3/24 (Race Day!)

Got up and started hydrating immediately. Took the long way around to breakfast with my camera in hopes of seeing the monkeys. Nope, no monkeys. So I sit down at breakfast, get my coffee, and then get a chapati and baked beans. I know, baked beans for breakfast! But it's been there every day, and they're good! Then I set my plate down, and there they were. Monkeys sitting on the wall outside the dining room! Two adults and a little baby! So I grabbed my camera and turned it on. I got as close as I thought I could without spooking them. And I went to take a picture and the camera was set on video mode! So I took video for a minute or so, then switched it over to picture mode and took some pictures. They took off, and I went and had my coffee and my chapati and beans. Then I noticed they were down the wall a little way further, so I grabbed the camera again and snuck up nice and close behind a beam and took more video and pictures. FINALLY!!! I got pictures AND video of the monkeys! Two more things to do today and my trip will be complete: Hit that finish line, and then drink the Kenyan beers that I've had sitting in my room for 3 days. I've got a 6 pack of Tusker Beer that I'm taking home in my bag to share with some people (and have at least one for myself) and then I have 3 bottles that I'm going to drink here, although 2 of the bottles is about a half liter each (about 16 ounces) and the third is 330 ml, which is about 12 or 13 ounces. More than I care to drink, so I asked Matt Gabrielson if he'd drink some of them with me. He said he might. I hope so. I'm sure I'll be able to find someone to share them with. We sat down with Coach Vigil today to go over course notes and a little about race strategy. It was very encouraging to hear him speak. He said in the 25 world championships that he's been a part of as a U.S. Official, this is the best group of guys he's ever gotten to be with because we all get along well, and we are all dedicated to doing our best individually and to having the best USA showing possible today. After that, he and I sat down together with a cup of coffee and went over training theory/science and discussed my potential as an athlete. He praised both my intellect and my physical stature. He told me that not only was I very bright and intelligent, but that I also had a great body to be a distance runner. I was very encouraged. Coach Virgin had said that earlier in the week, and now Vigil too. Pretty exciting stuff to me.

POST RACE:

Man, what an incredible experience. I have never done anything like that before. The temps were in the mid 90's, and it was humid as well so the heat index was probably over 100. Those were the most brutal racing conditions I've ever raced in. We sat in the team tent before the race as the Junior races started, and people were being carried to the medical tent by our camp and most of them were completely unresponsive, eyes rolling back in their head, and basically lifeless. I prayed quite a few times for the health and safety of all the athletes. I may have become intimidated a bit, and I started to think that just finishing the race would be a type of victory in itself. That's the wrong mind set going into a competition, but it seemed like there was genuine reason to be concerned for one's health under these racing conditions. So I started off very conservatively. I hit the first turn about 300 meters into the race, and I wasn't in dead last. I was last of the people that were still running. As we ran from the starting line, there were about 20 people in the first 200 meters that were on the ground because they had been knocked down. So at least I was ahead of them. From there, my goal was to run even splits for each 2k, and try to make my last 2k my fastest. So my 2k splits (unofficial, just the splits I hit on my watch) were 6:20, 6:40, 7:10, 7:10, 7:10, 7:08. I moved up in places throughout the race, and competed with some of the guys in the back. There were about 180 people listed as in the race, about 160 started, and about 120 finished. CARNAGE!
I could not believe how many spectators there were there though. I think they reported a paid attendance of 30,000 people, but there were at least that much standing outside the gates along the roads and sitting up on the hillsides. This was by far the biggest crowd I'd ever seen at a cross-country race. And, this crowd roared for four things: They cheered for the Kenyan athletes, they cheered when Bekele dropped out of the men's senior race, they cheered for Darate who won the women's senior race (she's a Kenya native,) and they cheered for the U.S. Teams and chanted “Obama, Obama, Obama!” They loved us because of Barak Obama. They said the U.S. was number one for them and that the U.S. was the greatest country, and it's because they love Obama.
When we got back to the hotel, I took a shower, and at the end of the shower the water was still running brown off my body because I was just that dirty after the race. The sand and dirt and dust that got kicked up during the race was unbelievable. I was so glad that I wore my sunglasses during the race. It definitely helped keep that stuff out of my eyes, but it'll probably be two showers until I get clean.
Went to the party after that, and it was a pretty sweet party. They had demonstrations of traditional Kenyan dances from various native tribes of Kenya, they had the most popular pop group in Kenya there to sing (an all-boy singing group, the Kenyan women went nuts when they were introduced) and they had gymnasts performing acrobatics. The food was great, the alcohol was free (although for what I'd heard about Kenyan beer, I was a bit disappointed) and it was fun to try to get to know a few of the athletes from other countries. When we sat down to eat, the U.S. team had taken up two tables, but there wasn't room for our bus driver, one of our security team, and me. So we went to the next table where there were 5 people sitting and 5 open seats. We asked if the seats were open and they motioned for us to sit down. We started to eat and we talked amongst ourselves for a few minutes, but then I tried to engage the other people at the table in conversation. Their English was pretty limited, but they were able to tell me they were from Algeria, they had 6 junior men and 1 junior female that had raced that day (they indicated they had so-so results.) It was a really interesting experience to try to communicate with people when they had very limited skills in English, and I don't speak anything from any of the languages they spoke (Arabic, French, and Spanish, and a little bit of Italian.) But we found that if we threw enough at the wall, some stuff stuck, and we were able to have a conversation! It was really a neat experience. I wound up being very happy that there wasn't room for me at the U.S. table (nothing against my teammates, coaches, or team managers) because I really got to take advantage of the opportunity to get to know people from another country! To me, that wound up being a highlight of the trip. I also had a conversation with some of the athletes from Uganda, and their English skills were very good. I got tired quickly though, and I was ready for bed about 90 minutes before we even left the party.

Picture of the finish area of the race course a couple hours before the start of the day's races

3/25

Up early for a run. Got in an hour at the park across the road. I was surprised I wasn't more sore. I did take it pretty easy, so that probably helped, but it felt so good to get out there and make sure all the kinks were worked out from the race yesterday before I got on the travel. Took the opportunity to get a little “naughty” with my diet at breakfast and lunch and eat a little more desert and the fatty meats that they served there that I had been avoiding all week. I have never had bacon with more fat on it than I did this morning! Honestly, it was a little too fatty, the flavor of the bacon kind of got lost and all I could notice was the fat. I was a little disappointed, but the beef sausage, omlette, and pancakes were pretty tasty. Left the hotel around noon, but got in one last buying spree in the hotel gift shop for some last minute souvenirs.

3/26

Woke up on the plane heading to Heathrow. Fortunately I slept for about 6 hours of the 8+ hour flight. That helped it go by pretty fast. Long layover in London, but then the 7+ hour flight to NYC. That was pretty miserable. I just wanted the flight to be over. I just want to be home with my wife. The flight felt like it lasted a lifetime, and I was so eager to call my wife when I got off the plane that I didn't notice any signs that said you can't use a cell phone when you're standing in line to wait to go through customs. So I wound up getting yelled at by a customs agent, and had to hang up on Rachel very abruptly. But I describe how sweet it sounded to hear the customs agent say “welcome home.”

So now I'm sitting in JFK airport, finishing this, and I'm deciding that I'm done writing for this trip. Just 2 more hours to Detroit (after the 3 more hour wait for my flight to leave.) So that's it. The end.

Me and Wilson Kipketer hanging out at the hotel

Thanks for the great info Marty!

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