Hanson/Brooks - Marty Rosendahl
4/5/07

3/18/07

Ran the 8k National Championship early this morning, and then went on the “Tour de Pizza.” Visited 4 different pizza shops on the upper east side and got a slice at each of them. The best one was Bulldog Pizza on 1st ave. Good stuff. Sam Grotewald told me that after the Trials in November he'd take me up north to the Bronx to go to the oldest and most New York of pizza joints – Lombardi's and Totono's. I'm not totally sure what kind of food we're going to be getting in Mombassa, so I figured I'd better get some of that good ole' NY style pizza now because it might be the last thing that really makes sense to my stomach for a little while. I'm not really looking forward to the overnight flight to Heathrow. I have a tough time sleeping on airplanes, so I kind of expected this to be a very long flight. Fortunately, I did get some sleep.

3/19

Got into Heathrow a little late, but not a big deal. The layover is long enough that it wasn't tight at all. Took the time to grab a cup of coffee, because we're only 3 hours behind Kenya time now, and I wanted to stay awake until I got to go to bed. Just for good measure (and because I really like coffee) I got a second cup fairly soon after the first one was done. A lot of good that did. As soon as I got seated on the plane, I started dozing. Slept right through takeoff and wound up getting a total of an hour nap in. Not too bad. This flight was long though. We wound up getting out late, and we only were supposed to have an hour layover in Nairobi. So we got in about a half hour late, so we had a half hour to get through customs, get our bags, and get rechecked in to our flight from Nairobi to Mombassa. Didn't happen. So British Airways got Matt Gabrielson and I a hotel room in Nairobi, and Aron McGuire was good enough to skip his flight to Nairobi to help us get around there and arrange for the next day's flight and cab rides, etc. Coach Vigil also had some problems getting through customs, and so he wound up with us too. The hotel we got put in at was a 5 star hotel, and I think it was the nicest hotel that I've ever stayed at in my life. When it was all said and done, bedtime was about 1 am.

3/20

Up at 6am to get to the 6:45 taxi to get to the airport for the 8:30 flight. Nothing eventful at all, except for starting to get used to the fact that people drive on the left side of the road here. I've never had that experience before, so it was a little strange the first time. Got into Mombassa, and this is when we finally got to see the extent of the security that we have to have here. 2 security people from the U.S. Consolate (plain clothed, but armed) as well as Kenyan police and Kenyan plain clothed police. We wound up with the security escort from the airport to the hotel, police lights flashing, sirens running and everything. People kept looking at us like we must be someone important. Jim Estes had met us at the airport and told us we were trying to keep a low profile. I doubt the police escort accomplished that. In the afternoon, I got to do my first run in Kenya. This was awesome. Well, it kind of sucked, but it was still awesome. Because of the security involved with us, we have to all be under the constant supervision of the security of the U.S. Security detail, or by the Kenyan security detail, or one of the coaches/team managers, etc. So we had to go across the street to this park that costs 200kenyan shillings (ks) per person (about $3 U.S.) and run on the loops there. It was a decent size, there was a 10k loop, a 3.5k loop, and a 3k loop. So between the three of those loops, it wasn't a problem getting in plenty of distance. The supervision crew rented bikes and rode ahead or behind, and we were required to run in groups so that our safety could be monitored at all times. I felt terrible. I was planning on running 14 or 15 miles just to get travel legs worked out, but about 30 minutes into the run the travel and the heat were getting to me a ton, so I stopped at about 10 miles (66 minutes.) My roommate and travel partner Matt Gabrielson had the same plan for the run, and wound up doing about the same as I did. Because of the conditions, I still felt like I had put the stress of a 14 or 15 mile run on my body. Coach Vigil and Coach Virgin had said the same type of thing before the run, but I'm young, dumb, and inexperienced, but I learned. Thankfully I learned before I actually ran 14 or 15 miles. That all being said, I could not get over the thought of “I'm running in Kenya!” It was just so amazing to think that. Growing up all I read about in Runner's World was about how great the Kenyans were, and this just seemed like it was kind of a mecca of distance running. To run here is akin to a religious pilgrimage for a distance runner. I think when I get home, my training shoes and my racing spikes are going into early retirement. In my little distance running world, they've tread “holy ground.”

The Bamburi nature trail where we trained every day (under the watchful eye of the security team)

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