The run that I did not finish… almost

The run that I did not finish… almost

Runs can be mean!  And no other run has turned out to be meaner than the August international marathon of Friday, August 25, 2023.  This was meant to be a run like any other.  I had already done seven other similar runs and they had all turned just fine.  I did not think anything of this eighth run on the 2023 calendar.  If anything, my last run early in this same month had been a 30k on the same route within 2hr 43min, and it came and went without much ado.

That last run had been my motivation as a prepared for this August run.  My mind was already preparing for a repeat of this 30.  My scheme was to do a 42k full marathon this Friday.  Let me explain….

I had started my day by walking to a medical centre at Kangemi on Waiyaki way.  It was a routine 3km walk to the centre and another three back.  Something had, however, been off with that particular visit.  I had arrived early, as early as nine, and found the centre just preparing to start their operations, which they should have started at eight.  I even picked ticket numero uno.

I was momentarily at the pharmacy, where I presented my medical card and started waiting for the attendant to finally call me up.  The centre had gone paperless and I therefore did not have a prescription to present.  It was somewhere doing rounds ‘in the system’.  He called me up at some point, after a forever wait.  He soon pointed to some paper and asked me to sign.  He then asked me to pick my card as he presented back one copy of the signed receipt.

The procedure did not seem right, but I still picked up the card.  I was just about to leave, when I decided to ask him if he had done any billing.  I know the billing process should have required the scanning of a fingerprint and all, which had not happened yet.

“Oh em gee!,” he exclaimed, “Imagine, I forgot!  Place the card on the reader again.”

I was taking my black tea some one hour later after that event that it dawned on me that that pharmacist had not given me the medicine.  It was therefore with lots of curses that I did another 3k walk back to Kangemi to go and get the medicine, before I ‘cursingly’ walked another three back to the office.  Anyway, bad things happen to even good people, so it was just one of those bad days.

I took a lunch hour coffee while still feeling good and ready for the run.  I had already registered 12km on my legs so far, and was already scheming to add another 30k run to the mix.  That would give me the magical 42k – a full marathon all in one day!  Can there be any other better day than this?

I started the run at 1600 hours.  Mathew had already informed me that he was not joining in.  It was therefore going to be a lonely run, but a runner gotta do what a runner gotta do, so it was all well.  The weather was just perfect.  Just a bit of sun, but not that type of sun that burns.  It was the type that jus keeps you warm.  The air was still.  I wished it was a bit windy, but not today.  I would have to run on the still heated air but with a moderate solar heat, so not bad.

My troubles started on the fifth kilometre as I was running downhill towards Wangari Maathai institute on Kapenguria road, after having gone past Kabete Poly, crossed the Waiyaki way and had joined Kapenguria road.  I had already passed through the Ndumboini stage and survived the matatu and motorbike madness that keeps that road junction impassible.

Contrary to expectations, running downhill is never easy.  However, it should also not be very tedious.  In my case I could hardly ‘roll’ down.  My legs started developing a strange sense of tiredness.  I did self-talk to the effect that the downhill would soon come to an end, and I would eventually face the uphill towards Lower Kabete road.  It did not get better.  The uphill became worse than I thought.  It was just painful climbing that hill, where I was sprinting hardly twenty days ago.

Another self-talk propelled me upto Lower Kabete road and I did the left turn to run on the mild hill towards the rough road to Mary Leakey school and eventually to the University farm.  It got worse!  Worse I tell you!  And it did not improve, it kept getting worse!

My legs could hardly move, even as I finally crossed through the Uni farm and emerged at the tank on Kanyariri road tarmac.  It is at this point that I almost just turned back to my left to get to Ndumboini and back to the finish.  But even that very thought was a bit of a stretch!  My real intention was just to DNF* at this point and take a motorbike back, and there were plenty waiting at the roadside boda boda stage.

*DNF – ‘did not finish’, one of those things that happen to others, and you wish does not happen to you

I looked at my timer.  It had recorded just 13k.  Here I was ready to stop my run at just 13k!  I was not going to think any twice about this decision.  This was it.  I had had it for the day.  Of course, I could try and squeeze some run into the equation and run the about 4k back to the finish and register a 17k marathon.  But any thought of the way ‘run’ was just painful at this point.  However, it is this very thought of doing ‘just 17k’ that shamed me into action.  I do a 17 on a typical lunch hour run!  How can I register the same on a monthly international marathon?

I found myself caught up between a ‘13k DNF’, a ‘17k marathon’ or doing something about this run to still salvage it.  My mind instructed me to salvage it and forced my hardly movable legs into action.  I turned right and continued onto Kanyariri road, counting every painful step as I went along.  For the first time I kept a close watch on my watch, waiting for a 15k turnback point to eventually show up on the screen.  I was going to make a turnback at 15k and be heading back home, if I was even going to get to that point.  It was that bad!

I finally, amid hardly-movable legs, made a U-turn at the 15k mark somewhere along Kanyariri road and started running back towards Ndumboini.  My legs were tired and painful with every step.

“What did I get myself into,” I found myself saying out loudly at some point as I faced the Ndumboini hill.

“What did I get myself into,” I kept repeating audibly as the hill slowed me down almost to a standstill.

It is now about two weeks later, but I cannot tell you how I even managed to finish that run.  I do not know what was happening to me on that day.  I just know that I eventually reached the finish after 21.15km in 2.04.44, recording my PW (personal worst time).  I was just a few more steps before I could have collapsed.  I am glad that I finished run before this happened.  On reflection, I now know that even those 12km walks that I did earlier in the day counted.  I had initially assumed that they would have no bearing on my performance but I was wrong.  Even a seasoned runner can be wrong.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Sep. 8, 2023

The costly price of cheap unga

The costly price of cheap unga

I have now proved that the extra germ in my body is doing wonders.  I say this because I have broken run record after run record since that booster shot number 2 of COVID19 vaccine.  I so far have a total of four shots in the arm for this virus, three on the left and one on the right arm.  All this as global infections* of corona virus disease reaches 576,581,896 infections and 6,405,982 deaths.  Kenyan numbers are so far 337,389 and 5,672 respectively.  

*source: worldometers website

Nonetheless, corona is now virtually over and a forgotten disease.  It has been overtaken by other global problems including lack of food (grains), blamed on the Ukraine-Russia war that started mid-February.  Other issues include flooding, drought and wildfires, blamed on global warming.  Corona and COVID19 are no longer the ‘in thing’.  So, I did the 5-in-5 event last week, that is, 5-runs-in-5-days.  However, this time I did it on the longer 15-17km route on the Mary Leakey loop.  The average speeds started at 5.07 (15.4km), 5.03 (17.11km), 5.00 (17.13km), 5.01 (17.14km), 4.59 (17.14km).  Yesterday, was a Monday and I still added another run on the route getting to 4.49 (17.16km).  

All these runs were not for bragging rights, far from it.  These were experimental runs.  I was in the running lab, out there on the road, to confirm that the corona vaccinations, the booster to be specific, worked and had added an extra shot of energy in my runs.  Nonetheless, we still have a fast run, in the name of the July International marathon.  Let this run confirm that my experiment is true, as I take the body for a ‘sprinters delight’ July marathon, where runners are expected to run their fastest over the 21km distance.

However, there is no guarantee that my so far successful experiment with good runs shall continue for long.  This is because of the new global challenges which now exclude COVID19.  The cost of food stuff has been rising continually in the last two months.  While a kilo of our very lifeline staple food, unga, was retailing at 50/= hardly one-month ago, it had risen steadily and even had doubled already by last week.  In fact, it was even virtually impossible to get that maize flour at even the doubled price.  It was heading to triple, all this while, the income levels had remained the same.  This unga thing was going to be a big issue and I had even seen a news clip on Aljazeera about Kenya and the unga crisis.  Of course, that clip showed a demonstration that was taking place in the city streets where the people were protesting these very high prices of unga.

It was therefore a sigh of relief when the president just last week issued an executive order that the price of maize flour ‘be and is hereby reduced to 100/= for a 2kg packet of unga, in the whole territory of the republic of Kenya with immediate effect’.  That was a big announcement.  It was a life changer.  We would at least start eating.  I was getting tired of starving on rice and other starches.

I visited my local supermarket that is just in front of my living quarters last week, a day after the announcement, and was not surprised to find no packet of maize flour that was retailing at the new prices.  The cheapest 2kg packet was still selling at 206/=.  I gave it an ‘ignore’ and believed that there must have been some ‘clearing of old stocks’ thing going on first.  I visited the same supermarket over the weekend and the situation was the same – same old prices, no new prices.  I even visited an outlet of a major, sorry, the major supermarket chain in Kenya, at Adams Arcade same weekend and as sure as there is global warming, there was no cheap unga!  All branded packets were retailing at over 200/= per 2kg pack.

What is going on?  How can the big boss of the whole country give a decree, and no one obeys him?  It was just yesterday that someone whispered to me that he had seen cheap unga somewhere in Kangemi.  I took it upon myself to check this out and went to a supermart branded ‘friendly’.  I was surprised to see an advert for 2kg pack for 100/= placed somewhere outside the store and for sure when I went in, I did get the cheap unga available.  What a relief!

I picked some five packets and was just about to make my way to the cashier when some supermarket attendant called me back and beckoned me to the unga section of the store.  I assumed that he wanted to persuade me to buy some more.

“Ni mbili tu,” he said.

It took me some interpretation to decipher what he was saying.

“Nini mbili?”

“Unga ni mbili tu.  Kastoma wanachukua mbili tu”

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, July 26, 2022

Did the 5-runs affect me? - Of records and a 6th run

Did the 5-runs affect me? - Of records and a 6th run

Today was another run day Monday, though we are on the countdown to the forthcoming marathon a/k/a the Divas International marathon scheduled for Friday, June 24.  This ‘divas’ is part of the series of monthly half marathons organized by the MOE*.  It is budded ‘divas’ since the gals are given the leeway to formulate and come up with the run logistics and rules for the day.  As we waited for the ruleset, and still being pained by the 5-runs-in-5-days challenge of last week, I did decide to bring some life back the aching legs on this Monday by doing yet another run.
*MOE = marathoners of expert, the committee that organizes run events for the group

I would normally take a week’s break before a major run, but I just needed to straighten the legs on this Monday.  Maybe those daily runs had addicted my legs, since I had felt restless through the day that even the 6km morning walk to Kangemi and back did not do much to quench the feeling.  This morning’s walk was the second such walk to Kangemi in as many days.  The walk on Saturday was full of time wasting.  

I had gone for some medication at Mt. View mall only to be told to wait for the pharmacist who had ‘fallen ill and gone to hospital elsewhere’ as had been announced by the medical personnel to try and appease the patients whose patience was running out.  I would wonder why a worker at the hospital would be seeking medical help from somewhere else.  Did they not trust their own docs?  What about us?  But I did not wonder for long.  I recall that during one of those regular doctors’ strikes of two years ago they had lamented that they were too broke to even afford treatment in their own hospitals.  This revelation still seemed contradictory.  Even thinking of a doctor falling ill, or being treated by another doctor is just mindboggling.

The pharmacy guy would finally match in at around one.  There was already a pile of prescriptions even as I added my own to that full tray.  The pharma person proceeded to start dispensing, even before he could have a breather to put on those white coats that intimidate.  It wat not until two-thirty that I was called to the counter to be told that the medicine was out of stock and that I should go back on Monday.  No apology, no nothing.  

But that did not even come close to the encounter that I had had with the doctor around twelve-thirty on the same day.  He called my name in some mumbled unclear pronunciation that I just guessed must be me, and I even had to reconfirm with him when I got to the consultation room.  After a casual nod to confirm the name, he looked at the file without a glance in my direction and proceeded to write whatever he was writing.
“Take this to the pharmacy,” he concluded, still glued to the file.  It is only his hand that waved the small A5 duplicated paper in my direction.  His rest of body remained on the file.

What happened to good old doctor-patient interrogations?  When you were asked real questions and probed deep until all your secrets, medical or otherwise are laid out in the open?  What is the world coming to when our docs are shy and robotic in their actions?  

What become of the QAs?
“Do you have any question for me?,” I loved that question from some doc in February, just four months ago.  All that was now gone.

Well, believe it or not, I had gone back to the same medical institution on this Monday with that A5 paper and still got a non-apologetic out-of-stock response.  At least the madam at the pharmacy had some semblance of courtesy by taking my phone number and promised to call me when the drugs were availed ‘within the day, by two’.

Do I need to say that it is now nearly midnight and I am yet to receive that phone call?

Anyway, back to the lunch hour when the body had ached for a run and I just left for the run at 12.45pm without much prodding.  I just followed the route of the ‘5-runs’ of last week.  The sun was on and off.  The route remained the same, with that almost 2km of hill from the river past Wangari Maathai institute all the way to Ndumboni, still proving to any runner that they are nothing on that terrain.  Nonetheless, it was just a day to enjoy the run and I could feel it.

The reward would come at the end of the run when I recorded a sub-5 average, with a 13.16km run in 1:05:21.  Probably the first sub-5 this year.  Maybe those ‘5-runs’ did something to me?  Let me put the ‘new me’ to the test come Divas international of Friday, June 24.  The run where the gals set rules and the rule they have finally set is…. ‘no rules’.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 20, 2022

Birthday runs are not sustainable… just believe me when I say

Birthday runs are not sustainable… just believe me when I say

I have never had a busy Thursday such as what I had yesterday.  I had a meeting that was to have ended at one, but for my intervention to cut it short at 12.30pm.  I was then to send a surprise birthday present to the upcoming runner, WWB junior, who was turning a half-marathon.  My plans were to dash to Ruiru to deliver the package, then be back to the start line by four.  However, the timings did not seem to work as planned.

I was at Ruiru just about three, delivered my present in a hurry, and started my travel back.  Travel on Thika road towards city centre was quite smooth and I was starting to be confident that I would make it back to Uthiru by four.  My confidence would however soon wane when I got to the globe cinema roundabout, where the matatu came to a standstill on top of the flyover.  The road was jampacked.  I could see the fire station just ahead, besides which I would be getting my next matatu, but here I was, stuck in a long queue of vehicles in three lanes on top of the giant roundabout.

“I shall not make it for this run,” I told myself.

The jam would soon ease allowing us to disembark at Latema road, and I would momentarily get my next matatu at about three-thirty.  Maybe I would make it to Uthiru in time for the run after all.  I was once more relaxed as we left the city and headed to Waiyaki way.  Then it happened again.  We were soon in another big traffic jam that ran from Westlands all the way to ABC centre.  Though it eased after ABC, it was already heading to four-thirty.

“I shall not make it for this birthday run,” I told myself once again.

The matatu moved quite fast after Kangemi and I found myself alighting at Uthiru just about four-forty.  The earliest that I could start the run was now probably five or thereabout, and I already had a bad experience last Monday when I had a five o’clock run.  Would I dare a late evening run for a second time in a week?  Would that not be one dare too much!

I did dare the run anyway, starting off at five just as it started to drizzle.  It was just like Monday repeating itself, since on that day I had been rained on, though that rain started off about fifteen minutes into the run.  Today it was drizzling ab initio, from the first second.  I was already set for the run and nothing was stopping this run.  Did I even have a choice?  Today was the birthday day, and a birthday date is always fixed on a particular date, isn’t it?

The drizzle was however gone by the time I was crossing Waiyaki way to start my run towards Ndumboini, hardly fifteen minutes into the run.  It turned out that there was no rain at all for the rest of the run.  It was even a relief that the University farm earth road was even dry, the very road that got me stuck on Monday.

I was on the same route on this Thursday, similar to the run of Monday.  I was running from Uthiru to Lower Kabete road, then diverting to the University farm past Mary Leakey school, then finally joining Kapenguria road at the tank all the way to the U-turn some 3km ahead, then back.  The run was smooth and fairly enjoyable.  Maybe it was just enjoyable because I had no choice on this, and the more I enjoyed it the better I would survive it.

Just as it was no Monday, I would finish the run when it was already dark, just past seven.  I was to commemorate a twenty-one for the young upcoming runner and I did that half-marathon for this occasion, even managing to add an extra three ks for her benefit.

However, the lesson today is about these so-called ‘birthday runs’.  These runs are completely unsustainable.  I was on full struggle yesterday doing that half-marathon, simply because I was helping someone commemorate her twenty-first birthday.  Any run over 10km is already a struggle as it is.  By the time you get to the ‘Teenage runs’, you already need proper planning.  Additionally, these are not your typical everyday run.  Past teenage and you really need to think twice about whether you really want to commemorate a birthday with a run after all.  

Imagine how worse birthday runs get once you try being good to someone past-teenage years?  How about when they hit half-marathon and beyond!  That is not even all, birthday runs go to full-marathons and beyond.  I have already mentioned that any run after 10km is quite something.  A half-marathon is not your everyday run.  A full marathon is a run in just a different territory.  

Doing halfs and fulls and anything in between and even beyond, for purposes of helping people celebrate their birthday, is good motivation… but not is sustainable.  The body can only take so much, and you only have one body.  There is no second chance to replenish the body once you get it overworked.  My marathoners group even sums all birthday years and asks members to run that total number of kilometres, singly or within the month!

Nonetheless, I have good news for all those who commemorate birthdays by doing such ‘birthday runs’.  Do you recall that age is nothing but a number?  Why not run any distance that you want when you are commemorating someone’s birthday?  Just do your comfortable distance and then tell the person, “According to me, you are only ten years old, and I did a 10km run for you.”

Problem solved.

Alternatively, good old cake for a birthday still works – whether you are giving or partaking.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, May 7, 2021

Ndakaini 3 – New Route, same route

Ndakaini 3 – New Route, same route

Breaking
“Give me some of that,” I thought I heard that.
“Please give me some of that,” I looked back just in time to see someone point on the ground next to where I was seated.
“Take some,” I gestured, pointing at the meter long stalk.
“Mmmhhh, Aishhhh,” he tried to break a piece, but nothing happened.

I could see the struggle, he was not going to make any headway in his struggle.  While maintaining my sitting position, I took the stalk from him and gave it one jolt on a joint using my right knee.  A node on the third segment that received the bulk of the pressure gave way with just one pressed knee.  I peeled out the final strip from the bigger piece and handed over the now free piece to the stranger.
“Thanks”, he struggled to say, as he lazily, sluggishly, almost absent mindedly walked away.
That was a typical marathoner, a typical Kenyan – a comrade, a fellow athlete, who had survived another Ndakaini run.  

I continued chewing on the sugarcane.  The once full length was about ninety centimeters.  I had already chewed over four segments, each about ten centimetres.  Another three had been given off to my strange comrade.  I still have many more segments to go, so I chewed away, throwing the chaff onto the grass on my feet.  I was enjoying the shady roadside next to the Nairobi Water Reservoir pumping station and main compound.  Through the live fence I could see through to the vast waste mass on the Ndakaini dam – just part of the 3 square kilometers of 70M cubic meters of water.  The very lake that had formed the circuit of the marathon that I had finished some one hour ago.  It was about eleven thirty and the sun was hot!

I chewed away….

The day started when the alarm woke me up at four-fifteen.  The flask that had preserved the hot water from previous night was at the table ready for me to make a quick cup of cocoa.  I slipped into my blue shorts and the Ndakaini branded run Tshirt.  I had already affixed runner number 2003 on the garment the previous night.  These are the 1-2-3 that any seasoned runner knows must be done the night prior.

I woke up the watchman at 4.30am, to open up the gate to enable me leave the apartment block.  I hit the highway five minutes later.  It was pitch dark.  I could see the double headlights of vehicles come close and zoom past.  Matatus were already beckoning passengers that early, though none was ready to leave the stage.  Finally, a completely empty one passed by and noticed my gesturing silhouette.  It braked and reversed to my position.  I jumped in and it zoomed off towards Kangemi.  

After the Kangemi flyover, it stopped, the makanga jumped out and then started beckoning for passengers.  I was there, and I tell you there was no one near the stage.  Who was the makanga calling out for?  Was he serious?  When the clock hit six, after fifteen minutes of waiting, I jumped out, paid the ten bob fare and decided to look around for any other vehicle that would get me out of there.

It was nearly ten minutes before I got the next matatu that dropped me in Westlands, where another matatu took me to town.  An interesting day – running in three matatus already.

Plaza
I had expected the first hired bus to have left Reinsurance Plaza by the time I arrived around six-twenty.  A quick look convinced me that there was hardly a bus.  Last year, the first bus left around six.  This year, there was no bus at 6.30am!  I was starting to wonder is this marathon was take off, and started calling the organizers names for having taken 700/= for transport using false promise when I saw the ‘Double M’ come from the direction of Hilton towards Re-plaza.  No sooner had it stopped than anxious runners jumped in.  There was hardly any time to confirm who had paid or not.  The organizer just asked those in the bus, “Hands up if you did not pay, so that I can get my money and leave.”
Less than four hands were up – it was either true that we had all paid, or… well, runners do not run away with other runners money, so we must all have paid.

We left Nairobi at about 6.40am.  With the roads being relatively clear at this time of the morning, coupled with the smooth Thika road, our drive through to Thika lasted about thirty minutes.  We diverted towards Gatanga town, off Thika road at Thika town and drove for another forty minutes.  It was almost eight as we reached Ndakaini.  I jumped out of the bus, as it sought a parking space.  I jogged towards the starting lineup, which was almost one kilometer away, past Ndakaini shopping centre.

Move back
The runners had already started gathering.  They were already eager to start the run.  An helicopter was already hovering past the venue.  There was some warm up ongoing.  Same script, different players as the following was announced (one year later?)
“Tafadhali, songeni nyuma.  Please move back, otherwise we shall not start the run”
“Hatusongi!,” the runners roared back.
“About turn everybody!,” the announcer said, his voice amplified by the multimedia truck parked just beside the road, next to the starting point.
“OK, turn back.  About-turn.  By the left quick match… left, right, left, right… Please move back!”
“Hatusongi! ,” runners responded, “Start the run now!  We are not moving!”
“The run is long, please move back so that we can start!”
I wonder why they waste their breath making this announcement year in, year out!

Strategy
At 8.30am there was something like a pop.  Then there was a shout!  Then the run started.  I was hardly ready for the start.  It just happened and off the runners went.  I had a new strategy for this particular run.  I wanted to test the timing gadget so that I can be sure of how much time it takes to get this run done with.  I had studied the counter more keenly this time round.  I knew that there were nine hilly sections, with hill number nine being the last and toughest, with a 1.5km stretch on a 45 degrees elevation.  I just wanted to time and survive that last hill.

With this in mind, I hardly noticed any of the previous eight hills.  I was having a good pace and could remember hitting the 5k to get the first water point before breaking any sweat.  There were no sponges at the first sponge station on the 7.5km mark – but no big deal.  There would be others.  By the second water point at 10km, just after that first ‘bad’ hill, I was still good and enjoying the run.  I missed sponges, once more, on the 12.5km mark.  It was not my day, but with water at hand, I was still good to go.

Unending hill
The water station at 15km convinced me that the run was about done.  I just had to survive a 7km hill to the finishing point.  The sponge station soon after could not have come at a better time.  I snatched one from the roadside, quickly washed off my face and head, threw it away and continued my run.  The 300ml water bottle, hardly sipped on one hand and the cellphone on the other was starting to feel so heavy.  I could have thrown away the water, but I needed loads on both hands for the balance.

I thought too soon, since immediately after hitting the descent on the 17km mark, I immediately realized the arrival of hill no. 9.  I usually know it by seeing it – it is just a 45 degrees uphill that is just there.  You can see it and you cannot escape from it.  It is just there, quiet and waiting.  I found a group of running just walking.  It is not a hill that you dare run, unless you are a runner.  I was a runner, so I kept trudging on – slow, painful steps, but kept going.  I like this hill – it gives you a short break of about ten meters, after the initial 800m, then you face the next 700m of steep hill.  A hill that is still waiting for you!

At the end of the 1500m, at the very top of the hill, there is a crowd waiting.  They cheer you on, whether you are walking, running or crawling.  However, once you get to the top, you just make an immediately left turn to signal the end of your misery.  From there you just face two mild hills to land you on the 20km mark for the last water station.  Take your 300ml at this station and you can even afford to walk to the finish line.  However, runners do not walk, hence you just keep going until the end.  This marathon also had a new route, the start and ending were both on the main tarmac.  Previous runs started at the main road at the shopping centre and ended at the Primary School past the shopping centre.

12-Sep-2015 <> 1.48.25 – that was my time.  I had recorded quite some interesting paces for the 21km laps that make the marathon. 
Distance = 21.14km (it was longer)
Average speed = 11.7km/h (I hoped to hit 12)
Max speed = 19.6km/h (like!)
Cal/h average = 898kcal/h
Cal/h max = 1596kcal/h (that's big!)

Calories = 1623kcal

Time in zone = 0.39.54 (this, am not sure of)

Laps: 

km1@4.17, km2@4.20, km3@4.00, km4@4.12, 

km5@4.56, km6@5.29, km7@5.19, km8@4.53, 

km9@5.27, km10@4.40, km11@6.07, km12@4.27,

km13@5.59, km14@5.11, km15@4.59, km16@5.15,

km17@7.31, km18@5.59, km19@4.50, km20@4.58,

km21@4.47

Look at that strange lap time at km17!  That hill is a killer!

Thank you gadget – now I know the extent of Ndakaini marathon.  Next year, I can do a real run!

Barack Wamkaya Wanjawa, Nairobi, Kenya, September 16, 2015