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