When U-turn means you-turn

When U-turn means you-turn

Today is a Saturday, a rest day in my world of marathon.  I could not help but notice the COVID19 figures as the first thing that popped out of the webpages when I opened up the internet – 11,204,889 people infected worldwide with 529,380 deaths.  The motherland had the figures as 7,188 and 154 as the respective figures.  This TT thing was now on a loose leash.  It had gone rogue.  

Attempts to tame TT had so far provided futile.  However, very promising drugs and vaccines were already in the works.  It shall be just a matter of time before the untamable is tamed.  I am confident that we shall be celebrating Christmas in conquest.  But that means five other months of total hardship, including lockdowns, restrictions, curfews, facemasks, social-distancing, handwashing, no meetings of more than ten, no group events such as marathons, and all other manner of inconveniences – for another five months!

I am not waiting five months for life to get back to the trajectory of pre-March.  I am continuing with life now… today… daily.  If I want to go for a run, then that is what I shall do.  If I feel like taking a break, then that is exactly what I shall do.  How about running a half a marathon over the lunch hour?  If that is what comes to me, then that is what I shall do.  In other words, I am living life to the fullest, one day at a time… and that one day is today!  The alternative would be to stop living and hideaway somewhere in total fear of TT.  I a’int taking that alternative – not me!

I could even take a run today, despite it being a rest day.  This is the new mantra – doing what I want, when I want.  I am glad that I have been true to the three-runs-a-week schedule for the longest of time, in fact, since the lockdown and curfew was declared in mid-March.  These runs are done Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  They keep me going.  They keep me sane, from the otherwise stressed and locked-down world.  

I was on the road yesterday, Friday, for another routine run.  It went well.  There was nothing noteworthy.  However, I managed to do my U-turn in the middle of the tarmac, just in time to ensure that I did a manageable run at the lunch hour.  A lesson that I had learnt on Wednesday.

Two days prior was a Wednesday.  A day for yet another run.  This is the run whose details I would like to share today.  I was a bit lethargic on that day.  I am not sure what is happening to me.  The tiredness had progressively been manifesting in the last two weeks.  I probably need a rest from the shock of hitting my feet continually on mostly the tarmac, for over 90-minutes.  I however had to obey the Wednesday call-for-run and hence just got out and went for the run, starting at 12.45pm.

The weather was cool on this Wednesday.  It was overcast, and there was possibility of rain within the afternoon.  This is a good weather for any runner over a long distance.  It was good for me, as I felt the cooling effect of the cool air over my skin as I ran through it.  It was a ‘cool’ run.  I could still feel the pain on the legs and the resistance from pushing forward, but I kept forcing myself forward and would soon be crossing Waiyaki way to run on the other edge of the road all the way to the Uthiru flyover, where I would run underneath, turn right around the big roundabout, then turn left towards Ndumbo – the usual ‘new route’, after the blocking of the Vet ‘wall’ and ‘gating’ of the loop.

My run started feeling normal after I had passed by Ndumbo, and was now facing the downhill towards Wangari Maathai institute and the river.  The lethargy was all but gone.  The tiredness was no longer an issue.  I was now in the mood of the run.  I could do it.  I was doing it.  I would eventually join Lower Kabete road and turn left for the three-minutes uphill run, then the left turn to Mary Leakey route.  The left turn brings with it the rough dry weather road that shall persist until the University farm to emerge at ‘the tank’.  Normally, I would have to run back on this route on my way back.  This very route where that young blood decided to interrupt my run and ask me the many questions on Monday, earlier in the week.  

I was still running, generally absorbing the beauty of the greenery and almost eerie silence, then the spur of the moment thought came to me that I probably should not get back through this route on my way back.  Maybe I should just run down to Ndumbo using the direct tarmac.  I kept running while thinking of this alternative spur-of-the-moment route.  I was now already at the tank, and was turning right to join the Kanyariri tarmac.  On Monday I had run to the crossroad, about two kilometres ahead, then turned back, and had to run through the University farm once more on my way back.  I wanted to avoid running back through the farm on this Wednesday.  But avoiding that farm route meant losing 4km distance, since the direct route from tank to Ndumbo was just about two kilometres, while the loop back through the farm was about 6km.

I kept running towards Kanyariri, still calculating how to recover these 4km if I was surely avoiding the farm.  Compensating that distance would mean running way past the crossroad.  How much way past, I could not yet figure out.  My guess was that a run all the way to Gitaru market would be about the 2k and the way back would give me another 2k – mission accomplished.  I could as well just choose any point on the run and do a U-turn, provided it was a reasonable-enough based on time taken to reach that point.  These were just calculations going on in my mind.  In normal preparation, I would usually measure up a route on Google maps, but this time I was doing it on the run.  I just had to rely on instinct and gut to decide my run distance on this Wednesday.

I finally settled on Gitaru market as the turning point.  I continued running and soon started tackling the Gitaru uphill that goes for about a kilometre.  The plan was to then circle around the market on the way back.  Sharp U-turns are not good for the run.  Gentle turning-back routes, such as cycling something like a market, are preferable.  That is why I thought of going round the market, instead of just doing a U-turn in the middle of the tarmac.  

I have also noticed that observers and passers-by judge runners harshly when they see them doing U-turns ‘out of nowhere’.  They tend to think that you are ‘lost’ or were even ‘upto something’ (bad) leading to the abrupt, out of nowhere turnback.  That is the reason why I tend to get a gentle turn back through some route that keeps going but still gets you back.  Going round the market would achieve this.

I was just about to turn right to circle the market, just under the railway flyover at Gitaru when I noticed that a vehicle had obstructed the entry to that footpath around the market.  I could still easily find a way past, but I observed that the rest of the road seemed to filled-up by market people.  It seemed that I would have trouble going through and round using that route.  It was now the moment of truth.  I had to do that dreaded U-turn in the middle of the tarmac and start going back.

It did not happen!  

My body refused to give those merchandize-people-all-along-the-both-sides-of-the-road the comfort of noticing my being ‘lost’ as I turned back.  I instead kept going.  I was now heading to unplanned territory.  I would have to do the ‘international marathon’ route.  The one that takes you towards Nakuru highway to the Kikuyu junction on the by-pass, then gets you round the outer circle of the Gitaru market, to emerge round the same Gitaru market as you joint Kanyariri road, ready for the way back.  That was unplanned and unfortunately was now on the works following the failure to do my U-turn twice before.

It is long since I was on this section of the road.  The last time I was here was probably in March.  However, nothing much had changed.  The matatu stage at Gitaru highway was still as busy as usual.  The road interchange for Nakuru highway-Wangige road at Gitaru was still under construction, with vehicles from the Nakuru highway still being forced to get through Gitaru shopping centre before rejoining Waiyaki way.  Upon joining Wangige road, I still noticed that the roadworks on this road were still ongoing, without much change.  Three months later and nothing seemed to have been done!  Wow!, roadworks can be slow!

I was now already deep into a lunch hour run, on a distance that I had not planned for.  I really wished that I would lay my hands on some water, which I had not carried since such a long run was not on the initial plans for the days.  I was as thirsty as a rock.  I would soon be dehydrated, but the weather helped by remaining cool.  I eventually rejoined Kanyariri road to start my run back.  This section of the road is generally downhill all the way to Ndumbo river.  You just let go and you find yourself at the river thirty-minutes later.  

After the downhill, I finally started on the last uphill from the river to Ndumbo market.  The section did not bring forth anything to distract my run.  The run was now just about done.  I had only three more kilometres from under the flyover, through Waiyaki way, then crossing at Kabete Poly to the finish.  The weather remained great as I kicked off those last steps to the finish line, stopping my timer at the 28.63km mark after 2hr 17min 11sec.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, July 4, 2020