2nd to Last Day in Kakamega?

I’m not happy about it. It’s another beautiful warm morning, the birds are in full singing swing. We have just ate our fruit salad breakfast of locally grown mangoes, bananas, pineapple and passion fruit.

We have a long (and fun) to do list today as we tie up loose ends. Tanya is going to make the 2 hr round trip to Musingu High School [I actually went with her, i see she has blogged today, maybe she mentioned it] to give the boys the last of their things courtesy of our Rotary club. Iam going to have prints made and write instruction letters, make photocopies and present a plaque to Daisy School that officially hands over to them the 65 desks . It has been difficult to get this plaque made. The instruction letters contain the money and timelines for the remaining desk building projects. We also have soccer balls, pencils and love-bugs to give away. Giving sounds fun, but its quite complicated. What we want to do is to chuck the soccer balls into fields of children playing with plastic bag balls. However, who gets to take the ball home? Will this cause more problems than before?

I haven’t run for the past couple days because I got a head cold in Eldoret. Perhaps it is my punishment for getting too close to the running gods. More likely my body is just catching up on repairs and maintenance. Too much chai, chapatti and soda in the past two months. I am Jonesin’ for a run, but think I may wait for one more day. I will likely do my last African run in Nairobi on Monday . Then I give my shoes away, with all the usual complications that make giving stuff away complicated.

I really should write a separate blog for the Eldoret visit- it went so far beyond my wildest dreams. The thing I hate about blogging is the need to be accurate. I met about 6 Olympians there, but I don’t want to pull out my notebook and go online to get their names, events, PB times and metal standings correct. The german fellow we met won the marathon Olympic Gold in 1976 AND 1980. He was there coaching the #1, #3 and #5 fastest german marathoners in the country.

One thing I was amazed at was how poorly they all ate. Zero fruit and (raw) veggies. Breakfast was a fried egg, millet porridge, a stack of white bread with margarine and jam and tea. Followed by a slice of avocado each. No juice. I asked for a banana but they had none. To the German team I spoke about the “what if” idea that diet plays a huge role. They were 2:13 marathoners. “What if, diet, combined with genetics and training, was enough to oust the Kenyans out of running dominance?”. In response to the Raw food diet they said, “We’d be going to the bathroom a lot”. They weren’t interested. I asked more questions about their training and history but I won’t bore readers with that here. I was very present. I don’t think I’ll forget a word of that visit (I laso took notes!). Heaven.

I went for a run at 0615 Tuesday morning with the Kenyans-male and female. I asked the coach to puty my name on the schedule (amongst all the champions). He did so with a chuckle and a "of course".

I felt like a warthog among the gazelles. As expected, about 3 minutes into the run they warmed up and took off. I watched them go with admiration. As I hit the main road I saw another group of runners ahead. I easily caught up. They were also from the Camp. They were running easy because they had a track meet coming up Friday. They were jogging only.

I couldn’t believe my good luck. I chatted with each one, careful not to fawn too much on anyone in particular. A group of runners passed us coming the other way. One guy waved to us, I waved back. Andrew, beside me said, “He won silver in steeplechase at Bei Jing last year”. All I could do was laugh. Andrew was a new runner had only been training for 4 months. He was discovered at a track meet last December after doing 800m in 1:49. Ok, Ok, I’ll save the rest of the detail for the runners’ forum. Suffice to say I was in heaven. I would have been satisfied to have a picture of myself at the front gate of the training camp, and here I was running and eating with past and future world champions.