Party Time

Kapsabet has been buzzing the past week, with the return of Olympic 800m champion and freshly minted millionaire, Pamela Jelimo. A convoy of vehicles made their way from Eldoret to Kapsabet, parading the star in New Year's Day fashion. Once she arrived into town, mobs of people descended upon the local track stadium to greet the star. She now owns the honor of having 33% of the streets in Kapsabet named after her. Ok... that means just one street ( do the math), but still that's not bad.

After all the hu-bub in town, everyone made their way to her village. When I say village, I am being extremely generous. I have run past this location, which is marked by roughly 10 mud and stick constructed huts. Thousands of people descended upon her secondary school, to help celebrate. So many people in fact, that they had to park the numerous vehicles over 2 miles away from the party. The star was under a barricade of heavily armed soldiers the entire time. This was no doubt to protect the mob from crushing her, and to keep the marriage proposals at bay. The party was hopping and not even a two hour torrential rain storm could keep down people's spirits.

I have finally been able to increase my training volume, after adjusting to the altitude. Slowly, I have inserted some speed workouts into my program. Monday was the first time I had been on any track, USA or Kenya, and it really showed. I had a relatively easy 4xmile workout, but with a fast finish planned in the 4:30 range. The first three repeats posed no problems, but when I went to ratchet up the pace, it got interesting. The muddy track was giving me fits, even with my track spikes, making 70 second laps feel like WR pace. Try as I might, I could only muster out a 4:45 and I was gassed after that effort. The silver lining is that apparently the track is long by 5 meters, which is a small pat on the back. Still, attempting to run 5km race pace felt like two heavy hands were squeezing my lungs with all their might.

Most days I finish runs without gasping, which is quite the silver star considering things. I am not sure if I have inadvertently performed a powerful rain dance, but it still rains heavily almost every afternoon or evening. Hence, every AM run is muck filled and feel like I am wearing snowshoes by the end of each session. I have all but packed away my white socks and shirts, back into my traveling bags. I now only use black socks, and dark colored shirts for training, to make washing a less stressful endeavor.

I have been checking out the surrounding region a bit lately. A couple hundred feet higher than Kapsabet, lies Nandi Hills. This region is famous for the sprawling tea plantations covering the rolling hills. I was surprised to be out of breath just trudging up a few of these hills, and realized that an extra thousand feet really makes a big difference. The roads among the tea fields are in much better shape than Kapsabet, because it is vital for the plantations to truck out their product. I have snapped a bunch of photos and hopefully can upload them this weekend.

Q&A:

Q:Why are they so fast (diet, genetics, training, etc.)?

A: I would say a mix of genetics (years of altitude) and hard training. Sure a lack of western food is a help, but there doesn't seem to be a magic meal. If so I haven't had it yet! The training here is so extreme that the ones who do survive are nearly unbeatable.

Q: Lady runners?

A: There are women running here, but nowhere near the amount of men training in the area. I would say the ratio of men training to women is 95%-5%. Some women train with slower guys, and I imagine that is a big help.

Q: How do people get by money wise?

A: Good question. Many are supported by their families back home, in the villages, or other relatives. A small minority perform odd jobs during the middle of the day, to supplement their cash flow. It doesn't take much to survive here, roughly $1 usd a day is easily enough to get you along. Many runners pack into small primitive apartment style homes, just like migrant workers, all waiting for their big break. Some have been waiting for that break, for over 10-15 years. This alone has been one of the most astonishing things I have come across training in Kenya.