Kenyan Athlete: 2020

A runner's detailed review of six months under my online coaching program

Jane Mepham after her half marathon run inTexas, USA

I am forever grateful to all the runners who have entrusted me with their running goals, and it gives me so much pleasure when I get positive feedback out of my online coaching.

Here is an elaborate review from one of my favorite runners as she looks back at the six month's journey of her training with me.

Jane Mepham is the founder and owner of Elgon Financial Advisors – an independent virtual Financial Planning Firm that serves First-Generation Americans and Immigrants based in Austin Texas and one of my online students.

Running Background

I ran track in high school (middle distance races), but switched to Tennis at age 16 and figured this was going to be my lifelong sport.

Fast forward to a couple years ago, I developed tendinitis in my right elbow (Tennis elbow), which made hitting a tennis ball extremely painful. After consulting with a lot of doctors and folks in the tennis community, I came to the painful conclusion that I had to stop playing tennis for a while to give my elbow a chance to heal, and that’s when I turned to running. At this point my goal was simply to get out, get some exercise and use running as a way to stay healthy. Even though I’d run track in high school, the only competitive road racing I had taken part in was a 5k at my local church way back in 2012. I was pretty ignorant about running and I honestly never thought I would take part in a race. As happens with a lot of things in life, one of my friends convinced me to sign up for my first half marathon (3M in Austin Tx) in early 2018 which got me training harder. I had no clue what I was doing, so my training was literally just to go out and run a couple times a week with some gym workouts thrown in for good measure.

I surprised myself when I finished the race in under 2 hours (8.55 min / mile pace). But it took me almost two weeks to fully recover. That same year I started running with a small group, and the difference was amazing in terms of overall improvement. I ran the same race in 2019 and this time finished in what is now my PB - 01:39:41 (07:37 min /mile pace), which got me into the top 10 in my age group. I continued running with the same group, and our training consisted of what we jokingly called the neighborhood run (5-7 miles) on Tuesday, a track workout on Thursday and a long run on Saturdays ( 9 to 13 ish miles). Some folks in the group would do more than the 3 days, and those training for a marathon would do longer longs on Saturday. In addition, we all incorporated other workouts on our own.

Big Goals

That year I decided to up my game. I set up a goal to complete a full marathon and qualify for the Boston Marathon at the same time. I picked out my qualifying race for early 2020, but my training was not very organized (What you don’t know can actually come back to bite you) and I had to severely cut down due to painful knees and a few other injuries, that just seemed to crop up every now and again. By the time Jan 2020 came around I knew there was no way I was going to be able to complete run the targeted Marathon in March/April of 2020, but I still run my favorite race – and surprised myself by finishing the race in 01:42:32 (7:49 min /mile). I was just glad to finish it.

Online Coaching with Justin

By then as you can tell, I was fully hooked onto long distance running and was constantly looking for ways to improve. I figured that if I was to improve, I needed to see what guys like Eliud Kipchoge, Rudisha and some of the folks in Iten were doing. Based on everything I knew and my background as a tennis a coach, I knew hard work is the key, but it was also important to find the right program and hopefully avoid the injuries, that seemed to be derailing my progress. With the Corona virus lockdown, I could not run with my group anymore and so really needed to find something that would keep me going. In my search for an online coach, I came across Justin Lagat, and after reading his blog, I reached out to him to see if we could work together. I loved that he’d grown up and trained in that environment, had interacted with some of these elite guys, had worked with some of the same coaches in the same environment and had a PB of 02:26, after cutting of 29 minutes from a prior run. My logic was very simple, Kenyans are the best at long distance running, to be the best you need to train like them. I shared my goals with him

1) Improve my half marathon time - Run under 01:30 (under 07:00 min /mile pace)

2) Run my first marathon and qualify for Boston marathon at the same time – For 2021 (This might change), I would need to run in under 03:45:00 (appx 08:37 min /mile pace) for my age group.

Wilson Kiprop, the 2010 world half-marathon champion,
versus Bedan Karoki at a local race in Kenya

An athlete may have done enough training to run well in a race, but without the right mentality going into the race, all the training might become useless.

They say that experience is the best teacher, and if there is one place that this applies more, it should definitely be with the mental preparation among Kenyan runners getting ready to run their dream races. Some learn about the best ways to deal mentally with their races through experience while others are taught by a coach or by fellow runners.

One of the runners that have impacted me more on how to be tough and courageous in a race is Wilson Kiprop, the 2010 world half marathon champion. He told me how determined he was to finish in a podium place at a local race before no one ever knew about him. He had never finished in the top ten positions at any big race before. But here, the race meant everything to him. He had no more food where he stayed away from home, no money, and no one to ask for help. He was in Nairobi and he wanted to win some money at the cross country race to enable him to travel back to Eldoret. The race was paying the top three finishers only.

Steven Vanlancker (centre) training in Iten, Kenya

“I am surprised that it had to take me over 6,000km of traveling to finally understand what “easy” really meant,” Steven Vanlancker told me as we sat and sipped some hot tea outside on a hot afternoon at Iten Club in Kenya.

Steven is from Belgium and is one of the runners that I coach online and who at times borders on nagging with many questions whenever I give him a program for the week. Often, he would want to know the exact pace to use in each one of the runs I give him. So, when he came to Kenya, did a few runs, noticed that an easy pace on some routes can sometimes get faster than hard runs on some routes; he then realized the need to use feeling for his runs rather than follow the pace on his watch!

Injuries happen in many ways. Most of the time, it starts out as something that one may feel like a slight discomfort that would simply go away on its own. Sometimes, it happens abruptly in the middle of their run and forces them to stop and find other means to reach your house.

Looking back at the time that I was a small kid in primary school, I think I now finally figured out why I would run to school daily for over eight years and cannot remember any day I ever got injured because of these runs.

There was a river I would cross every morning on my way to school. It didn’t have a bridge and I would wade through the icy cold water briefly stopping in the middle to bath my legs and face before proceeding to school.

Anyway, below are some of the common ways in which Kenyan runners use to prevent and treat their injuries.

Heat Therapy

Applying some heat to an injured part of the body enables more blood circulation in that area soothes the pain and speeds up the healing process.

The most common form of heat treatment among Kenyan runners is mostly the moist heat application where some leaves of special plants, and even cabbages, are heated over an open fire and applied gently on the injured part of the leg. Besides retaining the right amount of heat during the treatment, most of the leaves used by the Kenyan runners often have some additional healing properties in them as well.

A runner on her morning run in Eldoret, Kenya.
Photo by Justin Lagat

Whether one is pacing themselves or is being paced by other runners, choosing the right pace to use is the key to getting the best results out of any workout or race for any runner. Starting out a run too fast often leads to overall poor performance in the end, or even having to stop mid-way in a run.

Just like in all the other elements of training, if not applied well, it becomes useless and might even be counterproductive.

In training, we have jogging, easy, moderate, and hard runs. Every run has a reason. Harder runs help build the aerobic capacity while the easier runs help in recovery while at the same time assisting in building endurance and muscle strength. Moderate and tempo runs help the body get used to the racing conditions.

A pacesetter is there to ensure that the runner maintains the right pace that will help them meet their goals both in a race and in training. They are not there to push the runner to run more than their ability as this will often result in a bad race. At times, some pacesetters end up competing with the runners they are supposed to help!

It is very common for elite Kenyan women runners to have male pacesetters accompanying and pacing them in their training and also during their races. In fact, some male runners are earning their living as professional women pace setters here in Kenya with some of the biggest camps here paying a stable monthly salary for their services.

I heard the news about the cancelation of the 2020 Nairobi Marathon through the social media, and as though they knew that it would be hard for me to believe it, I just checked my email and got the message below:

Dear Justin,

Thank you for your continued support towards the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon. We have been closely monitoring how Covid-19 has impacted large scale public events worldwide and in Kenya. Naturally, this raised concerns for our marathon.

When we consulted with Athletics Kenya and the Ministry of Sports it was evident that we would not be able to plan for a physical event with any certainty.

Susan Sirma, the first Kenyan woman to win a medal at the world stage

Once you win medals for the country and celebrations are over, you are on your own. This is the harsh reality that hit most of the Kenyan veteran runners as Ben Jipcho was laid to rest at his home village of Kasawai, in Trans Nzoia County this Friday the 31st of July after passing on on 24th of July at a hospital in Eldoret due to a long illness.

After flying the Kenyan flag high and delivering different Olympic, All-Africa Games and Commonwealth medals for the country in the late 1960s to early 1970s, Jipcho retired from running and little is mentioned of his life after that. It was only until his demise that his name and the great contributions he had made to the Kenyan legacy in running came up again. If there is one thing that Kenyan is known for, it is definitely for its runners and Jipcho was part of the pioneer runners that started the trend.

However, some of his fellow veteran athletes who were close to him during his last days in hospital, and tried to assist with the little they had as his family struggled to meet the growing hospital bills shared their concerns about such a big star that had brought a lot of glory to the Kenyan nation having to struggle on his own to access medication.

Below is a press release from the race organizers of the Honolulu marathon that is expected to take place on the 13th of December this year.

The Honolulu Marathon is excited to welcome Mizuno as its new apparel sponsor.

Mizuno has been confirmed as a supporting sponsor of the Honolulu Marathon. At this year’s event, scheduled for December 13, 2020, the Japanese run apparel specialist will provide all finisher, commemorative and volunteer shirts and sell official merchandise at the Honolulu Marathon Expo.

The Honolulu Marathon was first held in 1973 and is the fourth largest marathon in the United States. It is very popular in Japan; and to date about 470,000 Japanese runners have raced at the Honolulu Marathon.

The December 2020 race weekend includes three distances: the full 26.2-mile marathon, the Start to Park 10k, and the Kalakaua Merrie Mile.

“We are particularly proud to welcome such a premier athletic company at this difficult time,” said Jim Barahal, CEO & President of the Honolulu Marathon Association. “This demonstrates Mizuno’s long-term commitment to the people of Hawaii and Japan.

On the 1st of this month, Canadian runners held the Canadian 10K national championships, virtually. By the end of that day, we had two newly crowned Canadian national champions for the 10K, Justin Kent who ran a personal best time of 28:52 and Natasha Wodak who won the omen's title in 31:42. And, they did also walk away with some prize money.

Some of the conditions that the race organizer had put in place to ensure a fair race included racers running on an out and back route, obviously to ensure no one takes advantage of a downhill course; a race companion to take a video of the runner on the route and a GPX file to be uploaded to get the official results.

Irene Cheptai, world cross country champion leading
the rest in a local race in Kenya

Kenya is known the world over for the great long-distance runners that come out of it. The factors that make this country so lies in its great climatic conditions throughout the year, the places to train on high altitudes, the availability of many groups of athletes to train with, and the culture and history of running in the country.

I am lucky to have been born in Kenya and to have joined some of the biggest training camps here in my early life. This gives me enough experience to give out some insights on how Kenyan runners deal with a number of areas in their training.
Here, in my new Ebook, I am going to deal with their mental preparations, how they deal with their weight in different stages of their training, and their pacing strategies both in training and in racing.

Available ebook formats: epub, mobi, pdf, lrf, pdb, txt and html.

NOTE: You can enroll yourself in our Kenyan Online Coaching Services by sending us a message through this email

How Kenyan runners deal with weight at various stages of their training

A Kenyan runner doing an easy morning run. Photo by Justin Lagat

In their initial days of race preparations, one would find Kenyan runners wearing semi-waterproof tracksuits that make them sweat profusely during their runs. In addition, they would do these runs in the mid-morning to noon sun in order to maximize the effects of the heat.

These easy runs in the hot sun soon get them into their ideal training weight in about one month.

Kenyan runners believe that it is good for one to find out their ideal racing weight in order for them to tell if they will need to gain more or lose during their training. And the best way to get to one’s desired weight fast is not in the likes of lemon concoctions, but by training and sweating in the heat. It is also important to feel healthy and fit, so one should not quickly train more to lose more weight regardless of other factors.

John Lotiang (left) with fellow runners in Iten. Photo from Lotiang's FB post.

John Lotiang is determined to help his fellow runners in Iten during these hard times. He has been forced to move out of his own house into a smaller one in a corner of his own compound, by his own big heart, in order to provide free accommodation for them.

“If no one had helped me, I would not be where I am today. That is what has made me decide to give out all my rental units, and my house as well, to runners in Iten for free until such a time when they will find other means to earn a living, or when everything returns to normal again,” Lotiang, a reformed Pokot warrior who left cattle rustling a few years ago to pursue running told RunBlogRun at his training place in Iten.

Through the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation initiative that was founded by the legendary runner and peace icon, Tegla Loroupe, Lotiang and a few other young warriors from the Pokot community were identified and provided with everything they needed – food, shelter and clothing- to begin their careers in running. He has been quite successful so far and knows what a big difference a little help can make to someone’s life.

I have been following online webinars live on FaceBook that have been organized by the National Olympic committee of Kenya (NOCK) to educate athletes on different fields of their careers.

NOCK has been bringing in different experts to enlighten athletes. The first two topics have been on finance management and on building a personal image that the local brands would wish to work with. This week on 11th of June, Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathon runner of all time, will be one of the panelists.

One of the experts to have been invited to talk to athletes was Shaba Njagi, a financial expert. She gave valuable advice to athletes on how to secure their financial future.

She addressed the dangers of a “false well-being” that most athletes often get into when they win money from some big competitions. Such false well-being may drive the athletes to ask for some salary advance or request for loans that would put them in a circle of debts.

Winnie Kosgey participating in the Ottawa 10K virtual run

Virtual runs are running competitions that are organized by race organizers in their own countries, but runners everywhere in the world are able to participate in them without having to travel there. A runner can just find an ideal route for themselves, measure and run the race distance and then submit the results electronically to the race organizers.

2. What equipment do athletes need?

Runners will need to have a GPS enabled sports watch, or even a smart phone. They should be able to synch their race results after their run to a running App, like Strava, Garmin Connect, among others, and it will be easier to transfer them to the race organizers from there.

3. How do low altitude areas work different from high altitudes?

At the moment, there are no measures in place to ensure a level playing field for runners running at higher altitude against those running at a lower altitude. So, it remains a challenge. But, who knows? The others at the lower altitudes could also be complaining that they do not get chances to travel and train at high altitudes!

Another challenge here will be the route elevation as well. Some runners may be running on flat courses while others may be running uphill or downhill.

World Wild Life Fund (WWF)’s virtual 5k for nature/world environment day campaign

Here is a press release from the WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF) concerning their virtual 5K run for nature:

Make Your Miles Count: Virtual 5K for Nature Keeps People Active and Engaged

In support of World Environment Day on June 5, World Wildlife Fund launches first-ever virtual run/walk/hike to help people stay connected to each other and to nature

Washington, DC: From June 1 to June 7, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) will host its first-ever virtual 5K for nature, a campaign designed to help people stay active and engaged during this time of uncertainty.

With many activities cancelled or postponed, this is a challenging time for everyone. Many of us are wondering what we can do on the weekends to stay connected, while also giving back. WWF’s “5K for Nature” aims to connect people to nature within their own communities, even while social distancing. The campaign overlaps with World Environment Day on June 5, a day dedicated to taking action to protect our planet.

The connection between our health and nature is profound. If we continue to lose nature, pandemics will become more common and more severe. WWF is working to help stop the drivers of future pandemics by tackling the illegal wildlife trade and halting the worst impacts of deforestation. Participants in WWF’s “5K For Nature” can be a part of the solution.

Runners competing in a 10,000m race in Eldoret, Kenya

To make your training more enjoyable.

A coach is obviously someone who has had past experience as a runner or has spent many years studying the art of running and every aspect of it. He knows the best steps for you to gradually transform into a faster runner without feeling the pain or putting in a lot of useless efforts. A coach knows how to blend different workouts to achieve the desired goal.

For Motivation

The graph of any runner is not a straight incline. There are days that a runner may feel as though they are retrogressing in their fitness goals. A coach understands all these and will be there to point out to the runner that they should focus on the long term plan and not how they feel on a daily basis.

A Kenyan athlete training in Eldoret, Kenya

Times and the way things are getting done are rapidly changing. Athletes should be learning to make the necessary adjustments to go with the times.

As more runners, from different countries, join the sport of running and the marathon distance gets more fame, it may reach a time when race organizers will be checking the social media sites of the fast runners before they can be invited to run in their races. This could be the reason why the winning prize money in some races keeps going down while the appearance money keeps going up.

When there are no races and people are searching for the latest stories on their favorite athletes, it is perhaps time for some to realize that being a great public figure is not simply about preparing well for a race and winning it. People want to know how these athletes are coping with the COVID pandemic, what other activities they are engaging in while they are not competing, how well they relate with their families and their communities, among others.

There are great similarities between athletes, musicians, comedians, actors, magicians, and motivational speakers; their work is to build a fan base for an event they participate in.

For the almost ten years that I have worked as a freelance journalist, I have learned that it is not only the performances that make athletes famous and role models across the world, but how they relate with other people in the community, especially the media who would share their stories.

With Lawrence Cherono, the 2019 Chicago Marathon Champion who has been giving out donations to the less fortunate in Kenya during these hard times.

Many charity organizations have been using the big city races to raise funds for good causes. In Kenya, the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon has been raising funds to help eradicate avoidable blindness in children; the family Bank half marathon in Eldoret has been raising money to educate children with learning difficulties in the region.

Other major city marathons have been associating themselves with multiple charity organizations to raise funds for various charities across the world.

The fans that love running will still follow runners wherever they are in whatever means they can get.

Some few weeks ago, while doing a Fartlek Run with my wife, a station wagon trailed us for almost 2km. As we slowed down before the next hard run, we heard a lot of clapping and cheering as the occupants of the car praised our run.

“Imagine you were maintaining a pace of 20km per hour!” The driver of the car shouted amidst the cheering.

Of late, there has been a surge of interest in running with the number of recreational runners beginning to out-number the professional runners on the training routes around here. The occupants of the car are part of the recreational runners that we have often been seeing around. They usually drive in a group of about five runners and park their car some kilometers further away from town, do their run and drive back to where they came from.

Runners training in Kaptagat, Kenya.

It will be interesting to see how the competitions in some of the major races in the world will pan out once everything resumes and when almost every runner will have had almost similar times to recover before getting back to competing again.

While we have seen some runners in the past taking a break from their training due to either injury or maternity reasons, there has never been a time when runners across the world have all gone on a break from competitive running at the same time.

Sammy Korir, who once paced Paul Tergat almost to the finish line to run the first ever marathon world record by a Kenyan runner of 2:04.55, was born in Kiboswa village, about seven kilometers from where I was born and he once gave me an advice that the best runs always come after one takes a relatively long break before resuming their training.

Yours truly in training

Having canceled or postponed their events, some marathons, like the Ottawa Marathon, have offered the runners who had registered for their races an opportunity to run it virtually wherever they will be; record their runs on the available online running applications and forward their results to the race organizers.

In such times as these when there are no races around, most of the runners will find themselves easily postponing their daily runs, perhaps deciding to pause running for a while, or even eventually ending up stopping running completely in the end.

However, when one is preparing for a virtual race, they may be compelled to keep training towards their race goals.

Below are some of the pros and cons to the virtual races:

Vincent Kipchumba winning the Vienna City Marathon in April 2019. Photo courtesy: Olaf Brockmann

Vincent Kipchumba was one of the elite entrants for the London Marathon that was to take place in April. He was one of the main contenders. Those who know him were eagerly looking forward to watching him pull out a big surprise in a race that was expected to become an affair between Kenenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge.

I remember watching one of the biggest half marathon races in Kenya; the First Lady Half Marathon in Nairobi last month. It was during the last stages of the race when for a moment I had thought that there was a separate motorcycle race taking place. Two motorcyclists were racing along the highway as the helicopter gave us a bird’s eye view of the event that was being broadcasted live on TV. Then, just behind the motorcycles was Kipchumba, doing a solo run. There was an empty road behind him, which rarely happens in Kenyan races.

Runners enjoying a moment of laughter after their training in Eldoret, Kenya

For anything to be of the highest quality, it has to be reflected on the satisfaction that it has on whoever wanted to achieve a certain desire by using it.

For a marathon, or a 10K, training program to be of the highest quality, it has to bring the desired results on a goal race; be it a personal best time, or finishing your first marathon successfully.

As a Kenyan athlete and coach, experience over time has taught me a lot and I now view race preparation and training in a different light. I have seen runners who push a lot during their training only to get bad results in their races. I have seen others being a bit conservative in their training and only pushing hard whenever is necessary and getting unexpectedly great results in their races.

Photo by Emma Frances Logan on Unsplash

There was one incident from some years back where I did pick up some money while doing an easy morning run alone. It was still so early in the morning, the road was empty both ahead and behind me and I had no one to share the money with.

While this may not count as one of the advantages of running alone, below are some of the advantages to enjoy during this time when runners are being urged to train individually to assist in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus.

1. It is the only available option at the moment

To curb the spread of the coronavirus, governments across the world have banned any form of gatherings and are advocating for social-distancing whenever it is necessary for one to be out of their houses.

Photo by Dylan Alcock on Unsplash

As an online coach, I am at times asked questions by runners on how they can improve on their running posture and form. Some even accompany their questions with a picture of them side by side with some of their favorite runners they would like to run exactly like them.

My observation over time has been that form comes with one's speed and fitness level, and not the other way round. The faster you run, the better your form and posture will look. In fact, even in a crowd when everyone is just standing, a keen observer (like you!) can be able to easily tell a faster runner from a crowd.

“He looks fast. Is he a runner?” This was the question I heard a number of times when a friend who was hosting me in Canada was being asked whenever we would come across some of his other acquaintances. I had gone there to compete in a few road races.

Two runners pass by each other while training in Kaptagat, Kenya

1. Choosing your favorite runners to appear first on your feed:

Among the new features announced by Strava is that of giving users the ability to choose the activities to appear first on their timelines and to choose the favorite runners whose activities appear on top.

This means you’ll no longer miss cheering on a friend’s massive effort because you didn’t get to see it. To give you an even more customized feed, we’re rolling out the capability to favorite the athletes you care about most. Their activities will be shown first in your feed and you can even choose to be notified whenever they upload something new. So you can always be the first to give your best friend kudos on their new PR.

Coach Sammy Mitei noting track interval times of his athletes in Eldoret

It was such a great learning experience to me when I visited Pace Sports Management’s Sammy Mitei as he coached his runners in Eldoret. I saw a lot for myself and learned more as I listened to him.

"What did I just tell you?!" he had asked, and I could not hide my astonishment.

After explaining to me how, as an experienced coach, he had learned to give out workouts to his athletes depending on how he has come to know each and every one of them - there are those who often complain that the work out is too much and also those who would feel that they still wish to add in some more at the end of the session - one of his athletes who had just been doing some 800m intervals on the track actually came up to where we stood and asked him if he could add some more 300m intervals! He gave him the okay.

I, participating at the 2017 Ottawa marathon in Ottawa, Canada

It is always a pleasure to me getting to talk about my passions of running, writing and coaching. I got seven questions this week from my favorite running friend, an athlete I currently coach and a fellow dad; Noel Paine.

Noel has experience of over 30 years as a runner and is hoping to still run a personal best time for the marathon at the age of 43 years, which I think is possible.

Below are questions from Noel Paine regarding my online coaching:

Training in Kaptagat, Kenya.

With the emergence of sophisticated GPS watches, heart rate monitors, running applications and fitness websites like Strava to share training data and experiences, it has become very easy for many runners out there to reach out to me and try out the Kenyan way of training through my Kenyan Online Coaching programs. I have had some incredible experiences and feedback from the runners I have worked with, so far.

Below bits of advice are based on some of the common questions and clarifications that some of the runners I coach online have been seeking to know.

1. Differentiate between your jogging, easy, moderate and hard runs
These are the common words that we usually use to refer to our workouts; Jog, Easy, Moderate and hard. Here is how to understand them roughly.


	Sweden’s Hanna Lindholm will be targeting Olympic qualification at	the 2020 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon

Here is a News Release from the Dubai Marathon scheduled for 24th this month:

SWEDE DREAMS OF OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION AT STANDARD CHARTERED DUBAI MARATHON

Dubai (UAE): Swedish elite athlete Hanna Lindholm will target a place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she competes in the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on January 24, thanks to a coveted invitation from the event organisers in the UAE.

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A runner's detailed review of six months under my online coaching program

Mental preparation for race day among Kenyan runners

Having a Kenyan coach is much more valuable than buying Kenyan jerseys and bracelets