3/22

Ran early in the morning. 7:30am. The heat was the same. I think the temperature here is the same all day and night, but that the humidity changes. I think it's more humid in the morning, and the temp is very slightly cooler, so it winds up feeling the same all day every day. The first 15 or 20 minutes of the run felt horrible again. But then all the sudden I started to feel good! I had let my pack go a little bit because I wasn't feeling very good, and now I was able to make up the ground without much effort. So I just cruised for the rest of the run and enjoyed feeling good on a run IN KENYA!!! At least tomorrow we get to run on the course, so we get a little variety from this park (which is really pretty nice anyways.) After lunch we went out to Fort Jesus and got a tour there which was very interesting. It's a fort that protected the port of Mombassa so that the Portuguese could control the port as well as the trade that went through it (precious metals, textiles, coffee, tea, and slaves.) Eventually the fort wound up in the hands of Oman, and later was given to the British when they occupied Kenya. It's now preserved as a museum. After that, we hit the “old town” of Mombassa that had all the shopping. I had my eyes on these hand-carved soapstone chess sets (I do collect a few chess sets, so I really wanted one.) I found two that I couldn't decide between right away. On one, the pieces were carved after members of the Masai tribe of Kenya, and the other was carvings of animals (lions, elephants, giraffes, etc.) The guy wanted 3500ks for the animal one, and 3000ks for the Masai tribe one. He said he'd do both for 6000ks (about $90.) I told him we were going to walk the street, I'd take a look and see some other things, and if I still wanted one or both I'd come back. He said his were the best, and I said “we'll see.” I looked at some other ones, and formulated in my mind how much I would pay for them both together. Based on a price of a glass set I had purchased in Germany, I figured he was already offering me a fair price on the two sets together, but I knew he'd go lower. So I offered 2000ks for the both together. He shook his head and counter offered 4500. I came back with 2500. He said 3500. I paused and waited. He held his ground. After a long silence, I offered 3000. He said he couldn't do less than 3500. I kept my mouth shut and just looked at him and waited for him to go lower. He wasn't going to budge, so I pulled a dirty dirty trick. I accepted 3500 for the both together. As he was wrapping them up, I pulled my cash out and...oops, only had 3250. Gee what do you know, I can't pay 3500, even if I wanted to and had agreed to. So I showed him what I had and asked if he'd take 3250. He looked a little frustrated, but took it anyways (about $50, equivalent to 4-5 months of wages for the average Kenyan.) Now the trick will be getting them home. They're going to wind up packed between lots of t-shirts. What a ton of fun though, putting some negotiating skills to practice. Earlier in the day I was also able to pick up a hand-carved ebony door hanger that says “KARIBU” which is Swahili for “Welcome.” Rachel and I just got an offer accepted on a condo, so I thought that would be a nice decoration, and a nice memory from the trip.

Some of the local wildlife that came to visit us at breakfast

3/23 (1 day to race day.)

Dry run today, meaning that since our race tomorrow is 5:30pm, we're going to get to sleep in tomorrow as well as getting 2 meals before the race. So I slept in until about 8:45 today, and got a breakfast with the mind set of “do it like I'm going to do it tomorrow.” So lots of carbs. Then at 9:45 we had the kind of experience that can change someone's life. We visited a local elementary school. This was a school that “mainstreamed” people with mental disabilities. I say that they mainstreamed, but the truth is probably that they don't have the money or resources to have customized programming for the children with the disabilities. They took it completely in stride though. When we got there, they were singing and jumping and putting on an entertainment show for us. They were so excited that we were coming. While they sang and clapped, we toured the classrooms. Then after the tour was done, we got to sit down and they did a little welcome speech and song, and then we gave them old running shoes that a couple of the female runners had brought along, and passed out candy. They loved it! They even have two athletes (one male, one female) that will represent Kenya in Beijing in distance running at the Special Olympics. I gave the girl runner a pair of shoes, and used my Sharpie to right “Tuwende Sasa!” on the shoes, which means “Lets Go Now!” As the candy was being handed out, we took pictures, we sang and danced and clapped our hands with the kids, and the little ones would run up and grab us around the waist and we would pick them up and sing and dance and clap while we were holding them. As we were getting ready to leave, the school administrator/teacher mentioned that they rented the buildings and land for the school, but that they were trying to buy a school to have a permanent home. I asked how much it would cost. She said if they bought a different place it might cost about 5million shillings, but the landowners of the place they were at wanted 7 million. That's about $100,000 US. Now this year is the year of the Olympic Marathon trials in New York City. When we got on the bus, I told Sam Grotewald (one of the elite athlete coordinators for quite a few of the races the NYRR puts on) that I wanted to do a fund raiser to help them buy a school. I think we could raise quite a bit more than $100,000, so I think we could get them a great school with all the resources they need to improve the quality of life and education for their students. Heck, if we do really well, we may be able to do it for a couple of schools. Sam said we should go for it, and that he'd get the NY Times, USA Today, and the Today Show involved. I think it's worth going for. When we got back to the hotel, Kevin and Keith were there, so we discussed a few things such as how my trip over here was, the 8k in NY, how everything is here at the hotel, and some race strategy. I showed them the pictures and video that I had taken at the school and told them about my idea for fund raising. Sam was there too and reaffirmed his desire to help with the project, and we discussed some of the logistics.
Next was eat lunch (again thinking, this is just like race-day.) Then a little later out to the course for the run. The run felt good. Man it's hot, and its fast to start sweating. But the run also felt good. This was my best feeling run yet. We covered the course enough so we could be familiar with it, and kept it short enough so that we would still have a full tank of gas for tomorrow. Strides felt good too. I put on my spikes and I think it's the first time I've had them on since the Nationals in Boulder. They were a little stiff from the mud that was still caked on. I felt great during my strides though. I like to do mine at about mile race pace, and I was having to hold myself back to keep from going too fast. Finally, things are really starting to come around with how I feel. Even though it's blazing hot, I barely noticed it on my run. I did sweat a ton, and it's obvious that fitness may have less of an impact on race outcome tomorrow than managing one's body heat. Ryan Shay mentioned that he'd like to have a monitor attached to him to show him his body temperature so he'd know when to back off and when he could go. One of the other guys mentioned that heart rate might be a good indicator. My thoughts are to just manage the body heat early, then go hard after it late in the race because I know there'll be an IV waiting for me afterwards. As I did my last stride on the finishing stretch of the course I came to the finish line and jogged through it and imagined that crossing that finish line tomorrow will be one of the greatest feelings to date of my running life. I decided right then and there that I would like to make a pile of U.S. XC teams (10 or 12?) and I'd like to win an individual World XC title or two. That's a lofty goal, but it's now an official goal, and I'm going for it.
Back at the hotel, I bumped into the coaches and managers of the Scottish team. We were all making a pit stop at the washroom. I mentioned that I was looking forward to next year when the world championships are in Edinborough Scotland. They mentioned they were also very excited about it. I said I was looking forward to drinking Guinness there in Scotland, and they said there are better beers. I asked which ones? They said to look at the price and that'll tell because there's some kind of tax on the beer based on the amount of alcohol in the beer. So they said 60 or 70 shillings was a good beer, but 80 or 90 was even better, but not to waste money by spending 100 or more shillings on a beer. As we were about to leave the washroom, I noticed they were wearing kilts. I asked if they always wore kilts, and they said they just did to the world championships every year. They said the first year they sent a team was 1999 and they wore kilts then and just decided that it would be a tradition for them when they came to the world championships. I asked if it's true that it's not right to wear anything under the kilts, and they promptly demonstrated that it is true that nothing is worn under the kilts. I told them I would have to make the U.S. Team again next year so I could come to Scotland with my wife and I could get a kilt. They said the championships are always more fun when the wife is left at home! They asked my name and said they'd cheer for me tomorrow. I said if I ran well enough maybe I could convince one of them to give me a kilt, but not one that they'd already worn! One of them said sure, but I'd have to trade him some shorts so that he'd have something to wear! After that I took a little dip in the Indian Ocean. That water was far warmer than any bath water I've ever had. If I were a cold-blooded sea animal, this is where I would hang out all the time. On the way back, I had my camera at the ready. This is about the time of day I see the monkeys run across the land, climb up the hotel railings onto the roof and take off across the property. No monkeys yet. Those darn things always show up when I don't have my camera. I saw about 6 of them at a time out on a run on the Bamburi Trails, and then about 7 or 8 run across the hotel sunbathing yard the other day, but I didn't have my camera at the time. If I go back home without pictures of monkeys, I'm going to be so disappointed.

Handing out shoes and candy to the students at the school (school name is St. Peter's The Rock.)

The kitchen at the school we visited the day before the race.  The lady in the picture cooked the meals for the kids in that kitchen (you can see the pot on the fire on the middle right of the picture)

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