The run to forget, unless it was corona

The run to forget, unless it was corona

If there is a day that I have ever been tired during a run then that day was yesterday, Wednesday.

“Oh emm geee!,” I had shouted out subconsciously, as I took the second step in the more that twenty-five thousand that I was meant to take on this run day.

If you are wondering what 25,000 means, then let me give you the mathematics.  If you were to count out one number in one second, then it shall take you 7 hours to count from 1 upto 25,000 – and therefore 25k is not a small number of steps.  And unfortunately, on this Wednesday, I was already tired on the very second step.

What could it be?  My stomach would soon start paining, hardly five minutes into the run and that would persist for the whole run.  Why I had the pain remains a mystery since I had just taken a normal breakfast, read, tea and bread, followed by a cup of hot water about one hour to the run.  So, the pain was a strange symptom.

Earlier in the day I had had a casual conversation with some work colleagues.  They had wondered why they do not see much of me in the office environment, of which I informed them that I had corona jitters.

“Watu wote walishapata korona,” the guy in the group of two other gals updated me.

“Kale ka homa kenye ulipata from nowhere, ilikuwa korona,” he continued.

“Hiyo ni kweli,” the ladies said almost in unison, “How do you explain nobody putting on facemasks out there and yet nobody is dying en masse?,” one of the girls asked.

“I have no answer,” I responded, “Maybe we are just lucky.”

“Don’t bring luck into the equation,” the gent told me, “You want to tell me that all children in the world are ‘just lucky’ not to get corona?”

I was taken aback on that.

The corona truth or myth was out there for all to decide for themselves.  How or what is it that is causing 237,241,246 infections and 4,843,732 deaths worldwide or 250,510 infections and 5,175 deaths in Kenya?  Isn’t there something out there for sure?  How else do you ‘mythify’ such numbers?

Anyway, that was about eleven.  It was now just about three-twenty and I was on the road for the run.  My inner spirit was urging me to abandon the run and take a rest, though my internal wiring was reminding me that it was yet another day for a weekly run.  I therefore kept going.  I just knew that I would not be turning back if I were to I get out of the compound in ten minutes.

And I got out of the compound in ten minutes and was out there onto Naivasha road and headed to Kabete Poly before crossing the Waiyaki way to the other side of it.  I kept running and my feet knew exactly where to take me.  I was going for the usual run through Ndumbo, Kapenguria road, then Mary Leakey school to enable me traverse through the Uni Farm and then join Kanyariri road for the run to the shopping centre and back.  This is a route that has become the default for the weekly runs but on this day it was just much more difficult than I had imagined.

Turning back was not an option, despite how I felt, and I felt tired, with paining legs and paining stomach.  It did not get better nor did my pace improve.  It would be a miracle if I even managed an average of 7-minutes-per-kilometer on this day.  It was that bad.  I was glad that it was not yet the date for the international marathon, that is set for the week of Oct. 25-31 virtually.  I would have posted my ‘best worst personal time’.

I struggled along until the relief of doing the U-turn under the Gitaru-Ndenderu road.  While it was a relief doing that U, it was a pain imagining that I still had another 10k of run to get me ack to the finishing line.  Anyway, I was already too deep into the mix that I just had to find the willpower to finish the run, however long it took.

I even had a flashback on that corona discussion and really thought hard about it.  Could I have been infected, hence my lethargy?  I had however passed two temperature checks within the day, and did not feel chills or pains on the chest or throat.

I finally made my way to the finish line by some miracle.  I was tired, finished and almost dizzy.  However, I was back to normalcy as soon as I had taken a short rest and a bottle of water laced with Fanta orange soda.  My legs would however pain through the night and my body felt almost malaise.  I even thought that I would have to seek medication for something that I did not yet know.

I was therefore quite glad to wake up on this Thursday feeling well and normal, the memories of yesterday’s run still lingering on, though I would like to forget that episode in a hurry, when I posted the worst run time of 5:58 per kilometre over that 24.5k distance.  It is a route that I have done before in just under 5:00 average at my peak… and that is why I want to forget this run very fast and concentrate on the next.  This run was quite a welcome to the month of October, being the first run in the month.  The very month when the Standard Chartered Nairobi International marathon awaits.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 7, 2021