Cross country race this weekend

I went to watch the cross country race this weekend at the Moi University campus. It was organized by the university. Since it is this early in the season none of the great runners raced there. But you could see people like Ismael Kirui (twice world…

champ), Richard Limo (WC 2001), Moses Kiptanui, Benjamin Limo, Leah Malot etc. watching the races.

An interesting observation struck me as I watched the large field of Kenyans race the different races. Much more so than in for example college or high school races in the US you can see the how the difference in running economy determines the racers performance. In the Kenyan field, it seemed like almost the only difference between nr.10-20-30-40 etc was how he ran…Their bodies seemed to be made the same – with almost the same internal abilities, but the strides made all the difference between the runners. These similar internal abilities (blood oxygen transport/muscle fibres/lungs/light skeletal buildup) seems to me to be much more similar in the Kenyans than any other (mostly) homogenous group. So if you have a Kenyan with a great running stride, he will almost automatically run fast. That is not the way with mzungos…

All is going well here. Some days with beautiful, warm weather and great runs on the Platue above the city of Eldoret… :))

Marius