The 12-0 that was rained off… with a tragedy at the end

The 12-0 that was rained off… with a tragedy at the end

I was set for an easy run on this Wednesday.  I had already observed that the long rains were already starting and night time seemed to be the time for these rains.  However, the Tuesday rains started early around seven in the evening.  It seemed that we would be back to the usual evening rains that characterize Nairobi, and Uthiru in particular.

I guessed that the Wednesday rains, if any, were likely to fall in the evening, around six, just an hour earlier than the Tuesday experience.  This timing led me to leaving for my run at 3.30pm.  I knew that I would be done with the run by 5.30pm whatever comes my way, though the plan was for a 90-minute run anyway.  However, contingency planning is needed when you are talking about runs and marathons.  Things happen on the road.  

Roads get blocked by some obstacle like a fallen tree or a dug-up trench – which means more time on the road navigating an alternative route or waiting for the road to be cleared.  Roads get rough, dusty or muddy – as muddy as it seemed it would turn out today – such a surface would surely reduce your speed or even lead to a walk instead.  

Occasionally, the planned route becomes untenable when it gets blocked by protesters, especially around Kabete Poly, UON Upper Kabete at Ndumbo or UON Lower Kabete at Lower Kabete road.  That would usually mean crafting a new route on the fly, sorry, on the run, which is likely to be longer, with its own new unknowns.

Other things that can happen to prolong a run includes the run being so enjoyable that you extend the distance and time, against the initial plans or you may meet up with a runner colleague and run along their pace and distance, which may prolong your initial plans.  Just know that when you plan for a run, add some contingency time.  Things happen on the road – and that is before considering the weather and what it can bring.

I left the doorsteps of the office at 3.30pm and started down to the generator, then uphill to the gate and out to Naivasha road, then Uthiru roundabout, then Kabete poly, then across Waiyaki way to the Vet loop.  I would be running the Mary Leakey route on this Wednesday as per plan.  

I observed that the trench that was being dug at the Vet loop on Monday was now extended to the road section just after ‘the wall’.  The same tractor was at it.  It was now clear that this was a trench of some pipeline or cabling.  I would bet on a pipeline, since I saw the trench extend through the field that heads towards KEVEVAPI.

From Ndumbo I started on the downhill on Kapenguria road towards UON Wangari Maathai Institute of Environment and Peace studies.  As I went downhill, I could see the darkness on the horizon towards Wangige and Gachie.  The sun was already out, blocked out by the now darkening clouds.  The horizon in fact appeared to show the white cloudy streaks that would suggest that it was already raining somewhere in the background, some ten or so kilometres away.  

It was not yet raining on the route as I passed by Wangari.  Nonetheless, there was no doubt at all that it would rain.  I still believed that the downfall would hit Uthiru at six.  I however started having my doubts as I got to Lower Kabete road to take the left turn.  The drizzle had already started.  It would be disastrous if this developed into a rain.  I still had over eight kilometers of planned run.  The unplanned ‘things happen’ modification of the run could prolong the distance and time.

The weather would however improve after I passed Mary Leakey school and started on the dry weather rough road that would eventually take me through the university farm.  I met a group of about ten or so young people – teenagers, I guessed, boys and girls at the university farm footpath.  They had completely blocked the road as we were going same direction.  Their social distance was demonstrated by them holding hands and walking in a tightknit group – blocking the already narrow path.  

..

My apparent approaching footsteps did not persuade them into giving way.  They looked back at my approaching form, almost in unison, as I approached them some ten metres from behind, and just continued walking full on the footpath.  I had to squeeze past by getting into the thickets on the right of their grouping.  They were so ‘conquering the world’ that they felt nothing and cared for no one else but themselves.

I would take that final hill run through the farm and find myself at the tank, ready to take the left turn to  join the main Kanyariri tarmac, to now get back to Ndumbo market, Vet loop, the wall, cross the Waiyaki way, pass by Kabete Poly and back to the starting point.  It was as simple as that, right?

Wrong!

I did the long kilometre hill and got past Ndumbo market, all the way to the Vet loop.  I was just about to pass through the narrow ‘the wall’ when the rain started.  I was yet to run the length of Waiyaki way and then cross it to get to Kabete Poly.  By the time that I crossed the highway it was turning into a heavy shower.  I increased my pace as I struggled against the apparent onset of rains.  I would in a moment be at Naivasha road for the two hundred metres downhill to the gate.  

I just entered the gate as the floodgates were opened.  I have never, ever, been rained on that heavily over such a short last two hundred metres of a run.  The taps of the rain had been opened up fully and it was voluminous, cold and blinding.  I was dripping wet by the time I was through with the run.  My shoes were full of water!  It was the most painful rain to hit me in a long time.

How I managed to finish the 20.74km almost-half marathon in 1.39.01 still surprises me – as per Runkeeper tracking.  Maybe I should be running more when the rain is about to start?  Of course, the phone with the Endomondo would stop working at the 17k mark, when I was doing the Vet loop on my way back.  It would get worse, when the phone went off just as I finished running, and then it started restarting after every five seconds, without successfully doing so.  It has a fixed battery, hence removal and return of battery to reset it is out of the question.  

Whether it is the weather and its rainwater that got into it or it was just its day – I do not know.  However, I have a full story about this phone that runs Endo.  This is a story for another day, even as TT now reached the 2M mark – yes, 2,008,850 infections on the planet, with 129,045 fatalities.  My own motherland now had 225 infections.  These were JHU stats of Wednesday evening.

I could not find the energy to celebrate a 12-0 winning streak, since I immediately received the news that one of my favourite Kenyan authors by the name Ken Walibora had died from a road accident.  This was a Swahili scholar of very high prowess, with storybooks that I liked reading.  With TT on one side and tragedy on the other, my 12-0 meant nothing!

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, April 15, 2020