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Runner's World Daily
February 15, 2005
Feature Story
The First Running Safari In Kenya
by Amby Burfoot
photo courtesy of Bob Hardy
Marathon world record holder Paul Tergat (center) and Dr. Mike Boit joined the Kenyan Running Safari group for a dinner in Nairobi.
Over the past 25 years, I've been lucky enough to go on many wonderful running-related trips, but none could compare to the just-completed Kenya Running Safari produced by Runner's World and Micato Tours. Two things made this trip extraordinary: Kenya itself, and John Manners' passionate commitment to Kenyan culture and running.
Kenya is well known for its world-beating distance runners, and glorious wild game reserves. Thanks to Manners, we talked, ran, and shared meals with an amazing number of the runners, including Kipchoge Keino, Wilson Kipketer, Lornah Kiplagat, Wilson Bungei, Mike Boit, Moses Kiptanui, Yobes Ondieki, Sammy Kipketer, Eliud Kipchoge, and Paul Tergat. We also spent several action-packed days at Maasai Mara ("mara" means "spotted," a reference to the trees and bushes that spot this seemingly endless north edge of the Serengeti plains), where we saw lions, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, leopards, hippos, cape buffalos, baboons, and more from 20 yards or less.
Our running adventures were arranged by Manners, who has 30 years of street cred among Kenyan runners. When he calls a Keino, Kiplagat, or Tergat, his calls get returned, enabling him to open doors like no one else. There are probably few other Americans who love Kenya as much as Manners. He lived there first as a child, when his father was a social anthropologist, and spent three more Peace Corps years (1969-1971) in the Rift Valley after graduating from Harvard. Since then, as a book and magazine editor, writer, TV consultant, and track fan, he has returned as often as possible. He speaks not just Swahili, but also the dialect of Kenya's greatest running tribe, the Kalenjin. "Imagine my amazement," says Paul Tergat, "when I made my first trip outside the U.S. to Boston in 1992, and this American comes up to me speaking the language of my people."
Thus it was that, in a week in the Rift Valley, our group of 14 had lunch one day at Kip Keino's home, where he took particular delight in serving his favorite drink, mursik--sour milk fermented for a week in a dried gourd. Another day, we watched Lornah Kiplagat run intervals at Kamiriny Stadium in Iten, then toured her High Altitude Training Camp, where we lunched on pumpkin soup, salad, and fresh-baked bread. High in the Nandi hills, Wilfred Bungei and his new wife Priscah filled the table (and our stomachs) with fresh fruit and vegetables, while Tergat himself joined us for a lavish dinner on our last night in the country. All told, we talked and ran and ate meals with almost 40 different Kenyan running greats.
One Saturday, we entered the North Rift Valley XC Championships, sweeping the last 6 places in both the 4-K and 12-K. The races took place on a grass and dirt airfield seemingly far from anywhere, but with 14,000-foot Mount Elgon towering over us, and a blazing, midday Equatorial sun scorching our shoulders. We knew we were slow, called ourselves Team Mazungu Wazimu ("Crazy White People"), and laughed along with the Kenyans when they giggled at our white/red skin, sunglasses, and pitiful performances. One of our Kenyan drivers commented that the youngsters of Kishaunet, the nearest village of any stripe, would never forget the day the mazungus dropped by. Neither will we. Click here to see a funny Daily Nation photo of one Mazungu Wazimu runner in midrace.
A week later, we crowded onto the infield at the Ngong Race Course, just outside Nairobi and down the road from Karen Blixen's famous coffee plantation, to watch the Kenyan National XC Championships. This event is sometimes called the greatest distance race in the world for its impressively deep talent. The course itself was a winner, green and sparkling, with a horse-race grandstand on one side and a gently rolling golf course on the other. Inbetween, the runners raced over a 2-K lap consisting of two very long straightaways with modest turns at both ends. We had to walk only 10 yards from one straight to the other to see all the action twice per lap.
In the featured men's 12-K, Eliud Kipchoge won smoothly and convincingly with a strong midrace surge, confirming his Kenyan team leadership for next month's World XC battle with Kenenisa Bekele and the Ethiopians. In the "long" women's race, the 8-K, Catherine Ndereba and Margaret Okayo, often triumphant on the U.S. roads, could place no higher than 13th and 18th. That gives you some indication of the Kenyan depth. For more race info, see IAAF.org.
Most of us flew home later that night, arriving back in the U.S. Sunday afternoon, Feb. 13. But the memories of Kenya linger: the ugali, the chai, the tea fields, the red-dirt roads, the golden sunsets. And, more than any of these, the elegance, warmth, hospitality, and brilliant smiles of our hosts. "I'd like you all to return to the U.S. with some Kalenjin in your hearts," John Manners told us on one long, bumpy van trip.
And so we have.
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