Embarrassing

It is very embarrassing when the bill for your entire meal comes to less than 50pence and you haven't got enough money to pay for it and that's exactly what happened to me tonight :-O Luckily it was at my favourite “restaurant” Kamogich and as I am now a regular they were more than happy for me to pay the balance tomorrow.

Kamogich Chai and the "dogbowl" of sugar

Today started well with a good 2 hour run through the Kenyan countryside with Gav, as Iten is on the top of a hill the finish of every run is always up hill and probably the last 7km of this run was up this dreaded hill, I actually felt quite strong and thoroughly enjoyed the run, plus I got the rest of the day to relax, the first day since I've been in Kenya where I haven't trained twice.

The night before I had the legendary Run-Fast Sunday meal, when I was here once before we had, pasta, rice, potato and chapati all in the same bowl, last night it was just rice, potato and chapati, still a mega carbo overload and a good way to set you up for a long run! The Kenyans don't seem to think too much about how they put together their meals, they like potato, rice, pasta etc so why not put it all together? Rather than in the western world where we would use one carbohydrate add some protein, some veg etc. But as long as it tastes good and it fills me up who cares?!

We have had some really fantastic sunsets over the last few weeks and although taking a photo on my phone can never really do them justice I thought I would include them below:

Perfect Timing

On Friday I took a trip to Eldoret with Gav Smith as I had to check an issue with my visa at the local immigration office and it turned out to be quite an eventful trip!

Even before the trip started I got to meet Florence Kiplagat who won the Berlin marathon this year, the World Half Marathon Championships last year and the World Cross Country Championships in 2009, not a bad runner!! She told me I must run quicker over the marathon soon otherwise she will overtake me!

Once Gav and myself flagged down and boarded a matatu we started the journey to Eldoret, due to all the heavy rain they have had here in Kenya the road from Iten to Eldoret was still flooded on one part and causing the usual Kenyan chaos. It seems these kinds of things are entertainment for the locals as there were loads of people just standing around watching as lorries and matatus got stuck on the flooded road.

A lorry stuck in the flood

Our matatu was not willing to risk the crossing so we had to walk through the water, trying to avoid cars that were willing to risk it, motorcycles and other pedestrians, but we made it unscathed.

Gav having succesfully crossed the flood

After the flood we got another matatu for the rest of the journey to Eldoret. In this matatu Gav was sat next to a mother with a young baby. The baby didn't look too well and was eyeing Gav quite suspiciously, I got out my camera and with perfect timing caught the baby in mid vomit directed straight at Gav!!

baby vomit!!

We finally arrived in Eldoret and went to a furniture shop where Gav and his wife Lauren had ordered some hand made sofas which they had been told were finished and awaiting collection. Unfortunately when we arrived although the sofas were ready they were nothing like the ones Gav and Lauren had ordered. For some reason they had used a totally different (rather horrible) material than the one that had been chosen and even the sofa design was different, so they had to send them back to be remade, and on top of this in true Kenyan fashion they had already been weeks late with the promised delivery date! Next stop was the immigration office where I found my visa was fine so I hadn't needed to make the trip. The final stop was the Eldoret Running shop as Gav wanted some new shoes, he had previously been told that the shoes he wanted were 8000KSH but had sent some Kenyan friends in to see what price they would get and found Kenyans would get them for 7000KSH, so all Gav wanted was the true price of 7000KSH. When we arrived Gav was told the price was now 9000KSH!! After some argument's the price dropped slightly to 8000KSH but not to the true price so in the end Gav didn't get his shoes.

So we went to Eldoret had to trek through a flood, got vomited on by a baby didn't get anything we wanted but did have quite a fun day! Luckily the trip back to Iten was a lot less eventful.

Weather Report

Weather Report: No rain this week only blue sky and sunshine, life is good :-)

Beautiful Weather, Beautiful Scenery

The other day I arranged to meet Gav for a steady run in the morning, I was a little nervous for this as Gav has been here in Iten for months now and I was still struggling on most of my runs. It was a great morning for running and due to the improved weather most of the tracks and trails had dried off, Gav took me on a new route which was good and the first 40 minutes of the run was very pleasant, we then hit a long steep climb which immediately stopped are chatting, unfortunately once we reached the top of the climb there was another 15 minutes of uphill running until we reached Gavin’s house which was the end of our run. My only conciliation was that Gav was struggling as much as I was! So it never really gets any easier to run up the hills here in Iten, damn altitude! The run actually gave me a good bit of confidence, knowing that it wasn't that I'm unfit it's just it is very tough to run when you are 2800m above sea level.

The rest of the UKA athletes left yesterday so the number of wazungu (white people) has drastically reduced, unfortunately I didn't get the chance to run with Paula Radcliffe as she always seemed to be running in the opposite direction to me whenever I saw her, she has such a distinctive style that you know it's her from a mile off!

I had a decent hills session yesterday and will be doing my first big long run in a couple of days time, so far I have been really pleased with how my training has been going, hopefully this continues and I can make 2012 the best year of my athletics career.

Misty Mornings

Hopefully we have seen a change in the weather here in Iten, with no rain during the past two days (although there was quite a bit last night). With the sun being so strong at this altitude the roads dry within hours. Most mornings these days we have a lot of mist which is pretty cool and normally makes it a nice temperature to run in.

The view from my house first thing in the morning

I was meant to do a track session this morning but due to the rain during the night I decided to switch it for the afternoon and just do an easy run in the morning. This was a good decision as by the time I got round to doing the session I had beautiful blue skies and a nice cooling breeze. My session was 15 x 300m off 1 minute jog recovery and I managed to hit some really good times only about half a second down on what I did a few weeks ago at sea level, so really pleased with that.

I have made good friends with my neighbours now and they have invited me round for dinner one night this week which should be fun, the little boy Kemboi has taken a real shine to me and follows me about whenever I'm home. This morning I was doing some washing in my sink, turned round and there he was standing beside me, made me jump out of my skin!! He loves my camera and phone and likes me to help him put his shoes on, my new best friend!!

Me and "best friend" Kemboi

There are loads of kids around where my house is and they all know me as Kiprop now, they always ask me where I am going and when I reply in Swahili it always makes them laugh, probably due to my baya (bad) Kiswahili!

£2 a day....

Out for a nice afternoon easy run with Hywel Care yesterday and about ten minutes from home the heavens opened and we got caught in a torrential downpour, within minutes there was rivers of water flowing down the roads and are pace turned from easy to a near sprint as we tried to get back as quick as we could. Hywel turned off back to the Run-Fast camp as I headed for my place dreading the road to come as I knew it would be a complete river. As I turned the corner I wasn't disappointed as none of the road could be seen under the muddy, smelly water. As the road at the best of times has lots of ruts and holes in I didn't hold out much hope of staying upright and down I went straight into the mud, by the time I got back to my house I must have looked like the creature from the black lagoon!! As I was so wet and dirty, and it was raining so hard I decided to strip off and just have a natural shower in the garden! It was actually my only option as when I got inside the water wasn't working anyway! I hope none of the neighbours saw me, I think they already see me as some sort of nut case!!

After drying out the rain eased off slightly and I took a walk down to Kamogich to get some dinner, bumped into my old pall Wilson Kipsang and then managed to get a lift back with Gilbert Koech (husband to Edna Kiplagat) which was good as the rain had started to get heavy again and it stopped me getting too wet.

I've been back in Iten nearly two weeks now and was working out how much it is costing me to live. Including rent, food, drink, Internet, everything really I am spending around £2 a day!! And that is with me eating out most days!! I can't believe it is so cheap to live out here.

A visit to the Run-Fast Camp with the UK guys

Getting My Heart Racing

On my morning run yesterday just minutes before I finished I had a very strange sensation come over me, suddenly I felt sick, dizzy and had to stop, my heart began to beat at a ridiculous rate, as best as I could count it was above 210 bpm! Luckily this feeling went within a few minutes and I could jog back home, but not a good sign as I was due to do my first real hard session the following day.

The second thing that got my heart racing was during the night we had another storm this time with thunder and lightning, just as I was dozing off between the thunder, bang, lightning hit my house and something exploded in my room!! After making sure nothing was on fire (luckily there isn't much that could catch fire) it took me a fair while to get back to sleep.

After not the best nights sleep, I awoke to more rain which meant my track session for the day was a no go, we decided to swap the track session with a tempo run that I was going to do later in the week anyway. I arranged to meet Gav Smith up by the High Altitude Training Centre as he was going to follow me in a car timing and measuring the 6km tempo. Fortunately at the same time a group of UK guys & girls (Luke Gunn, Lee Merrien and Helen Clitheroe were doing a similar tempo run at the same time so we joined forces, now having two cars following us down the road. For my first hard session I managed to keep the quality high running the 6km at sub 5.10 minute mile pace, most of it with Gunny, so I was really chuffed with that.

After lunch I met up with Lee Merrien, Luke Gunn and Hannah England to take them on a little tour of Iten, Lee was flying back to the UK today so we didn't have too long but I did manage to show them the Run-Fast camp and my house. It was funny when Edwin realised who Hannah was, but once I told him she was 2^nd in the Worlds this year he was very excited and couldn't wait to have his picture taken with her!! I've know Gunny and Hannah for years now but haven't seen them properly in ages so it was good to catch up. I think it's great that the UK athletes come and train up here in Iten but I do wish they would experience a bit more of what Iten has to offer, hopefully I can get a few of them down to the famous Kamogich this weekend as it is the one place in Iten that is an absolute must!!

Hannah England & Edwin Kipyego (Edwin was excited even though he looks rather bored in this photo!)

What am I doing???

I just made it back to my house before the start of another torrential downpour, opened the door and found no electricity, no running water and all that awaited me was a small bed in the corner of a bare room with concrete floors, I thought to myself what am I doing here??? When the water does work I have to either make the most of it and have a quick freezing cold shower or fill a bucket so that I can wash with freezing cold water at a later date! The "en suite" to my room where I have to wash isn't the most enticing place to wash either:

The "En Suite" complete with "bath" (the bucket) and "toilet" (the whole in the ground)

To be honest for some strange reason I actually love my little "house" and even with no power and water I feel quite at home here.

Yesterday I was reading my book on the bed and looked down to find a little friend staring up at me:



My new pet cat!

I had left the door opened and she had wandered in for a little exploration!

On the training front I have completed a week of acclimatising and did a light track session yesterday which was ok, it was good to get my legs moving at a decent pace. Hopefully running will keep getting easier (because it is still a real struggle at the moment) and I can start getting some decent sessions in. One of the annoying things about the rain we are having here in Iten is that it seriously restricts the options you have for running routes as most are too muddy to run on, but as long as I can get out running I'm not going to complain too much.

I think some of the people that follow my blog may remember me talking about my best Kenyan buddy Edwin Kipyego, well unfortunately about ten days ago on a fartlek training run Edwin pulled up with an injury and hasn't been able to run since, hopefully it isn't too serious and he can get back training soon. For an injured athlete Iten has got to be the worst place in the world to be, seeing all these runners every day when you can't do anything, I would hate it and I know Edwin is already getting frustrated.