When 21 has many meanings

When 21 has many meanings

There are two reasons why I did run today, Monday, June 29, 2020 – it was a Monday, and it was also the last run of the month.  My other ‘natural’ run should be on Wednesday.  It shall be July by then.  Had it not been for those two reasons, then it is very likely that I would not have braved the mid-day sun.  Corona was not making things easier either.  We now had 10,329,269 infections worldwide with, 505,991 fatalities.  Kenyan had 6,190 confirmed cases and 298 deaths.  

But let me tell why this Corona-thing was not making things easier – the virus is becoming more prevalent ‘in the air’, hence the chances of getting it is increasing with each passing day.  Secondly, increase in infections means that the chances of the Kenyan curfew and lockdown being extended is increasing as we approach the end date of the current lockdown.  The end is meant to be July 7 – just nine days from today – but I am starting to see a ‘new end’.

Worrying about TT does not help, though the numbers are always splashed on our faces on every media, every sms, every webpage, every Whatsapp, every Friday staff meeting, every news story, every text on the bottom of every TV screen… text on top of some TV screens – everywhere I tell you!

Still, worrying about TT does not help, and so I did leave for my forced Monday lunch-hour run.  I would have done with a rest today.  I have been on the road three times a week since Monday, June 1.  I have already crushed the road twenty times this month alone!  I was not feeling quite ready for the run number 13 of June.  But the magic of finishing the month on a run was just too tempting.  The magic of 13 runs of 21k each, was just too tempting.

The sun was already blazing overhead as I left for the run at 12.45pm.  Karl had just beaten me to the starting line, since he left me at the locker room changing to my run gear.  He had already declared his intention to do a ‘kambio kadogo tu mpaka tarmac’.  That ‘kadogo’ mbio was something in the range of 10k.  Crazy marathoners!  

My other marathoner colleague, Mark, also of team Eng-thoners, was also dressing up for the lunch hour run.  The two of us have remained true to the tradition of three runs a week, despite TT.  I however do not see the route that he runs on.  Somehow, our paths do not cross, though we tend to finish our respective runs around the same time.  I suspect that he does the Naivasha road route to Equity and back.

I was off for the run at 12.45pm.  I was full of lethargy despite the two days of rest.  This was surely supposed to be a day of rest, if listening to the body was anything that determines a run.  This determination was however not being left to the body – the body was already weak.  I had to draw the strength from some other metaphysics.

I left for the run at quarter to one.  It was hot.  I was tired ab-initio.  But nothing was stopping my streak number 21 of the half marathon runs.  I started off the run and just let go.  I pressed on and kept going.  I had already gotten used to running without the loop.  Bad things happen, but life continues.  

The closure of the loop was bad, but run life continued onto the alternative route already determined by exploration and experimentation.  This was basically the Mary Leakey route through University farm, then some run (for the distance) on Kanyariri road to the crossroad near ACK church and back through the same route.

I was just heading to my 7km mark after the river, past Wangari Maathai, just next to KAGRI when I met Gordon.  I had not known that this Eng-thoner would be on the road.  I am used to two runners, three was a good surprise for today but four runners on the same day was just impossible!  

We exchanged our greetings as I now headed to Lower Kabete road to turn left for the run that would take me to the other left diversion towards Mary Leakey school.  It was on this uphill that I would meet Karl.  That ‘ka-tarmac’ thing had actually turned into ‘ka-Mary Leakey’, with additional distance.  We did our on-the-air ‘Hi Fives’ and continued our opposite ways – uphill in my case, downhill for him.

It took about ten minutes to get to the University farm.  I was passing by the narrow footpath, when I heard a greeting.  I was not expecting it.  I imagined seeing some boy on the roadside to my right a few steps back.

“Sasa!”

“Jambo!,” I said.  I was now about five steps ahead.

“Unakimbia mpaka wapi?”

What was this?  21 questions on my number 13 run over a 21k distance?  Running on the feet is difficult as it is.  Thinking and processing questions on the run is just a no-go-zone!

“Leave me alone!,” that was what my mind told me say.

“Kanyariri soko,” that is what I said instead.  

I was now almost ten steps away as I answered.

I am not even sure if he heard this.

I was soon in the heart of the University farm, where I had to traverse about one kilometre of solitude and almost eerie quietness.  I like the quietness, and it is also at this section that I have ‘seen things’ in my running life!  For starters, the worst muddy section of the whole route exists along this stretch.  It was not a bother today because it had not rained for over five days.  That ten metre section was likely dry and surely it was dry when I finally passed by.  

During my Friday run, just three days ago, I observed upon my approach, some two motorbikes parked on the right on the small footpath, as I headed towards the tank.  This was a first one.  I have met motorbikes in motion, but never found parked ones.  

I kept going only to pass by the two bikes and also was just in time to see some two guys, on the opposite side of the road, almost enveloped by the thicket, partaking something that emitted dark smoke and odor that permeated all the way to my running path.  That smoke was nothing but trouble.  That smoke smelt ‘grassy’.  It was surely grass!  I was imagining what their ‘grassy’ mind would direct them to do – for example accost a marathoner?  And demand for his phone?

On another occasion, I believe this must have been the Monday run of two weeks ago, almost at this very spot of the University farm, I approached while observing a white car parked in the middle of this very footpath.  How that car was even fitting on the narrow footpath was just amazing.  I could see it from one hundred metres of my approach, since the path is generally straight with a longer visibility range.  

I was however getting worried with every step as I neared the car.  I have never seen a car parked on this section of the path.  Occasionally, a car would struggle to squeeze through the footpath on either direction – very occasional – I only remember once seeing a vehicle traverse this route this year.

I was now about ten metres to the parked car.  All instincts were at high gear.  The ‘fight or flight’ debate was gearing more towards ‘turnback and flight’.  My speed was even reducing, despite it being already reduced by the uphill terrain.  I was not five metres, at a point where I could now see and get all details of the car.  

I would eventually have the courage to squeeze myself out of the path to bypass that car as I did not decipher any eminent danger.  I got past just in time to see two feet almost hitting the windscreen as they sprawled over the dashboard.  That was the lower body.  There was an ‘upper’ body.  The slight shaky movements of the car left nothing more to the imagination.  The tinted windows did not help the imagination linger from the truth!

Coincidentally, it is this same section of the University farm, but to my right, where I saw that person who was pacing about somewhere in the thicket not so longer ago – the one who was definitely seeking the divine.  Unfortunately, his thicket was now ploughed over and he would now only be able to seek divinity on the now untouched left side thicket – the very left side where those grass-smoking duo were partially hidden last Friday.

So again, I ask, Is there anything that I have not seen on this particular stretch of the route?  This University of Nairobi farm route?  The only thing that I would not be surprised to see is the closure of this route someday.  If anything, there was already a sign to the effect that it was ‘Private property – do not trespass’.  This used to be affixed somewhere near the tank.  

I do not see this sign anymore.  But, since when did a ‘public’ university become ‘private’ property?  Are we not all stakeholders of this university?  What danger does crossing through the farm pose to anything?  However, the closure of ‘the loop’ has opened my mind to the possibility of the impossible – I shall in the meantime keep enjoying my runs through the Uni farm while it lasts.

Those memories of the Uni farm came flooding through my system, even as I kept wondering at the determination of that young blood to know where I was running to.  Was he just curious?  Was he just making conversation?  Did he really care about my run?  I kept wondering even as I did my U-turn at Kanyariri crossroad next to the ACK church for my run back through the same route.  The sun remained hot.  If anything, its temperature was turned up a notch as I did my return leg run.

The good news about a return leg is the ‘feel good’ that you get as you start going back to the finish line.  That is the feeling that kept me going until I was just getting through the university farm, when I was once more interrupted with a sound.

“Mambo?”

Oh, leave me alone already!  

I was already struggling through sixteen kilometres on a hot blaze.  It could have been a bad coincidence, but the same young man, with his unmistakable voice was there.  Could it mean that he just waited all this while?  Having learnt earlier through my response that I was running to Kanyariri and back?  That is the definition of hope and patience!

“Mambo sawa,” I find myself saying, after being interrupted from my preoccupied mind.  Preoccupied by the thought of how I shall survive that Wangari Maathai uphill run.  The very hill that I finally do on my way to the finish line, bringing home this run number 13 in the month of 21s. 

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 29, 2020

Running onto the wall… and surviving

Running onto the wall… and surviving

Wednesday should have been a run day like any other.  I had already switched back to lunch hour runs, after the disappointing rains that interfered with my Monday run.  The day started with the COVID19 aka TT stats splashed all over the net – 9,501,142 confirmed cases with 483,657 deaths on the planet.  The numbers were now increasing by the million in a week.  The motherland had 5,206 and 130 as the figures respectively*.  

I was just seeing these figures because there was hardly a page on the web that you could open without these numbers just popping up… on your face.  What shall be shall be is the new mantra, but humanity shall conquer when the dust has settled.  We hope this ‘dust-settlement’ shall be sooner rather than later.  If anything, we expect a big vaccine announcement in Europe in the thirty quarter of this year – so, hang on there humanity, the end of the calamity is near.

That said, the Wednesday run had to be done over the lunch hour and I was out for the run at 12.45pm.  There was hardly a sunshine, but it was not cold either.  If anything, the possibility of sunshine was quite real, and I concluded that it was going to be a sunny run – and sunny run it was.  The sun started shining just as I hit the 3k mark across Waiyaki way.  At the very mark when I would now be preparing to turn to the right to pass through the wall and start the warmup runs at the Vet loop.

It was however a deserted sideroad as I geared up to take this path from the paved sidewalk of Waiyaki way.  I would normally run on this sideroad, off the pavement, for about fifty steps, then make a ninety-degrees turn to the right to now face the wall another fifty metres ahead.  As said, the sideroad was a bit deserted than normal.  I would usually meet at least someone either coming towards my direction or being overtaken just before I make that ninety degrees turn.  This time… none.  The road was even lacking of the footprints that I would expect on the dusty or muddy grounds.  Strange!  

But the mystery would soon be unveiled when I made the ninety-degree turn intending to go through the wall, only to find the wall completely blocked!  Plastered!  Closed!  Sealed off completely!  I almost collided with it, but was able to make a quick decision on next course of action.  I had to make a U-turn and run back to Waiyaki way to decide on my next run route.  

Luckily, I had played this exact scenario on my mind many times, since I saw that giant gate fixed at the Ndumbo side of the route.  I knew that the Vet loop was being closed and it was just a matter of time.  Those two layers of stones blocking the small gap on the wall on Monday was the last straw.  And today, two days later, the wall was completely sealed and Vet loop was no more – just like that – I route that has existed for my twelve years of run, gone!  Gone for sure, gone forever!

I was back to Waiyaki way and kept going same direction as my approach and headed towards the Uthiru flyover, passing underneath then turning right to do the roundabout then left at the cross road to run towards Ndumbo stage.  I had earlier formulated this route to avoid the gate, but not to avoid the Loop!  Now I was at Ndumbo, heading towards Wangari Maathai on Kapenguria road but without the Vet loop distance.  

My legs pained and I felt that I was missing something.  Indeed, I was missing something – the Vet loop warmup section, which was now gone.  But that was not all, I was also missing a number of kilometres on the run card, that would otherwise have been done on that loop.  Each loop was between one and two kilometres, depending on the variations that you put in.  I was now missing about 8k by the time of running down Kapenguria road.

However, a marathoner needs to think on their feet and I was already calculating a new route that would still give me a half a marathon even without the loop.  I knew that I had to at least do the Mary Leakey route through the University farm and emerge on the Kanyariri road at the tank.  I knew that getting back to Ndumbo from there and back to the start line would be short of the required distance.  I could not figure out an augmentation of the route to give me some extra distance without just reaching ‘some place’ and doing a U turn.  

I decided to instead turn right and go up on Kanyariri road.  It was the first time in a long time that I was running past the tank, on this route.  The very route that had been our usual ‘international marathon’ route for long, as we did our run all the way to Gitaru and back.  For this lunch hour run, I just wanted to get to the first junction and turnback.  It is usually easier and logical to make a U-turn at some junction instead of in the middle of nowhere.  

I did the U-turn just in time to hear the ‘twelve kilometre’ announcement from the Runkeeper that was keeping today’s run.  The phone with the Endomondo had surprisingly just decided not to power on for whatever reason.  Recharging it yielded no results.  I have so much stories to tell about that phone – including that I had it at hand when the rain fell on me on Monday… and so was this phone that I was having now.

That distance confirmation of a turning point at 12k surely decided my run route for the day.  Remember, a marathoner must be able to think while on the run.  The decision being that I would just have to run back the exact same route all the way to the starting line.  That would mean turning left at the tank and having another run through the University farm.  By this time it was blazing hot.  

I kept going, knowing that I just had to retrace my steps to the finish.  I did retrace my steps back to the starting line, having a moment to glance at that blocked wall on my left at Waiyaki way.  The glance brought memories.  Memories of how runs around the loop used to be and how they shall never be again… reality hitting me for the first time.

*Figures derived from worldometers webpage

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 24, 2020

Running into the wall…. For the last time

Running into the wall…. For the last time

Today I have no time for Corona aka TT.  The infections have crossed the 9M level on planet earth, 9,139,787 to be exact as of today, June 22, with 472,518 deaths.  Kenya has 4,797 cases with 125 fatalities.  I am not giving writing space for TT today.  Today I am talking more important things.

The weather in this city has been without rain for long, probably most of June.  It has been cold alright but not rainy.  That false sense of no-rain weather is the reason why I decided to shift my Monday run from the traditional mid-day timing to evening.  The weather had been cool, almost cold since morning.  The sun hardly provided its rays to the inhabitants of the Western part of Nairobi.  That was however the perfect weather for a run.  

I would have done the run at lunch time, but I deliberately delayed it for the evening.  After all, even the curfew hours had now been shortened.  The curfew now starts at nine, instead of seven in the evening.  I was also missing the evening runs, which tend to be done when the weather is cooler and citizens are closing down their busy days.  Evening runs have their own ‘feel good’ moments that are hard to explain.

I started the run at four-thirty on the dot.  I could see the dark clouds that had engulfed the whole of the skies above even as I started the run.  The horizon on all the views that I made, the whole 360 degrees of the horizon looked cloudy and a bit dark.  It was as if it was already raining somewhere in the background, but the definite haze of the background when it rains was missing.  

The horizon was still visible.  There was no rain yet, but the dark clouds looked like waiting for the right time to cry out loud and burst down into tears of rain.  That time seemed soon, but the horizon did not give any secrets as to when it would rain.  There were still no signs of any forthcoming rains from any direction.  Just the dark clouds and that was it.  I therefore kept running with confidence that the weather was just downcast, but the chances of rain were low.

I had just crossed Waiyaki way and was just about to divert to my right onto ‘the wall’, to start my Vet loops when the rain started.  Just like that, it started raining.  I am used to a rain that starts from the horizon and progressively approaches until it hits.  This was different.  It just started from above.  I had by then just done a 3k distance.  I cursed my decision to run in the evening.  This would not have happened if I ran over the lunch hour.  I was now likely to give up on the run.  Six kilometres was my likely distance, if I was to turn back and run back to the starting point.  What a wasted evening! 

The turning back would however be forced out of the options, when I was forced to jump over 2 layers of stones put across the small gap through ‘the wall’.  The obstruction was new.  It meant that whoever put these stones did not want people who cannot jump to get through, and definitely did not want motorbike to get over.  

I was however not totally surprised by this development, especially from the time they fixed that gate that blocks the road at Ndumbo stage.  The gate that now prevents access to the Vet loop from Ndumbo stage.  I have known that the days of running at the Vet loop were numbered.  The loop was being closed progressively but surely.  It would just be a matter of time before the loop was completely blocked from runners.  I was therefore not surprised, though this was happening too soon!  So fast!!  

I had hoped that this gap on the wall would remain open for some time and had even calculated the alternative run route for our ‘internationals’ that would avoiding that gate.  The route would go first through the wall, followed by several loops, then finally back out through the wall without going towards the new gate.  

After that, runners would go to Ndumbo through Waiyaki way and the flyover, then do their runs on the many routes available from Ndumbo – Kapenguria road to Lower Kabete road or Kanyariri road towards Gitaru or either of these to some point and diverting to the University farm trail.  All you need to do is do the loops and get to Ndumbo stage.  From there the options are many.  However, you really need those Vet loops to grease up your initial run and put you on the mood for a longer run.  Those loops are part and parcel of any run worth its name.  You need those loops.  The same loops that now seem gone.

There I was, being rained on, and running along.  I just had to do the loops, maybe for the last time, since once those temporary two level of stones and permanently plastered and extended by another five levels, that hole on the wall shall be completely closed and the loop shall not be accessible forever.  Let it rain.  Let me be rained on.  I kept running.  The rain kept falling on me.  It was cold, but I kept going.

The path would get muddy, but I kept going.  The going become very tough with the slippery road sections within the Vet loop circuit, but I kept going.  This was probably the last time running through this loop.  I was going to do this run, come rain, come rain.  

There was nothing noteworthy as I ran through the rain.  It would however stop raining after about thirty minutes.  Few drizzles persisted for another ten minutes before the rain was gone completely.  Some road sections on the loop that was more than a kilometre remained wet, muddy and slipper.  This did not deter my run through it for eight circuits.

Though the rain had stopped, I remained soaked and muddy to the knee.  It was not that cold anymore.  I was not doing my run out of the loop on this day.  I wanted to have the maximum utilization of the loop.  I would gain all the kilometres running loops on this loop.  The very loops that the rains had made slippery.  

Thinking about it, the only reason why it rained today was to mess up my run…. and the only reason why my run was not messed today was because I was forced to run around the loop exclusively…. for the last time before it is finally closed off and gone forever, marking an end to over twelve years of looping.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 22, 2020

Running into sleek cars… sorry, a market

Running into sleek cars… sorry, a market

Friday’s run on this nineteenth day of June, Juneteenth, they call it in the US, was a run like any other.  I however feel like it was forced onto me, since I was feeling too tired to get out for this run.  The weather was not making things any easier in helping me come up with a decision.  

It was a bit cold, with the sun struggling to get past the cloud cover, with very little success.  But the main reason for my reluctance was the pains that I was feeling on my legs.  That Wednesday run that I done and had reformulated the route to avoid that Vet gate must have taken a toll on me.  I was not looking forward to another run.  

Before you start getting ideas, let me pre-empt in advance… COVID19 aka TT had nothing to do with my reluctance.  We, TT and I, have already established our mutual respects… it keeps to its territory, I keep to mine.  But that does not mean that we do not check each other out.  

I had just updated myself on TT’s figures of the day, and they were just that… TT’s figures of the day.  8,701,124 infections globally with 460,671 deaths.  Kenya had 4,374 infections with 119 deaths.  These are numbers that we would have to live with until a treatment, cure or vaccine is found.  There was progress in all fronts but ‘end of year’ seemed to be the catch word for either of the initiatives.  

However, life was starting to get normal elsewhere in the world after Corona afflictions.  Europe was opening up the lockdown restrictions, after China has lifted similar restriction.  If anything, even the football leagues over there had restarted, including the EPL.  

Though all sports where happening in empty stadia, life as we knew it before February was progressively getting back to normal pre-February days.  Back to the motherland, we were waiting for that magical July 7 date when we expect our own lockdown to come to an end.  But I am not holding my breath on this.  Two lockdown extensions before this has taught us to expect the unexpected.

So, there I was.  Wondering whether to take a run or not.  Nonetheless, it was a run-day Friday and a run was beckoning, and so I reluctantly obeyed its call.  I painfully walked to the locker room and changed into the run gear.  My first kilometre of run was pure pain.  My legs pained all over and every step I took was an amplification of pain.  I kept going.  I knew that I would get to the run rhythm soon.  The weather remained great, by virtual of no sun and no cold.  

I would surely get into the run rhythm and the pain in the legs would subside by time I was through with the initial five minutes of greasing them with the warmup run.  I was now on the second kilometre as I faced the Uthiru roundabout ready to continue onto my right towards Kabete Polytechnic.  

Just next to the roundabout, now taken over by the taxi cars, I noticed a blue sedan with the boot open.  I glanced into that boot as I passed by to notice once more the merchandize – pineapples packed onto that boot space.  On the roof of the car were also arranged a perimeter of pineapples.  Next to the boot stood two gents, each carrying a pineapple per hand – four in total between them.  I heard them as approached.  I kept hearing their receding sound as I passed by.

“Pineapple!  Nunua pineapple!  Pineapple hapa!”

I had noticed this vehicle several times before at this same spot.  It always had the pineapples, with one or two gents waving what they were carrying towards the vehicles that were approaching as they went down towards Kawangware.  I believe their captive market must have been set.  I do not remember seeing them beckoning the passersby, but maybe I was not keen.

I would soon be tackling the third kilometre as I passed the Poly.  On my right, just at the end of the compound of the Polytechnic, a pickup truck stood by, part of its body almost obstructing the road.  I was just in time to see some fruits covering the whole of the carriage – oranges, pineapples, oranges, apples.  I even believe that I saw some veggies or something that looked as green as veggies on that carriage.  There was no need for the single person next to the pickup to even say what he said, though he still did anyway…

“Pineapples, ndizi!  Nunua!  Bei rahisi!”

I was too absorbed with my run to give him more than two glances.  I would soon be crossing the Waiyaki way to the other side of the road so that I could then run onto ‘the wall’ on my right and start my Vet loop circuits.  The loop is now becoming private property, following the installation of that imposing gate onto the main road, at Ndumbo, where the main road that leads to this circuit starts.  However, my Wednesday run had already figured out how to run the loop and avoid this gate.  I was just retracing my steps on this re-run today.

I finished my three loops and headed back out through ‘the wall’, turned right to joined Waiyaki way, and then kept going towards the flyover that was about four hundred metres ahead.  After passing under it, I took the road that circles towards the flyover, but crossed the road before the flyover and turned left to now go to Ndumbo.  At Ndumbo I could not resist the temptation to glance to my right to confirm that the new gate was still in place.  It was.

The matatus came and made a U-turn at my back while I kept going onto Kapenguria road.  It would however not be long before I passed by a blue car on my left, just next to the University club house, with the boot door open.  Onto the boot space were strewn all manner of fruits.  Next to the open boot sat a lady on a plastic chair.  She said nothing, but there was no doubt that she was selling the stock in that boot.  

Her quiet could also be due to the other saloon car just opposite her sitting position, across the road.  That car also had an open boot and all manner of fruits were on display.  A guy stood next to that one.  He was also quiet.  He made an attempt to say something as I was passing by.  I am not sure if he said anything, since I was already on the downhill heading towards Wangari Maathai institute.

The rest of the Kapenguria road was fairly deserted.  I would eventually meet a group of people clearing the thickets on both sides of the road near the river.  I kept going, since I would soon be facing the uphill section that runs for about a kilometre all the way to Lower Kabete road.  I was now running on the left side of the road.  I passed by KAGRI, then got another car with an open boot just next to the fence of KAGRI, where there is a dirt road that runs along the fence.  A lady sat at some booth space, just next to the fruits.  

I then get to Lower Kabete road and turn left to face another uphill for about five hundred metres.  The right side of the road has the big compound taken over by the road construction company, with many trucks making turns into and out of that compound.  I pass by the main gate of that compound that is on my right, across the road.  I read the sign at the gate as I pass, “Nairobi Western Bypass Project - CRBC”.

The hilly section comes to an end as I also end my run along the tarmac and turn left to get to the rough road towards Mary Leakey school.  I make a turn to immediately collide with two vehicles with open boots.  They are a touching distance from my running path and their wares is well defined – all manner of fruits, all manner of vegetables.  Two people are seated on plastic seats next to each car.  I notice each of these vehicles have some people, who look like buyers, looking at the contents of the boots.

I pass by them and pass by the adjoining shopping centre, where I get to see yet another vehicle with open boot on my left.  Apart from the vegetables that have completely greened the booth-space, I can see some trays of eggs arranged outside the vehicle on the ground.  I pass by and keep going past Mary Leakey school, towards the river, then uphill some more.  It would not be long before I would have to face the lonely run through the University farm.  I take it on my stride and keep going through the desertion.

I emerge at the tank, on Kanyariri tarmac road, where I turn left in readiness to go a downhill to the river, then an uphill to Ndumbo.  I make this left turn in time to see the white car, boot open, on my left.  There is definitely a sale of fruits that are packed onto the boot of that car.  I keep going.  I shall be in Ndumbo market in less than ten minutes, where we I encounter all manner of wares on sale – on stalls, on roadsides, on car boots, on car bonnets, on car rooftops, under vehicles, on pickup carriages, on hand carts, on bodies of sellers – anything goes in this market.

I am now back to my junction that would take me back to Wangari Maathai if I were to turn left, but I turn right instead, and head towards the flyover, but avoid it by instead going underneath it and joining Waiyaki way.  I soon pass by the wall, on my left and keep going another two minutes before I jump over that imposing road barrier on Waiyaki way to get myself to the other side of the road, at Kabete Poly.  By now I am surely tired.  Lifting a leg is a painful experience, leave alone lifting two and repeating the motion.

My run is now generally done.  I shall just have the occasion to pass by the sugarcane vendor who has now setup base on the edge of the last road bump before the Uthiru roundabout, just opposite Kabete Vet Labs primary school.  I pass him and face the two pineapple guys once more, still at the same spot where I left them two hours earlier.  Still holding a pineapple, a hand, just as they had done at one o’clock, when I had passed them first.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 19, 2020

Running through a roadblock… with life changing consequences

Running through a roadblock… with life changing consequences

June 15 was the exact middle of the month.  It had a cold mid-day, the first such weather in a long time.  Maybe the first this year.  I could feel the chill hit my skin.  My exposed legs and arms bore the brunt of the low temperatures.  It was a still day with no sign of rain, though it was a bit overcast.

I really thought about it long and hard.  Was I really ready for this?  In fact, the only reason why I saw myself leave for this run was because it was a Monday.  Had it not been a Monday, then I have doubts as to whether I could have exposed myself to such a cold.

I left the starting line at 12.30pm.  I have to reemphasize that it was cold.  I was however capable of managing this.  I have been in worse cold.  Worse runs in worse temperatures.  I have even run in sub-zero, albeit for a short time and survived.  By short I do mean about one hour.

I have been hit by sub-zero rains during runs and I managed.  It was not a good feeling, but it happened.  I have been able to breath in sub-zero air.  It was not a good feeling, but it happened.  These were last year experiences at the Arctic circle when I did my runs up there near the North pole.  I was not looking forward to a repeat, but it was a Monday and the run was on.

The route of my runs over the last two months have now been fixed.  Etched on stone even.  I was now so used to it that I could even let go and do the whole run without thinking about the course.  You cross the Waiyaki way, do the Vet loops, then run the Kapenguria road to Lower Kabete road so as to get to Mary Leakey route then through the University farm.  From there, you join the Kanyariri tarmac back to Ndumbo and once more back to the Vet loop to finally head to the starting line as your finish line.  

A good circuit with uphills and downhills, mostly uphills, but a good circuit by all definitions.  There is very little exposure to vehicular traffic, apart from the fairly deserted Kapenguria tarmac and that dreaded crossing of six-lane Waiyaki way, with its mid-road half-metre high barrier.

The first phase of the run was just starting.  I had clocked just about 10k.  The body was now already used to the cold after doing those two loops at the Vet circuit.  It could only get better, so I thought.  Then….

Then as I finished off the two loops and was heading for Ndumbo matatu stage when it happened!  I just stumbled upon a giant metallic gate fixed menacingly across the whole width of the tarmac!  Totally blocking any way through!

“This is messed!,” I thought of saying even as I slowed down to start thinking of my options.  The gate was progressively getting nearer and nearer as I moved on.  I would soon collide with it.

A marathoner must be ready and fast in thinking while on their feet on the run.  Things can happen from nowhere and this was one of those moments.  I was now facing a closed gate in the middle of the road and in a few steps I would be crashing into it if nothing else would give.

But come to think of it, this was not a real surprise.  The signs that things may change started about three months ago, just when COVID19, aka TT was starting to affect the country.  By then Kenya was registering the first confirmed case and had just instituted a curfew and lockdown.  I had started seeing signs of an upcoming building, just a few metres from the main Ndumbo matatu stage.  At that time I thought this building on the right side of the road while approaching from the loop, was related to TT.  

My thoughts were that it was either a washroom or handwash station of sorts.  I largely ignored it even as it kept on being constructed and taking shape over the last three months.  It would finally evolve into a roadside building.  It still had all the makings of a washroom or handwash station.  It did not look like dwelling quarters.  It remains a single room, even as it started receiving finishes in terms of metallic windows and doors.  

Then two week ago I started noticing a new development.  The sideroad section, near this house structure, just next to the matatu stage was being cleared and the ground was being levelled up.  And one week ago the levelled ground started receiving fencing posts.  That got me thinking.

“Why would they be fencing the area next to the new building?”

If anything, the concrete posts of the fence were being installed on the other side of the road, after the new building.  For sure, a fence was coming up, but how was it related to this block?

Then the impossible happened!  Last week I saw that the fence and its chainlink were largely finished and two giant sections of a gate were lying beside the road, just next to the new building.  There was now no doubt as to what was coming up.  I had even given my marathoners team on WhatsApp a heads-up on this.

“The loop as we know it shall soon be out of our run route, since a gate is coming up near Ndumbo stage to block access to the loop.”

Little did I know that that ‘soon’ would be this Monday.

There I was, running towards a blocked road.  Blocked by the imposing double sections of a big metallic gate standing tall astride the whole width of the road.  I could see the matatus make a U-turn just on the other side of the gate, about fifty metres away.  I just had to get to the gate and make a final decision at the gate.  The decision was now likely to be a turnback.  

A turnback had the implication of having to map a new route out of the loop and back to the other side of this gate.  It would be a long circular route to just get to the fifty metres that I was seeing across that gate, if I was to turnback and seek an alternative route.  This seems to be inevitable.

I was just about to stop and walk to the gate, mainly just to examine it and quench my disbelief that it was surely a real structure blocking the road, when I heard a sound,

“Pitia hapa!”

I was taken aback.  

I saw a small pedestrian walkthrough gate just touching the new building.  Someone standing next to the small gate had held it ajar and was beckoning me to use it.

It was a relief to just get through.  I could not help but look back at the gate and the blockage that it was now causing.  I have run this loop for over ten years, and in fact the usual adage is ‘there is no run without the loop’.  All our international marathons have the loop as a permanent feature on the run map!  

Our daily runs have the loop as the warmup section before doing the serious runs on Kanyariri road or Kapenguria road!  Surely!?  I could not believe that this was the end of the run through the loop.  Our runs and marathons shall never be the same without the loop.  I have to go back to the drawing board to map many of our runs, especially the international marathon route!  This was dire!

Could it be related to this TT thing?  I thought TT and I had agreed to let each other be?  To mind our own respective businesses?  We agreed to have a common understanding of non-interference in each other’s affairs?  This could not be defined as ‘non-interference’.  It was interference by any definition.  This was surely getting into my business, if you block a marathon route that has existed for over a decade.  

I know that TT can claim to have infected 8,108,667 people as at this Monday, with 438,596 deaths worldwide and Kenya registering 3,727 infections and 104 deaths.  I know that TT is responsible for new addition to our vocabulary in the name of ‘social distancing’, ‘alcohol-based hand sanitizers’, ‘temperature checks at entrances to buildings/compounds/malls’ and ‘facemasks’, but going to the extent of closing a major road?  That is hitting below the running feet!

That gate kept me thinking and calculating alternatives through the whole of my run on the Mary Leakey route.  It was not long before I found myself back to Ndumbo and was about to turn left to face the gate and loop once more, when the idea of exploring an alternative route just hit me.  Remember, a marathoner must be fast at thinking on their feet.  I decided to continue with the road and maintain the profile taken by matatus as I headed back to Waiyaki way, avoiding the loop altogether.  

After a two-minute run I found myself back to ‘the wall’, which would usually mark the start of the loop on Waiyaki way.  I had already run using this ‘the wall’ throughway twice when doing the two loops earlier on.  I could have easily turned left to get back to the wall and do a loop if I so wished, but I was suffering the shock of closure of the loop and was not willing to do another loop.  Let me mourn the demise of the loop, the ten-year-plus loop, in peace.

I was back to the starting line ten minutes later.  The weather was still cold with no signs of improvement though it was heading to two-thirty.  By three I had already gone through denial that the loop was no more, and was now accepting the new reality.  If anything, I was already crafting a route that would have the loop and still avoid that gate.

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

Waiting six months for nothing

Waiting six months for nothing

Today is a Wednesday.  CV infections are 7,403,022 with 416,568 deaths as per worldometers.  WHO is more conservative with 7,145,539 and 408,025.  There has been debate about the source and authenticity of these numbers, but let us not dwell on that for now… Infections are in the millions and fatalities are in the almost half million.  

It rained most night and most morning.  It was still drizzling while I made my way to the starting line for the lunch hour run.  I was having second thoughts about even taking this run.  I was being forced to this run since those 1,000 miles in 2020 were now beckoning.  If anything, a new quest for 1,500 miles was in the offing.

I looked up at the clouds and the waters hit my projected face.  The drizzle was still real and the time was exactly noon.  I was just about to be happy that I was not going to run, when the drizzle stopped before my very eyes and the weather become still.  It was cold.  The horizons of Ngong hills and city centre was engulfed in white haze.  It looked like it was raining over there, some ten or so kilometres off to the horizon.  At that rate, if true, then it would just be a matter of time before the rains started pounding this part of the city once more.

There was no time to second guess my decision.  I was soon out of the block and started off my three gadgets.  Yes, three – two cells and the newbie wrist strap bracelet that had just arrived last week.  This is a gadget that I had waited for since January.  I made the first order online in late January.  By then CV was not a threat at all.  Starting with first data of 41 infections and 1 death on Jan. 11, the world had just moved to 854 cases and 24 deaths as at January 24 – mostly all in China.  The rest of the world was safe, with no worries.  International travel by air or otherwise was still going on as usual.

I had ordered the gadget through an online agent, but by the time they firmed up the order in February, the shippers at China were already facing a lockdown.  Shipment of exports from China was starting to be delayed.  I was asked to wait for 2-months!  Which was quite something.  It would normally take three weeks max to get something from there.  I waited and finally in March, just after the Kili marathon, I did get my item… or rather an empty package.

It took me two weeks to get my refund after returning the empty packet, even as we started the month of April.  By then Kenya was already on curfew and lockdown.  The world had recorded 827,404 cases of CV with 40,712 deaths as at April 1.  Kenya had recorded 59 cases with 1 fatality by that date.  International shipping was a pain, now that air transport had ground to a halt in most countries including Kenya.  

The exception remained cargo, but the cargo was now moving around quite slowly on the now clear airspaces.  A re-order of a similar item in early April resulted into an ‘out of stock’ notification after two weeks of waiting.  A third order of the gadget in mid-April resulted into almost two months of waiting.  I was given an approximate receiving date of June 1 – imagine, April 15 to June 1!  Even a ship could have traversed the waters from China to Mombasa in less than that period!!  But I waited.  There was nothing to do but wait.

Last week the gadget finally arrived – after waiting since January!  And… and it did disappoint!  I had expected that I would put an end to running with the two cells, which I do due to their route mapping ability and the maps can subsequently be exported and shared.  This feature is was the features page of the gadget had promised, “… has GPS to track and map the run...”

The bracelet has GPS alright, but there is no way of keeping it on.  You switch it on and when you move to the next button, you find that it has gone back off.  There is no way of starting your run on the GPS screen.  Means that when you just press a button to get you off GPS screen and onto the ‘start’ button for the run, the GPS is off already!  And the distance that the gadget gives, without GPS is always 50% more that the true distance.

Take the Sunday run for example.  That date of the international MA-RA-TH-ON.  The day when four athletes had to form a relay team and each contribute a 10.5km run that should then add all up to equal a full marathon, within the hours of June 6 midnight to June 7 midnight.  I was already tired from the Friday run, and hence did not have the strength for a run on June 6.  I decided to go for it on Sunday June 7.  I would only be doing the 10.5km contribution to my relay team, and be done.

I had mapped the run on Google maps and knew exactly how many loops I had to do at the Vet-loop and be back to the finish line after conquering exactly 10.5km.  I left to start the run with the usual two cells, one running Endomondo, the other Runkeeper.  I had already tried to see if Strava can be of use on one of the cells, but it persisted on the ‘No GPS’ screen for too long that I had to give up on it and use the alternative apps.  

Despite this, the MA-RA-TH-ON event was being tallied on Strava, and they had already cautioned that ‘… all runs on Strava shall automatically be recorded as part of the event’.  I had thought that was quite stringent, and discriminatory, in the world where run apps come in all manner of names and can usually export a map that is then available for consumption by any other app.  

In fact, this is what consoled me even as I abandoned Strava.  I knew that I could easily import the run data from Endo or RK onto Strava.  I had already done this data exchange for the three runs of June.  I therefore knew for sure that Stava was capable of ingesting run data from any other app.  I was not worried any bit about recording my fast 10.5km onto Strava… and… onto the international relay aka MA-RA-TH-ON.

The third gadget on this Sunday run was ‘the gadget’, the very wrist strap bracelet that does not seem to keep GPS on.  I had already set GPS on, and pressed the other button to get me to the run start screen.  I could see the GPS icon flashing on the starting screen, which I later read on the manual meant that GPS had not yet ‘locked’.  A polite way of saying, ‘no GPS’.  

No GPS meant, the run could not be tracked using satellite, hence it is not possible to map, or distance the run.  But I still gave it the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe the GPS signal would be acquired within the run duration, after all, the mid-day weather was quite bright with a good level of sun due to absence of any cloud cover.  The day had all the ingredients of GPS signal availability.  But do not just take my word for it, the two other run gadgets had full (green level) GPS signal strength.

I finished my MA-RA-TH-ON just after one-thirty.  I stopped my three gadgets.  The apps were in full agreement – 10.54km in 47m44s – a 4m32s per km.  That run took a toll on me!  I am not sprinting any more such runs in a while.  I immediately uploaded the run data to Strava online and it graciously accepted.  I then looked at the ‘challenges’ page on Strava, and the message was still, 

‘You have registered for one challenge MA-RA-TH-ON and 0 challenges completed’

“What?,” I shouted to the screen while at the empty office.  

Sweat was still dripping from my forehead and arms and now soaking the desktop.

I refreshed the webpage.  The message remained at 0 done.

I logged out and logged back to Strava.  The message remained 0 events done.  

At the same time, the same app indicated the 10.54km done, under my list of events, but it did not seem to get this event into the list of challenges done.

I was still all sweaty and wondering whether I actually needed to time my run with Strava only for the run to count into the relay challenge.  I would really have let my team down if I failed to bring forth my 10.5km to the table.  But, I had not failed to bring the distance to the table.  I had done it.  I had witnesses.  I was sweating profusely for crying out loud, if that was not witness enough!  

Endomondo was my witness!  

Runkeeper was my witness!  

Even Strava was my witness!!  

All these apps were showing a BIG congratulatory message for the fastest run in 2020 – but the challenge was still indicating a 0 done!  How unfair?

I really contemplated taking another 10.5km run – if that is what it would take to get the distance registered as part of my contribution to the relay team.  However, after some denial phase, I came to the acceptance that my fate was sealed.  I had done my run, it is only that fate had conspired against me, to deny me an opportunity to contribute the distance to the kitty of the international relay.  

I had now made up my mind – I was not repeating the run.  If the distance and time would not count, so be it.  If I had already stopped doing things for CV aka TT, what about the relay?  There was no real prize anyway, just bragging rights over a fast average pace.  I could skip that and not lose any sleep.  I was in fact even happy that my ‘miserable’ speed would not be up for debate on Whatsapp, as it would not count in the discussions of who was who.

It was now just past two, when I had to make full disclosure on the marathoners Whatsapp group.

“Sorry team members.  I did the run using Runkeeper and imported the data to Strava.  Unfortunately, Strava has failed to recognize this run as part of the challenge.  I tried but it is too late to do anything about it.  Once more, sincere apologies to the relay team.”

A few chat exchanges later and….

“It is taking time for Strava to update the data.  Just wait.  I had to wait myself,” a fellow runner in the group would provide the insight.

At three my data was uploaded to the challenge.  By three I had also confirmed that the bracelet gadget had recorded a distance of 16km in 47min45sec.  Why I waited for six months to get nothing still puzzles me.

I shake my head as I head for the showers…. That shaking of head is today, Wednesday, after the lunch hour run that had been rained in advance.  The very run that took me through the muddy Vet-loop and equally muddy trail from Mary Leakey school through the University farm, all the way to the tarmac as I joined Kanyariri tarmac.  The run was difficult.  Running on mud is difficult.  The very run that tested the three gadgets once more, with the bracelet recording a ‘fake’ 36.8km in 2hr 3min 34sec.  The other two recorded the expected 24 point something km in the exact same time.

Why I waited for six months to get nothing still puzzles me.  I shake my head as I head for the showers….

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 10, 2020