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.

Nairobi Marathon: Apply a Little Socialism?

The Nairobi Marathon is just 4 days away. That means hundreds of pretty darn good local runners are packing their bags and starting to book their bus tickets into the capital city of Nairobi.

If the last few days are anything to go by, the weather on race day might be wet and cool although I haven’t looked at any meteorological reports – just my usually incorrect weather guessing.

But apart from the conditions on race day, the runners this year will be eyeing a really, really big cash prize for the winner of both the men’s and women’s marathon. $20,000 goes to the winner while 2nd gets $9,000 and 3rd pockets $5.000. If you compare this to the average income of a Kenyan (about $400) then it's quite a windfall.

So that got me thinking that it might be more appropriate to spread the generous purse across more runners than just the top 10 (10th gets $130). If you assume that the winner will be Kenyan, than even a top prize of $10,000 would attract the same group of local runners that are being attracted to the race now.

So if I were in charge (which I most definitely am not-even in my own house!) I would award the cash as follows:

1st- $10000
2nd- $7500
3rd- $5000
4th- $3000
5th- $2000
6th- $1500
7th- $1200
8th- $1000
9th- $900
10-19th - $500
20-30th - $200


I feel that a wider disbursement would give a much needed boost to some of these runners that are still developing and are probably finishing outside of the medals. If you read my profile on Margaret Njuguna (Oct 18 blog), then you’ll see that she earned about $1,000 over 7 months of running in SE Asia. So if she’s given an opportunity to earn something close to that right here at home, I think a lot of good will have been done for the sport in Kenya.

And after talking with a few people about this, I can say with confidence that at least 1 person agrees with me!

Kenyans in SE Asia: Margaret Njuguna

I had an interesting conversation the othere day with one of the Gikuyu Running Club members, Margaret Njuguna. One of the most experienced runners in the group, Margaret, 39, had just returned from an 8 month stay in SE Asia where she was competing in Marathons and half marathons.

She had been invited to participate in some of the major races in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore so she and a few other Kenyan runners packed their bags and flew out.

Climate Change!

Margaret found it difficult to train over in SE Asia because it was too hot. Too hot?! Kenya’s in Africa and isn’t Africa supposed to be hot? Well Kenyan runners train (and often grow up) in high altitude areas that are generally on the cool side. Plenty of sun- but still cool. So they tend to be just as adverse to hot and humid environments as their European counterparts are. Remember Bekele’s DNF at last years World X/C Championships? Remember his complaint?

So Margaret would have to start training at around 4am so that she could get her workout in before it became too hot. This also meant that she was not really following the proper training regime and she would lose fitness over the course of her stay.



Slower Times

Although she ran a 2:52 full and a 1:20 half, she complained that the climate and the courses were not conducive to fast times. Apparently the streets aren’t cleared of traffic as thoroughly as in other places so runners have to compete with motorcycles, cars and the exhaust that they produce.

The courses are also not optimized for speed so plenty of hills, turns and poor direction markings.

Again, the humidity! Sammy Wanjiru and the rest of the Olympic marathon runners triumphed over the early Beijing heat, but running 26 miles in muggy 80 degree weather is not a recipe for a personal best.

Too Many Kenyans

I asked Margaret about the number of Kenyans competing in these races in Asia and her answer surprised me. She said that at the marathons, she would see more than 30 Kenyan men lining up! That’s quite a high number and it brings up a slew of issues that I’ll try and explore in future posts. But it in one respect it shows how much running talent is in Kenya and also how difficult it is to make a living out of this sport as an athlete.

Luckily for Margaret, she was only joined by 4 or 5 other Kenyan women in many of these races. She was able to win many of her races or come in 2nd or 3rd.


Money, Money, Money

That’s why she spent 8 months away from her family of 5 children to stay in a foreign, unfamiliar land. Money. Unfortunately she didn’t bring a lot of it back with her.

The paydays for many of these races isn’t very much and after deducting the plane ticket and all other expenses, she returned home with $2000 or so.   And $1000 of that is earmarked for her airfare back so that she can race there in November.  That’s not a whole lot for 8 months work!

But there are very few races here in Kenya that offer much in the way of prize money and also the competition in the local races is nothing to be scoffed at. Races in the US and Europe again attract a very high caliber of runners and are difficult to enter unless specifically invited.

Currently Margaret is working to get back into racing shape and then she’ll return to Asia in November. It’s not an easy life but it’s one that she’s chosen as a runner. 

Scouting Report: Gikuyu Running Club, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

With the workout done, we slowly walk up the hill to where the rooms are and I talk abit with one of the runners, Samuel Waweru.

Turns out he hated running in school! He only started running when he watched the Commonwealth Games on TV and thought that there was nothing special that these runners were doing. The next day he went for a mile run and felt a “burning in [my] lungs” but was not deterred. He continued to train from his home in Nairobi but one day he was attacked while running and so decided to join this camp.

Back in the common room, the day’s lunch was almost ready. A typical Kenyan meal – ugali (corn meal) and sukuma wiki (collard greens)! I’ve been eating this stuff for the past 12 years but I can’t remember when I was served it in such large quantities!  

The ugali was served in a huge plastic basin and I tried to show the before and after pictures of our ugali consumption:



With our stomach’s full, we started talking abit. The biggest complaint these athletes had was about the hardships they endure while training. Money, or lack of it, is the biggest difficulty. New running shoes cost about $70 although they usually buy used shoes at less than half that. Still it’s a lot of money for most of them.



Coach Pius has a tough job in trying to keep the runners and the camp together. Much of his time is spent calling relatives of the runners to solicit for money for food, transport to races and other essentials. Not many parents see the benefit of having their son or daughter training for races that might not earn them any money so Coach Pius has a tough sell most of the time.

I left the camp having a better understanding of what these athletes are struggling with and the amount of talent that is never realized due to the lack of opportunities for runners here. It’s really a sink-or-swim situation whereby if you cannot start winning money in the first year or so of serious training, there’s a good chance you’ll have to give up and do something more economically beneficial.

I’ll share some more thoughts in another post. I also hope to visit more training camps, especially the ones in the Rift Valley that harbour the elite runners. But I feel I’m off to a good start so far!

Scouting Report: Gikuyu Running Club, Part 1

Yesterday I visited a small running club or “camp” that’s located just a few kilometers from Nairobi in a place called Gikuyu. Organised by Coach Pius Ndung’u, this camp provides a training environment for some of the talented runners in the area.

I first visited where the runners sleep and eat and generally hang out. It became obvious that they are operating on a shoestring budget if even that. They rent 3 rooms- 1 bedroom for the ladies, 1 for the men and a common room for cooking, eating and everything else. But these rooms should not be mistaken for a suite at the Four Seasons. Each room rents for $6/month and is as Spartan as it gets- a door, 4 iron sheet walls and a concrete floor. Training is what’s important to these runners, not luxury.

At any one time, the camp accommodates roughly 20 athletes although today 12 show up for the mid-morning workout. They go for the morning run around 6am and obviously that is just too early for me to be around for.

But I was able to be there for their 10am speed work session (pushed back to 11am since they had to make me a cup of tea first). We walked about a kilometer to Kanjeru “Stadium”. I used quotes for “Stadium” because, well…judge for yourself whether it qualifies:

They start off with 5 warm-up laps around the 500 meter loop.  

The coach tells me that the camp has had greater success in producing successful women runners as witnessed by two of the runners here, Margaret Njuguna and Hannah Mbugua, who have both run in Asia in marathons and half marathons. In fact both of them returned to Kenya just a few weeks ago, having been in SE Asia the past 6 months.

Today’s workout is 1x1000, 2x800, 3x400 and 3x200 with minimal recovery in between. Keeping in mind that all of the runners are training for the half and full marathon, they do not go very hard during this workout. 



Continued in Part 2.

Upcoming Scouting Report: Gikuyu Running Club

Can someone remind me to bring my sun block next time?

I just got back from a day with the Gikuyu Running Club and I'm afraid more red in my skin pigment than I'm comfortable with.

But apart from that small oversight, the day was a success with me getting to talk to some of the runners and their coach at this small camp just a few kilometers outside of Nairobi.

I took some pictures which I'll upload tomorrow as well as writing a bit more about my day with them. 

Kenya takes World Half Team Title

Darn those Ethiopians!  Err, I mean- Congratulations!

Zersenay Tadese took honors with a brisk, championship record 59:56 to become the first triple winner in the men's event.  Kenyan Patrick Makau Musyoki (1:01.54) came in second for the second year in a row but helped Kenya take the men's overall team title.  Ahmad Hassan Abdullah (formerly Albert Chepkirui) took third for Qatar.

You're probably bored of results by now so I'll leave the rest of the story to:

Whole story