Running two marathons in the name of MA+RA+TH+ON

Running two marathons in the name of MA+RA+TH+ON

Yesterday was a Sunday.  Sunday the twenty-third of May.  I know that date so well because I went to bed smiling, slept well, had sweet dreams and woke up today Monday still smiling.  This elation is unique.  It hardly happens.  And when it does, I usually know about it, and yesterday was one of such few days.  I knew that I was on top of the planet.

My marathon relay team of four had just conquered the world.  By random selection of team members by our NMMT organizer, we had somehow bonded, blended and beat the other teams in the NMMT formations.  It was something worth celebrating.  A conquest is a conquest, a victory is a victory.  Enjoy it.

The MA+RA+TH+ON event is a relay marathon formed by teams of four runners, each contributing 10.5km to sum-up the distance of the 42km full marathon.  The run is done by the individuals, at their own time, on their own routes, provided they do so within the 2-day weekend window.  For 2021, this run had to be done by the relay team members from zero hours Saturday, May 22 to midnight Sunday, May 23.

The problem with holding a run in two days is that each person runs on their own day and there is no stopping the early braggers from running their mouths after running their feet.  It is like facing one exam and being allowed to do it on different days, with those doing it first shouting about how they have passed!  Subjecting those who are yet to do that exam to so much pressure!

I had decided to contribute my 10.5km by running on a Saturday.  I did not want to risk it for Sunday and face all that pressure of running on the last day of the event.  I was already on maximum discouragement from seeing performance of others, even as I started the run at three.  By this time the early starters had already done their runs and posted their times.  They added injury to our legs by posting photos of their celebrations with nyama choma and chips, taken after their runs.  The run times already posted were just amazing.  Under 5s was all we could see on the WhatsApp postings.

I was doing this run for the team.  One of the few times in a marathoner’s life that you actually worry about someone else – three other people in this case.  A marathoner usually runs alone, for self-gratification and self-glory.  This NN-Maurten Running Team event was the only one that I know of, that had global following for organizing a marathon relay.  Our own marathoner Kipchoge was one of the promoters that was prominently shown on the NN-M frontpage of their website.  You cannot go wrong in a run with Kipchoge, can you?

I had already mapped my route during that mock run of Tuesday.  It was now just a matter of repeating the feat, without gadget failure, hopefully.  Talking about gadget failure brings me back to where I left off during that mock run (details here).  On that Tuesday the Strava app had failed and shutdown, not allowing me to know how much time, distance and average pace I had done for the mock.  I had seen a glimpse, but I would not have the opportunity to digest the details due to that app failure.

I was going to give Strava a second try despite that Tuesday letdown.  It was while starting the app in readiness for the Saturday real run that things happened.  The app started by showing a message that it was ‘recovering data’.  And… and sure enough, four days later, and Strava recovered the details of that Tuesday run, including time and map!  What a way to start a real run!?  

I however would be relying on it to do the right thing immediately by recording and saving the run on this Saturday.  Any stoppage and then recovering the run four-days later would not help, when I only had a two-day window to run and post the results with NN-M.  I did not even have much time to appreciate the stats of that mock run that turned out to be 13.12km at a 4.43km pace.  It was already time for the run.

I was readying myself for the real thing.  The mock did not count.  This Saturday’s run was all that mattered.  I was ready to give the team my very best contribution.  Same route, probably same effort, and maybe same or better average.  It is the average pace that would be posted online.  Additionally, the relay team’s performance would be based on the average of all their individual average speeds.  Did I not tell you that you cannot go wrong with Kipchoge?  When you have to do an average of the average?  What other way can one ever hope to have to be fair to all the teammates in this relay, other than this average of average?

The weather was just as good as it was on Tuesday, on this Saturday as I did the real run.  It was a bit sunny, despite the forecast having been cloudy.  I was already too deep in the run to even worry about the weather.  This was it!  I had to make it count.  Of course, I could have the opportunity to re-run the next day, in case something went wrong this Saturday, but I was not wishing for any repeat.  This was the run – the only run that would go to NN-M webpage.

The route had already been mapped on Tuesday.  I was just going on remote control, following the same paces, feeling the same runner fatigue and facing the same uphill and downhills.  From Uthiru to Ndumbo was a warmup phase.  I eventually started my Strava app just as I passed by Ndumbo market for the short downhill on Kanyariri road, before I would be encountering the long uphill that would generally take me all the way to Wangige road tarmac junction.  I was ready for this 5km uphill stretch.  It was the only one that I had to survive.  I would be OK after that, since it would then be smooth all the way down after that U-turn on Wangige tarmac.

I kept running without noticing much on the run route.  I finally got to the end of the loop.  It was the best U-turn that I ever did.  I was elated that I was now going back on a generally downhill all the way to the finish line for the NN-M event that was to hive off 10.5km from the longer route.  I was so relaxed on the way down Kanyariri road and would soon get to the junction to University farm where I was to turn left at this junction that we famously call ‘the tank’, due to… you guessed it, the tank that is prominently installed on the elevated metallic structure at this junction as you head to the Uni farm.

From my mock of Tuesday, I knew that the 10.5k point would be somewhere before reaching Mary Leakey school.  I powered the dimmed screen of the phone when I was at Kabete High School and glanced at the Strava app.  It was now showing 9.98km.  Perfect timing.  I now had just five-hundred metres to finish my marathon relay contribution.  I kept going towards the river that is at the lower turn of the road, where I once again looked at the information on the phone.  

It was now 10.45km.  Mary Leakey was just ahead to my right after a gentle uphill.  I had the liberty of stopping the timer in about fifty footsteps, which would be exactly on the 10.5km mark.  I instead decided to prolong the finish to just next to Mary Leakey School turnoff point.  I kept running even as I stopped Strava and saved the run.  It accepted to save without a problem as I kept running.

The MA+RA+TH+ON run had been done.  I however still have my usual run to do.  I was now going through the small Kabete shopping centre in readiness to join the Lower Kabete road for a run of about five minutes, before I get to Kapenguria road and turn right.  If Uthiru was nearer, then I would have reduced pace and probably walked home and started the celebrations for a run well done.  However, Uthiru was still over five kilometres away.  I just had to make the rest of the run still count, after all, my other timer in the name of Runkeeper was still active and timing.  This had not been stopped and it also expected me to record a good time on the longer 24km route that I was now doing.

Oh, that hill from the river, past Wangari Maathai institute to Ndumbo!  That almost 2km hill is a bad feature on that road!  I still had to face it despite the marathon relay conquest.  I could not wait for it to be finished, and finished it did after it had kept me sweating on it for over seven minutes!  Reaching Ndumbo was a relief, since Uthiru was now just on the other side of Waiyaki way right ahead.  I was however not doing any shortcuts and still had to prolong the run all the way to N-junction and Kabete Poly, before heading to the finish line.  

With the run done, I had to reflect on how the day had gone.  The 10.5km marathon relay, which was actually 10.8km had been a sweet run.  Strava had given me 49min 35s on that route, hence an average pace of 4:36/km was going to be posted on my team’s page on NN-M event webpage.  I had done my bit and I was happy with my input.  The full run over the 24km had been done in just under 2hours, with Runkeeper giving me a 4.48/km as the average pace.  Both runs went quite well.  Two marathons on the same day was unprecedented but nonetheless enjoyable.

While the Strava app automatically uploaded the results to my relay team page on the NN-M website, I did not post any ‘brag’ data on the social media circles.  I wanted all the team members to first do their runs by Sunday midnight before we could compare notes.  Two members of the team managed to run on Saturday, posting 4.36 and 5.16.  Our average was already 4.56/km by midnight of day 1.  We now just hoped that the other two would bring the run home for us.  I had monitored the social pages and the other teams were really struggling, after all, you cannot control the pace of your relay team members.  They just run their runs and you accept their results.

Then it came Sunday night and for sure all runs were now done in Kenya – at least the day time type.  With runs done, it was now time to confirm how the average paces were for all the various relay teams within our NMMT running group.  We also had to finally unveil our own performance for our ‘Team C’.  

It was Beryl of the now inactive B-and-B team who broke the news.

“Have you seen our performance?,” she sent a message on Signal, matter of fact, no greetings, no nothing.

“Hi there yourself,” I started, “I am waiting for one more team member to post his results”

“Coaches you can’t be serious!  All results are in.  We did it!”

I was taken aback.  I was for sure still waiting for Henry to post his results, after Charles, our other team member domiciled in TZ, had just posted his results.

“Let me check,” I responded on the Signal app and switched to the NN-M website and straight to the team page, which was permanently open on one tab of the browser.  I did not even refresh.  There it was – 

Your team: NMMT_TEAM_C_2021

Time: 5.07min/km average pace, 3.34.35 total time

Ranking: 813 worldwide overall, 396 in the category

Runners: (list of four)

With over 7,000 runners from 170 countries, we had surely outdone ourselves and made Kenya (and TZ) proud, considering that these were randomly assigned team members, each with their own paces.  3,900 teams participated in the event and the athletes covered 520,000km as per stats published on the same NN-M website.

Now you know why I went to bed on Sunday night with a smile that could not leave my face even when the new day started.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, May 24, 2021

Better be ready – of MA+RA+TH+ON preparation and gadgets that failed

Better be ready – of MA+RA+TH+ON preparation and gadgets that failed

There was nothing to celebrate during yesterday, Tuesday’s run, with corona infections having hit a new high of 164,994,625 and 3,421,329 deaths globally, and Kenyan numbers being 166,006 and 3,021 respectively.  I did not even feel like having this evening run in the first place.  What with the world and the country all gloomy with this COVID19 monster that was not being tamed anything soon?.  

Positive developments were nonetheless taking place.  Vaccines were starting to trickle through the world, though even our own second shot was now in doubt.  This was caused by the withholding of vaccine exports by India, the main manufacturer of vaccines that go to WHO’s COVAX (COVID19 Vaccines Global Access) scheme.  

India was having a surge in infections at their local level and were now prioritizing supplies to themselves first.  That second shot of the Covishield vaccine from Astra Zeneca was now being delayed from 8-weeks to 12-weeks since the first shot.  The certainty of even getting it in 12-weeks’ time was also in doubt.  With all these uncertainties, it was not a Tuesday that you would want to get out there and do your run…. but evening came and it was run time.

I was still feeling the pains of the last run of Sunday, hardly two days before, even as I setup to change into the run gear.  Nonetheless, a major international marathon relay in the name of MA+RA+TH+ON, was coming up.  This is a four-member team relay where each person contributes 10.5km to the team, to ultimately tally the total of 42km marathon distance.  I was already in a team and the event was beckoning.  The dates had already been cast in stone, being the weekend of May 22-23.  It was now a matter of making it count.

I would be using this Tuesday run as the last run before the weekend relay, while I also wanted to take advantage of the run to formulate a 10.5km route for the relay.  The challenge with our run routes from Uthiru is that none of them provides a flat terrain.  You are likely to encounter a hilly terrain anytime you run for over 1km in any direction from Uthiru.  Some hills are however worse, and you would want to avoid them when mapping an international competitive run on a 10.5km distance.  I was doing my mental calcs, but each span of 10.5km still ended up with over 3km of uphill somewhere along the route.

I had to accept the reality that I would have to run through some hills, and hence be forced into a reduced pace with would reduce my average speed, the very metric that really counted for the event.  I still wanted to scout the best of the existing bad options of run routes.  I then needed to take the five-day break after knowing my route, to then take a rest to enable me be at my peak strength come the weekend.  This Tuesday run was therefore a compulsory run, both to know a final route for the weekend and also to do a final run before the weekend.

I started the run at four, and carried with me one gadget with two timing apps – the Runkeeper that had now become the default since the collapse of Endomondo, and a second Strava app, being the official app for use during the weekend relay event.  I wanted to test Strava app in advance and confirm that it worked well and would be up to the task come the weekend.  You can imagine the frustration of trying an app that fails during an international event, where a team of another three rely on your contribution to relay and shall make the marathon successful.  It can be a disaster.

My plan was to start off on Runkeeper and have it time and map the whole run, from start to finish.  It always worked well and has hardly let me down (apart from the occasional incorrect starting point, which can easily be fixed by a simple editing of the saved map).  Then, I would start the Strava at some point on the route, for timing through the 10.5km section, then stop it after that section was recorded.  While Runkeeper is a faithful servant, Strava on the other hand is unforgiving in terms of mapping.  Unless you have the professional subscription version, you are stuck with a wrong map that cannot be edited.

I did not expect much in terms of differences on this run compared to my Sunday run.  I was still tired but my day’s run was mainly concerned about the 10.5km section that I had mapped in my mind.  Unfortunately, that 10.5km section meant that I had to still do the long run, and carve out a section of that long run.  I had to carefully figure out a section that was not as bad of the rest of the route, in terms of few hilly terrains.

I eventually started the Strava at Ndumbo, after having ran from Uthiru, crossing Waiyaki way and then running the length of the tarmac to Ndumbo market.  Instead of going down Kapenguria road as I would usually do, I decided to turn left onto Kanyariri road and kind of do a reverse of the usual run.  I usually avoid this reverse loop due to the Wangari Maathai hill that a runner has to face on their way back, when they are tired, as they climb it towards Ndumbo.  I would have to just face my avoidance on this Tuesday.

I started my Strava as I went down the hill after Ndumbo market.  I already knew that this downhill would soon come to an end, and I would then face the uphill section that first gets you to the ‘the tank’, then the mild uphill that goes as far as Kanyariri road shall take me.  Being psychologically prepared helped me out as I faced the hills.  The weather was a bit sunny, but not hot.  The road was fairly deserted, with the occasional one vehicle every kilometre or so.

I kept running and the pace felt comfortable enough.  Nothing out of the ordinary, just another evening run.  My plan was to try and avoid the sudden hill near ACK Kanyariri church as you head to the market.  Instead, I planned to turn right, and use this alternative road that eventually gets to Wangige road.  The last time I used this road must have been during the Divas International Marathon of early 2019.  I could hardly remember its ‘hilliness’, but I thought that it was a bit easier that the usual straight Kanyariri road to the Gitaru market.

My Strava was still on, so was Runkeeper, though I usually do not check on the gadgets when I run.  I use the gadgets to time my run.  I do not run to ‘please’ the gadgets.  I know of a colleague who worships his gadgets and control his every run.  He can even come to a stop if the gadgets say so.  Not me.  I already knew that they were working on the background of the phone that I carried with me, and I did not bother look at them at all.  The time to look at them would come, especially for the Strava timer that was on a mission for a specific distance.

My plan was to turn to the right at that junction, then go for about 5minutes, to any turning point, then start the run back.  And that is what I did.  I turned right and started running on that road.  It was also fairly deserted.  I was not looking at the gadgets, and my five-minute run was to be based on instinct.  I kept running, waiting for instinct to raise the alarm on the five minutes point.  I got to some shopping centre and felt shame-on-myself to just doing a U-turn in the crowds, and so I kept going and passed the crowd.  I just kept going waiting for an opportune time to do the U, but it never came.

Behold!  It came as a surprise when I started making out the new Wangige road flying over just ahead, about two-hundred metres from where I was!  This was not the plan.  I had not intended to hit this point.  I should have turned back before reaching this point.  It was not too late!  I just had to be ‘polite’ to go all the way to near the highway and do a U-turn at that point.  Why I had failed to get my initially intended U-turn point earlier on the run remains a mystery.  Sometimes instinct can go to sleep, just believe me.

This alternative right-turn road turned out not to be as mild as I thought.  It was still hilly, though the hilly sections were shorter.  The U-turn at the highway was quite a relief, since I now knew that I was on my way back home.  My timers were assumedly still working, and I did not make a check at them anyway.  I started running back on the hills and downhills until I rejoined Kanyariri road at the new centre at the crossroad, where we now have nyama choma fumes that knocks out even the most resilient of runners.  I quickly passed by the smoky roadside and started my way down Kanyariri road.

The relative downhill was smooth and I enjoyed this part of the run.  I would eventually get to ‘the tank’, where I had to turn left and join the route through the university farm.  It was also relatively downwards all the way.  My mental route calculation had convinced me that I would hit the 10.5km around the Kabete Children’s home on Kapenguria road once I turn right from Lower Kabete road.  I would by then be through with the uni farm and passed Mary Leakey school to emerge at Lower Kabete road.  However, with that extra distance that I had gone after missing my initially intended U-turn, I believed that the 10.5km mark should have been somewhere on the Lower Kabete road section, give or take.

I was therefore checking my Strava as I joined Lower Kabete road, expecting to see something like ten-point-something kilometres, when I saw an 11.5km.

“No way!,” I said loudly, reducing my pace in the process, as the evening business traffic saw lots of vehicles zoom on both directions of Lower Kabete road.  

It would surely be too soon to hit such a distance, in my view, but maybe my body clock was already improperly tuned on this day anyway!  I was however still convinced that Strava must have failed me for some reason.  I was nonetheless not waiting to find out what was going on.  I still had a run to finish, and that finish was still over 7km away.

I kept running and finally stopped the Strava timer at the river, past Kabete Children’s home.  That was the place I thought the 10.5km should have ended, based on initial calculations, disregarding that extra run past the initially intended U-turn.  I momentarily saw a distance of about 12.5km with an average pace of 4min 45sec per km.  I put Strava on stop mode and continued the uphill run on Kanyariri road, to eventually pass Wangari Maathai institute and then get back to Ndumbo.

From there I could see the end in sight, just on the other side of Waiyaki way.  And for sure the run would come to an end soon.  I was relatively well energized even after the run.  The Runkeeper kept a record of 24.5km, but the average pace is what I was not expecting – 4.59min per km.  That was the first under five that I was recording on this or any other route in over three months.  This run that I had done with a laissez-faire attitude is the one that actually turned out to be a record-breaking run.  I now really wished that the MA+RA+TH+ON was happening on this Tuesday!

I learnt the lesson that in running there was probably no ideal day.  You shall break records on the least expected of days.  Preparation remains key, but you never know for sure when you shall shatter your own ceiling.  Keep running with an open mind, knowing that anything was possible.  Talking of anything being possible, that Strava app would later in the day give me the dreaded ‘app has stopped working’ error with the only option being to close the app.  That closure of the app took with it my MA+RA+TH+ON mock time and distance.  I would never know for sure what Strava had in store for me.  Now I was happy that the MA+RA+TH+ON was not happening on this Tuesday!

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, May 19, 2021

Waiting six months for nothing

Waiting six months for nothing

Today is a Wednesday.  CV infections are 7,403,022 with 416,568 deaths as per worldometers.  WHO is more conservative with 7,145,539 and 408,025.  There has been debate about the source and authenticity of these numbers, but let us not dwell on that for now… Infections are in the millions and fatalities are in the almost half million.  

It rained most night and most morning.  It was still drizzling while I made my way to the starting line for the lunch hour run.  I was having second thoughts about even taking this run.  I was being forced to this run since those 1,000 miles in 2020 were now beckoning.  If anything, a new quest for 1,500 miles was in the offing.

I looked up at the clouds and the waters hit my projected face.  The drizzle was still real and the time was exactly noon.  I was just about to be happy that I was not going to run, when the drizzle stopped before my very eyes and the weather become still.  It was cold.  The horizons of Ngong hills and city centre was engulfed in white haze.  It looked like it was raining over there, some ten or so kilometres off to the horizon.  At that rate, if true, then it would just be a matter of time before the rains started pounding this part of the city once more.

There was no time to second guess my decision.  I was soon out of the block and started off my three gadgets.  Yes, three – two cells and the newbie wrist strap bracelet that had just arrived last week.  This is a gadget that I had waited for since January.  I made the first order online in late January.  By then CV was not a threat at all.  Starting with first data of 41 infections and 1 death on Jan. 11, the world had just moved to 854 cases and 24 deaths as at January 24 – mostly all in China.  The rest of the world was safe, with no worries.  International travel by air or otherwise was still going on as usual.

I had ordered the gadget through an online agent, but by the time they firmed up the order in February, the shippers at China were already facing a lockdown.  Shipment of exports from China was starting to be delayed.  I was asked to wait for 2-months!  Which was quite something.  It would normally take three weeks max to get something from there.  I waited and finally in March, just after the Kili marathon, I did get my item… or rather an empty package.

It took me two weeks to get my refund after returning the empty packet, even as we started the month of April.  By then Kenya was already on curfew and lockdown.  The world had recorded 827,404 cases of CV with 40,712 deaths as at April 1.  Kenya had recorded 59 cases with 1 fatality by that date.  International shipping was a pain, now that air transport had ground to a halt in most countries including Kenya.  

The exception remained cargo, but the cargo was now moving around quite slowly on the now clear airspaces.  A re-order of a similar item in early April resulted into an ‘out of stock’ notification after two weeks of waiting.  A third order of the gadget in mid-April resulted into almost two months of waiting.  I was given an approximate receiving date of June 1 – imagine, April 15 to June 1!  Even a ship could have traversed the waters from China to Mombasa in less than that period!!  But I waited.  There was nothing to do but wait.

Last week the gadget finally arrived – after waiting since January!  And… and it did disappoint!  I had expected that I would put an end to running with the two cells, which I do due to their route mapping ability and the maps can subsequently be exported and shared.  This feature is was the features page of the gadget had promised, “… has GPS to track and map the run...”

The bracelet has GPS alright, but there is no way of keeping it on.  You switch it on and when you move to the next button, you find that it has gone back off.  There is no way of starting your run on the GPS screen.  Means that when you just press a button to get you off GPS screen and onto the ‘start’ button for the run, the GPS is off already!  And the distance that the gadget gives, without GPS is always 50% more that the true distance.

Take the Sunday run for example.  That date of the international MA-RA-TH-ON.  The day when four athletes had to form a relay team and each contribute a 10.5km run that should then add all up to equal a full marathon, within the hours of June 6 midnight to June 7 midnight.  I was already tired from the Friday run, and hence did not have the strength for a run on June 6.  I decided to go for it on Sunday June 7.  I would only be doing the 10.5km contribution to my relay team, and be done.

I had mapped the run on Google maps and knew exactly how many loops I had to do at the Vet-loop and be back to the finish line after conquering exactly 10.5km.  I left to start the run with the usual two cells, one running Endomondo, the other Runkeeper.  I had already tried to see if Strava can be of use on one of the cells, but it persisted on the ‘No GPS’ screen for too long that I had to give up on it and use the alternative apps.  

Despite this, the MA-RA-TH-ON event was being tallied on Strava, and they had already cautioned that ‘… all runs on Strava shall automatically be recorded as part of the event’.  I had thought that was quite stringent, and discriminatory, in the world where run apps come in all manner of names and can usually export a map that is then available for consumption by any other app.  

In fact, this is what consoled me even as I abandoned Strava.  I knew that I could easily import the run data from Endo or RK onto Strava.  I had already done this data exchange for the three runs of June.  I therefore knew for sure that Stava was capable of ingesting run data from any other app.  I was not worried any bit about recording my fast 10.5km onto Strava… and… onto the international relay aka MA-RA-TH-ON.

The third gadget on this Sunday run was ‘the gadget’, the very wrist strap bracelet that does not seem to keep GPS on.  I had already set GPS on, and pressed the other button to get me to the run start screen.  I could see the GPS icon flashing on the starting screen, which I later read on the manual meant that GPS had not yet ‘locked’.  A polite way of saying, ‘no GPS’.  

No GPS meant, the run could not be tracked using satellite, hence it is not possible to map, or distance the run.  But I still gave it the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe the GPS signal would be acquired within the run duration, after all, the mid-day weather was quite bright with a good level of sun due to absence of any cloud cover.  The day had all the ingredients of GPS signal availability.  But do not just take my word for it, the two other run gadgets had full (green level) GPS signal strength.

I finished my MA-RA-TH-ON just after one-thirty.  I stopped my three gadgets.  The apps were in full agreement – 10.54km in 47m44s – a 4m32s per km.  That run took a toll on me!  I am not sprinting any more such runs in a while.  I immediately uploaded the run data to Strava online and it graciously accepted.  I then looked at the ‘challenges’ page on Strava, and the message was still, 

‘You have registered for one challenge MA-RA-TH-ON and 0 challenges completed’

“What?,” I shouted to the screen while at the empty office.  

Sweat was still dripping from my forehead and arms and now soaking the desktop.

I refreshed the webpage.  The message remained at 0 done.

I logged out and logged back to Strava.  The message remained 0 events done.  

At the same time, the same app indicated the 10.54km done, under my list of events, but it did not seem to get this event into the list of challenges done.

I was still all sweaty and wondering whether I actually needed to time my run with Strava only for the run to count into the relay challenge.  I would really have let my team down if I failed to bring forth my 10.5km to the table.  But, I had not failed to bring the distance to the table.  I had done it.  I had witnesses.  I was sweating profusely for crying out loud, if that was not witness enough!  

Endomondo was my witness!  

Runkeeper was my witness!  

Even Strava was my witness!!  

All these apps were showing a BIG congratulatory message for the fastest run in 2020 – but the challenge was still indicating a 0 done!  How unfair?

I really contemplated taking another 10.5km run – if that is what it would take to get the distance registered as part of my contribution to the relay team.  However, after some denial phase, I came to the acceptance that my fate was sealed.  I had done my run, it is only that fate had conspired against me, to deny me an opportunity to contribute the distance to the kitty of the international relay.  

I had now made up my mind – I was not repeating the run.  If the distance and time would not count, so be it.  If I had already stopped doing things for CV aka TT, what about the relay?  There was no real prize anyway, just bragging rights over a fast average pace.  I could skip that and not lose any sleep.  I was in fact even happy that my ‘miserable’ speed would not be up for debate on Whatsapp, as it would not count in the discussions of who was who.

It was now just past two, when I had to make full disclosure on the marathoners Whatsapp group.

“Sorry team members.  I did the run using Runkeeper and imported the data to Strava.  Unfortunately, Strava has failed to recognize this run as part of the challenge.  I tried but it is too late to do anything about it.  Once more, sincere apologies to the relay team.”

A few chat exchanges later and….

“It is taking time for Strava to update the data.  Just wait.  I had to wait myself,” a fellow runner in the group would provide the insight.

At three my data was uploaded to the challenge.  By three I had also confirmed that the bracelet gadget had recorded a distance of 16km in 47min45sec.  Why I waited for six months to get nothing still puzzles me.

I shake my head as I head for the showers…. That shaking of head is today, Wednesday, after the lunch hour run that had been rained in advance.  The very run that took me through the muddy Vet-loop and equally muddy trail from Mary Leakey school through the University farm, all the way to the tarmac as I joined Kanyariri tarmac.  The run was difficult.  Running on mud is difficult.  The very run that tested the three gadgets once more, with the bracelet recording a ‘fake’ 36.8km in 2hr 3min 34sec.  The other two recorded the expected 24 point something km in the exact same time.

Why I waited for six months to get nothing still puzzles me.  I shake my head as I head for the showers….

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 10, 2020