Saturday, October 25, 2008

Sell an Animal, Win the Marathon!

Tommorrow is the Nairobi Marathon and I do plan on being course-side for this, the largest race in Kenya.

Now as in every sporting event, people enjoy trying to figure out who will be the winner.  The Nairobi Marathon is one of the more difficult races to predict since nobody has been a repeat winner since its inception.  That is likely due to the wealth of running talent in Kenya and that this race is one which any Tom, Dick and Harry (or Kiprono, Biwott and Chepchirir) can travel to and compete in.

Therefore we have heard many top Kenyan marathon runners comment that thus race is more competitive than many international marathons in Europe and elsewhere.

But I think I know who's going to win the men's marathon this year.

See, last year's women's winner had to sell some goats and chickens to raise the bus fare and registration fee to compete.  Having parted with some precious livestock, she proceeded to beat the field and collect the top prize.

So going on that trend, I predict the men's winner will have had to do the same thing.  And lo and behold, the other day I read of a promising runner from West Pokot who has sold his cow for about $100 which he'll use for transport to Nairobi and race registration.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the runner and I'm too busy (lazy) to dig up the paper.  But you heard it here first!

I'll Be There

I'm waking up early and will watch the start, midpoint and finish of the races.  I'll get some photos and post them here later in the day.

My friends from Gikuyu Running Club have fielded 9 runners in the full and half marathon so I'll be interested to see how they do.

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