When extending the lockdown extended the run

When extending the lockdown extended the run

Today is a Saturday.  It is June 6.  We were to get news about easing the lockdown and curfew.  We were all apprehensive that it was finally coming to an end, hopeful even.  Confident, to say the least.  Then the news came out at three.  It was not even news that came at three.  It was a blow!  

Though it was not a surprise that Kenya extended the lockdown of Nairobi and Mombasa counties for another 30-days, it still hurt.  Reducing the curfew hours from the initial 7pm to 5am, to the new 9pm to 4am did not make reduce the pain.  We were now stuck in another 30-day period of waiting… a wait that started mid-March.  A wait that is likely to last much longer.

But why?  Ask Corona, the very cause of COVID-19.  Ask TT, the very thing that I do not even want to mention by name.  The very reason for this lockdown extension is the 6,880,373* worldwide infections and 398,754 deaths, with Kenya having 2,474 confirmed cases and 104 deaths.  The extended lockdown and curfew are meant to keep the infections within the population.  The very populations that are currently leading in the spread… Nairobi and Mombasa counties.
*data from worldometer

But why?  Ask TT.  The very thing that has now caused our schools to be out of session since early March.  The nearest partial opening date is now set for September 2020… if we would have ‘flatten the curve’ by that time!  Will life really be normal anytime this year?  Has humanity finally surrendered?  Tapped out!  Thrown in the towel!!  Is this TT thing even real?  

Our southern neighbours, the Tanzanians, have even questioned the very existence of TT and have asked their citizens to ‘go on with life’ with no restrictions, no curfews, no lockdowns.  Our other southern neighbor, Brazil, has gone similar.  Whom should be believe?  Are we going to turn out better than them, or they shall have the last laugh?

But why?  Ask CV19.  My good old enemy, turned I-do-not-care-anymore frenemy.  We had dared each other, forming those weekly runs, the duels, the streaks.  34 streaks later, as at June 5, and I have to confess that the competition does not make sense anymore.  In fact, I do not wish to keep the streak count any more.  

TT and I have now learned and earned our mutual respects.  TT keeps to TT’s yard, while I keep to mine.  TT does its thing, while I do my runs.  TT dare not cross my path…. and I am not crossing its path either.  We are in our different territories and we like it that way.

But why? Ask humanity… Yes, ask humanity!  Ask the runners… ask marathoners.

I found myself enrolled in the Global Running Day of June 3.  I saw an email message to the effect that ‘… you are enrolled in the GRD and you need to pledge some mileage…’.  It was ‘mileage’ for sure.  I had to get the online convert for km to miles to do the pledge of 13.6mi.  This would turn out to be yet another Wednesday run.  One of the now routine three runs in the week. 

But that would not be all.  I was still recovering from the pain on the legs, when the same NMM2 runners group concocted another run – the MA + RA + TH + ON.  This was to be a global worldwide team relay, where four runners share in conquering the full marathon, by contributing 10.5km each.  I found myself in a team of four – with a debt of 10.5km to be done and dusted within June 6-7 window.

I was still recovering from the routine Friday run when this reality of the passing deadline hit me.  It was now a Saturday, late Saturday.  I now had just about 24-hours to contribute my 10.5km – just for the team.  My team of four would not finish the marathon without my distance… nor would my distance count if the other three did not get those 10500 steps each, into the kitty.  

Despite a very painful calcaneus of the left foot, I had no choice but to find how to get the 10.5km distance into the stats – just for the team.  This was not going to be done on this Saturday.  It would just have to be done at the nick of time tomorrow – before Sunday’s deadline.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 6, 2020

The longest month... the longest run

The longest month... the longest run

Today is May 30.  Confirmed COVID19 cases on planet earth have now reached the ‘magical’ number of 6M.  Yes, according to worldometrics, 6,058,196 to be exact, with 367,385 deaths.  Kenya has recorded 1,745 cases and 62 deaths.  So, why would I talk CV19, aka TT, when I vowed not to? 

This is why…. There is no longer anything like a ‘magical’ number when talking about this pandemic.  It shall continue to register infection upon infection until it runs its course, or we get a vaccine.  In other words, we need to learn to live with it.  They way you live with the weather – it may rain, it may shine – but you keep living.  You carry an umbrella, just in case, but you keep living.  That how we have to live with TT.

Worrying about it does not help.  Worrying that you may get it does not help.  Pretending that you have protected yourself from getting it does not help.  There are so many moving parts in this issue.  Just take the precautions to avoid deliberate exposure and know what to do should you get it.  Meanwhile, live your life to the fullest one day at a time.  Do what you like!  Do your runs….

I did my runs.  I have done my runs.  I used to duel with TT from mid-March, and could now be boasting of streak number 31.  I stopped recording these numbers.  I started living my life.  How to you fight an enemy like TT, who does not want to be fought?  Who does not want to give up?  To give in?  Why bother?  Just live your life…. and let TT live its life.  Let what happens happen should your paths cross.  But anyway, what is your gain, even if you worried daylong, nightlong… daily!?

I did my runs in May, and they were good.  I stopped competing TT and started running on my own terms, my own routes, my own rules, my own distance… and they were good.  As I take a rest to close the month of May, I am sure that May shall be the month that registers me the most mileage, sorry most ‘kilometerage’.  Yet… I do not feel the strain since I did my runs, on my terms, my own routes, my own rules, my own distance… and they were good.

I did my runs on the usual route – crossing Waiyaki way twice on each run session, every three times a week.  Doing the Vet loops, going down Kapenguria road towards Wangari Maathai institute, to the river, to Lower Kabete road.  Running past Mary Leakey school.  Crossing the University farm, desolate, abandoned, tranquil, even scary at time… three times every week.  Going through Ndumbo market on my way back.  It was same route for the month.  I did not even notice the intricate layout of this route since it was now so familiar… and I liked it.

I did my runs in silence.  I was my own person.  I was in my own world as I pounded the road, the tarmac, the trail, the stony paths, but I did it.  The silence was the norm, but norms are sometimes broken.

“Ni saa ngapi?,” someone asked me just as I was going past ‘the wall’ after Waiyaki way.  I was preparing to do the Vet loops… several of these loops.

It is a struggle enough to run on your feet.  How about adding the thinking-on-your-feet bit to the mix?  And you are also moving faster than the person asking – what a way to disturb a runner!

“Saa sita na nusu,” I finally say, when I am about five metres gone.  I say this without even looking at the watch.  I already know the time in my subconscience.

So, I did not run in silence all through the runs of the month.  The silence was broken in a few occasions.  Very few occasions.

“Unakimbia kila siku?,” I thought of heard.
I was on the Vet loop another day within May.  I was not expecting this question.  No stranger speaks to no stranger.  However, I am now a veteran of this route and I am starting to form a pattern of how things go.  And many things go on while I quietly run along.

I have observed how this girl and boy are always at the Vet loop road, just walking, just talking, just giggling.  I have seen them almost on each of my run while at the loop.  The security person at the locked gate is now a familiar person.  We now even exchange our greetings, though I am not sure if it is the same person or just members of the same security firm.  I greet more of the uniformed person, than the person behind the uniform.  Occasionally the person offers to open the footpath gate to get me to the ‘the wall’.  I politely decline and do a U-turn on the gate to once more take the same long route back.

I keep observing things.  We have these construction workers on a new building after ‘the wall’.  I see them several times as I do the loops.  They break for lunch at exactly one – believe me – at exactly one.  At that point they fill the road as they head towards Ndumbo, likely for lunch.  When I say ‘fill’, I mean ‘fill’.  They give you no space to run past or against their herd.  They would have all manner of rugged construction attire in them – old helmets, some torn; tattered overalls or trousers; dirty sweat-filled Tshirts; soiled boots or slippers… and all manner of filth spewing from their mouths.

“Unakimbia kila siku?”
I surely heard this from this guy, whom coincidentally has become part of the environment at the Vet loop.  I somehow, by some coincidence meet him at the Vet loop.  I did not even know that he notices me. 

Running on the feet is already tiring enough, add to it thinking on your feet, processing questions on your feet, conceiving responses on your feet, struggling to breathe through a facemask that is hanging inches below your mouth while on your feet, concentrating on beating that PB… while on your feet?  This is torture!

“Ndio,” I respond, while I am about ten metres gone.  I do not even pretend to look back.  I am so tired.
I have no time to explain to him that I only run three times a week.

WWB, the coach, Nairobi, Kenya, May 30, 2020

Extending the run… that was to be extended

Extending the run… that was to be extended

My runs in the last two weeks have been good.  I have not been caught up by the rains out there, nor were the run paths any muddier.  I thank my conviction to run for me, not against TT a.k.a COVID-19, for bringing back the good runs.  I no longer bother to see what TT is doing.  I am not compelled to run and compete TT.  I run when I want, for the distance that I feel is appropriate.  

I would previously be compelled to do a particular number of runs, just to prove to TT that I was still game.  That ended two weeks ago when I put my foot down, rather put my feet to the run, and decided that I cannot do things for TT.  I do things for me.  

So, let TT do its thing.  I will do my runs.  Let TT have 4,734,378 confirmed cases worldwide, with a mortality of 313,459 as of today, Sunday.  I have my own numbers to show for the run track, even as my own country contributes to 830 cases and 50 deaths on those stats.

Last week’s runs were good, now that there is no pressure whatsoever as I do the runs.  I did the three runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I do not even know whether I keep the distance metrics anymore.  I believe the three must have totaled sixty-something ks – but who cares how many ks they were?  The last Friday's run must have been streak 25, but again, who cares?  There is so much satisfaction when you are competing for yourself, that numbers mean nothing – inner joy means everything.

But make no mistake about it, I still miss the group runs and the duels that we would have with members of the running team.  I miss those lunch hour sprints that we would do with Karl and Edu.  Those were the days, when we were friends at the starting line, adversaries by the time we were at the Vet loop and down Wangari Maathai route, only to be friends once again as we wait for each other to finish their downhill at the river and run as a group uphill back to our starting point.  You read right, as a ‘group’.  The very group runs that are now not possible due to TT.  The very TT that I am not bothering about anymore.

I do miss the group runs.  We had the monthly ‘international’ marathons.  Those were cast on stone!  Every last Friday of the month would be a marathon Friday – come good weather, come bad weather.  Those runs were a must… and they attracted a large group of runners.  Marathoners eager to participate in an ‘international’, probably the only international in the country, had this run as a permanent fixture.  

We would start the runs at 4.45pm and had to get those 21km packed into the short time available in the evening.  We occasionally finished the runs at 7.30pm!  That is right!  7.30pm, the very time that you must nowadays be 30-minutes locked in the house due to the TT-induced curfew!  The B-and-B team even broke a record by finishing some international around 7.40pm!  Those were the days when we broke records!  When running was fun.  When there was no fear of the dark!

We would then take our sweet time taking those finishing-line pictures.  We would take our sweet time freshening up.  We would take our slow walks with aching legs and body parts, after the tedious 21,000 running steps, to the diner for a sumptuous dinner.  A philanthropic marathoner would occasionally be celebrating one thing or another and ‘dirtify’ the table with drinks.  There was always ‘something’ to celebrate, from the real to absurd.  I think of all these with nostalgia knowing that probably these times are now gone – maybe gone forever!?

I was hoping that there would be some semblance to getting back to our group runs since the current lockdown and curfew in Kenya, caused by TT, were set to end on May 18.  May 19 was to be the ‘back to normal’ day.  I was already planning the ‘welcome back international marathon’ for the last Friday of May, as usual.  I was getting ready to be back to normal after the isolation that has persisted since mid-March.  However, this was not to happen.  The government extended the lockdown and curfew for another 21-days until June 6.

“I give up!,” I said loudly as I heard that announcement on the seven o’clock news on one of the local channels on the screen.  The extension had been anticipated, but 21 days!!!  

“I give up!,” I found myself saying a second time.

Life on planet earth shall come back to normal when it comes back to normal.  Keep living and keep doing what you are doing.  Do not peg any dates to anything, especially the back-to-normal date.  Keep living one day at a time… and make the best of each day – make each day count.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, May 17, 2020

Streak 23 – Time for divine intervention

Streak 23 – Time for divine intervention

I stopped looking at COVID19 stats two weeks ago.  I said, “That is it,” at that time, since this TT thing is here to stay and there is no need to let it get into our way of business.  Just put on your mask while in the crowds a.k.a public places, wash your hands regularly or sanitize, to keep any potential germs from the possibility of getting to the respiratory track, and…. and hope for the best.  

Should you get it, just self-quarantine for two weeks, take lots of fluids, keep your temperature controlled and you should be OK, even without medication.  Of course, seek medication if the symptoms become too much to bear.  

But do not take my work for it, the ‘stay at home if you have it’, even after confirming that you have it is the official position from the employer, so let us do our best to avoid getting TT, but there is still life with TT, and life after TT.  

I am also encouraged that life is getting back to normal where the TT started.  China is back.  Germany is back.  France is back.  Spain is back!  England is back!!  Life shall be back to normal – TT or TT.

So, there it is, TT is done with.  

Now back to the runs.  I have been on the road three times a week since early March.  Initially it was a duel with TT.  Now that compe with TT is gone.  I run for myself.  I run because I want to run.  I just finished streak number 23 today.  

I am forced to retain these streak numbers for purposes of maintain a coherent story over time, otherwise, TT can easily take credit for having started this streak numbering system, but I am not letting it take that credit.  I count these numbers because I want to count from some starting date, being March 20, which because streak no. 1.  From that time it is three runs in a week, with each run being numbered.  TT, sorry, I am not giving you the honors of being responsible for this numbering.

The route that I was taking for this Monday’s run was the same old Mary Leakey route.  I have taken to having this route as my default run route, since it is ‘just at the backyard’ but it can give you as many kilometres as you want it to give.  Just add those Vet loops and you can even get 42k if you want to.

Let me not keep repeating the route profile that crosses the Waiyaki way at Kabete Poly, for the Vet loop across the road, on the other side.  These are the loops that can extend run to infinity.  After the loop or loops, you get to Ndumboini and down Wangari Maathai institute to Lower Kabete road.  From there a short uphill before you ‘disappear’ to the left to face the Mary Leakey route to be ‘abandoned’ at the university farm, before finally emerging at ‘the tank’ on Kanyariri tarmac to get you back to Ndumbo.  That is it, no need to repeat describing that route.

The route and what I encounter on it has remained usual, and I shall not bother repeat the usual.  I shall henceforth just be pointing out anything that gets out of the ordinary.  To start with, a lot more people are now putting on their masks, which is quite unlike hardly four weeks ago, when very few had them.  Even yours truly now runs with a mask – repeat – with a mask, not necessarily putting on a mask.  

The consequences of not having a mask ‘with you’ are dire.  A friend was arrested while walking around Westlands three weeks ago, since she was not having a mask on.  She however, got away with a forced 14-day quarantine confinement in a Government facility, read, some secondary school.  

She did this ‘getting away’ by telling the men-in-blue that she was two-months pregnant, hence was continually nauseated.  She was lucky that she had the mask in her bag, and showed it as evidence.  That incident reinforces the lesson – just have the mask with you, wearing it should be ideal, but having it is the bare minimum when using a public road – running, walking or crawling.

So, I was ‘on the run’, on the same old ML route.  Observing the many people now having their masks mainly fully covering their noses and mouths, few just having it hang on the neck.  I would soon be on the downhill run from Ndumboini heading towards Wangari Maathai institute.  

The downhill is easy to run, but you need good brakes, since you may over-accelerate to your fall.  I was on a steady pace – which would usually give me a 4min per k, when I heard some loud running footsteps, more of foot-thumping, from behind.  

There was definitely a runner behind me – but this runner liked the runner’s footsteps loud!  Usually we step on the road in such a way that the footsteps are not that loud.  These were loud, believe me.  I kept my steady pace.

“That must surely hurt,” I imaged the pressure hitting the soles of the feet, as I awaited the approach.

I would soon see this guy pass by and continue running downhill Infront of my path.  We were both on the left edge of the road.  

“Wow!,” I thought loudly, “That is fast!”

But there was something with that run that did not seem right.  The loud steps.  The ‘on-your-face’ type of overtaking.  The evident ‘dare-you’ attitude that he displayed as he passed me.  There were all things wrong with this fast run.  I was not however falling for this ‘children’ behaviour.  I have run many ks to be tricked into a dare.  I run my own run.  

And his tricks would soon be evident, as the apparent runner would slow down hardly twenty metres ahead and come towards a walk, then a stop.  He started walking as my approach become very evident.  I would soon be almost overtaking his walking frame, when he again started running besides me.  

I kept my pace, even slowed a bit, to give him time to just overtake and be gone on his own, but he seemed glad to also reduce his pace, so that he could continue to somehow now just run alongside.  I tried to get back to pace, and he also started accelerating.  He kept alongside for about twenty metres.

“Just run your pace and leave me alone!,” I thought of yelling at him!

A runner does not like company, unless the company is solicited, welcomed and encouraged.  You do not force yourself onto some other runner’s run path and routine!  That is a cardinal rule for crying out loud!  No wonder I really doubted the authenticity of this colleague of mine, or maybe that is just how he was brought up – to outrun runners and dare them to an unsolicited duel.

I would force myself to slow down again to let him go his way.  I believe that he got the message even as he now tried his best to increase the pace of his tired body to a left turn towards Wangari Maathai institute.  I would soon observe him come to a stop at the gate, with his both hands on his knees.  I knew that he was suffering a burnout.  I could only imagine the fire burning on his chest as he maintained that stoop.  I continued my downhill to the river and then faced the uphill to Lower Kabete road.  

The weather was great for this lunch hour run and the usually muddy paths along the university farm were not that slippery, if anything they were drying up and starting to be easily passable.  I am so used to the paths being slippery and muddy that the ease by which I passed by still amazed me.  That road condition would also mean that it has not rained heavily, or at all, in the last two days – and it is true.  

I was now enjoying the run on this very isolated section of the road, where you run about two kilometres completely on your own, without meeting a soul, in the middle of the jungle – probably one of the very few isolated green spaces in Nairobi at the moment.  The quiet and tranquility was equal to none, it even felt a bit frightening.  But a runner is never frightened by any situation.  You adopt then adapt.  

That stillness would soon be broken when I saw something like a silhouette of a person in the thickets about two hundred metres to my right.  Soon I would surely perceive a real person somewhere in the thickets, somewhere under the shades of the giant trees that provided a shelter from the two o’clock sunshine that was now brightening my footpath.

That person took me aback.  I had to slow down to feed my eyes onto his every move.  I saw him make short walks, of about five steps to one end, then turnback and make about the same five steps to his starting point.  He was just oscillating on a small area in the thicket.  I was still wondering what could be gwan.  

I nonetheless kept running, one look forward, two looks to my right to peer into the knee-high thicket to observe the man.  The mystery would soon be over when I caught the very faint, but distinct chant of a prayer.

Now…. what else could need divine intervention, at the most tranquil of places, if not the TT, whose stats, as per JHU site now stood at 4,159,377 total cases on planet earth, 284,883 fatalities, out of which Kenya had a round figure of 700 cases and 33 fatalities?  The very TT that I have now given up on?  It can run its stats, while I run my run, just as I did today, at my backyard, over a 21.6km distance in a time of 1hr 45m 51s.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, May 11, 2020

Not even Triple halfs could tame TT – making 19 to be just a number

Not even Triple halfs could tame TT – making 19 to be just a number

When I finished the Friday run on May 1, 2020, when the world should have been celebrating International Labour day but the world was not, I did realize that many of my runs in the month were done chasing the wrong target.  The TT target was a goner!  It was useless chasing it.

The nation was set for ‘going back to normal’ on April 27.  However, it did not come as a surprise when on April 25 we were officially informed that we would be subjected to an extended lockdown and curfew.  We were given another three weeks to do things ‘indoors’, stretching our breaking point to May 18.  

But as said, it was no surprise.  The trend the world over was to extend the lockdowns, then to extend them again.  I therefore shall not hold my breath over when this lockdown shall end.  I am not hopeful of anything good coming out of the May 18 date.  Remember, the tendency is to ‘extend and extend again’.  

Since March, I have been having a competition against TT, the Thing, the virus whose name I refuse to state.  Yes, the corona virus, that causes COVID-19.  The very same virus which is technically called SARS-corona virus version 2 of 2019.  

I had initially thought I would run a few runs and keep TT at bay, in terms of who ultimately wins when life goes back to ‘normal’.  I knew that TT would cause misery by partial lockdowns, as already done in Kenya.  Now there was even possibility of total lockdowns as we approach that May 18 date.  TT is not a worthy adversary.  I am no longer holding my breath over that May 18 date.

I thought that I could win three runs every week, since mid-March, and build a good lead in the winning streak.  I thought that these accumulated streaks would beat those that TT would garner when it eventually started curtailing my runs.  The thought was good and reasonable when I thought of the April 27 date as the end date.  

That extension to May 18 got me thinking in a completely different direction.  It was futile pegging your very plans based on TT.  You may have temporary wins, but we know who the real winner shall eventually be.  

TT is a slow actor.  

Takes its time.  

Even appears invisible.  

Hits when you least expect it.  

TT makes believe you all is well, only to realize that all is not well when you look at the dashboard of infections around the world.

Take the Sunday, May 3, 2020, statistics from JHU.  The total infections on planet earth stands at 3,462,682 out of which 244,911 had passed on.  My own motherland had 465 cases with a mortality rate of 24.  These figures indicate a global mortality rate of 7% in five months since December.  

The numbers have kept rising.  I know this because I made the mistake of tracking the numbers.  The very thing that I am now contemplating on stopping.  TT has a mind of its own.  Let it be.  It shall do what it wants to do.  We cannot live our lives in fear of TT on a daily basis.  This feeling of fear is not good for the heart.  It is not good for the blood pressure.  It is not good for the mind.  It is not good for the body!

The numbers have kept rising.  Take that first time that I did note down the figures on March 26.  On that date we had a total of 521,086 infections worldwide, with a mortality figure of 23,568.  The mortality rate was just 4.5% globally at that time.  My own country had 31 cases of confirmed infections.  37 days later and everything is gone crazy!  

The only encouraging number is the mortality rate that has risen from 4.5% to 7%.  Tracking these numbers is vanity.  I am done tracking.  I am done worrying about TT.  I am living my life as best as I can from now on.  We are going to live with TT for a long time, even for life!  We better even become friends.

So, last week when I was doing the three halfs, I thought that I was increasing my winning streak, but I have just realized that I was giving TT the glory.  I was just overworking the body for no good reason.  I cannot do three halfs just to prove to TT that I am on a winning streak!  That is not good reason to subject the body to three halfs!  

I have resolved that from today I ain’t doing nothing to prove nothing to nobody no more.  I shall do my runs at my own terms.  I shall not let fear of TT influence my runs.  I shall not care about any total lockdown brought by TT.  So what if the total lockdown comes?  Let it come!  

Let TT take some wins for crying out loud!  

Let what be, be!  

So what, if we are locked-down for long, without the runs, due to TT?  

Nothing shall happen!  

Life shall continue, even without the runs!

Those three halfs were however quite something, despite them being done for the unappreciative competitor called TT, whom I am not doing anything for, from today.  

The Monday run was in the evening.  I started off at three.  The evening rains over the week before had shown a tendency to start as early as five.  I therefore had to have finished my runs by five.  The Mary Leakey route and three Vet-loops made for the 21k on this date.  

This particular route ‘persuades you’ to run on it, since it is ‘just at the backyard’.  It does not even seem far.  It does not even look like a half… but add to it those Vet loops and you have another different type of run on the cards.  Additionally, the trail by the University farm after Mary Leakey school was muddy and almost impassable on this Monday.  The run ended well.  I hit 21.23km in 1.39.18.  It was a fast run by any definition.  It later rained in the evening as I rushed home to beat the 7.00pm curfew.

The Wednesday run also started just after three.  It was a sunny afternoon but the dark clouds were already forming at the Ngong hills.  The route was the same as the one for Monday.  The route condition was the same due to the daily rains that kept the muddy trails muddy.  The intention was the same half marathon.  This run ended in 1.42.38 over a 21.26km distance.  

The crowning moment came on Friday, when I started the run at noon – yes noon.  Even by then it was already as dull as if the rains would fall within the hour.  I was just risking the run and hoping for the best.  Such risky runs usually fill my body system with so much anxiety until I can feel the pain!  

I was especially afraid of running through the University farm should it rain during the run.  That road is already muddy and slows you to a walk… without the rains.  How about if it was to rain!  It did not rain however, leading to yet another smooth Friday lunch hour run.  I would finish this run in 1.43.03 over a distance of 21.65km.  Of course, it did not rain at all that day, despite the change of weather around noon and my being forced to start the run early.

The experience of last week therefore convinces me that there is no need to make any bets with TT.  

Why I am even counting a 19-win streak after that Friday run?  

Just because I made a bet with TT?  

All bets are now off!  

TT is silent, pretentious, scheming and ultimately wins in its own ways.  Why should my life revolve around TT?  

What shall be, shall be!

I am not pulling off any three-halfs for TT.  I am not daring the weather with a mid-day half just because of TT.  No way!  I am done.  My next runs are at my pace, at my schedule at my dictate.  

I shall run when I want to.  

I shall take a break when I need one.  

I shall run a half when I believe it is the right day for it.  

I shall run longer if it is appropriate.  

I shall run short runs.  

I shall do another three-halfs if I feel like it.  

I shall do things for me, not because of TT.  

I shall do what I want to do going forward – TT or no TT!

WWB, the Coach, Sunday, May 3, 2020

No more TT talk – resolution number 15

No more TT talk – resolution number 15

Today I shall celebrate streak number 15 by not talking about TT.  Yes, you heard right.  The world is so obsessed with this COVID-19 thing until humanity as we know it is almost becoming a different species.  The same humanity that has conquered the skies, taking people to the moon, and is now capable of doing such missions without even thinking about it.  The humanity that has conquered the seas, and even mapped the ocean floor, to inform us that we have mountains and caves down there!  The same humanity that has created robots and cured diseases that were thought uncurable.  

What happened to humanity?  Good old days when humans could make unmanned vehicles, unmanned planes, drones, guided missiles.  What happened to us?  We now cower under the bed for whole days and whole nights?  Not confident enough to walk out?  I am not talking TT today.  The same TT that has afflicted 2,622,571 people on planet earth with 182,004 fatalities as at this evening?  My motherland accounting for 303 of these afflictions?  I am no longer talking about TT.  Give me a break!

Today I shall celebrate streak number 15 that was started by TT, the same TT that I won’t be talking about today.  But looking back at it… my winning streak has reached this number since I dared TT on that Friday, March 20, when the country was being shutdown and people being told to social-distance.  Since that time, we (TT and I) have competed on a three-run-a-week dare.  TT, which I am not talking about today, wins any run that is cancelled within a week due to its effects.  On the other hand, the runner takes the run, if the runner manages to run.  

That is why I am now on run number 15 since that March 20 dare.  By then it made sense to dare TT for a duel.  On that date the afflictions on planet earth were only 244,601, with 10,031 fatalities.  It was supposed to be a passing cloud.  The cloud has refused to pass.  It is now exactly one-month since that March 20 date, since that first win, since that first dare – and look at the figures – they have increased ten-times in 30-days!  From 0.2million infections to 2.6million, just in 30-days.  From 10 thousand deaths to 182 thousand deaths!  All in 30-days!  At this rate we shall be having 26million infections and wowi!... two million dead by May 30!!

And that is exactly why today I shall celebrate streak number 15, by not talking about TT, not at all.  The same TT that caused me that quarrel – rephrase – that caused some matatu person to be so agitated for I-do-not-know-what-reason.  I was at Kawangware market just last Sunday, buying my fruits besides the main road at the stage opposite the office of the county administration.  The place where we have two petrol stations opposite each other.  It is generally the stage for vehicles coming from Uthiru on one side, and those going to Uthiru on the other side.  I was picking my fruits from the vendor, when….

“Ssshhhh sshhh!,” I imaged hearing.  I was kind of squatting, examining the bananas that I was about to buy, on the narrow pathway.  On one side of this path were the vendor stands, on the other side the lined up matatus.  The middle section was left for this narrow walkway.  The very walkway that cannot allow two people to pass each other.  I actually was being forced into buying because the pathway was by that time blocked by either someone getting into the matatu, or someone buying.  Just one person stopping on this walkway was enough to block it.

“Ssshhhh sshhh!,” I heard for sure.  I ignored.  Nobody should sshh sshhh me.  Why should you?  It must be someone else being sshh sshhhed.

I continued examining the bananas.

“Ssshhhh sshhh!,” the bother continued.  I continued to ignore.

“Ssshhhh sshhh!  Ni itie huyo jamaa,” he sshhsshh-er told the fruit vendor.

The vendor would momentarily distract me from the bananas that I was now just purchasing as I gave him the money.

“Unaitwa pale kwa matatu”

Maybe it was someone who surely knew me and wanted to ensure that I get to recognize him for whatever reason.  I turned back, maintaining my squat, only to see a complete stranger!

“Unajua ukivaa mask hivyo ni kuonyesha unayo Corona.  Huwevi vaa mask hivyo.  Inatakiwa side ya blue ndio ukuwe nje.”

That was new.

“Sawa,” I said, for lack of a better word.  This was just too strange an occurrence.  I finished paying for my fruits and was momentarily shoving them into my bag.

“Mbona ubadilishi?,” he continued.

What the hell is wrong with this stranger!

“Unajua naweza ku kuitia polisi kwa kuvaa mask vibaya?”

I just left him bubbling on, while seated on the window seat of the matatu just next to the entrance door.

Coincidentally, he did not have a mask himself.

So do you see why today I shall celebrate streak number 15, by not talking about TT, not at all?  The same TT that caused me to run after the evening rains today, Wednesday.  I was ready for my run at 3.15pm, since it seemed like it would rain later on.  The clouds had already blocked the sun and the dark horizon indicated that the rains were just around the corner.  I guessed that these rains would fall around five, when I should have been back from my 90-minute run.  

This run would add to my streak and give me the magical number 15.  This run was however not to be, since just as I left the changing room ready to set off, did it start raining… heavily, I should add.  I just gave up on the run and stayed at my desk doing other things.  I now just planned to take an evening shower and then leave for home.  This was going to be a cancelled run, but not due to TT, hence TT should not even feature at all in this discussion.

I even switched on the electric kettle for that evening cup-a-tea, and went ahead to prepare the cup by putting in a tablespoonful of sugar, some tea, and ground ginger onto the cup, just waiting for the kettle to boil over and switch itself off.  It did switch itself off after about two minutes.  

I was just about to pour the hot water into the cup when I decided to have a look at the outside environment to ensure that the tea was a for sure thing.  That was the mistake that made the tea become a not-for-sure.  The weather had already changed and it was in fact just about to shine.  The time was just past four.

I did not think about this issue twice.  I was already dressed for the run anyway.  I just left and started my timers, ready for the run.  This run was surely not supposed to happen.  I was not supposed to be having streak number 15.  I had already given up on this run.  Why was it happening?  Even my cup of tea was still waiting for me by the desk!  Surely, giving up the tea for the run?

Today I shall celebrate streak number 15, by not talking about TT, though this 15 was made possible by just the mere thought of TT and what would happen if I let go of any opportunity to beat it on these streaks.  I have observed that many countries have extended their lockdowns, just ‘to be sure’ that TT is tamed.  There is high likelihood that our very own restrictions over here at the motherland shall be extended after the initial timeline that ends on April 27.  I just have to continue taking any opportunity available to win these streaks before TT takes over.

Today I shall celebrate streak number 15, by not talking about TT, the same TT that forced me onto the run after the rains of today.  Forcing me to run onto muddy and wet paths at Vet loop and the dry weather road from Lower Kabete road through the University Farm, to emerge at Kanyariri road tarmac.  

It was especially bad at the University Farm.  I had to walk carefully through some road sections that were completely engulfed in muddy puddles, with hardly any passable section, on the road or besides the road.  Some drizzles along the route almost made me question my decision to run after a those initial heavy rain, but I was vindicated when in fact it started shining as I got to Kanyariri tarmac on my way back to Ndumbo, then back to the starting point.

So, today I celebrate streak number 15, by not talking about TT.  The same TT that made this run compulsory, finishing it in 1.36.10 for 18.45km, with muddy legs and muddy shoes.  Let not TT control our lives and dominate our every conversation.  There is more to life than TT.  The very TT that is already making me plan for the streak number 16 that should be done on Friday.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, April 22, 2020

When 13 is the lucky number

When 13 is the lucky number

The rains were not going to get me again.  I was still feeling the pain of being rained-on on Wednesday, just two days ago.  I did not want to experience any more such pain ever.  The same rain made me lose the opportunity to do a proper half marathon, since the last two hundred metres had to be cancelled as the rain made the run-to-the-finish-line untenable.  On that Wednesday I did start my run at 3.30pm, hoping to finish by 5.30pm just before the rain.  But the rains would have nothing to do with my plans.  It had its own plans for an early rain that started around five.

On this Friday I was determined to start the run at three.  Another thirty minutes earlier than usual.  At this rate of starting early, I would soon be starting my runs at two!  I was sure that I would finish the run by 4.30pm and surely, it could not have rained by that time!  That early?  Can it?

My other consolation that I had was that the anger of the rain had kind of been quenched already, since there was about thirty minutes of mid-day rain, from around one.  It was not very heavy, but it was heavy enough to cause a blockage at Uthiru roundabout.  It takes quite some rain water volume to block that trench inside the roundabout to force the water to overflow onto the roundabout tarmac.  There was water on the tarmac as I walked work-wards just after 1.30pm on this Friday.

Despite my best of intentions, the run actually started at 3.10pm.  I was aiming to redo the missed marathon of Wednesday.  The one that was short by just two hundred metres.  Almost doesn’t count, does it?  I had to do something that counts.  That is what was on my mind as I set-off at three-ten.

The route was to be the same ol’ Mary Leakey, with four loops at the Vet loop.  This combination had already been proved to be exactly the half marathon, if anything, it was a bit more, depending on how far one would be go for the U-turn every time they did the monotonous loop.  The weather was downcast.  There was no sun, nor was there rain.  It was still and cloudy.  There was no sign of impending rains, though the horizon was starting to get dark.  The Ngong hills were getting dark, and the windmills were now hardly visible.

I started the first phase of the run by dispensing of the four Vet loops first, so that I could now just be left with only the ML to tackle… and then be straight back to the finish point at ‘the generator’.  The rains of the previous day and that lunch hour mock rain had made the dry weather roads wet, slippery and full of water puddles.  These roads were the Vet loop and the section of the road from Lower Kabete road as you divert to the left to ML school, then through the Uni farm.  I still managed, despite soiled shoes, soiled socks and soiled legs.

I was not exempt from having a facemask myself since I was in a public environment, running on public roads.  I also had my mask… handing on my neck.  I still observed very few people having their masks either on or at hand.  However, the situation had improved.  I would rate that every one in ten people that I came across was having some form of face mask.  I insist on ‘some form of’, since this issue of facemasks is now taking a nonsensical twist or even some comical turns in some cases.  The things people put on their faces in the name of masks!  There was even a news article the previous day of folks now turning inner wears into face masks!  

In exactly two hours, actually, 2.00.36, I was through with the repeat run of Friday.  This being compensation for the Wednesday run that was ‘almost’ a half marathon.  24.34km was the Runkeeper distance, while Endomondo gave this run a 24.31km.  The distance is not the subject matter, nor the time.  The subject matter is that you should do your run, at your distance and your pace – while there is still time for that.  

Even go ahead and do your walks out there, while you still have the opportunity.  Just do something while the time is still there.  The subject is that we have TT lurking in the shadows waiting to inflict a big blow to the running community.  TT, aka COVID-19, now had infected 2,218,332 people globally, with fatalities figure being 148,654, as per JHU stats of today at 11.38.41pm.  My own motherland is contributing 246 cases onto that 2M figure.

Many countries in the world are in some form of movement restriction or lockdown that is causing real inconveniences.  Runners have not been spared either.  They are suffering the most with the inability to access run routes, or being forced into facemasks that they cannot breathe-through.  Our motherland has only initiated partial lockdown in the name of 7.00pm to 5.00am curfew and the requirement to adorn a facemask while at public places.  

There could soon be a total lockdown where even running ‘out there’ shall not be possible.  Take maximum advantage and run as much as you can while we still have time… while we can still tame TT.  The time for TT to take over and start its streak may be with us sooner than later.  

China’s lockdown was 63-days (2 months) – the total ‘no leaving your house’ type.  That would be 24 missed runs – a 24-win streak for TT, if such a restriction was imposed on us back here.  Better be having 24 wins with you as early as today, if you really want to gain any real advantage over TT in the unlikely event of a total lockdown.

Finally, this was the thirteenth streak since I first dared TT – and yes, I am celebrating my 13-0 win, four weeks since the first dare!  And to put icing on the run, it turned out to be quite enjoyable.  It did not even rain during and after the run!  The more reason why I believe that 13 is a lucky number.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, April 17, 2020