Happy Fourth of July from Kenya!

Three weeks into our grand adventure this summer and life has certainly slowed down!  We have been in the small farming village of Iten for almost two weeks now and it’s amazing how at home one can feel here.  The town takes it’s name from a Kalenjin word meaning “to answer”, but when the British came to colonized they misinterpreted it and called it “Hill-Ten” instead.  That name is certainly appropriate because one of the things that makes Iten such a distance runner’s Mecca is the incredibly hilly terrain.  There isn’t a flat run anywhere near us.  Oh, and it’s at 8,000 feet!  You really couldn’t design a more perfect place to train.  That said, for a Texan to get dropped off here and start running definitely is not ideal!  But two weeks into my time here (along with another week at a slightly lower altitude) and my lungs are finally adjusting.  It’s my legs that are struggling to keep up!  As I mentioned, with hills everywhere there’s no such thing as an “easy” run.  It’s more like “easy” run with a dozen hill repeats mixed in!

A few other thoughts on life in Iten:

–          As I said, Iten is a very small town, even though pretty much every Kenyan runner trains here.  So you see top notch Kenyan runners all over the place and everywhere you run.  To my untrained eyes it’s hard to tell the elites from the beginners.  But one thing I’ve learned is that local Kenyans don’t call anybody elite.  In fact if you ask them if there are any elite runners in a group they won’t really understand the question.  I’m guessing it’s because every Kenyan runner is elite!  So instead they distinguish themselves as regular runners and “Champions”.  You only get labeled Champion by winning an international race – the London/Boston/New York marathons for example, or anything on the Diamond League track circuit.  That’s the standard for separating yourself!  Pretty intense.

–          We watched a European track meet last night that was stacked with Kenyans.  The Kenyans who work here were watching with us and it was fun to here the backstories on every runner.  They knew each one by name, knew who they worked out with, and what small town they come from.  Last night there was a relative unknown teenager who won a stacked 1500 race by dropping his PR by 15 seconds and beating some of the most experienced “Champions” Kenya and the world has to offer.  The Kenyans in the room weren’t even shocked.  “Oh yeah, he trains just over there,” they said, as if that was routine.  There is so much untapped talent around here that it just takes a few breaks for the next great runner to hit the world stage.

–          Because of the small runner’s community that exists around here, the Champion runners are incredibly open to the public.  Oftentimes they are working out on the same track as 50 wannabe’s and shoot the bull with everyone with during warmup and cool down.  The other day, world record holder David Rudisha was working out on the track.  Afterwards we had a local ask him if we could come up and say hi.  He said of course and chatted with us for about 10 minutes, even stopping to take selfies with my kids!  He said next time we should just wave him down during a workout and he’ll come over to say hi.  OK!!

–          The other cool thing about having so many elite runners around is that there is a black market for running gear.  The Champions are always being handed merchandise from their sponsors as well as from when they run for the Kenyan National Team.  When they are done with the gear they pass it along to black market retailers.  You have to know who to ask, but if you show up at the right store at the right time you can get kitted out in full Kenyan National gear along with the latest running accessories, some that haven’t even hit the American market yet.  All at bargain prices!

So, like I said, if you consider yourself to be a runner, you have GOT to put Iten on your bucket list!  Well, Happy Fourth of July back in America!  We’re going to celebrate with Kenyan hamburgers and a few party favors I found at the local general store.  It’s not much, but it’s the American spirit that counts anyways!