Running two marathons in the name of MA+RA+TH+ON
Yesterday was a Sunday. Sunday the twenty-third of May. I know that date so well because I went to bed smiling, slept well, had sweet dreams and woke up today Monday still smiling. This elation is unique. It hardly happens. And when it does, I usually know about it, and yesterday was one of such few days. I knew that I was on top of the planet.
My marathon relay team of four had just conquered the world. By random selection of team members by our NMMT organizer, we had somehow bonded, blended and beat the other teams in the NMMT formations. It was something worth celebrating. A conquest is a conquest, a victory is a victory. Enjoy it.
The MA+RA+TH+ON event is a relay marathon formed by teams of four runners, each contributing 10.5km to sum-up the distance of the 42km full marathon. The run is done by the individuals, at their own time, on their own routes, provided they do so within the 2-day weekend window. For 2021, this run had to be done by the relay team members from zero hours Saturday, May 22 to midnight Sunday, May 23.
The problem with holding a run in two days is that each person runs on their own day and there is no stopping the early braggers from running their mouths after running their feet. It is like facing one exam and being allowed to do it on different days, with those doing it first shouting about how they have passed! Subjecting those who are yet to do that exam to so much pressure!
I had decided to contribute my 10.5km by running on a Saturday. I did not want to risk it for Sunday and face all that pressure of running on the last day of the event. I was already on maximum discouragement from seeing performance of others, even as I started the run at three. By this time the early starters had already done their runs and posted their times. They added injury to our legs by posting photos of their celebrations with nyama choma and chips, taken after their runs. The run times already posted were just amazing. Under 5s was all we could see on the WhatsApp postings.
I was doing this run for the team. One of the few times in a marathoner’s life that you actually worry about someone else – three other people in this case. A marathoner usually runs alone, for self-gratification and self-glory. This NN-Maurten Running Team event was the only one that I know of, that had global following for organizing a marathon relay. Our own marathoner Kipchoge was one of the promoters that was prominently shown on the NN-M frontpage of their website. You cannot go wrong in a run with Kipchoge, can you?
I had already mapped my route during that mock run of Tuesday. It was now just a matter of repeating the feat, without gadget failure, hopefully. Talking about gadget failure brings me back to where I left off during that mock run (details here). On that Tuesday the Strava app had failed and shutdown, not allowing me to know how much time, distance and average pace I had done for the mock. I had seen a glimpse, but I would not have the opportunity to digest the details due to that app failure.
I was going to give Strava a second try despite that Tuesday letdown. It was while starting the app in readiness for the Saturday real run that things happened. The app started by showing a message that it was ‘recovering data’. And… and sure enough, four days later, and Strava recovered the details of that Tuesday run, including time and map! What a way to start a real run!?
I however would be relying on it to do the right thing immediately by recording and saving the run on this Saturday. Any stoppage and then recovering the run four-days later would not help, when I only had a two-day window to run and post the results with NN-M. I did not even have much time to appreciate the stats of that mock run that turned out to be 13.12km at a 4.43km pace. It was already time for the run.
I was readying myself for the real thing. The mock did not count. This Saturday’s run was all that mattered. I was ready to give the team my very best contribution. Same route, probably same effort, and maybe same or better average. It is the average pace that would be posted online. Additionally, the relay team’s performance would be based on the average of all their individual average speeds. Did I not tell you that you cannot go wrong with Kipchoge? When you have to do an average of the average? What other way can one ever hope to have to be fair to all the teammates in this relay, other than this average of average?
The weather was just as good as it was on Tuesday, on this Saturday as I did the real run. It was a bit sunny, despite the forecast having been cloudy. I was already too deep in the run to even worry about the weather. This was it! I had to make it count. Of course, I could have the opportunity to re-run the next day, in case something went wrong this Saturday, but I was not wishing for any repeat. This was the run – the only run that would go to NN-M webpage.
The route had already been mapped on Tuesday. I was just going on remote control, following the same paces, feeling the same runner fatigue and facing the same uphill and downhills. From Uthiru to Ndumbo was a warmup phase. I eventually started my Strava app just as I passed by Ndumbo market for the short downhill on Kanyariri road, before I would be encountering the long uphill that would generally take me all the way to Wangige road tarmac junction. I was ready for this 5km uphill stretch. It was the only one that I had to survive. I would be OK after that, since it would then be smooth all the way down after that U-turn on Wangige tarmac.
I kept running without noticing much on the run route. I finally got to the end of the loop. It was the best U-turn that I ever did. I was elated that I was now going back on a generally downhill all the way to the finish line for the NN-M event that was to hive off 10.5km from the longer route. I was so relaxed on the way down Kanyariri road and would soon get to the junction to University farm where I was to turn left at this junction that we famously call ‘the tank’, due to… you guessed it, the tank that is prominently installed on the elevated metallic structure at this junction as you head to the Uni farm.
From my mock of Tuesday, I knew that the 10.5k point would be somewhere before reaching Mary Leakey school. I powered the dimmed screen of the phone when I was at Kabete High School and glanced at the Strava app. It was now showing 9.98km. Perfect timing. I now had just five-hundred metres to finish my marathon relay contribution. I kept going towards the river that is at the lower turn of the road, where I once again looked at the information on the phone.
It was now 10.45km. Mary Leakey was just ahead to my right after a gentle uphill. I had the liberty of stopping the timer in about fifty footsteps, which would be exactly on the 10.5km mark. I instead decided to prolong the finish to just next to Mary Leakey School turnoff point. I kept running even as I stopped Strava and saved the run. It accepted to save without a problem as I kept running.
The MA+RA+TH+ON run had been done. I however still have my usual run to do. I was now going through the small Kabete shopping centre in readiness to join the Lower Kabete road for a run of about five minutes, before I get to Kapenguria road and turn right. If Uthiru was nearer, then I would have reduced pace and probably walked home and started the celebrations for a run well done. However, Uthiru was still over five kilometres away. I just had to make the rest of the run still count, after all, my other timer in the name of Runkeeper was still active and timing. This had not been stopped and it also expected me to record a good time on the longer 24km route that I was now doing.
Oh, that hill from the river, past Wangari Maathai institute to Ndumbo! That almost 2km hill is a bad feature on that road! I still had to face it despite the marathon relay conquest. I could not wait for it to be finished, and finished it did after it had kept me sweating on it for over seven minutes! Reaching Ndumbo was a relief, since Uthiru was now just on the other side of Waiyaki way right ahead. I was however not doing any shortcuts and still had to prolong the run all the way to N-junction and Kabete Poly, before heading to the finish line.
With the run done, I had to reflect on how the day had gone. The 10.5km marathon relay, which was actually 10.8km had been a sweet run. Strava had given me 49min 35s on that route, hence an average pace of 4:36/km was going to be posted on my team’s page on NN-M event webpage. I had done my bit and I was happy with my input. The full run over the 24km had been done in just under 2hours, with Runkeeper giving me a 4.48/km as the average pace. Both runs went quite well. Two marathons on the same day was unprecedented but nonetheless enjoyable.
While the Strava app automatically uploaded the results to my relay team page on the NN-M website, I did not post any ‘brag’ data on the social media circles. I wanted all the team members to first do their runs by Sunday midnight before we could compare notes. Two members of the team managed to run on Saturday, posting 4.36 and 5.16. Our average was already 4.56/km by midnight of day 1. We now just hoped that the other two would bring the run home for us. I had monitored the social pages and the other teams were really struggling, after all, you cannot control the pace of your relay team members. They just run their runs and you accept their results.
Then it came Sunday night and for sure all runs were now done in Kenya – at least the day time type. With runs done, it was now time to confirm how the average paces were for all the various relay teams within our NMMT running group. We also had to finally unveil our own performance for our ‘Team C’.
It was Beryl of the now inactive B-and-B team who broke the news.
“Have you seen our performance?,” she sent a message on Signal, matter of fact, no greetings, no nothing.
“Hi there yourself,” I started, “I am waiting for one more team member to post his results”
“Coaches you can’t be serious! All results are in. We did it!”
I was taken aback. I was for sure still waiting for Henry to post his results, after Charles, our other team member domiciled in TZ, had just posted his results.
“Let me check,” I responded on the Signal app and switched to the NN-M website and straight to the team page, which was permanently open on one tab of the browser. I did not even refresh. There it was –
Your team: NMMT_TEAM_C_2021
Time: 5.07min/km average pace, 3.34.35 total time
Ranking: 813 worldwide overall, 396 in the category
Runners: (list of four)
With over 7,000 runners from 170 countries, we had surely outdone ourselves and made Kenya (and TZ) proud, considering that these were randomly assigned team members, each with their own paces. 3,900 teams participated in the event and the athletes covered 520,000km as per stats published on the same NN-M website.
Now you know why I went to bed on Sunday night with a smile that could not leave my face even when the new day started.
WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, May 24, 2021
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