Of 2100 – the altitude, attitude, distance and time
Last Friday’s run was a disaster! It is the run that never even started. I left the house at 11.45am but my steps were so wobbly by the half-kilometre mark, that I immediately knew that I was not fit for the run on this day. I ended up just jog-walking through some routes near the house and somehow managed a 4km ‘jog-wa’. I accepted that that was not my run day and I quickly moved on to waiting for the great London marathon of Sunday.
Two days later and it was Sunday. Yes, and that was yesterday Sunday, October 4. The day of the London marathon, when our very own Kenyan world marathon record holder, Kipchoge, would square it off with Bekele of Ethiopia at the London marathon in the UK. However, the squaring off was not to be, since Kip’s competitor withdrew from the marathon due to injury. It was not just Kip.
It was a given – Kip would run on his own and compete against himself. Who knows, he could even beat the 2.00.00 time that has been elusive in the forever history of the marathon. The world record, his record, now stood at 2.01.39. Nonetheless, Kip had already run a 1.59 in that solo Ineos event on 12-Oct-2019 in Vienna Austria – 1.59.40 to be exact. We now wanted to see a 2.00.00 in a competitive marathon, and London of April, now held in October due to the postponement forced by the corona, seemed to be the event for this.
On this Sunday I was glued to the screen to watch the men’s event, after the women event had been won by Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei who defended the title successfully in a time of 2.18.58. The men’s event would soon start, and the leading pack that included the pacesetters and Kip started together kept going together, all the way to the half-way point.
This marathon route was a loop of 2.1km that was to be done nineteen times. So, we saw a loop run, then another loop, and many more loop runs continued. We had hoped that there would be a time and place when Kip would break out of the pack. However, Kip was not breaking out of the pack even after the halfway point. This was not like him. He is known to leave the pack at about this point and just sprint off, even touting his compatriots to take him on if they can. This was missing in this run. He was just sandwiched in that leading group, even falling behind pack at some point.
It was over for Kip when it was about two more loops to go and Kip started falling behind the leading pack for five. He was more than one hundred metres behind the leaders by the last loop. I believe that even that leading pack was quite surprised that Kip was not with them to fight for the honours. By the time they realized that they could as well win this without him, the time had really gone and no record would be broken on this day, with just one lap of 2km to go.
Kitata of Ethiopia would beat our own Kipchumba to the line by a second, in a time of 2.05.41. I admired Kipchoge perseverance all the way to the finish line where he was position 8 in a time of 2.06.49.
You win some and you lose some… and life continues. That is the whole essence of marathons – knowing that the body decides to operate the way it decides on the day of a marathon. Kipchoge would later confirm that he had pain in his right ear and also cramps in his hip and leg. That is the discomfort that he had to endure of the distance, but he managed. I admire his spirit and have learnt something – run days are different but keep running….
It is that spirit of running that got me out of the house today, Monday. I had already decided that I would do a trail run. I was not treading the tarmac anymore. I have done enough tarmac to Kipkenyo and back, and then to Langas and back. It was now time to avoid the tarmac in total and try something new – first time at this home of champs.
I did not have any predefined map when I started the run. I just wanted to explore and discover the trail as I went along. I headed towards Sosiani river and followed a route near it. I then followed some footpaths and kept going. I finally emerged at the Chief’s camp at Pioneer, which I was quite familiar with, and then made my way back to the starting line. My calculation was that this circuit was about 4k. I now had a trail to run through for five loops and that would give me my half marathon.
I therefore intended to run 21,000m distance on the 2,100m altitude, with a ‘keep running’ attitude and the aim of doing a time of 2.10.00. The intention was well and good, but the new trail run showed me who was king – that was not me! Only the 2,100m altitude was achieved. The distance turned out to be 25.3km, the time turned out to be 2.18.09 and the attitude turned out to be that of ‘respect the trail’. The trail brought in all manner of ‘unexpectations’. First, the run near the Sosiani river was full of rocks and water streams. The footpaths were dry and dusty. The rest of the roads were mainly earth roads. I hardly experienced any tarmac.
The 2100m above sea level did not mean that it was a flat run. Far from it. There was a hilly section for about 2km, near the river. I had to tread carefully, and speed was not an objective on this trail run. Survival was the objective. Add to this mix the hot mid-day sun and you can imagine all the ingredients of a typical trail run. Try it some day. Just formulate something, even a 1km circuit that has all the mix of rocks, mud, dust, water puddles, some thickets if you can afford, no tarmac if possible and there you have it. Run around this discovered trail and you shall surely know that trail run just has its thing, which you cannot get from the road runs.
I was now back home and life was continuing as usual. Kenyan colleges were reopening as higher educational institutions were now getting back post-corona. COVID-19 infections were still ravaging the planet. Even the US president, Donald Trump, was now in hospital after being infected with the Corona virus! The worldwide numbers kept rising - 35,464,018 infections, 1,042,901 deaths and 26,671,115 recoveries. Our Kenyan numbers were 39,427 infections, 731 deaths and 25,659 recoveries. Life continues despite corona, and so do runs, even as I now planned to purchase new running shoes following the tearing effect of the stones on the soles of the current ones.
WWB, the Coach, Eldy, Kenya, 05-Oct-2020
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