Valenthon that was tougher than Kili
If all had worked out, I would now be recuperating from a run at Kilimanjaro mountain. But things did not work out. I did not manage to travel to Tanzania, despite the best of efforts. I still missed the bus. It is for that reason that it is a run day Sunday in Kili but I am still in Nairobi and surviving another hot afternoon, a second hot afternoon. Though I missed the Kili, I still had my own International marathon on Friday, February 24. This was yet another monthly marathon arranged by the MOE*.
I know that folks are wondering what happened to the January international, since there was mention nor a blog story about it. I will tell you why there was no story about it. It turned out to be exactly as what I had written about in November and December, that is, I was alone on that long 21km route and I lived to tell. I did not want to duplicate a story already written in November, so I left it untold.
I have just seen postings of the performance by the Kenyan team members who went to Kili and who did their run today, Sunday. I congratulate them. I do not envy them. I know how hot the run must have been, though they had the privilege and opportunity of being supplied with water, soda and fruits. I did experience a similarly tough run on Friday, albeit without any water or nourishment in that hot Friday evening.
Let me thank Mathew for ensuring that this story is written, otherwise I would be skipping the writing and referring runners to the December event if I would have run solo on this hot February. In fact, I was prepared for yet another solo run, with Edu having conveniently cancelled his participation hardly 3-days to the event. He was the only team member that was capable to taking up the challenge. His excuse this time round was an evening meeting on the Friday, but I knew better. While the meeting was convenient, the real reason was the fear of being roasted in the scorching sun. He even let that sentiment slip, but it was too late to state that this was not his reason for cancellation.
I started the run at four from the locker room, and headed to the ‘real’ starting point at the generator. I did not expect anyone to be joining me on this run. I just ran there as a routine to get this run officially started. It was a pleasant surprise to see Mathew, a second time runner at that starting point. The last time I did a run with him was sometime in November, when Edu was also in that trio. We had run the Mary Leakey route on a 13km distance in an evening. It was a general slow run.
We were meeting for a second run, four months later.
“Where is your water?,” I asked, as we prepared to reflag the run. I had my own 500ml water bottle, whose content was already warm, despite having filled in some cold water hardly ten minutes prior. The weather was just blazing hot.
“Will I need it?”
“Did you not read the notice? We said that every runner must carry some water. This heat is nothing to joke with!”
“I will buy some along the way,” he shrugged.
We started the run, as he confirmed that this was his first run on the 21km route. It was a slow run ab-initio. We ran together through the designated route to Waiyaki way and crossed over to Ndumboini. We went down Kapenguria road, past Wangari Maathai institute and ended up on Lower Kabete road. From there we turned left and ran about a kilometre, to once again turn left through the rough road past Mary Leakey and eventually traversed the university farm. We finally emerged at the tank, and joined Kanyariri road. We turned right and kept going, slowly, though I could at times increase pace go gain over five minutes, only to stop and wait for Mathew to join in.
Running on Kanyariri road from the tank to Gitatu underpass and back was the hardest part of the run, with all the sun and the tiredness continuously setting in. Eventually, Mathew took a break to buy his water at ‘the tank’, which is the junction to the rough road towards University farm. On the return leg we would however not go back to the farm, but instead keep to the Kanyariri road tarmac all the way back to Ndumboini and do the same route back to the starting line. I had hardly touched my water. It was already boiling inside that plastic bottle.
I did a few tweaks and variations of the run to give myself some extra mileage as I also allowed Mat to catch up. Finally, after almost 2hr 30min in the hot sun, that was now slowly fading off as the sun sets, we did finish the run. I stopped my timer at 02.27.01 after 24.30km, with an average of 6.03. I did not know that running slowly can be that tiring. But that was not my Kili tiredness moment.
The tiredness moment came when I was walking home at about eight in the evening. My body was just too lethargic. I struggled to get to the home and literally collapsed into the house. I took a litre of coke soda, but that did not seem to quench my thirst. I tried to eat something, I do not even know what, but I was just not myself. At some point in the night I did fall asleep.
I woke up yesterday and found an open bottle of soda by the bedside, and some half eaten food. I cannot even remember how I left these leftovers, yet my mind had convinced me that I had partaken them all. At that moment of waking up I surely confirmed that dehydration was real. Worse can really happen if an athlete lets dehydration have its way. This was the worst feeling that I have had in many years. I survived the last Kili over the 42km in 2020, but it did not feel this bad. The aftereffects of the Valenthon were just from another world!
*MOE = marathoners of expert, the committee that organizes for marathons
WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023
