in December. She had not mentioned anything of this promise. Nor did she seem to remember the chocolates that she had vowed to unleash next to the Teq bottle. I thought of reminding her. I decided otherwise. That discussion would have to wait. There was no looking back. There was no turning back… and there was no talking at the moment.
Construction
Crossing Waiyaki way was adrenaline laden. The construction machinery, the speeding vehicles on both sides of the road! The matatus!! We somehow crossed over and were soon on the loop that leads to Ndumbo, ready for the real run on Kanyariri. Everyone was on their own by the time we hit Kanyariri. I could not look back – just obeying the rules, nor could I see anyone ahead either. Kanyariri is a 7km length that eventually joins the Nakuru highway. The first k is downhill, followed by 6k of uphill.
The uphill was manageable. I had twice, before this particular event, run a 3km uphill on this stretch, just to gauge it out. It was challenging on each of these occasions, but I did learn valuable timing strategies on both missions. Lessons that would soon become handy. The strategy was to reduce speed at the start of the hill and just keep going at the reduced speed for the 6k – difficult, but manageable. Speed it up and you shall not make it – guaranteed. (I was later to hear this exact experience when some of our team runners got beat at Kanyariri).
I had nothing to do for about 40 minutes, but to hill up on Kanyariri.…
My mind wonders to the last Friday, when I decided to visit Nyayo house for a passport renewal experience. I had already been warned.
“You don’t want to go to Nyayo?,” my friend Ken had warned, even as he gave me a copy of his nation ID as a recommender. This was one of the many requirements.
“Why is that?”
“You shall stay there whole day,” he paused, “And shall still not manage to submit your application.”
By that time I had already too deep in the process, having already paid up the 4550 fee and was now wondering how I would get a refund.
“I was told that people sleep there, and still don’t get anywhere close to processing,” he sympathized, in response to my indifference.
“I have queued for six hours to cast my ballot before,” I consoled myself loudly, “I shall see how worse it can get.”
It was worse. To start with, the list of requirements was contradictory on all fronts. The official website did not mention anything about the copy of current passport as a requirement. This was hurled at us as a requirement while we were at the queue heading to the reception. I had arrived at eight sharp, assuming that the offices of the national service provider shall open at that time, if we are in luck. Public service have a bad reputation of opening up late. We were in luck, since by that time of the morning, a queue was already snaking outside the building, while the offices were surely open and in business. From my estimation, I was about the hundredth person on the queue… outside the reception block. When I finally got to the reception block, about one hour later, I was surprised to get into a big hall that was already full of seated people. I estimated two hundred already seated!!
It was no surprise when I was finally handed a ticket no. 321. And the waiting continued. In that time we had been provided with so much conflicting information on requirements that we did not know whom to believe anymore. The official site and what we were being told now were worlds apart. They even announced loudly that, “You need the original ID of your recommender.” This particular misinformation made me lose Uber charges in getting someone from Uthiru to bring the original ID of recommender, only to be told that it is actually not needed. The whispers on the queue included talk of the need for ID copy, and original for the applicant’s parents. Where do you get parents who are already with the ancestors? Why do you need a full reapplication just for a renewal? When you had submitted all these documents already!! I was feeling totally frustrated and wondering why I had started the process at all.
At two, I finally got called to a counter where a passion-fruit eating immigration officer, did his eating, processed my papers and handed back my processed papers without as much as a word. I just followed the cue and went to the photography section, where the processing officer, now evidently tired, was forced to instruct me to sign up the digital screen and leave.
Thereafter I faced a next Nyayo… the Nyayo stadium, where the lock of my post office box got spoilt a week before. I paid up 650 to have a lock replacement, but that was not the interesting bit…
“Pay at the counter,” someone had said. The person then clarified, “I shall change the lock for you.”
He turned out to be the technician at the post office.
“There is no one at the counter to receipt the money!?,” I pointed out.
“Oh, Alice haigo? Lasma naenda kukojoa.”
That did not come out of his mouth!!! Did I hear what I thought I heard?
Finally, I was with him at the pigeon hole location. Him doing his repairs. Me looking on. Small chat ongoing.
“I was here last week but could not get help,” I told him.
“Ulibata nani?”
“I got some madam, a bit elderly, and quite helpful. Only that there was no technician to resolve.”
“Ulibata ile mama namna hii..,” he gestured in a manner of facial expression.
Was this guy a real person or was I hallucinating! One cannot be that badly cultured!!
When he finished the job, “Lede so mocha ya lanj.”
What is befalling public service… what is happening to public service… Am I seeing public service vehicles… I hear a loud hoot. It is a matatu. Driving me out of the side of the road in order to drop a passenger where there is no stage. I regain consciousness.
I am now at the end of Kanyariri road, as I now turn right to run the three hundred or so metres in order to join Gitaru-Wangige road in order to loop round the Gitaru market in readiness for the downhill.
Best run
The downhill was the best part of the run. About 6k of pure enjoyable downhill where you just let go, and you roll down. One final kilometer of hill on the 18k mark welcomes you to Ndumbo where you now only have 2k to the finish line. You can smell the end of the run. Nothing can stop you now. You are technically done. The best parts of the event are now behind you. It is now just a matter of crossing the Waiyaki way and you kilometer back to the finish line. I am soon finished. Just like that. The run is done. Slowly by slowly, the team members finish, at their own pace, with their own personal best on this route.
There was no teq on this Friday, just promises that it shall be there ‘next time’. If anything, there was more of Whatsapping, including one that I had to refute…
From Pato: I am glad that I ran along the legendary coach for some time. He however left me and finished in 1.35.
From coach: Thanks, but no thank you. The time was actually 1.45.
WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 15, 2019
