Be ready to take the feel-good train… when it comes

Be ready to take the feel-good train… when it comes

I could just feel it.  This was the day that a record would be broken.  I was on top of a ‘feel good’ state, which just possessed me on this day.  My body was just perfect as I started the run.  The day would have been better had there been no corona that was causing this COVID19 thing.  Since morning I had been bombarded with the COVID numbers - 106,821,217 worldwide infections* with 2,330,285 deaths and 78,567,302 recoveries.  This represented a mortality rate of 2.18%.  At position 81, ranked by total infections, Kenya's numbers were 101,944 with 1,786 deaths and 84,473 recoveries, hence a mortality rate of 1.75%.  

*source: worldometers

However, the news media was now also starting to have an element of good news as vaccines were now becoming common use intervention in almost all continents.  Even South Africa was now starting its vaccination campaigns based on Astra Zeneca vaccine, despite SA having been the origin of the new ‘South African variant’ of a new corona strain.  So, the virus was mutating, but vaccines were also already in use.  This corona thing shall be gone, as I keep saying, and… gone soon.

Ok, let corona be for now.  Back to my feel-good moment this Monday.  I knew that it shall be a good run the moment I took that first step at about 4.45pm.  My body was just in good form.  I did not feel any of those discomforts that have plagued each of my runs since January.  I have previously had some form of discomfort during each of my runs, starting from stomach pains to leg pains, headaches to upper body stiffness.  But today, I did not feel any of that.

I set off and knew at that point that I was going to have the best run ever.  The weather was also perfect.  It had rained in the night and drizzled during part of the day.  There was no rain in the evening, but the sun had been completely blocked out by the rain clouds that remained prevalent on the sky.  I had a feeling that it would probably rain at some point in the evening, maybe even during the run, but I was not worried about being rained on.  Let it happen.  I was not going to waste this beautiful weather due to worry over the unknown.

I was crossing Waiyaki way after about fifteen minutes of run.  I could feel that my pace was faster.  That stretch of the highway to Ndumbo stage that would usually ‘get to me’ on other occasions was just a breeze on this day.  I was soon past Ndumbo, with all its matatu and boda commotions.  I was heading down Kapenguria road past Wangari Maathai institute and past the river.  I ran through the hill to Lower Kabete road without much ado.  I was just top notch on this day.  I wondered why this was so.

Could it be the feel-good due to the book launch that I had attended the previous day at Karasani?  When my niece Eddah was unveiling her second book ‘Shekinah Glory’, a daily devotional book, with a big acknowledgement given to me as her favourite uncle?  What was it with me today?  Could it be that I had just taken wimbi uji and nothing else since morning, and that it was having a cleansing effect on my system?  I just did not know what today was all about, since I just kept running and was soon done with the slight uphill on Lower Kabete road and diverted to my left to Mary Leakey route and then would be running across the university farm.  

I emerged at ‘the tank’ and joined Kanyariri road by a right turn.  I started feeling a slight bout of tiredness as I faced this stretch of road towards Kanyariri shopping centre, however, this setback would be short lived as I regained my energy levels as the hill progressed towards Gitaru market.  I did a U-turn at Gitaru market and started on the downhill on the same Kanyariri road.  I would soon be overtaken by some other runner, who shouted back, “Strong!”

I must have taken this comment seriously, since I would get my ‘strong’ on the legs and started sprinting down the road, overtaking him in less than a minute, since he had somehow decided to also either reduce his speed or had been showing off with his overtaking and had burnt out.  I was not to see or hear his footsteps behind me anymore.  I kept the downhill sprint, even as I met the many students in small groups, in their green uniforms taking over all of the road.  I suspect that they must have been from the Kanyariri High school, just besides the road.  I overtook them and kept my run.

I was now just looking forward to that last hill towards Ndumbo market.  That was the only hurdle on my way to the finish line.  My conquest on that hill would make this already good run even better.  I started that hill by following some other runner who was ahead but only for a moment.  I would soon overtake him on the hill.  One thing about overtaking a runner on a hill is that you really need to be sure that you want to do that.  A hill makes you run slow to start with, and at the same time, you need to run fast enough to overtake and stay ahead of the person that you have overtaken.  Get your timing wrong and you shall burnout your chest, at the expense of the runner that you intended to overtake.

I had already known this fact, so I just had to assimilate to some comfortable uphill pace and steadily overtook the runner.  I did not even look back.  The hill was already frying my legs and I did not want to do anything silly like try to accelerate because the runner was on my back, no, I just looked ahead and maintained my steady uphill pace.  I would soon not hear the footsteps which I had heard struggling behind me for about twenty metres after overtaking.  I was now on my own, ready to pass through the busy Ndumbo roadside market and then be out of that crazy place with matatus, bodas, people, traders and sundry.

I was finally out of Ndumbo and onto the Waiyaki way.  I would run about half a kilometre before crossing over the mid-road barrier to join the road that passes besides Kabete Poly.  For the first time I felt some lethargy creeping into my legs.  I could feel the pressure and pain on my knees and calves.  The run had gotten the better of me.  It was now a struggle to just keep running.  I was now just wishing for the finish line, which was not yet in sight, if anything, I still had about ten minutes of run.  From this point on, with the legs aching as they were, I would just have to rely on willpower to finish this run.  It had started well, but the end was torturous.

Those last ten minutes were just pure hell, but I went through and managed to finish the run just before 7.00pm.  The stats proved that today was the best run day ever – I clocked an average pace of 4.54min, the first time I had hit a sub-5 maybe in 6-months?  I would have to check that, but it is long since I saw a sub-5 on my records.  Let the legs ache, let the headache afflict me, I do not care for now.  Let me continue riding the feel-good train.  I do not know when I shall get on board such a train again.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 8, 2021