One week that I would like to forget

One week that I would like to forget

If there is ever a challenge that I usually dread, then that challenge can only be the 5-runs-in-5-days challenge.  The organizers, MOE*, make it sound and feel like a simple 5-in-5, but the real run is in the details.  The intention is to ‘simply’ do one run every day, Monday to Friday, during the designated week.  The designated week for the February 5-in-5 was the week of Feb. 12.  The MOE makes the run sweeter by keeping it open and to the discretion of the runner, hence virtually no rules  – any run, any distance, any time, provided it is within those five days.
*MOE – marathoners of expert

Day 1
Monday, Feb. 12 was another hot day.  I am not used to the overhead sun that seems to stay overhead the whole day.  It burns the bald like hell and it does not relent.  However, this was day 1 and I was just from my two-day weekend rest.  I assumed that I had cheated the sun by going for the run in the evening, leaving at 4.40pm, but I was in for a surprise.  The sun was still hot and burning.  The sun this year has somehow increased its burn-rate.  It hits the skin and penetrates to the dermis then straight to the blood stream.  When that happens, you start by getting lethargic and soon thirsty and dehydration sets in hardly five minutes into the run.

I had intended to do a half marathon on day 1, then do short 5ks for the rest of the days.  However, that sun on day 1 put a halt on that plan.  I was not going to do any run more than an hour in this furnace.  I decided to settle on a short 10k run, which would mean running from Uthiru, through Kapenguiria road, to Lower Kabete tarmac junction and back.  It is the usual IKM 10k route.  I left at 4.40pm and survived the sun.  I was energetic on this first day and the run was quite enjoyable even as I finished the run at 5.50pm.  I had missed out on a record by doing 5.01min/km – that 01!?  Anyway, the 14.3k was a good day 1 run.  I did not think much about the other runs.  If day 1 was this good, then there should be nothing to it.


Day 2
I woke up with some pain on my right leg.  That very leg that almost messed up my Stanchart marathon last October.  I thought nothing much of it, apart from that maybe it was a result of that 2.5km hill from the river to Waiyaki way that is dreaded by all runners on that Kapenguria road.  It should subside, I thought of this pain.  I went on with my events for the day, skipping another temptation to run at the lunch hour, and deciding to do another evening run.

I wanted to ease the pain on my leg and hence decided to do the IKM ‘inner circle’ merry-go-round run.  This is a round-and-round run over the 1.3km circuit on the tarmac of the work compound.  It starts with a 400m of hill then a short flat section, then another 400m of downhill, then another flat section.  The route therefore keeps alternating between up and down on every circuit and it is a real test of endurance.  The sun remained hot, but running was still a must.  Twelve go-arounds resulted into a 16.2km run in 4.57min/km average.  I had finally broken the 5 barrier.  I was elated, but just briefly, since I was already limping by the time I hit the showers, and struggled home with the pain on the right leg.


Day 3
It was Valentine’s day.  For the first time in like forever I did not visibly see any roses anywhere within the staff desks.  The colour red did not seem to manifest much.  I would later see some ladies take some pics with a bouquet of flowers near the auditorium.  It was one big bunch being passed around the group of three, each taking a photo-op with it.  It did not register much, though I thought it was a bit funny.

I had already decide that I would do an evening run.  I would not risk the mid-day burn.  However, my leg was paining so badly that I was walking with a slight limp.
“This 5-in-5 is a bad idea,” I muttered subconsciously as I headed to the safety office to get some ointment.  I had already checked on all the first aid boxes on my way, and everything was in those boxes, apart from the ointment.

I was starting to doubt whether I would manage a third run, but I was still doing everything ‘by faith’ at this point in time.  I got to the safety office when the bus was just about to leave at 4.30pm.
“Sorry, deep heat is the only thing that you cannot get,” they told me.
“So, what can I get?”
“Anything else”
“But nothing else can help me at this point in time?”
“Blame the forces that take it from the boxes, I can swear that we usually refill”

Anyway, I managed to get one small tube after more search with their assistance.  That gel brought some relief and I was ready to hit the road by 4.40pm.  I wanted to go out there and face that Wangari Mathai hill once again.  But that was not to be….
“NCA are looking for you,” the person on the other side of the phone told me.
“Can it wait?, I was just preparing for an important evening run!”
“No, can’t wait, hawa watu wanataka kutu-arrest”

This was too sudden and unexpected.  What arrest?  What NCA?  What the hech is going on?  I did not even have time to say yes, before I heard a strange voice on the other side of the line.
“I am from NCA, I am arresting your fundi,” the strange tone on the other side said.
“But who are you?, why are you arresting my worker?,” I asked, not sure of what I should ask.
“I am from NCA, and we are inspecting your site, and your foreman has no papers?”
“But why are you on site, I mean, this is an internal renovation!,” I was almost losing it.

Why would there be someone called NCA, in a site where he is not invited, doing inspection that he was not called for, arresting a worker whom he did not have a warrant for and calling me, when I am supposed to be going for an important run.  It would take me a lot of phone time, including a disconnection and reconnection, to just tell the guy on the other side that internal works need no permit.  Of course, by then he had demanded to see architectural plans, approved council plans, environmental impact assessment approvals, utilities approval, and that my worker was under arrest for not having an NCA registration certificate, valid, he added.

I went for my Wednesday run at five, completely drained of physical and mental energy, made worse by the last twenty minutes of this evening.  Can you believe that that NCA guy wanted 20k for not seeing the plans and another 10k for my worker who had an NCA 2023 registration instead of a 2024?  I was already many k broke by the time I went for this run of few k!

Based on the late start of run on this date, I decided to do another merry-go-round-run within the compound.  However, my adrenaline was so shot up that I could not manage any better time in those 12 rounds.  I was still happy with my average of 5.17min/km over those 16.33k.  I was a zombie all through, just going through the motions of the run.  I did not even feel any pain on the leg, until I finally took a shower and took a rest around seven, when I started feeling the pain.  That ointment that I had applied earlier seemed to have waned.  I re-ointmented the back of my right leg and walked home.  What a third run day!


Day 4
I was to go to hospital for a scheduled medical check on this Thursday.  I had planned to wake up at seven, then start my 3km walk to the Mountain View clinic.  I had set the alarm for seven, and that is when the phone also came on.  I had hardly checked on incoming messages when I saw a call, with True Caller app indicating that the called was NCA office.  I ignored it.  I prepared to leave and just about 7.30am as I left the house, a second phone call came in.  This did not need True Caller app since I had already saved it as ’the NCA person’.  I ignored it and walked the distance to the clinic.  It did not take long thereafter to see an incoming text.  It was from ‘the NCA person’.  The text was straight to the point “Gari yangu imekwama, nisave na 2thao, nitashukuru”.

I was already having a medical issue to deal with and now this?  I ignored the text and went on with my mission to the medical facility.  I even complained to the doc about aching right leg and got another brand of ointment.  I walked back the three kilometres to the workplace with every step increasing the pain on the back of my right leg, specifically just behind and above the back of the knee.  Folding my leg was becoming a pain in the leg, but I persisted.  I was surely not going to do any more runs.  I was done.  The challenge was good while it lasted, but this was not for me, not at the expense of my leg health.

I was thinking of what I would do when I leave work early on that Thursday, maybe even apply that new ointment by five, then maybe go to bed early.  It is at exactly that moment, around three, that I saw the email that I did not want to see.  It was another brief one, “Coach, we are on for the run today at 4.30pm, usichelewe kama last time”

I almost cried out loudly!  All runners know that Tuesdays and Thursdays is usually a students’ run day, where they book the coach and go for a run.  There is no caveat to the rule, and so I was now suffering from the strictness of my own rules.  Anyway, a students’ run day is not full of run, and hence I was confident that I would somehow make it through those slow runs and walks.

As I prepared to leave with the two trainee runners, I did not know that they had another taste of my own medicine planned.
“Coach, remember today you are taking us to the tarmac for the ten k.  We are not ready, but we shall try”
I had hoped that they shall forget about this 10k debut, and we would stick to the proven 8k route, but I had promised that we were to take this run a notch higher on this day.  I wish that I had not promised this 10k on this day, especially when my leg was hardly movable.  I did not say nothing, I went along, and we did our runs and walks and somehow made it to the Lower Kabete tarmac junction and back.  They registered 10k, I registered 12.15km in 2.10.42.  We had finally broken the 10k barrier with the trainees and it was quite a fete.


Day 5
The new ointment seemed to have worked, since I woke up on Friday with hardly any pain on my leg.  My knee was folding well, and I was not in any discomfort.  I had already done the four runs for the week’s challenge.  The last one run was not going to evade me, even an evening appointment, at the time when I should have been running, could not cancel this run.  I decided to do a lunch hour run and wrap this up.  Using the same route of Monday, I ran to Lower Kabete road junction via Kapenguria road and back.  I left at 12.37pm and was back 1.21.36 later over that 15.25km distance.

Finished.  Done.

Whether I look forward to such a challenge, definitely no!  Whether I shall do this again, not sure, but it sounds too tempting to forego.  

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024

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

First International Marathon of 2020 – Even a change of route could not stop this one

First International Marathon of 2020 – Even a change of route could not stop this one


I was just recovering from the malaria of last week when the date of the first international half marathon, code name ‘struggling-back-to-shape’, finally came by.  After those numerous feasts of Dec, surely this run deserved that name.  It was a Friday.  It was January 24.  The run was on.  It was a run on the usual 21km Kanyariri route that has already been mapped and scouted since last year.  All was well until Charles, who had promised to skip the marathon, came back from his lunch hour run.

“The road is closed,” he looked through my door as he came back from the run and got into the block, around one-forty, sweaty as a river.
“What do you mean the ‘road is closed’,” I looked up from my keyboard, a cup of warm water standing just next to my right hand.
“The loop is closed.  That section just after the wall is now closed.  There is even a gate!  And… a padlock!”

This was not happening.  I had hardly two hours before the early starters would be starting off the run, and now this?  It takes about a month to formulate a marathon route.  The initial stages involve mapping it out on Google map to see how a 21k circuit can run, followed by a physical scouting of the route to confirm that it is runnable.  

Occasionally, the scouting reveals new issues that necessitate revision of route.  You may scout out the route and find out that some sections are closed or impassible, information that may not be apparent on the online map.  Each revision means another mapping, then another scouting.  It takes a month to get the route and the distance right.  Do not even mention how the MoE* have to debate and disagree on the route despite all the work done.  I now had less than 2-hours to formulate a new 21km route!

That is when that light bulb flashed.  If the loop was closed by just a gate, and the rest of the loop still existed, then it was possible to do the loop from the reverse direction upto the gate, then just turn back at that gate.  That should still give the same distance, apart from the small addition distance to access the road to the reverse circuit.  That is exactly the message that I did sent to runners as a last-minute revision.  I informed them that the route had changed ‘slightly’ and provided an elaborate map of the alternative way to loop around the 1km section that was affected by this closure.

There were no formal confirmation of attendance when I got ready for the inaugural marathon of 2020 at four.  If anything, only Beryl of the B-and-B had confirmed her participation.  I would later see her rush to the office at four-ten for the four o’clock run.
“Coach, I am here for that early start.  Si ina anza saa kumi?”
“Very funny,” I responded.

We started the run at 4.20pm from the Generator.  I did not know who needed coaching amongst the two.  B was already a pacesetter in the marathon ranking, having smashed 80k by week 1.  The other B was just coming out of a malaria episode.  If anything, I only had a January 3 and January 20 scouting runs on this 21k route as the only noteworthy runs in the year.  I was already doubting my sanity in registering for the 1,000-miles-a-year online challenge, courtesy of the link from Edu.  I was already off the target just in month one!

We started the run as I took over the coaching role.
“We shall be taking it easy upto the highway.  However, when we cross over, we shall have to quicken it a bit.”
 

That is how the first phase of our run went.  Crossing the highway was however unforgiving, something that I had taken for granted.
“Wowi!, coach, how do you jump over this?,” she pointed at the barrier within the road, that separates the main road from the side road.
I wondered over the question for a moment.  I had already jumped over the half metre, knee high barrier.  I would in a moment see her struggle through a small gap within the barrier.  She finally managed to squeezer herself through.

We soon got to ‘the wall’, that barrier that is put in place to prevent anything wider than a meter to pass through, and just then…. just then we saw that infamous gate to our immediate right.  We would normally have turned right at this point and ran though the U-shaped loop.  Now we had to run straight ahead for about one-hundred metres, then make a right turn to do the reverse of this U-shaped route back to this locked gate.  We would then have to turn back after touching the gate on the other side of the gate.  

That is what we did.  

It did not take long before ‘good Samaritans’ stopped up on our tracks.
“Njia imefungwa.  Rudini,” the fight group of about three offered the helpful advice.  We deliberately ignored it.  They shook their heads behind our backs as they uttered their own reservations about ‘hao wajuaji, ngoja tu watarudi’. 

Soon another person would remind us that the road was closed and that we should turn back.  We ignored him as well.  We kept running towards the locked gate.  We would later ignore a third reminder as we now just faced the gate.  We touched the gate and turned back.  This turn back would have been the usual way of running had the gate not have been installed in that gap earlier on that day.

We kept running and got to Ndumboini, then faced the long Kanyariri road that runs all the way to Gitaru to join the Nakuru highway.  This is generally a hilly section that we faced and ran at our pace.  The weather was good.  The run was enjoyable.  

Jeff would overtake us just as we neared Gitaru market.  We waved him on as we kept going.  We walked as we reached Gitaru market and kept walking all the way to Wangige road, where we resumed our run on the Wangige road that is under construction.  We would use this route to circle Gitaru market then rejoin Kanyariri road for the run-down.

We met Edu coming up hill as we did our run-down.  We encouraged him up, while we ran down.  The pace increased as the run become more enjoyable.  Our legs would get to the tapping rhythm as we enjoyed the downhill.

“Hey, ningojeni!,” I thought that I heard, but maybe I just thought that I heard.
“Nyinyi wase, hamsikii.  Ningojeni!”
We turned back almost in unison, losing the rhythm of our run.  

We saw Janet frantically waving at us from behind.  We stopped and waited for her.  We exchanged niceties then resumed our run.  She wondered why her distance was still reading fifteen k on the ‘gadget’, yet ours was seventeen.
“Did you really do the loop?”
“Which loop?,” she asked in surprise.
“The changed loop.  The one I wrote on email.”
“Which email?”

I would have to describe the ‘locked-gate loop’ circuit even as we kept running.

It was finally over – the first international marathon of 2020 done and in good time.  We clocked 2hr 40min 18sec on a 21.85km distance.  We were already planning for the next international marathon which was not being received well from the onset, and B was not shy about it.
“You mean that you want to ‘spoil’ my Valentine with a run on fourteenth?”
*MoE = marathoners of expert.  The select committee that organizes the runs.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 27, 2020

Running with Valentine

Running with Valentine

Night
It is nine in the night.  I am glad the day has ended.  I still see reminders of the day that should end in a hurry.  Someone is still selling something on the roadside, illuminated by the tall post of the street light that he stands underneath.  I see what he is selling – I hear what he is selling…
“Maua, maua, za mwisho! Soo soo, kila moja,” he beckons.
Two passersby stop by the piece of sack that is holding the merchandise…
“Kadi, kadi, za mwisho! Finje, finje!,” he continues, encouraged.

I pass by to notice the spread.  A few cards, predominantly red.  A few flowers – obviously artificial, red.  It is night for crying out loud!  Shouldn’t the red day have ended by now!

Later on, I ponder over this red day and wonder what it is all about.

Sunday
My day started late, when I woke up at nine.  Being a Sunday, there was nothing much to do – just some cleaning, some black tea (that cannot be breakfast) and some Nigerian movie on AMC.  I watch especially being a Sunday, since most of the over one hundred channels on the digital tend to have one theme only – forgetting that some folks have their church day on any other day.

I left for the workplace to do some reading.  Passing by the roundabout I noted the vast display of red that jolted me back to reality.  What is this obsession with red?

At the workplace I found a paper that I remember leaving on my desk on Friday, for later reading.  The employer had set out some red day questions for its staff.  These were asked during the usually weekly Friday staff meeting, where announcements are made as staff partake a cup of tea.  The winners of the different gender categories won meal vouchers at some city joints.  I missed the session, as I was seeing red, but I got to see the questions list.

Discrimination
For the gents: 
Q1 - Which month is Valentine’s Day?  (Surely!  I know that menfolk have bad memories but that question is hitting below there.)
Ok, Q2 - What date is it?  (Aiaya yaya yaya yai!)
Q3 - How to you spell 14th.  (No comment on this)
Q4 - What colour is popular? (This is at least the first real question, knowing that menfolk are colourblind and all). 

Let me not be so hard on the sons of Adam and leave the other six questions on the list.  Turning to the daughters of Eve:
Q1 – In which play did Shakespeare mention St. Valentine? (You see the difference between Gents and Ladies questions?  Discrimination!  I shout to myself in the office – Thank heavens it is a Sunday and no one is around to check out the shout)
Q2 – Who is Valentine’s Day names after? (Discrimination!!)
Q3 – Where was the first Valentine’s Day card sent from? (Discrimination!  I told you!!)

I leave the other two, since I cannot allow this to continue!

I retired for bed around mid-night on Sunday, after keeping my work stuff on the red athletes bag ready for next day (that colour is crimson, not red).  Putting a side my red sweat shirt (that is surely scarlet, not red), and confirming that my red stripped ID is set on the table ready for next morning (that I know for sure, the stripe is burgundy, not red)

Just another year, another February 14th and another Valentine’s day – gone.

Barack Wamkaya Wanjawa, Nairobi, Kenya, February 15, 2016