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Runner's World Daily
February 17, 2005
Bell Lap
Kenya Running Safari--One Last Toot
by John Manners
Amby Burfoot's two feature stories about the Kenya Running Safari on this site last week (February 15 & February 17) gave an account of the trip and how the participants felt about it. Here's a little background on how the Safari came about, and how it worked.
Seven years ago I was leading a TV crew through Kenyan running country when it occurred to me that I could as easily be showing around carloads of money-spending tourists who would boost the local economy and might come to share some of the affection I felt for the people of that beautiful but out-of-the-way part of Kenya.
That was the idea, and that's all it was until a chance meeting put me in touch with a large Nairobi travel outfit, Micato Safaris, and with them on board, I took the idea to Runner's World. Publisher Andy Hersam liked it immediately--much more a runner's trip, he said, than previous Runner's World travel ventures--and soon we had ads, brochures and a website, and Micato taking reservations.
That the Safari went as smoothly as it did can be put down to three principal factors: the enthusiasm of the participants, the extraordinary generosity of the people in that part of Kenya, and cell phones. I'll start with the phones. Land lines in Kenya are, for the most part, terrible, so almost everyone above the level of dire poverty either owns or has ready access to a cell phone. Top runners all have them, of course, and it doesn't take much time spent in Kenyan running circles to compile a pretty comprehensive list of numbers.
I had been in touch with dozens of runners in the fall, telling them about the Safari. Everyone I contacted was supportive, eager to boost tourism in their home area and happy to make themselves available. But to make sure, I spent the week before the Safari feverishly text messaging everybody I'd talked to, re-inviting them to join us at our various functions. I expected about a 50% attendance rate, but as it turned out, nearly 90% of the invitees showed up, thanking me for the texted reminders.
The Safari participants were delighted, but they had already proved themselves to be such a game bunch that I suspect they'd have been content with a far lower turnout. No one, for example, had squawked when a couple of rooms had hot water problems or when newly imposed national speed restrictions on commercial passenger vehicles turned the first day's drive from four hours into six. And at the end of that long drive, when I asked who wanted to participate in the rugged North Rift Provincial Cross Country two days later, fully nine of the 13 signed up. What's more, all of them ran, undaunted by the world-class competition, the raucous onlookers or the scorching equatorial sun. A very game bunch indeed.
What pleased them most, as Amby's second story documents, was the way they were welcomed by the Kenyans. I was quite sure I could count on Kenyan generosity; I've depended on it for years. But I hadn't realized it would make such an impression. In all, the group was welcomed into nine private homes and five training camps, and treated at least to tea in almost every one. And they couldn't get over it.
Near the end of the tour, we spent two days in a luxurious lodge in the Maasai Mara game reserve. I had expected many of our group would consider this a highlight, but I found that while they welcomed the experience, they dismissed it as "Disney World" compared with the places they'd just left. It seems they had indeed come to share some of the feeling I have for the people in that little corner of Kenya that produces all those brilliant runners.
John Manners taught and coached in Kenya in the early 1970s and has been writing about Kenyan runners ever since. Details about the recently completed Kenya Running Safari can be found at www.micato.com/runnersworld.html.
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