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
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