Running in a group… for the first time since TT

Running in a group… for the first time since TT

It is a Wednesday.  It is a run day.  I am however having a pain on the back of the knee.  I feel pain every time the fulcrum of the knee bends to make a step.  The pain only manifests when I am moving.  While stationery – standing or seating – there is no pain at all.  It is that attempt to step with my right leg that brings forth all the pain.

The pain started yesterday morning – just out of the blues.  I woke up and the pain started upon making the first step from bed.  Despite my long run of Monday, I did not experience any pains on my legs after the run.  If anything, it is the left foot that has been my bother for the last month.  The right wheel has been in perfect condition for long.  So why would I have a pain from nowhere on a Tuesday?

The last time there was semblance of discomfort on that right wheel was during the Norwegian Stavanger marathon at the city of Stavanger, when that pain kicked in on the 32km mark and persisted for about two kilometres.  I was so scared for failing to finish my maiden marathon in the artic.  The pain would however be gone on the 34k, and I ended up finishing the run.  That was last year August, end of August.  

The same pain had plagued my first Kilimanjaro marathon last year March, just on the same 32k, when I was through with the 10km of hill that runs from 21k to 31k, when one makes a left turn to start the next 10k of downhill.  It is at that turn that the pain started.  I could hardly run when I got to the water station at 32k.  

And… and believe it or not, the medics at that medical station did not have anything to help soothe the pain.  They were handing over tumblers of glucose-laced water as their only medication!  How was that supposed to ease the pain on my leg for crying out loud!?  

I was facing another may-not-finish-the-first-Kili moment in that run, when my slow run for about 1k paid off when the paid once more just disappeared and I was able to run the last 10k to the finish.  (Find out what ‘DNF’ means.  It is the most hated and dreaded word in the world of marathons).  

But in 2020, nothing!  All has been good, including during the Kili-2020 and the FLHM-2020.  That right kick has been perfect for over ten months.  It was therefore a cause of worry, that it would just start to ache, on its own, even without being subjected to the 32k-mark.

My instinct was to skip the Wednesday run to heal-off the right leg.  This pain on the region of the biceps femoris tendon was not giving me any peace whenever I tried walking.  However, application of ointment on Tuesday night soothed the pain almost immediately.  

I even went ahead and confirmed with Edu, by a late-night call, returning his missed-call for that matter, that I would be taking him out to ‘re-learn’ the routes.  He claimed to have ‘rusted’ a lot, since our last such group run must have been last year, during the November international.  I knew that it must have been way before, probably the July-2019 international, but I kept that intelligence to myself.

I should have obeyed my Tuesday instinct and cancelled the Wednesday run altogether, since I woke up Wednesday with that pain now back and…. it was back with a bang!  I was now walking with a slight limp, worse than Tuesday when I was still walking straight.

“I am calling off the run,” I told myself as I struggled to walk steadily towards the workplace, where we were to start the run.

I got to the office and applied some balm on the tendon region and tried stretching and folding that knee joint.  I pained like hell!

“I am calling off the run,” I repeated to myself, even as the time to start the run was nearing.

I would in a moment get a confirmation SMS from Edu, “We meet at the generator at 12.30. I have gone to change and then heading there.”

“I am calling off the run, not!”

I warmed up and was soon at the generator.  I could feel the pain but it was not intense – that balm!  The pain was now hidden deep in the leg, near the bone.  I could bend the knee alright, but not the sprinting-type of bend.  I was on a marathon on this day, and so the sprint kicks were not available for use – good for me.

I got to the generator around 12.35pm, only to meet Edu running towards my approach.  He must have given up on the 12.30pm appointment.  He believes on these gadgets!  When it says 12.30pm is the start time, then it is the start time.  He ran back to join me at the starting point at the generator.  We would momentarily start off the run at about 12.37pm.

“It is your run, how do you want to have it done?,” I confirmed with him, just as we started the run.

“I just want to be back to speed,” he responded, “So, pull me along, but not so fast.”

“Your wish!,” I said then added, “This is my first run in a group since March.  I long for those monthly international marathons.”

“You can forget group runs.  This is the nearest you shall get to a group,” Edu reminded me.

“The corona thing?  There shall be a vaccine soon.”

I started leading the way as we faced the now default route, from Uthiru towards Kabete Poly, crossing Waiyaki way to run the other side all the way to under the Uthiru flyover, then run on the big roundabout to then turn left towards Ndumbo stage.  From there it would just be the Kapenguria road to Lower Kabete road, then we would take the Mary Leakey route, through the University farm to ‘the tank’.  We would then decide on what to do with the rest of the run once we got to the tank.

The weather was good for a run.  Just perfect.  No sunshine.  A bit cold, but the warmer side or cold.  We went through the run as planned.  At the left diversion from Lower Kabete road towards Mary Leakey we faced the road that is now being graded.  I had earlier noticed action on this road when on my last Wednesday’s run.  

My observation this day was that the grader must have re-dug the road, judging from the fresh mounds of earth overlaying the once roughing road.  Additionally, the machine must have done much more digging than last week, since the road was now dug all the way to the University farm.

“I hope they are not preparing to close this road also,” Edu commented, as we reached the Uni farm to run the gentle uphill towards ‘the tank’.

“If we survived the closure of the loop… then we can manage any strange surprises being planned… we just have to wait and see,” was my response.

We finally reached ‘the tank’, at about the 9.5km mark.  We now had two options, either to turn left on Kanyariri road back to Ndumbo and back to the starting line to finish the run, or turn right and continue on Kanyariri road towards Gitaru.

“Running back is 5k, any runs on the right side means whatever-kilometres-plus-five,” I gave a quick decision-point consideration to Edu.  We had by now run for about one hour.

“We are turning right.  We have to do whatever-plus-five,” he affirmed as he led the way to the right turn of the tarmac.

We kept going.  He was to confirm the turning point.  I had earlier on joked about this ‘turning point’ issue with Karl, who was also on today’s run but on a different route and distance.  We had of course eventually met at the ‘river’ just after Wangari Maathai, as he was running back, while we were about to face the uphill towards Lower Kabete road.  While we compared notes on the day’s runs earlier on, he had told me that he was just going for a ‘ka-run ka-dogo’ to the river.  

I had told me at that time that I am tagging along Edu, who would be my ‘mwanafunzi’ for the day.  I had told him that Edu is controlled by gadgets.  While I would run and make a turn at any point and finish my run at a finishing point, Edu would only make a turn or a finish when the gadget says so.  

And…. it just happened, as I was starting to remember that conversation with Karl earlier on…..

“Coach,” Edu drew my attention, as we were now on the uphill after the junction next to ACK Kanyariri church.  I was about five metres ahead.

“Stop!  It is now twelve point three.”

And just like that we stopped!  We were just stopping in the middle of the road, ready to make a turn.  I would usually have turned back at the junction that we had just passed, some two-hundred metres back, or would have proceeded and made a turn at the market ahead.  I rely on some landmark or pre-planned points to mark my turning points.  But… not Edu!

So when the wrist watch that he had instructed us to turn back… we turned back at that exact point that the gadget dictates.  We made the U-turn and started our run back.  The run back was quite enjoyable.  The downhill kept us pulled towards our finish line.  However, it was not all gravity, we still had that infamous uphill from the river towards Ndumbo market.  Conquer that one kilometre, and the run is as good as done.  You are just twenty-minutes from the finish – just twenty minutes of smooth flat run.

We kept running, walking at times, depending on how intense the run was.  It was an easy run all through though, averaging 6min 30sec per kilometre.  It was a welcome relief from the under-fives that have dominated my runs since March.  I felt much better during this run, from the lack of pressure to beat any timings.  The first time that I was under no-pressure in many months.

We finished the run after about 2hr 6min for the 19km, though I added something to the distance and time by my prior run to the generator before the start, and my final run to my hood after the run.  Another half marathon had just been conquered, under the tutelage of my mwanafunzi.  Impressive student I have here!

The painful right biceps femoris tendon was all but forgotten by the time the run was finished.  I was still basking in the feel-good from the day’s run.  The first group run since the First Lady’s Beyond Zero marathon of March 8.

I was soon seated by the computer screen when the inevitable TT numbers were splashed onto my face.  13,612,182 infections worldwide with 584,163 deaths.  Good news is that the mortality rate had remained 4% for the last three months, but half a million dead is not something that you want to even mention.  Kenya's share of the stats was 11,252 confirmed cases, with 209 deaths.  

But for the first time there was also good news.  A new candidate vaccine had shown promise as being ready for mass testing after passing through the first two phases of trials.  The Moderna mRNA-1273 promises to be the vaccine to watch.  However, there are over 60 candidate vaccines* at various stages of trials.  The forerunners are Moderna, Novavax, Sinovac, Inovio, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, CanSino, Cadila, BioNTech and Bharat.   

Finally!  TT is going to be defeated, and soon.  It is now just a matter of time, before we go back to ‘real’ group runs.  I kept thinking of the upcoming triumph… even as I started experiencing that pain on my right leg… many hours after the group run.

(*https://covidvax.news/progress/)

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