Running for love... at the last minute

Running for love... at the last minute


Remember that last time B had asked whether I was serious about a run on the fourteenth?  She turned out to be right, since she skived the run, with a simple, “Something came up”.  This ‘something’ came up when the run had already been publicized and it was on the cards.  However, there was nothing stopping this run.  But at least I had tried my best to get her to the starting line.  I had even given her a ‘last chance’ to be at the starting line by 4.00pm.  I had informed her that the ‘train shall leave with or without the runners’ after that time.

By 4.15pm it was evident that Beryl had missed the train on this Friday.  This realization was brought to fore when Karl did a casual pop into my office with a “Are you not going for the 4.00pm run?  I was to join you!”
“I was waiting for B,” I responded, knowing that I was lying even to myself on the possibility of B making it for this run, “However, let us go.  I shall be ready in a minute.”

Karl was already dressed and jogging around ready for the run.  It took me exactly a minute to shed off the work attire and adorn the ‘international’ attire ready for the ‘international’ run.  We immediately moved towards ‘the generator’ starting point.

We would soon be joined by Nick and momentarily by Barbara while on our way down there.  I had previously only been in touch with the latter through email communication, where I had informed her that the ‘early starters’ would be leaving at four, with another group of ‘regular starters’ leaving at 4.45pm.  She had preferred to run with the early starters, though she was on some work assignment that was making this 4.00pm run unlikely. 

It was therefore a pleasant surprise to see her join in.  Of the four, she was the most appropriately prepped for the run.  I could see those small water bottles affixed to her belt and somethings that looked like those gel tubes that I last saw during the Amsterdam’s TCS international marathon.

“Where is the group?,” she asked in surprise as we got ‘generated’.
“This is it,” I responded.
“You mean the four of us are ‘the group’?”
“Yes, we are the group.  We only expect another two to join in on the four-forty-five group.”
She did not seem impressed. 
She expected a multitude. 
She found nothing close.

It was just about 4.25pm when we started our run.  Our team of four left the generator and were facing that 400m uphill to the gate just a minute after start of the run.  By then Barbara and I were on the lead, with Karl and Nick not far behind.  We passed by the gate and were ‘out there’ ready to do those 21k of run.  My new member of the ‘new B-and-B’ was not going to have it easy on me.  I was already feeling the intensity of the run by the time we were at the highway crossing at Kabete.

The run continued onto the other side of the road for about three minutes before we got past ‘the wall’ and did the Vet loop ensuring that we touched the new gate from ‘the other side’, the same gate that now prevented us from doing a ‘proper’ loop.
“We have done two,” B said as we headed to Ndumbo after looping.
“That can’t be…,” I protested.  I knew that we should have covered much more distance.
“The Garmin does not lie.  It is two miles for sure.”
It took some mental calculation to convert the miles to ks, before I accepted the situation.

We ran down past Ndumbo market towards the river.  The pace was quite intense.  We were just under 6min per k.
“Prepare for the seven kilometres of uphill… coming up,” I warned B.
“I shall give it a try.”
She did not just give it a try.  She conquered that hill, with our first stop being at Gitaru market for a short two-minute break, before we ran the last kilometer to Wangige road to face that dusty loop where the main road is still under construction.

It was not long before we were back to Kanyariri road for the seven kilometres of downhill.
“Hi, mzungu?,” an excited child, in a group of about four, shouts at our approaching steps.
B says her “Hi”.
We are soon passing by them.
“How are you!,” they shout almost in unison. 
I am just an invisible silhouette in their vision.
“Hello!,” B encourages them on.  However, it is short-lived, since we are past them in a flash and are enjoying the downhill run so much to let such distractions set us off pace.

It is on this section that we also met up with Edu and Jeff.  They were facing the uphill while we were on the roll down.  We exchanged our greetings and let each pair go their way.  Karl and Nick must have been somewhere behind our trail.  We had not seen the duo again since we met at the loop during those first twenty minutes of the run.

The run was generally quiet without much event.  Most of the passers-by and by-standers just looked at us with either expressionless faces or with a dismissal of the futility of whatever we were doing.  What they failed to know was that we were enjoying a downhill run and the overall run was starting to seem like an under-2hr run.  Which believe me you if a fast run.  I could feel it now that we had clocked 15k, sorry 9 miles.

It would however be the kids who would once again recognize and voice our presence as we ran… and the downhill could not have been complete without the children near Junel Primary School giving this recognition, just as we approached ‘the tank’.
“How are you, mzungu!”
B recognized them and appreciated the greetings. 
I was silhouetted once more. 
Just when I thought that I would remain invisible, one of the boys shouted an afterthought in my direction, “Kipchoge!  Huyo ni Kipchoge!”

We would finally face that last 1km of uphill towards Ndumbo market.  We just did it.  Once you are through with that hill, then you are generally through with the run, since the last 2km cannot stand on your way.  The first of the last two leads you to the road crossing at Kabete Poly, while the last kilometer takes you from the Poly back to the ‘Stop’ at the gate.

It was a great thrill to conquer the international half in just 2hr 2min and 20sec.  The Endomondo gave the distance as 21.71km, while Runkeeper recorded it as a 21.54km.  The after run Coke was a welcome warm down even as we now prepared for the next two runs – the Kilimanjaro international marathon at the Tanzanian town of Moshi to be held March 1, and our very own Beyond Zero marathon at Nairobi Nyayo stadium on March 8.  The two marathons back to back – the two runs that we are starting the month with.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, February 14, 2020

Half-a-half – the run that needed interpretation

Half-a-half – the run that needed interpretation

It is exactly one week later, and the story has not been written.  This is quite unusual.  The story would usually be out immediately after the run, even before the leg muscles have had a rest.  So why did this Friday, June 28 international half fail to make it to be blog?

The sixth international, codename ‘half-a-half’ was meant to commemorate the half-mark of the year, with a half a marathon run.  It was meant to be that simple.  It turned out not to be.  This codename did not last long before it was corrupted.  Koki started it off.

“What is the distance of the run?,” she asked on email.

The distance had been prominently displayed just below the run route, on the email that publicized the run.  ‘21.3km’ it read.  It was the Google earth map that has traced and came up with that out.

Two emails later, and she would still be wondering if this is ‘half of a half’ or ‘half-half’.  I did not imagine that such a simple three-word codename would generate so much debate.  I would soon have to clarify to the whole of the runners that this half-a-half was what they wanted it to be.  It could be half a marathon at half year mark, the initially intended meaning, or it could be a half distance of the half marathon, or even half of the half distance that one usually runs.  

“Just make it what you want it to be”.

The turnout was better than I had expected.  Raising nine athletes on such a cold June evening was quite something.  Faye, Judy and Beryl, formerly of the B-and-B team, represented the gals.  The coach was on the ‘boy child’ group, together with Karl, Jeff, Nick, Bramuel and later Edu would join in, though not from this initial group at the starting line.  

This is the very same Edu who would later after the run make me lose a bet and force me to buy a round of drinks for the folks.  This came about after I had vowed that Edu could not make it for this run, after all he had just done another 21k run two days prior to this event.  However, this vow would turn out to be my undoing, as I regretfully discovered later in the run.  

But wait a minute!  Why am I even surprised?  Edu has a way of letting the run run his life.  While some of us control the run, the run controls him.  He is the only one whom I know, who has the habit of timing his pace to the precision dictated by ‘the gadget’.  Instead of the gadget tracking his pace, he paces as per the gadget.  

Several times I have run with him, only for him to reduce speed, to almost a standstill and tell me that we are going too fast.  All this said while looking at ‘the gadget’ on the wrist.  Then he would all of a sudden sprint it off and say that we need to catch up with the average, because… You guessed right, ‘the gadget says so’.  Nay nay, that is not my style!  My style is to start the timer, forget that it exists, and just let go.  I stop the timer after the run and confirm the stats – that is me.  However, Edu is Edu.

When we flagged off at the generator at 4.45pm, five minutes later than scheduled, we did stipulate a compulsory turn-back at the 1hr point.  Those who would not reach the turnaround point at the highway by this time would have to turn back when they get to their 1hr point.  The route was the same old ‘new international’ route.  

This route runs from Uthiru, though Ndumbo-ini, onto the Kanyariri road all the way to Nakuru highway on the 10k mark.  Then runners run the outer perimeter of the Gitaru market partly on Wangige road, and get back to Kanyariri road on 13k at the other side of the market.  From there, the same road that brought you to this point takes you back to the starting point some 8k back.

We left off as a group, but soon Karl and I were on the leading pack by the time we reached Ndumbo at 3k.  I was however alone after the Ndumbo downhill on the 4k, as we started the 6km of uphill that leads to the highway.  He would later confess that he could not cope up with the uphill pace.  I was the first to reach the 13k mark after circling the market and getting back to Kanyariri road.  

Then I decided to stop and wait for the pack, after all, it was a group run of sorts.  Karl would pass me by, some ten minutes later.  He told me that he was not stopping or waiting.  I shooed him on.  Momentarily, Beryl then Bramuel would reach this point and would be forced to turn back due to the 60-minute stipulation for compulsory turn back.  I kept waiting.  

Another ten minutes later and the group of Faye, Jeff and Nick would emerge to find me standing at the 13k junction.  I was taken aback to see Edu in this group.

“Coach, I am here,” he declared as he passed by my stationary form.

I knew the implication of that statement.  It would hit me later.

I joined into their run, staying at the back, after they had confirmed that no one else was behind them.

By the 15k at Kanyariri High School, the boys had run off and left Faye and I behind.  Faye would soon come to a stop.

“A stitch!  The stitch!”

I would join into the stopover.

“Take a brief rest.”

She did take a minute of two of rest, then we started the run once more.

A second stitch stop would hit her, hardly a kilometer later.  For this one, we decided to just take a walk for about five minutes, then resumed the run when the stitch had subsided.  We kept moving and were soon facing the Ndumbo uphill on the 18k.  Clearing this hill would surely mark the end of the run.  

It was now getting dark.  We were just about to get to the 1900hour mark.  The hill ended and we would in a moment be facing the now very dark road at the Vet loop, past Ndumbo.  Our destination was now just the other side of the highway.

We joined Beryl as we were about to hit ‘the wall’ near Kabete Police as we crossed the Nakuru highway on our way back to our finish line.  By this time it was already totally dark.  Despite this, Faye decided to sprint off the last kilometer from Kabete Polytechnic, leaving the B-team to walk it back to the finish line.

We would hit the finish line with a time check of 2.13.05.  This was the earliest that I have ever finished this group run.  We set a new record of all our runners finishing by that time.  Two hours later, and I would be paying off the bet that I lost.  Lesson learnt – do not wager on super-humans.  That mantra shall come in handy during the seventh international at the end of July.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, July 5, 2019