A run in two cities… the winner is…

A run in two cities… the winner is…

It was hardly one week ago when I did that final run at the city of Eldy.  It was a Tuesday and I was set to travel back to the city on the very next day.  I just had to do that run because it was the last run.  I was now used to that 5.5km circuit around Pioneer estate.  Even the folks were now used to seeing me around.

“Ndio huyo mkimbiaji,” that was how my young fans around the 3km turn at the informal settlement parts of the trail would acknowledge me.  They, a group of three to five youngsters, hardly ten, would occasionally run along for about twenty-metres before giving up.  I liked the way they ran along.  They would sprint very fast ahead of my constant paced run.  They would then just drop out after running out of breath.  Both boys and girls would be in this group.  I would get them at the very same place for the other three circuits through this trail.  I liked them.  They seemed to like me.

“Kipchoge! Kipchoge! Kipchoge!,” that was the other group of totos who would acknowledge my run.  These ones would be waiting for me just after the church, before I would turn right to leave the main road and head towards the Sosiani river, where I would run along the river for about a half a kilometer, then take the uphill route through the rocky path.  These young ones just knew me as Kipchoge.  They made no apology or pretense.  I was their hero.  They were my heroes too.

As I was just about to finish a circuit, almost at my starting point, I would pass by this group of two or three motorbike people just hanging around the posho mill area, waiting for passengers.  The very posho mill whose operator now knew me, not as the runner, but as the regular customer.  Now you know what the run muscles are made of.  

Back to the motorbike people.  They would usually assume that I am beyond earshot, as they proceeded to bite-my-back (backbite).

“Huyo jamaa hukimbia kila siku!” (That person runs daily) 

Of course, that is not true, I only ran twice a week, but whom am I to say anything over a bitten back!

Once I did meet a fellow runner – just once in the whole month of October when I was on that circuit around Pioneer.  He was a few metres ahead when I was joining the main tarmac road near the Kimalel primary school.  He was enjoying his relatively fast pace.  I was on my own pace.  He kept going… ahead.  I kept following… behind.  That is how we did our run.  He would soon be gone.  

But it is not just while on the circuit that I did not meet runners, I also did not meet any runners even when I was running the 8km length of tarmac from Eldy to Kipkenyo centre and back.  I was a lunch hour runner.  It is possible the other runners were early risers or ran on different routes.  I never got to know ‘the secret’ of when the great world athletes do run.

“Leo ulichelewa kidogo,” was another comment I got one day, when I had just cleared the over 2-hours run and was heading home.  It came from a stranger who was slashing a fence edge.  I did not know him.  He however seemed to have known my start and end timings.  I am not sure whether he was factual but I accepted his assertions nonetheless.  What other reaction do you expect from a tired marathoner who is seriously struggling to hit that finishing line!

“Uko sawa!  Hebu gota!,” that was another encounter, when I was not even running.  I was just taking an afternoon walk when a stranger approached me from behind as I headed towards the Eldoret-Kapsabet road.  I would in a moment cross that road and walk next to Sosiani Primary school, and keep going through the posh side of Eldy, all the way towards Moi Teaching hospital about two kilometres later.  So, this guy was chasing me just to ‘gota’ me.  He would then clarify that, “Mimi naishi hapo tu next. Mimi ukuona manze. Unachapa tizi – hebu gota tena!”

I will miss Eldy.  I tend to think that Eldy will miss me too, if the above encounters are anything to go by.  But last Tuesday was the last run, in the high-altitude terrain, above 2,000m elevation above sea level.  It was a run I struggled with, but I ended up with a 4.58min/km average.  The first time I had hit under five during my three months stay in that home of champs.  Only one other time did I run a 5.00 during that October month that I did those twice a week runs on that trail.  I was a 5.20s person.  Those two records were music.

I was back to Nairobi on this Wednesday, just when the Government of Kenya was announcing new corona prevention directives.  To start with, curfew hours had been revised downwards.  The curfew would now start at 10pm instead of 11pm.  The end time remained 4.00am.  Facemasks were now a must, no more jokes, no more games, no more soft ball.  Immediate arrest and fines were now expected for any person found without one.  It was now going to be a stricter time, even for runners.  The new directives were to remain in force until end of January 2021.  This was now a corona with a difference!

I decided to rest for a week, especially to heal that left wheel, the one that was x-rayed hardly a week ago.  It was found intact, but why it still pains after a run remains a mystery that even the docs cannot resolve.  Maybe I am now destined to live with the pain.  I have adopted an ‘accept and move on’ for this left leg. (Accept and walk on!)

Finally!  It was a Monday, it was a run day.  I would be taking the first run in the city since August.  I hoped that the routes had remained the same, just as I left them.  It was 12.30pm and I was soon out on the same good old route from Uthiru past Kabete poly to cross Waiyaki way and run towards Ndumbo, then the Kapenguria road, to join Lower Kabete road.  

From that junction, I was to run the 800m to the left junction that would take me past Mary Leakey school, then onwards towards the University farm, and eventually back to the Kanyariri tarmac, at ‘the tank’.  From the tank, I would turn right and run about 3km on Kanyariri road towards Gitaru, but make a U-turn at the 3km landmark and start my run back to Uthiru.

The run remained true to description – just as the coach prescribed.  Nothing much had changed.  The hills remained hilly.  The muddy parts along the University farm remained muddy.  The route remained tough as usual and surely nothing had changed.  But there was some new road construction depot just across Kabete police, where I saw very huge godowns that are likely to be holding road construction materials.  I am aware that the road from the airport all the way past city centre to Uthiru and beyond shall be made into a double decker soon – and that soon seemed to be now!

My first Nairobi run since August would eventually come to an end at around 2.30pm, after a 1hr 56min and 21sec run.  The average time was 5.00min/km.  I was now convinced that Nairobi was not high altitude.  I did not feel that much run resistance in this trail, unlike the difficult run experience of Eldy.  However, let me not speak too soon.  I need to give this run a second try and confirm that it is not as tasking.

But can I forget this new corona directive by GOK?  I cannot!  It had hit me in the morning, some two hours before the run.  I was walking from home towards the workplace when I met a group of about fifty people kind-of blocking the road, just next to the roundabout.  

A police vehicle had parked on the right edge of the road, blocking oncoming traffic.  Just next to the police vehicle was a heavy machinery engine, a grader, I believe.  I was seeing so much that was happening all over, in such a short time, to even decipher what was going on.  My reading of the situation was that the grader was demolishing kiosks near that roundabout and the residents were protesting this move.  

It did not take me long to even think twice before…

“Kijana kuja hapa!”

I turned.  I was now just crossing the road, ahead of the police car that was blocking the road.  I was set to cross to the extreme end of the road and walk towards Nairobi Water treatment compound and past the roundabout.

It was not me who was being kijana-d, it was a mwananchi behind me.  I would soon observe him fall into the grip of some plain clothed person.  I guessed it must have been a policeman, by virtue of him holding a walkie-talkie and hanging around the road-blocking police car.

“Wapi mask!  Mbona unatembea bila mask!?,” the plain clothed policeman asked him.  

By this time he was tightly gripping the persons trousers on the waist area.  That was not a grip that he was going to get out of – no way.

I was already twenty metres gone, towards the roundabout to know how that episode ended.  The only episode that I would finally see was the corona numbers when I looked them up on the worldometers site.  Global infections stood at 50,961,502, with 1,265,101 death and 35,914,825 recovering.  That put the active cases at 13,781,576 as at today, Monday.  Our own country at no. 75 ranked by total infections, had 63,244 confirmed cases, 1,130 deaths, 42,659 recoveries and hence 19,455 active cases.

However, it is not all gloom.  For the first time we have a very promising vaccine candidate by Pfizer/BioNTech collaboration.  This candidate has an efficacy of 90%, and is likely to be rolled out to the masses by the end of the month!  As I said severally, corona is progressively going to be conquered and life shall get back to normal - the real normal, not this curfew-masks-normal, but the normal-normal.

WWB, the coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 9, 2020