Did the 5-runs affect me? - Of records and a 6th run

Did the 5-runs affect me? - Of records and a 6th run

Today was another run day Monday, though we are on the countdown to the forthcoming marathon a/k/a the Divas International marathon scheduled for Friday, June 24.  This ‘divas’ is part of the series of monthly half marathons organized by the MOE*.  It is budded ‘divas’ since the gals are given the leeway to formulate and come up with the run logistics and rules for the day.  As we waited for the ruleset, and still being pained by the 5-runs-in-5-days challenge of last week, I did decide to bring some life back the aching legs on this Monday by doing yet another run.
*MOE = marathoners of expert, the committee that organizes run events for the group

I would normally take a week’s break before a major run, but I just needed to straighten the legs on this Monday.  Maybe those daily runs had addicted my legs, since I had felt restless through the day that even the 6km morning walk to Kangemi and back did not do much to quench the feeling.  This morning’s walk was the second such walk to Kangemi in as many days.  The walk on Saturday was full of time wasting.  

I had gone for some medication at Mt. View mall only to be told to wait for the pharmacist who had ‘fallen ill and gone to hospital elsewhere’ as had been announced by the medical personnel to try and appease the patients whose patience was running out.  I would wonder why a worker at the hospital would be seeking medical help from somewhere else.  Did they not trust their own docs?  What about us?  But I did not wonder for long.  I recall that during one of those regular doctors’ strikes of two years ago they had lamented that they were too broke to even afford treatment in their own hospitals.  This revelation still seemed contradictory.  Even thinking of a doctor falling ill, or being treated by another doctor is just mindboggling.

The pharmacy guy would finally match in at around one.  There was already a pile of prescriptions even as I added my own to that full tray.  The pharma person proceeded to start dispensing, even before he could have a breather to put on those white coats that intimidate.  It wat not until two-thirty that I was called to the counter to be told that the medicine was out of stock and that I should go back on Monday.  No apology, no nothing.  

But that did not even come close to the encounter that I had had with the doctor around twelve-thirty on the same day.  He called my name in some mumbled unclear pronunciation that I just guessed must be me, and I even had to reconfirm with him when I got to the consultation room.  After a casual nod to confirm the name, he looked at the file without a glance in my direction and proceeded to write whatever he was writing.
“Take this to the pharmacy,” he concluded, still glued to the file.  It is only his hand that waved the small A5 duplicated paper in my direction.  His rest of body remained on the file.

What happened to good old doctor-patient interrogations?  When you were asked real questions and probed deep until all your secrets, medical or otherwise are laid out in the open?  What is the world coming to when our docs are shy and robotic in their actions?  

What become of the QAs?
“Do you have any question for me?,” I loved that question from some doc in February, just four months ago.  All that was now gone.

Well, believe it or not, I had gone back to the same medical institution on this Monday with that A5 paper and still got a non-apologetic out-of-stock response.  At least the madam at the pharmacy had some semblance of courtesy by taking my phone number and promised to call me when the drugs were availed ‘within the day, by two’.

Do I need to say that it is now nearly midnight and I am yet to receive that phone call?

Anyway, back to the lunch hour when the body had ached for a run and I just left for the run at 12.45pm without much prodding.  I just followed the route of the ‘5-runs’ of last week.  The sun was on and off.  The route remained the same, with that almost 2km of hill from the river past Wangari Maathai institute all the way to Ndumboni, still proving to any runner that they are nothing on that terrain.  Nonetheless, it was just a day to enjoy the run and I could feel it.

The reward would come at the end of the run when I recorded a sub-5 average, with a 13.16km run in 1:05:21.  Probably the first sub-5 this year.  Maybe those ‘5-runs’ did something to me?  Let me put the ‘new me’ to the test come Divas international of Friday, June 24.  The run where the gals set rules and the rule they have finally set is…. ‘no rules’.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 20, 2022

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 5 of 5 (June 17, 2022)

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 5 of 5 (June 17, 2022)

How did it come to this final day?  I thought it would never come, nor that the 5-day daily run was even possible!  But, here we were.  It was already day 5 of 5.  I did not have any reservations about this final run when I was planning for the 5-day streak.  I knew that it would come and go.  I knew that it would be manageable and would be easy on the psyche, after all, this was the very last one in the series.

I have run on the cold, and I had also run on the sun.  There was no new surprise that would await me on this last run day.  And true, there was no new surprise.  I started the run on a hot sunny day at 1239hrs.  The route remained the same and the route terrain remained half hilly.  The run still produced the tiredness that I have come to associate with the hills, and I ended the run still tired and sweaty.

Finally, it was time to celebrate the end of the 5-runs-in-5-days series.  I have run a 12.60km distance every day on the same route.  I did the last 12.60km in a time of 1:05:17.  In summary, I had the best time on Thursday, and the worst time on Tuesday.  Would I do another s-in-5?  Maybe, maybe not.  It puts a special toll on your body system that I am not sure whether to enjoy or loath.  I can now wait for the Divas International marathon of next Friday without much ado.

The end!

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 17, 2022

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 4 of 5

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 4 of 5

It is the day 4 run that I had really feared when I was planning this 5-day challenge… and it lived to its expectations.  I could hardly get out of bed in the morning of this Thursday.  I was tired!  I had to mute the wake-up alarm twice, before I was forced to get out of bed.  I struggle through the morning paces.  My body was not my body.  This challenge was off.  I could not take it anymore.

However, thing started changing at ten.  I had already walked to work and got into the day’s routine.  Three sticks of fruits-on-a-stick plus some coffee is what it took to get me back to activity.  The tiredness waned and I was feeling capable of the fourth run by the starting time at 12.45pm

It was another hot lunch hour run, but I was back to normal in terms of how I felt.  I was tired alright but still fit for the run.  I did not have any pains or aches.  The day had unfolded into quite a good run day.  It is just the tiredness somewhere in my body that kept me going as I faced run day number 4.

It came as a surprise when this run that had started on a tired day become the best run in the week so far when I stopped my timer on the 12.6km mark with a time of 1:05:06.  However, it is not yet time to celebrate since one more last run beckons in this 5-day challenge.  This challenge is becoming doable with each passing minute.  The end is near.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 16, 2022

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 3 of 5

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 3 of 5

Day 3 run was one of those that I did not even think about.  I only worried of run no. 1, 2 and 4 when doing the planning of the 5-day event.  It was expected to be just ‘one of those runs’.  However, that is not how it turned out.  It had many surprises in store, and I now wished that I had thought and planned for it.  I have planned to have some breakfast around nine-thirty, but this was not to be.  I was picked at that time and asked to interest a school leaver on the whole engineering career path.  This was to have been a ten o’clock thing, but it came in early.

So, there I was, persuading the new generation student into moving to engineering, with emphasis of my own electrical.  Two hours later and the potential engineer had settled for civil engineering.  What a teacher I am!  I had nonetheless learnt, during my research for this talk, that engineering has now diversified to the level that we now even have ‘sports engineering’, which is the thing that I probably should have specialized in in the first place.  In my time we had the traditional 4 facets of engineering – the DNA that makes engineering engineering.  However, many years later and this is now water under the bridge.

I did a pre-run time check at noon.  I had not yet taken my breakfast.  I knew that a run without fuel would be untenable in this hot weather.  Not only that, but the body also just needs to be kept at some minimum energy level to attempt the 12k that was in store.  I took a quick mid-day breakfast despite fears that it would mess my run that was coming up in the next thirty minutes.  And that is exactly it did…..

I started the run when it was shinning hot.  I was hardly through with two kilometres at Kabete Poly when the pain in the stomach started.  I knew it was the food bouncing up and down.  It got worse and I just reduced the pace and lived with the situation.  You are in for a bad run when you have stomach discomfort.  I am just glad that mine was not running along with me.

How I finished the challenge 12.6km route in 1:07:47 is a miracle.  I was just too slow on this run.  I know that my fears are on day 4 of the challenge and I have lessons learnt already.  I was not badly tired, it is just the stomach discomfort that messed the days run.  The muscles of my legs and ache all over the body is starting to be a real feeling.  I am still confident that I can get out for day 4.  It is now day 5 that seems to be the one to worry about.  However, let us see how it shall go.  Three runs in three days already done.  Two runs in two days await.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 15, 2022

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 2 of 5

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 2 of 5

I had feared that run day 2 would not be any easy on this Tuesday, and this turned out to be as hard as I had feared.  The day started with a morning sun, and it had gone overhead and blazing by the lunch break.  My legs were still tired from the Monday run, and I was not looking forward for this.

However, when I saw marathoner Karl at the locker room ready for the second run, I had no choice but to follow suit.  I however, wished I had not!  It was hot!  From a freezer hardly 24-hours ago, to be hottest sun this month!  Anyway, I was already deep into the run before long and followed the same run route of day 1.

I did the same 12.6km course in almost the same 1:06:27, but instead improved to 1:06:09.  I finished the run full of sweat, fully tired and wishing that the challenge was off.  I should be ready for day 3.  It is day 4 that makes be fearful.  However, time will tell.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 15, 2022

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 1 of 5

5 runs in 5 days challenge – Day 1 of 5

I knew that it would be a tough week when the MOE* introduced the 5-runs-in-5-days challenge.  The email notification was direct and to the point, “This week’s challenge is the 5-runs-in-5-days starting today, and daily, until Friday”

*MOE = marathoners of expert, the committee that organizes the run events

“What is wrong with the MOE,” I heard a colleague marathoner asking soon after the email was sent around ten in the morning on this downcast Monday, June 13.

“What about?,” I queried.

“Imagine, they have set a 5-day run without notice!  They want to kill us before next week’s marathon, or something!?”

“Must be ‘or something’,” I responded.

I knew, being part of the MOE, that this was a last-minute surprise that was meant to invigorate the group that has been quite low since the COVID19 hiatus that started March 2020.  Worldwide corona virus related deaths were virtually zero at that point in time.  Two years and three months later and the global* death toll has now reached 6,332,729 from 541,127,668 confirmed infections, hence a death rate of 1.2%.  Kenya numbers were now standing at 5,651 and 327,145 respectively, hence a mortality rate of 1.7%.

*source: worldometers website

However, many things had happened since that fateful March 13, 2020 date when Kenya was put on a corona lockdown.  We now have at least four approved COVID19 vaccines in use worldwide, out of which the country has benefited from many free doses.  Mass vaccination has majorly put a halt to corona.  We no longer put on masks.  Social distancing is a vocabulary nearly forgotten and is likely to slip out of our normal lingua.  We no longer ‘gota’ to greet.  We have gone back to real handshakes.  I do not even remember the last time that I saw or used a hand sanitizer!

So, the MOE we just sprucing up things by throwing in this 5-day challenge at no notice.  It has never been done before, but the time was right.  The deal was made sweeter by the stipulation that ‘the distance did not matter’.  It was therefore a doable thing.

I knew that the first, second and fourth runs would be the most difficult.  The first run occurs when the body is coming from some restful period.  In my case I had not been on the road for a run since last Tuesday.  Seven days of no run would make run day number 1 a difficult one.  Number 2 run is usually difficult due to the pain of the first run.  The fourth run comes at a time when you do not want to let yourself down as you gear up for the final.  That anxiety can cause you to miss that run number 4.  The final run is just pure adrenaline.  It is the final and you must just do it.

The first run lived to its expectations.  The day was cold, if anything, chilly.  There had been no ray of sun from the early morning, if anything, it drizzled.  I was lethargic from a long rest period.  I however found myself at the locker room ready for the run.  I had already decided that the challenge shall all be run on the Uthiru-Kabete Poly-Ndumboini-Wangari Maathai-Kapenguria road-river-tarmac and back circuit.  That would give me at least a 10k per day.  That was a doable daily distance, hopefully.

I started the run at 12.45pm.  It turned out to be a cold run on a 12.6km course, over the lunch hour in 1:06:27.  I finished the run without a sweat, just due to the sheer intensity of the cold weather.  That does not mean that I was having it easy.  Far from it.  I was tired, thirsty, and hungry.  I however knew that the real test would be on the Tuesday run, the number 2 run.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 15, 2022

It rains when we run – the second international says so

It rains when we run – the second international says so

The second international marathon held on Friday, May 27 was not so much different from the previous one ran on April 28, albeit the first one being held on a Thursday and the fact that I was suffering a cold that had put me down for three days so far as I prepared for this May run.  The second run still started at the Generator at a few minutes past 1615hrs, despite the run being a strictly 1600hrs run.  Edu was there for this second one once more.  He told us to wait for a new comer whom I had not met before.  He introduced him before he joined us, as ‘he has ties to the team, real ties’.  I let that puzzle slip as I saw someone approach the generator.  He said a familiar ‘Hi’ to Edu, and a casual salutation in my direction.  We took the start-or-run picture and we were soon off for the immediate uphill that comes just 200metres from the starting point.

It was still hot with the evening sun hardly at the horizon.  We left and kept going at a relatively slow pace.  I led the pack as we headed to Waiyaki way past Kabete Polytechnic, and crossed the road at the Uthiru flyover to head towards Ndumboini.  We then went downhill past Wangari Maathai Institute to the river, and then faced the second uphill as we headed towards Lower Kabete road junction.

We just ran and ran in a relaxed pace.  We ran some one kilometre on Lower Kabete road, diverted to the left towards Mary Leakey school and finally got to the University farm at some point in the run.  We finally got to ‘the tank’, the point at which the usually muddy Uni road gets to the Kanyariri tarmac.  We had just done 10km and were almost half way through the run.

Going towards Kanyariri ACK and finally the right turn towards Kanyariri Centre on the Gitaru-Wangige road was our next course in the run.  It is just under the overhead busy road that we did the U-turn and were now headed back on same route to ‘the tank’, then straight on from the tank to Ndumbo.  All was well until the tank, when it started to drizzle.  We faced the Ndumboini hill when it was virtually raining.  However, it was short lived despite it having soaked our clothes and running shoes.

We finished the run in less than twenty-minutes after passing by Ndumboini on our way back.  I stopped my timer after a time duration of 2:24:43 for 22.33km in case, having starting before the starting point and finishing after the finish point.

It had hardly rained since the April run, when it had rained for the full day on that run day.  We only got a reprieve in the evening to have the April marathon, which was otherwise heading for a cancellation.  And keeping to the same tradition, it started raining just around eight on this Friday of the second international.  It was not past eight and we had now gathered for the ‘Lakeside evening’, where revelers get to partake of delicacies from the lake region.  That is the day I heard of vocs such as aliya, athola, obambla, cham, buss, osuga, akeyo, mtoo, apoth, ngege, omena and aluru (which was advertised but was not there).  It was still raining heavily at ten when I got a lift home after this May run and the subsequent party.

It has hardly rained since that May run, and I can for sure say that the next rainy day shall be June 24, when we shall be having our third international marathon codename ‘Divas International’.  But do not take my word for it.  Just experience it in the next three weeks.

WWB, the coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 6, 2022