Hand Signals

Something that the Kenyan runners do that I haven't come across before is hand signals. When I first started running out here and was running behind some of the guys I noticed that every now and again they would drop a hand to their side, didn't think much of it to start with but then noticed it always happened before there was a rock in the road, a car was coming or some other obstruction.

Since then I asked them about these "hand signals" and they work as follows:

• hand dropped to the right = obstruction coming up on the right
• hand dropped to the left = obstruction coming up on the left
• both hands dropped = obstruction across the whole road
• hands raised above the head = obstruction from above, i.e. hanging branches

I find these quite useful and it saves shouting, especially when I'm out of breath! I guess these came about due to the state of the roads out here as there are rocks and pot holes all the time and it would get annoying having to shout "watch out for that rock" every minute or so.

Looking forward to the cross country on Saturday, will be a good test to see how I have improved in the last three weeks (since the last cross country).