London Marathon day in Kenya

On Sunday morning my wife and I jumped onto a packed bus in Iten and headed to Eldoret. It was two hours before Marathon start time but the atmosphere in Iten was already one of nervous excitement as runners emerged from their camps and houses and selected their favourites bars, pubs and hotels to watch the London Marathon.

Our plan was to head 30k down the road and join Kenyan running legend Moses Tanui’s ‘London Marathon Party’ at his hotel on the outskirts of downtown Eldoret. We arrived in good time and in good spirits to watch some great racing. The place was packed and nicely decorated with Virgin London Marathon posters, ticker tape and balloons. The staff were giving out whistles and it was a real party atmosphere. Before we even got to the front door we had been greeted by Moses Tanui and been introduced to 800m star Alfred Kirwa Yego and former London Marathon winner Felix Limo. Moses’ was clearly ‘the place to be’ this morning.

The TV room was packed long before we arrived but Moses quickly set about finding us some extra chairs and placed us near the front with a great view of the huge wall mounted flat screen TV.

Unfortunately, this being Kenya things weren’t all going to go smoothly and there was one problem with the (obviously very expensive) TV - it wasn’t working!!! The staff were insistent that there was a power failure and they were trying to get the back up generator fired up - but the lights were on so I knew that wasn’t the problem!

I was sat (for the second time recently) next to Christopher Cheboiboch (2nd at NYC Marathon a few years ago). He owns the school which we live right behind and so we had a bit of a catch up whilst various ‘engineers’ got to work on the power supply to the TV. As race time approached people started to get anxious and eventually they started to leave.

Christopher suggested that we do the same. We felt terrible for Moses who had gone to such great effort to put on this event but as Christopher so eloquently put it “first things first we need to watch this race.” So with apologetic smiles in Moses’ direction we hit the exit as many others did the same. Former London marathon winner Felix Limo was stood outside the reception with a look of trepidation on his face. I think he was in the same boat as us - wanting to leave - but felt that he had to support his friend by staying there.

We piled 9 people into Cheboiboch’s 5 seater car and headed to Klique Hotel in the middle of Eldoret town arriving a few minutes after the start of the men’s race with the women approaching 1hour of running. The place was packed with tall slender Kenyan’s and I wondered how many were dreaming that next year it would be they who were kitted out in brand new Adidas or Nike and leading the charge in the world’s premier road race.

I’m sure anyone reading this already knows the outcome of the races - great wins in dominating fashion for Mary Keitany (pronounced here as Kay-Tan) and for Emmanuel Mutai. Mary is an Iten resident and I’ve been fortunate enough to watch a few of her workouts with her coach Gabrielle Nicola so I know she was in shape! And Emmanuel is a regular at the Tuesday morning Chepkoilel track sessions. Our Kenya Experience group had watched Emmanuel workout just a few weeks earlier and some had posed for post run photos with, him so it was great to see him get the win.

Kenyan’s celebrate running victories like we celebrate soccer victories. When a Kenyan hit the front there was rapturous applause and Mutai’s breakaway was met with chants of ‘Kenya Kenya Kenya.’ As the runners approached the finish line the noise was deafening and the whistle blowing was a clear sign that we weren’t the only defectors from Moses’ hotel (Grand Pri).

However, the loudest cheer of the day and subsequently a lot of laughs and staring from Kenyan’s came at exactly 2.28.00 into the women’s race. The noise had settled following Mary Keitany’s victory and the locals were waiting for the feed to flick back to the men’s race. But just after Jo Pavey crossed the line as first Brit two otherwise inconspicuous ‘Mzungo’ at the back of the room were about to get very excited indeed.

As soon as Jo Pavey finished Lauren (my wife) said to me “right we need to see Lou (Louise Damen) in the next minute or so if she’s gonna break 2.31“ (UK Olympic qualifying time) and under my breath I was quietly saying “come on Damo, come on Damo, come Damo” and then, as soon as the shot paned out and we could see Damo in the distance approaching the last turn, that became COME ON DAMO at the top of my voice. This continued until she crossed the line in exactly 2.30 to smash the Olympic qualifying time on her first attempt at the marathon distance. Lauren was brought to tears as we were dancing around hugging and celebrating.

To put this excitement into context Louise is one of our best friends and she has been to hell and back with various injury problems for a number of years but has never given up! She is an inspiration to me and should be to hundreds of other runners out there. As a full time worker it’s not easy to run at the elite level and even harder when you’ve got a body as rebellious as Louise’s has been over the past few years. But, we’ve seen how hard she has worked to get back - the hours of rehab in the gym, the time, money and effort spent on trying to get fixed, and the years of perseverance. Louise should be an inspiration to any runner out there currently struggling - if you want it enough to can come back!

So, next was the turn of the men’s finish. The sight of Emmanuel Mutai floating along the Embankment as he made his way towards St James Park was met with more rapturous applause and blows on the whistle. After running an astoundingly fast 10k between the 30 and 40k marks Mutai’s victory was a relatively straight forward affair. But there was a real battle going on for 2nd place between two Kenya’s Martin Lel and Patrick Makau. Seeing as how Kenyan’s take so much pride in any Kenyan victory I was surprised that the entire room was rooting for one man only. Lel was the crowd’s clear favourite and the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for his last second sprint past Makau to snatch silver.

I’m not sure if it’s because Lel is a local man to the Eldoret area, or because he is more of a ‘legend’ than the newcomer of the past few seasons Makau, but Lel was certainly the crowd pleaser.

As soon as the Lel/Makau sprint finish was over the bar started to empty and by the time Lee Merrien, first British man (who trained at the High Altitude Training Centre in Iten before this race), crossed the line in an excellent 2.14 there were just a few hangers on left as the majority of the crowd were back outside and getting on with the rest of the day. The Kenyan’s had no interest in anything slower than a 2.10 marathon. The thought process seemed to be - if you aren’t going to win then why bother at all? It’s an interesting idea and whilst certainly not something I personally agree with, it maybe goes someway to explaining the mentality that helps develop these people into such great runners!

An interesting morning to say the least and a very exciting way to watch a marathon. I only wish we could generate this interest level in endurance running amongst the British public. Any ideas???