Running round and round… until you drop

Running round and round… until you drop

That ‘run till you drop’ August international marathon was a bad idea ab-initio.  How dare the MOE* come up with such a run!  The stipulation was that a runner was expected to run and keep running until the runner dropped out.  Alternatively, any runner who dared not drop was forced to drop out at seven, for a run that was to start at four-thirty in the evening.

*Marathoners-of-expert, the team that organizes runs for the group

The run was being done within the employer’s compound, hence had the relaxation of a casual run and gave the impression of something easy.  Afterall, it was just a one loop route of 1.3km, right?  Wrong!  That one loop was to be rep’ed for as many times as was humanly possible in the timeslot allocated.  Dropping out at any time remained the easy way out.  Being forced to drop was not even under consideration as we started the run.  How do you run round for over 2-hours!

I gathered together with the largest crowd I have ever seen at the lineup of any of our international runs.  We were six – five gents and a first-time runner lady, Rose.  We counted ourselves down from three to zero and started the run at the designated starting point at the staff parking lot.  The phone that I was using for the timing read ‘Fri. Aug. 26, 2022 - 16:50’.  We moved around as a big group in the first circuit.  The route was half hilly and half down-hilly.  We started on the hilly side of things.  We were all back to the starting point about six and a half minutes later.

That first loop would however be the end of the group run.  I set off slightly ahead of the pack as we started the second loop with Sammy close by.  I increased pace slightly, aiming for a 5-minutes-per-kilometer pace thereafter.  Sammy tagged along and we were soon way ahead of the pack by the time we finished the second loop.  We could hardly make out the presence of the followers by sight of footsteps by this time.

However, Sammy would not continue to keep pace when we got to the fourth circuit and I just started hearing his footsteps retreat and soon be lost somewhere behind.  I kept going and if anything increased the pace.  I would then start going round and round and round, some of the rounds were past some runners, others just on my own, but the rounds continued unendingly.

I could have lost count of how many times I had gone round had it not been for the sheer willpower to keep track of the number of circuits done.  I usually do not glance on the timer when running.  I run at my pace of comfort.  Looking at the timer usually causes me to panic after realizing that I am either too fast or too slow.  I then mess up my run strategy by changing it mid-run, which ends up messing up the overall run.  My best runs are done when I am just on auto-run, with no gadgets controlling any of my actions.

I was aiming for at least 15-rounds on that loop.  Eighteen would be the ideal number and twenty would just be the icing.  After almost everybody had dropped, apart from a new lady runner, Val, who had joined in at some point, and Karl who kept going, I found myself counting the fifteenth lap.  I finished the fifteen count while still energetic enough to add the next three that would take me to eighteen.

I reached eighteen with some effort of just over fifteen-minutes.  I could feel that I was getting tired.  The half hills on every round was starting to take a toll on me.  I was not looking forward to them, but they were permanently etched on that route and there was nothing that could be done about them on each and every round.

I finished nineteen and found Karl and Val at the starting/finishing line.

“You need to drop, the route is now closed,” Karl flagged me down as I passed by their standing position.

I momentarily looked at the phone to check on the time.  It was 1856!  Wow!  How time flies!  I knew that the circuit would take me at least 5-minutes, but there was no stopping when I was only one more round to the ultimate goal of twenty.

“I have four minutes,” I responded as I struggled forward onto the ultimate go round. 

I tried to increase pace, but was just too tired.  I kept going with the knowledge that the run would be ending in less than five minutes, and I would thereafter be taking a rest.  And… The run did finally end after twenty loops around that 1.3km circuit.

I have been to many marathons, but this round-and-round type marathon was the first one that I had ever encountered.  It was a bit monotonous, but it had good motivation in terms of the short course and the targets that you could easily set on the course… if you could keep up with the count before going dizzy.

I crossed the finish line at a distance of 25.9km and just had to run that extra 100m to a new finish point to get to the magic number of 26.12 in 2.09.56.  The pace was 4.56min per k.  Would I do this again?  Maybe after the Nairobi International marathon in October… but then again, that is usually the last major run of the year.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, August 29, 2022

Running to the polling station…. I should have walked

Running to the polling station…. I should have walked

If there is a time that I have ever enjoyed a voting experience, then that time was today.  The main reason being that I decided not to lose any sleep over the elections this year.  Literally, did not lose any sleep.  I have always gone to the polling station by six in the morning in all the previous elections that I have participated in… and they have been many, since the 90s.  Unfortunately, I have always left past eleven, despite reporting at the wee hours.  

This time it was different.  I slept through my morning, despite the loud vuvuzela noises that had started around four.  By five they had gone too loud that sleep was almost impossible, but I still did sleep.  I did not care about the morning rush.  I almost did not care whether I voted or not.  Voting has caused me so much discomfort on those long queues.  Shouldn’t voting be enjoyable?

It finally become enjoyable when I strolled to the polling station at the primary school next to Uthiru roundabout at two-ten in the light of day.  I had actually just gone to this centre to gauge the numbers, with a view of even coming back at a later time.  My initial plan was to vote at around five in the evening, when they are just about to close the station.  I was even ready to be thrown out in case they decided to, in case they deemed me to have been time barred.

However, my observation at that afternoon time at 2.10pm was that the polling centre at the primary school grounds was deserted!  This was strange!  I expected a chaotic ground with lots of people confused, moving around and unsure.  I have even experienced stampedes or two during such.  But this was not to be.  The polling centre was to have 12 stations.  The classrooms were well marked with the labels for ‘Polling station no. 1’, sequentially, all the way to the ‘station no. 12’.  I had already confirmed my details on SMS confirmation by sending my national ID number and DOB to short code 70000.  A message had confirmed that I was registered at this station, and I was on polling station no. 1.

With the grounds this empty, and hardly any queue at any of the classroom entrances that marked the polling station entries, then I surely could still just cast the ballot now, than at five.  I therefore joined the queue of twenty-five other voters that was next to the very first classroom on the train of classrooms.  This was actually the longest queue at the centre.  I could observe that the second classroom door had about five people on queue.  Class three had no one on queue.  The subsequent classrooms had less than ten people queuing.

Twenty-five people ahead was manageable on this sunny day.  I enjoyed the warmth of the sun as I moved slowly towards the entrance of that station no. 1.  I had my earphones on, but was also listening to the chatter going on around.

“Hi ni laini ya letter gani?,” someone behind the person behind me asked.

“Hata sijui, nafikiri ni ‘A’ na ‘B’,” she told the guy.

Of course, that was not true, nor was there an official to guide on who-should-go-where.  The truth was that each polling station had the fully mix of names from A to Z, somehow randomly distributed from the total pool of over 7,000 voter names.  I was letter ‘W’ and on station no. 1 for crying out loud!

Anyway, I got into that station no. 1 at 2.40pm, hardly thirty-minutes since I got to the polling centre.  Five or so other voters were ahead at various stages of the voting process.  I presented my national ID card, then presented my left hand thumb to be scanned onto the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) kit, a tablet computer that should read the fingerprint and display your details.  These KIEMS kits were already a full debate since morning while I was still asleep and half-listening to the news.  The kits had failed in several stations within the country, with some polling stations reporting almost full failure of all kits.  The numbers were small, but the effects were massive.  

Imagine locking down a whole primary school of 12 stations due to failure of the 12 gadgets assigned to that centre!  Such events had already led to delays in voting in these stations, with some voters even leaving due to apathy.  The officials called it ‘minor and insignificant’, but as a voter, who has queued for hours in past elections and even witnessed people collapse due to long waits, I can tell you that being kept waiting cannot be just brushed off as ‘minor’.

In my case the kit did read my fingerprint and did display my details.  I had to recall when I took that youngish passport photo when they kits were being introduced about six years ago.  This confirmation then enabled me to move to the positions of the next three officials who provided me with six different ballot papers for the different electoral positions of the day.  

The presidential ballot was white, the rest was a mix of colours.  The presidential ballot had only four rows, for the four candidates.  The rest of the positions were long ballot papers with many names!  The worst affected was the member of country assembly (MCA) position that in my view had more than twenty faces – none of which I knew.  The women rep ballot was equally busy, same to that of the senator, governor, and member of parliament.

I was very familiar with the four faces, actually eight, since the presidential candidates were photo’d along with their running mates.  That was the only easy choice of the six ballots.  The other five were a real struggle, going through the many rows of names and pictures and party symbols... then making a choice.

I finally dropped my choices onto the different colour-coded covers of the clear see-through ballot box.  Six drops of ballots to those six boxes on the table at the middle of the classroom marked the end of this big vote.  I got the fingernail of my left pinky marked with indelible ink and then the national ID was handed back.  I had finally voted, in a vote whose campaigns had started in 2017, just after the last election had been done and the presidential results nullified and redone.  It had been a long 5-year of electioneering.  We have seen things in that period.  We had seen friends becomes foes and foes become friends.  We have seen names called and name-calling done.  I was just glad that it was over.

I was out of the polling station no. 1 at exactly 2.45pm and out of the primary school polling centre a minute later.  It was however not all joy through the republic.  Those who had the KIEMS frustration had their delays, but the big story was the cancellation of county gubernatorial elections for Mombasa (641,913 voters) and Kakamega (844,551 voters).  These close to 1.4M voters would only be given 5 ballot papers, since the governors ballot would be missing.  MP elections in Nakuru Rongai had also been postponed due to ballot paper misprints.  

These cancelled electoral positions would now have to be voted for on August 23, two weeks from today.  Was the voter turnout just low, or were voters waiting for five o’clock as I was initially?  My estimation was just 50% turnout, based on the queues that I was seeing!  That would mean 22M registered voters would only show up to the 11M mark.  What is going on here?

I am just glad that I did not queue for so long this time round.  I was however cognizant that some places in Kenya were experiencing long queues due to failed kits.  So, when the election officials say that “200 failed kits out of 46,229 is not significant”, then I just wish that they could spend a full day on the queue and know that it is significant when you are affected by a delay due to a failed kit.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, August 9, 2022

Sprinters delight lives up to expectations… but wait!

Sprinters delight lives up to expectations… but wait!

The July international marathon of last Friday, July 29, 2022, had been publicized since the June international run.  We knew that it shall come to pass, and come to pass it did on that last Friday.  We were four when we started the 21k of the June run.  We had hoped for a bigger starting lineup in July, but that did not happen.  Even a 15-minute wait beyond the stipulated 1600hrs starting time did not improve the numbers.  Karl, Edu and I remained the only people still standing even at this delayed time.

We just had to start.  The day was cool, just about cold.  The ‘sprinters delight’ has been crafted by the MOE* as the day for runners to sprint away and break records, after the many group runs that have been done since March.  We expected PBs on this day, and we did not keep any secrets about this requirement.  We publicized this encouragement throughout the month of July as we sent email updates and reminders.  And… finally, it was the day to get it done.

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

Unlike a group run whose pace is dictated by the slowest runner, the sprinters run is dictated by the person running.  You ‘close your eyes’ aka ignore every other runner, and just go for it.  Of course, you need to push a little harder than usual during such a run, since you need to break some form of record.  That was our collective mentality as we started our run at 1615hrs.

I was on my own by the first kilometre.  I did not look back and kept going.  The weather was just too cool.  The run seemed easy despite the terrain that is hilly from the start, with just a short reprieve from Ndumbo past Wangari Maathai to the river, on Kapenguria road.  After that river it is a general uphill to the 13km turning point under the Gitaru-Wangige road.  Even after that turning point the terrain remains generally hilly until you get back to the tank on Kanyariri road, ready to do a short kilometre of rundown to the bottom of Ndumboini.  You then face the last major hill that ends at Waiyaki way, then it is generally flat to the finish line.

The terrain did not disappoint.  It remained heavy on the legs, but it was a sprinting day, and so the run continued at a generally faster pace.  I met Karl and Edu on my 14.5km mark.  They still had to do a 1.5km run to the 13km turning point.  We raised our hands through the air in a manner of acknowledging each other and we went our opposite ways.

My run on Kanyariri road back to Ndumbo then to the starting line at Uthiru was as expected.  You just need to survive that 1.5km Ndumbo hill and once on Waiyaki way you are generally done with the run.  I was therefore generally done with the run when I crossed Waiyaki way and just ran past the Kabete Police station towards the turning point at N-junction.  I was soon at the finishing line at 1751hrs.  The data recorded on Runkeeper was 21.27km, 1.41.26, 4:46 average, 408m climb.

The only explanation for the fast pace was the ‘sprinters delight’.  I had previously tried to prepare for this run by doing several shorter distances but could not get to under 4.47 average.  Even another test run, after the fact, on a 17k route today did not get me to 4.46.  I was still on 4.47.  With no other sprinters run until Nairobi International Marathon of October 30, I can for sure say that this was the best run in the year.  

However, I have seen the body behave in ways unimaginable.  I had given up on ever running under 5.00 average for most of the year, only for the booster vaccine to kick in and to since be under 5.00 on every run.  That means that you cannot predict what shall happen on the next run.  The impossible can happen.  Just be ready for it.  Enjoy it when it comes.  After all, your best run is on the day that you are running that run… that is when the unexpected can happen.

WWB, the coach, Nairobi, Kenya, August 1, 2022