Third IKM International marathon – the run that never was… almost
This run had been handed over to TT on a silver platter. It was not going to happen. Repeat, the IKM International marathon for March 2020 was not going to happen this Friday, March 27, 2020. You need to read part one of this story to understand this ‘rivalry’ between TT and I.
“I give you this one,” I told the computer screen. It was just about 1.00pm.
“You ‘thing’ whose name I cannot even mention,” I retold the screen. Not wishing to call out Corona Virus Disease of 2019, COVID-19, by name. I had resorted to calling it ‘the thing’, ‘TT’ in short. I did not want it responding, lest it hears its name and looks around.
I was not just yapping at the screen for nothing. I was viewing the JHU corona dashboard page and the statistics were worse than I thought. 537,042 worldwide infections, 24,110 deaths and 123,268 recoveries. This were stats of one o’clock.
Seven days ago, same time, we had 244,610, 10,031 and 86,033 as the numbers. All figures had more than doubled in just one week, despite the many precautions that we had put in placing, including work stoppage, social disruptions and foregoing many things that make us humans. That is why I was not calling TT by name. You get me?
I was not just talking to the screen for no reason. Two days earlier, and the government of the republic had issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew. No one was to be found in the streets from seven in the evening to five the next morning. This was a thorn in the flesh of our runs.
Our international marathons usually end around six-thirty, with another one hour to freshen up, take some refreshments before being ready to leave for home. There was no way a run would be done and finished and freshened up and refreshed up and runners be back home by seven. Impossible! The run was off.
“You get one win, you… you… you TT,” I told the screen. The time was just about one.
That would mean that TT would have one win, while runner would have three. 3-1 was not that bad. However, you do not want to give TT any chance to gain on you. Once it gains, it does not let go. Believe me, you do not want to give TT a chance, even if you are already 3 wins up.
This ‘compe’ started last Friday, when the employer directed staff to work from home and disallowing any visitors to the starting line – the generator. This decree rendered evening runs untenable. However, I had vowed on that same day that I shall do everything in my power to win over TT, and started the competition on who shall win over the other – the so-called Runner versus Co-runner, sorry co-rona. My advisory then was simple, ‘take full advantage of any time that you have before TT strikes’. That remains the advisory.
To level the playing field, sorry running field, the benchmark for runner and TT were set. The expectation was that there should be three runs in a week. If the runner gets to run, then the runner keeps the win. Should the runner fail to run the three runs in the week, then TT takes the wins. Simple, clear, transparent rules. I had already done my runs on Friday, Monday and Wednesday. That had given me my three wins. I was enjoying the streak. TT had nothing. But not for long…
TT had conspired with the powers-that-be to ensure that the runner cannot make it for the third IKM international marathon. It had done this by ensuring that the time window to run in the evening was so limited that there was no way of running in such a constrained time duration. TT had also ensured that runners cannot access the starting point at the generator – though this was easy to resolve, by just changing the starting point to somewhere ‘outside there’.
TT had introduced this social distancing nightmare of keeping a distance of at least a metre between folks. This was however being greatly ignored in most social settings such as travel, shopping and markets. For the runners we could work with this, by just running in a file, each runner a metre apart. All these were tricks by TT. TT was just introducing roadblocks – called ‘cheating’ to give itself wins. Unfair wins, I may add.
Winning by doing nothing – winning by not even hitting the road!
Winning by introducing roadblocks.
Who wins by cheating?
That is not the spirit of true sports!
“I give you one win… I still have three,” I told the screen. I told TT. The time was 1.00pm.
I even went ahead and headlined my draft blog article – ‘TT takes one on the runner’. I was not looking forward to publish this, but a runner cannot lie. The truth was that the run was off, and that meant that TT had got one win… by doing nothing. By just introducing all manner of roadblocks. By cheating! Who wins by cheating? Not the runner.
I was resigned to this fate when things took an unexpected turn. An email message soon got into my inbox reminding us that the national curfew was on and that it was real deal. Due to this, ‘staff shall leave at three…’.
“Say what?”
I re-read… staff shall leave at three.
“Leave at three?”
I re-read… leave at three.
“What shall I be doing from three? At home?,” I asked that email message… and it responded or rather, I formulated my response from it. I realized that ‘the run window’ that TT had reduced and made impossible to utilize for the run had just ‘miraculously’ been increased by 90-minutes! I now had one and a half hour extra to squeeze in this run, that would otherwise had been impossible to execute in the reduced timeslot, considering that there was ticking timebomb of a curfew at seven.
My mind was made. I was going for the run. I was starting it early. Three was early to start a run, but I now had the opportunity to start the run as early as three. I was not going to give TT the satisfaction of winning without breaking a sweat. Winning by doing nothing. Winning by cheating.
“You cheating TT,” I re-read the JHU stats, “I am not giving you this win!”
I left for the run at 4.18pm, despite planning to start at four. Time just flew, and I found myself starting off at 4.18pm. But, nothing to worry. I had a maximum of two hours to execute the third IKM international marathon, March edition, codename ‘Easter-run-before-Easter’. I just had to bring myself back to the finish line by 6.30pm. I could beat the seven o’clock curfew if I was finished by six-thirty.
I was tense as I left. I really had to finish the run in two hours, and even then, I would have less than thirty minutes to get out of the premises and be home. It was a narrow window, but I was just going to squeeze through it. I started the run with tension gripping my whole body. Many ‘what-ifs’ were running through my mind. Running is not an exact science. No two runs over the same distance turn out to be the same. You could run some distance in an hour, and do the same distance in one-hour-fifteen some other day.
There is no exactness. You go for it wishing for the best, but many factors come to play – the weather, the condition of the road, the traffic, the crowds and crowdings, the way the body feels on that day, running solo or in a group, running with slow pacer or fast pacer. All these play into how your run turns out to be.
You may replicate your timing on the distance. You may as well not replicate – that is the most likely scenario – you may not replicate. It may be worse, a worse outcome during such a curfew. It may be better, the better during this curfew. I was tense as I ran. The real test would be the time when I start my downhill at Gitaru market. That is where my mind was now focused. I was too tense that I could not even partake of the water that was on the half litre bottle that I had carried along.
The weather was great – some sun, albeit evening sun, which was not so hot. The highway crossing was already busy, with many vehicles from town heading out of town, probably due to the curfew that would take effect in another two and a half hours or so. Few people walked the streets. The Ndumbo market was full and busy as usual.
Vehicles using Kanyariri road towards Gitaru were more than the usual at this time of day. It could have been related to the curfew, with all running, rather driving home. The thought of the curfew at seven increased my tension. I kept going, not noticing much in my surrounding. I just wanted to circle Gitaru market and start my way back.
I really wanted to circle Gitaru market so that I could have a glimpse at the time.
Finally, I circled Gitaru market and glimpsed at the time. It was 17.27. I had upto one and a half hour to finish the run and be home. It was a tight window, but doable. I took a sip of water for the first time. The run was doable before the seven o’clock curfew took effect. The rest of the run was generally on a downhill, until that last hill towards Ndumbo market.
I kept my downhill momentum, occasionally sipping up the water. I would be surprised to meet marathoner Nick at ‘the elevated tank’. We said our ‘hi’s, maintaining the social distance by being on the extreme edges of the road – I was running downhill on the right edge. He was running uphill on the left edge. The distance was over six metres apart, across the vast Kanyariri road.
I knew that I now just had that last uphill to Ndumbo market… and the run would be done.
And surely, the run would be done soon, when I reached the finish line in a time of 2.05.11 for 25.34km according to the Endomondo app. I was unable to get the Runkeeper to this run since the phone that had that app decided to show me that dreaded 1% battery level just when I was about to start off the run.
I hardly had any time to even take some ‘good’ amount of water, since it was already just about 6.30pm. I just had to hit the shower and be out of the premises by 6.45pm to beat the curfew, that would find me at my doorstep at exactly 7.02pm.
The verdict – “Runner - 4, TT - zerooooo!”
The streak continues, even as TT having already infected 585,040, with 26,819 deaths and 129,812 recoveries as per the 9.54.13pm stats from JHU.
WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, March 27, 2020
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