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.

Six reasons why you need a coach as a runner

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.

 

Why prize money in many races will keep going down

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.

Despite the race cancellations, I will run a marathon next month to raise funds for charity

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 running boom in Kenya caused by COVID 19

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.

Why strong performances by athletes should be expected after the COVID 19 pandemic

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.