“March 11th Collegiate HS placed 3d at the National Indoor Champs at the Armory at 4 x mile with Chris running a 4:16 anchor. The top teams made All-American. March 12th he was 4th in the mile at nationals in 4:18. The top 6 are All-Americans. 4x mile relay: 4:16.75. A huge breakthrough. That’s at least a 4:15 for 1600.” Thanks Bob.

I mean Kenya sent a far, far smaller team, has the Commonwealths, and the world cross depleting its athletes (Britain can’t argue it has that conflict surely) and won medals -- now I am not suggesting that the two countries should be compared, but leave the excuses in the long jump pit; because anyone must have their head in the sand to think that this was anything less than a sign of the times. A radical shake up is what they need; get the ribena out.

Both Samson B & Salim K are running Rotterdam next month, and we now hear that Catherine the Great will not be running Boston against Jelena as she feels the time is too short after the Osaka win.

The big match up in marathon running must be Noguchi against Takahashi.. A modern day Ovett Vs Coe.

Kenyans are often this way, they train in a large group all doing the same stuff, then at the end of march they get a bit specialized in their preps. I remember talking to 8:03 steeplechaser Patrick Sang who said the same thing; he thought it better to just do the running training, and never did the hurdle part until he was in Europe, usually in Switzerland.

Renato has an apartment in Iten now, for the next twenty years anyway. There are some carvings made into the front of the building, the ‘runner’ is supposed to be of the likeness of his star athlete, Shaheen.

The view out of his apartment is nothing less than spectacular; and when the sun rises with a colorful sky then it becomes breath taking, but often the sun rise is plain yellow. Already I am making plans for the next trip to Africa, and speaking Shoe4Africa I am very, very pleased to announce that we have a new Director on the Board, no stranger to this website -- Peter Farago who will be a great asset to the cause… anyway back to those carvings…

03/13
Well it was not Eldo Lise’s birthday, far from it, October we hear - go figure!. Over in Africa Shoe4Africa Athlete Alison Rutto is training for a race in Eldoret, I will always remember her as the runner whose running shoes were older than she was in years! Shocking. On that news Chubby called me on Friday, five boxes of shoes has just arrived from the Sacred Heart School in CT for Shoe4Africa…. Wow, how do these people find out about the program? We have to do some fund raising soon to get the Shoes over to Africa…

Anyway thanks goodness I was on a bike so the perpetual U-turns, wrong way streets and pavement hopping was a tad easier than otherwise.. Besides he was, as usual late, and I had planned on being two minutes early.. Whatever. So Kwasi - who is he? Came to the Utah city in 1994 as a basketball player on an exchange program. Did okay, studied Fine Arts. Moved into Design, of course moved to NYC. Then became a part time model, continued with design, now works for a company that takes info to your cellphone like a google to PC type thing, and hooks you up with other people in the same interest mode -- he is doing the design stuff, now taking acting classes -- not as trying to be the next Mel Gibson, but to continue bettering himself, and being aware of the competitiveness of NYC, “It is a great place, and full of interesting foreigners too, the standard (for foreigners) is high here (Ed’s note; of course we were not interrupting his speel at this stage) thus you want to keep on doing things, not only career wise, but as a personal thing…”

Kwasi recently went to Jamaica with his girlfriend, who the last time I inquired about resulted in him sending me her website link where the home page has a picture of her seated on a toilet, hm, that was the last question I asked about her for a long time(!)… And Brown the restaurant, well the waitress had a bit of an attitude, “Are you now ready to order?” On the third time of asking as we were glugging coffee and talking about 101-things.. But after we’d been there for a couple of hours the place grows on you, good music, the bread was pretty poor, the croissant with apricots inside was nice, the coffee decent but weak in strength, and not to be traveled for..

The patrons, the guy next to me was very polite and complimentary, the woman on the other side was one of these people who bring a ‘project’ into the café and sit at a table writing whilst talking into an ear-pieced cellphone… quite disconcerting.. The waiter needs to learn that his voice is not a match for dueting with the voice on the CD-player, but all in all not too bad, we’ll give it a 6.5/10.. I forgot to mention the worse part - an unreadable menu - no spacing between all the food groups, a whole page of crammed choices on a worn piece of paper that is confused and muddles, then snatched from you… plus it had my least fav forms of abbreviations, like mac n cheese -- I mean macaroni is a nice word, don’t make is sound fast foodish.

Way way behind Café Gitane, but there ya go, got to have standards.. I’ll have to do it again, but probably in three years. The day before I had breakfast at Wholefoods at Columbus Circle in the AOL building - that was irreplaceable, but for other reasons.

And the men‘s? 1 129 Bekele Kenenisa ETH 7:39.32 2 339 Shaheen Saif Saaeed QAT 7:41.28 3 251 Kipchoge Eliud KEN 7:42.58 -- Bekele (“After winning titles indoors and in cross country, indoors is like a fun run for me.”) becomes the first ever to win a World title on the XC, Track, and Indoor, and when he adds a road title to the resume it will be complete. That used to be Moses Tanui’s goal, and he got damn close - World track Champion at 10,000, World Road at the Half Marathon, and twice second at the World Cross Country.

Maria Mutola’s 800m win was in1:58.90 as she beat Jamaican Kenia Sinclair, 1:59.54, with Morrocco’s Hasna Benhassi third in 2:00.34. Maria’s 7th title!
The men? Bungei Wilfred KEN 1:47.15 Mulaudzi Mbulaeni RSA 1:47.16 & Borzakovskiy Yuriy RUS 1:47.38

Then to make matters worse I was zapping down Broadway and my flippin saddle hinge snapped.. Again the leg movement that ensued did nothing to help in the healing process of whatever is wrong with the limb.. Luckily I had a monkey wrench in my pocket, so I locked the wrench on the down tube and jammed the handle into the saddle so I could continue… a similar thing happened in my teenage years when I rode my motorcycle up the side of a car that had the bad manners to pull out in front of me; my foot rest acted as a tin opener through the side of the vehicle until it eventually fell off.. So I undid the cable to the drum, then clasped a monkey wrench to the sprocket where the brake pedal used to be and had a new makeshift foot rest, not a back brake, but on a motorcycle they are over rated - a front brake is all you need to absquatulate off down the road.

“a revolutionary travel running concept.‘ I started on this project last year just to be the running coach, then I started to do the scripts (New York was the pilot), then doing the routes, then finding the athletes that we ‘meet‘ along the route, then measuring the courses -- it was a fun trip, doing interviews in people‘s hotel room as they swooped through town, or driving to East Germany to small obscure places in search for Olympic Stars, or tracking down running camps in the middle of nowhere with the hope of finding some ‘legend‘ who was rumored to be there, or riding the taxis round London trying to find neighborhoods that I did not know existed, or the day we took the train from London and the recording guy had forgotten to bring the microphone…. Sitting in a stairwell in a hotel with Grete, and in the fire escape of a place in Boston with Rod Dixon, then there was the Billy Rodgers interview in a ball room… Gary Muhrke we did ina shoe storage room, Tom Fleming in his apartment after getting lost on the New Jersey something for 90-minutes…. All these things and more - what a ride. I hope it works out. I never got all the way through the promotional film on the web site as the download was taking longer than my concentration allowed, but I am sure it was not as good as the clip on the pics page that we originally did - mind you watching that one is pretty uninformative as there is no sound (thank goodness). Some of the athletes we interviewed: Waldemar Cierpinski, Grete Waitz, Gary Muhrke, Mike Gratton, Hugh Jones, Bill Rodgers, Herbert Steffny, Tom Fleming, Nina Kuscsik, Stephane Diagona, Joyce Smith, Huw Lobb, Dominique Chavalier and a host of others...

Anxiously awaiting to see who‘s coming in First! Christopher Cheboiboch who has the school boy Kenyan Steeplechase record, a Rock n Roll Marathon Win, and #2’s at Boston & NYC, and Ben Limo - A world Champ over the Cross Country, and on the track.

Muneria reaches the summit of the hill work

Following the hills we then drove back to Renato‘s house,and walked to the nearby restaurant, on the way we bumped into Daham Najim Bashir who happened to have one of the fastest times, 3:31:04, for the 1500m last year.

Bashir was soon to start having Arabic lessons, he knew a couple of words and wanted to expand the vocab - good for him, Kenyans are actually very talented linguists already speaking their tribal tongue, English, and Swahili.

Hellen first appeared at the Los Angeles Olympiucs, and she is making a comeback this year -- she ran at the Eldoret XC meet, and is determined to be back in form by the summer. She is also the former course record holder at Peachtree where she ran a great 30:52.. Until the Simba ran 30:32

The House that Moses Kiptanui built, his offices are the top floor, on the right.

After lunch I went to see the man who won the Golden League 800m Ostrava, he also won at Cottbus, and a number of other meets. He also holds the track records at both Eldoret and Iten‘s running tracks -- pretty awesome resume eh? A really nice guy to boot, John Litei, a Masai runner. He gave me a beaded bracelet (coincidence as the last one I got was from Konchellah who was a roommate to John) and he had to push so hard to get it on my arm I think it will never ever come off. He was telling me some amazing stories that really belong in a book… and after that I went to see Silvia as I had promised to visit her on Sunday but I was too tired and hungry after the long haul in church. As we chatted Cleo. Rop and Meshrack Sang also dropped by -- they will be competing this weekend in the Mumbai Marathon. Silvia is planning on trying for the Kenyan short course team, she needs to be top six -- I will watch the results with eager eyes.

All about the café we tried to get too. Well I knew about the cycling team because I do in fact have a pair of Runcible Spoon socks from that said team, as I used to coach one of them.. But the bit about wanting caffeine after being 6-inches behind another man’s tire… hm glad to report I know nothing of those things…

We wish her a speedy recovery, and are sure that she will be on fire next month in Londinium.

Speaking Old Chubbs was talking about the good old days and how as of late he has been looking up peoples’ race histories on the NYRR site from the era long gone by… The days when Herb-the-Verb was a star, and RicenBeans too(!) and on the Herb note apparently he is walking round with a signed piece of paper for a $50 bet that Danny The Dollarman will not beat his lifetime PR in the Brooklyn Half. Danny, confident after running 1:13 in Grete’s last year, challenged Herb to this bet but now is sure he may have to cough up the bucks as Herb’s 1:11 is looking out of reach.

The following day it was a run as usual before going to the track. Renato Canova was down on the track as were a large group of athletes -- both his and other groups. The girl who was third in the steeplechase Helsinki was doing a session of 400‘s, Ezekiel Kemboi was doing something on his own. Salim too… there was a huge group of 800m runners doing a step ladder session… and I had a nice chat with Renato about training, he has some nice ideas…

There was also a Tanzanian guy whose name right now eludes me, Sulle -- that‘s it, bronze medallist world half, and the most smooth long distance runner on the track was the Olympic Bronze medallist -- Moses Masai, I can only say WOW! When you watched him you imagined he was jogging, but when you timed him -- wow.

Kathy Martin, the unstoppable Nitro of Northport, just set a age group record for the 50K. We hear from Travis, “Shaved 10 minutes of the record. Former record 4:10, she ran a 4:00:26. Nina Kuscsik was there as well to cheer her on.”

Kathy has amazing range, from the 1500m now up to the 50K! And Kathy told us, “I was so far out of my comfort zone....I went to the well…” I don’t believe it, that woman does whatever she wants as far as breaking national records!

Well you may not know this but Nina herself was a pocket rocket when it came to the Ultras… that is a running discipline you will never find me at! The last time I talked to the team boss from my Swedish Club and told him I was washed up he suggested that I started running Ultras… this is probably due to the fact that he remembers how I used to run when living in Sweden, and I have nothing against doing long, long training runs, but racing Ultras is a beer beyond the six-pack as far as I am concerned.

Talking Heads - Rice n Beans comeback, “I don’t understand people who still bother to sign up for NYRR when they don’t run anything as fast as they used to -- I mean what are they doing there, it must be so disappointing for them to be so slow there is no point in actually racing… what a waste of a entry fee…” My comeback related to the fact that sounded like the view of someone weighing in at over 250-lbs who used to be 130, more than anything to do with cadence of speed… Waiting for more news-views tomorrow.. What a hoot the guy is. By the way the reason we call him RicenBeans is the first time I met him he was selling gear for Chubby at the store and he had a big stain down his T Shirt of…. Well I mentioned to him at the time that on the racks were like 500-clean T shirts, but he insisted he liked it that way! Go figure.

It was flipping as windy as a hurricane in a subway and somehow I had not printed the instructions on how to get out of Manhattan so we found ourselves on what appeared to be Highway 61 with the zippy cars leading us for the bridge (Kinokero did not look happy at all)-- bad move, some reversing and onto the side roads, which led into bumping into the NYRR Coogan’s Race! What a stroke of bad luck; some policewoman telling us we could not cross the road till ALL of the runners had passed - well calculating the pace, knowing the numbers, we had to make a detour back down again.. What to do, the first side I have been on the flip side.. Jesus I wish I had that kind of attention when I was running -- I remember racing in Rackajack City Iceland going like a desert torpedo trying to make the traffic lights as I knew the cars would not be stopped from the crossing direction….

So finally, finally when we get to the bridge we’ve already gone a full five miles or so (powered by starbucks)… Of course everything looks different five years on and we are cycling round the bridge end of New Jersey with no clue how to get onto this elusive Palisades road.. We swooped down this hill of all hills that defied all angles of tarmacing, and having gone way past the bottom I decided to try and re-read the instructions, to which I have a problemoso always doing…. “Stop before you reach the bottom of the hill” Damn, we had to pedal up the Grando Everesto (All cyclists in this area must know this monstrosity)… Neither of us are experienced cyclists but the Galloping Kinokero was tearing along making me look like Le Lantern Rouge candidate ’06 ….

The road, when found, is great, nice and peaceful, but can you say l-o-n-g and undulating.. so when we asked one cyclist if we were finally anywhere near The Runcible Spoon (as far as I had printed the instructions as the word Food appeared next to this landmark) and he said, “Only 8-more miles.” We decided that we may have bitten off more (Muttering under my breath I was a city boy) than we could chew.. And I remembered a Starbucks not far from the route way home in Fort Lee (where Minnesota once met me) that seemed a safer alternative. I must say Fort Lee is a bit, urm suburbia-ala-blandia-inlandia… But soon enough we were zipping over the GWB (what a difference a tailwind is!) back to Manhattan with a cool long run done and plenty of calories burned.

After lunch I set off to cycle home and had gone ten yards when I heard “Hey Toby” and looking up who did I see but Alexandria the Glove woman - Alex (as she is known in the save the fingers typing depo) a great runner from CPTC, who used to live in California and once came to a Nike session I was coaching in the park -- she hit the headlines of one of the glossies when somebody exposed her as the soul who walked round picking up odd gloves…. In fact the last time I saw her she was standing at 64th St with washing lines between the trees with a whole stack of odd gloves & mittens displaying for people to come and try and find their missing partners -- she is also a superdooper psychologist too, so I chatted a while with her, about the thangs ya do (absolute bagels, Achilles tendons, Dr Dan Hamner), and I also met with her boyfriend called Amon ( a name that relates to the back end of the word backgammon) who is a professional mover, “I could win the Empire Stair Run Up if the rules made you carry a fridge on your back” - with him on that one….

Then setting across the park I bumped into Pierre Le Pressure (the meanest knotty fingers in the trade, his nickname used to be The Pusher but with his dreadlocks that was getting him into all sorts of trouble - but he is a massage therapist), Anyway Pierre was with his ‘wife’ Chase, and Shona and Josiah, and they challenged me to a game of Soccer. Well I can never refuse a game, and being the undiscovered Zico of the Upper East Side I readily accepted. To psyche them up I did a few warm up jumping jacks, slipped in the mud and further pulled a pulled muscle (piece of scar tissue thinly disguised as a muscle), that in itself made the game rather hard - plus outr playing was so pathetic we were falling over in laughter, I swear I was good when I was 12. To make matters worse we then played American Football after with my team mates telling me the rules as we played, move by move, also in the mud.. Did I say the Mouth of the Grave? Well in Pierre’s words, “Now I ‘ve beaten you, let me really beat you up” So I went back to his house for a massage on the floor with him literally walking over my muscles. “Let me tell you what you need to work on..” he said so many times that I told him, “Give me the short version, what don’t I have to work on?” Luckily we had made a pit stop at the Silver Moon Bakery where I told the lady we wanted a sample of everything….. So we had a nice cake-a-recovery with expresso… So Club Night continued….

Michael & Denise - both completed the Hawaii Marathon last year - under differing adversities - Michael is a top heavy body builder, and somehow managed to survive the hills to complete his first. When you see him in the park he looks exactly like a weightlifter does - not what you expect on a marathon starting line! He now has decided, post Hawaii, that his next focus race will be as short as it possibly can be. Denise, an Ironwoman and experienced marathoner, fell in NYC Marathon 2004 on the Verre‘ bridge. She picked herself up and despite excruciating pain pushed on for another seven miles before collapsing - she had broken her hip, she spent a couple of weeks in hospital followed by months in a wheelchair; today she has metal pins supporting her hip. She started training in the spring of 2005 again, and completed Hawaii seven moths later in a very credible 3:30.. I remember trying to get her to hop on her bad leg back in April… she had absolutely zilto strength in the left limb. Both of them are strength personal trainers at their own gym on 86th ST called Core Fitness -- if you need strength training, kick boxing, boxing, core fitness check them out at 212.327.4197

I got my hair chopped by Rodney (Aka OzRod) who owns Cutler Salons on 57th, and also the massive studio in Soho… A long time friend OzRod gives forty lecture as month now but can always be found pounding the roads of CP very early in the mornings- one of the many amazing people who dart around the park… anyway interesting enough Rice n Beans was moaning my hair looked a mess, and ordinarily I would keep quiet (and have done for his previous tirade of comments), but I mean… I said to Rice n Beans, “Look at your own head!” Those who know Rice n Beans will know exactly what I mean the cheeky bugger -I was like can I take a picture of your head to put on the web site please?” - Then we found a pic of him in the lurking in the background of one of the photo‘s! Funnily enough OzRod's final words as I left him were, "If anyone says your hair looks bad, then you can blame it on me!" I'll send Rice n Beans to him via the post.

World Cross Country Team: Senior men 4km: Isaac Songok, Augustine Choge, Yusuf Biwott, Edwin Soi, Brimin Kipruto, Benjamin Limo; Junior men 8km: Mangata Ndiwa, Joseph Ebuya, Muinde Matheka, Ronald Komol, Robert Ndiwa, Gideon Ngatunyi; Senior men 12km: Hosea Macharnyang, Simon Kiprop, Martin Irungu, Simon Arusei, John Kibowen, Mike Kigen, Moses Masai;

Junior women 6km: Veronica Nyaruai, Pauline Korkwaing, Mercy Kosgei, Pamela Lisoreng, Gladys Chemweno, Emmy Chepkirui; Senior women 4km: Prisca Jepleting, Beatrice Rutto, Beatrice Chepchumba, Nancy Wambui, Isabella Ochichi, Vivian Cheruiyot; Senior women 8km: Alice Kimeto, Mercy Wanjiru, Faith Chemutai, Ednah Kiplagat, Consolata Chemutai, Everline Wambui. HR>This is bizarre (2) -- these Kenyans, switch country (fair enough), still live in Kenya (wise move), and now are running in the Military teams for Qatar? I mean do you get a rank in the army with your passport??
World Military Cross Country Men individual Long Cross (11900m)
1- JAMAL BILAL SALEM (Qatar) 33:34 2- MUBARK SHAMI (Qatar) 33:57 3- AHMED HASAN ABDULLA (Qatar) 34:14

Anyway one of the fun parts about club night is seeing people in their ‘other wear‘ instead of running clothes. We get so used to seeing people dressed as runners that to see them in dress wear looks very odd. I had to get a photo of myself in a suit just because The Simba did not believe I am capable of wearing a suit, and thinks me the most scruffily dressed person in the world, “You always look a mess” -- hm, come to think of it quite a few others too.. And I mean now the dress up Wall St Rat Race has been canned…. As Al Green sing, “I was never told about the sorrow…”

A fuller report later…. But twas a fun night.

He continues, “Half Mara: Men: (1) Martin Sule (TNZ) 1:03:04, (2) Dickson Marwa (TNZ) 1:04:45, (3) Samwel Chali (TNZ) 1:05:04, (4) Peter Sule (TNZ) 1:05:43, (5) Samson Ramadhani (TNZ) 1:05:51. Interstingly, Daniel Andrew finished the Half in third place but was disqualified as he had only registered for the 5km Fun Run rather than the 21.1 km (a difference of Tsh1000, or about 90 cents). Women: (1) Josephine Deemay (TNZ) 1:16:47, (2) Ruhama Shauri (TNZ) 1:17:48, (3) Sara Ramadhani, (4)Banuelia Briton, (5) Fariza Mabula

He contines,
“I won't post my finish time for fear it might find its way onto your website.(quite right!) I was VERY happy to have simply finished without walking breaks. with higher-than-normal temps, lack of breeze, intestinal problems, and a 330m climb from 20km to 30km. Despite higher training mileage and attempts at "heat training" by wearing piles of clothes while treadmill training, my finish time was still more than 45 minutes slower than my NYCM time in November.”

Thanks Michael for the report, and good for you!! And he concludes,
“Max (our shoe4africa rep) came to my hotel and introduced me to his two sons, the Secretary of Athletics for Zanzibar, Fabiano Joseph, and Franics Naali, and they posed for pictures with me with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background. I'll be sure to send you the link once I get the pics uploaded. Thanks so much for the opportunity to meet Mr. Iranqhe -- he is both a very nice and warm man and a fascinating person. It was a breathtaking course in scenery and difficulty, and the people along the course were so warm and supportive. All in all an experience I'll always treasure. Having seen its impact first-hand, I truly applaud your efforts with the Shoe4Africa program, and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute. Cheers, Michael.” No, no thanks to you, and a safe trip home!

Women’s 1500 - 1 Kajsa Haglund 81 Hässelby SK 4.24,30 2 Flo Jonsson 78 Spårvägens FK 4.26,10 3 Annika Gerner 75 Spårvägens FK 4.26,99 & the W3000 - Ulrika Johansson 75 Rånäs 4H 9.40,73 2 Flo Jonsson 78 Spårvägens FK 9.41,70 (A good double from Flo of Sparet, Stockholm’s best running club).

The Swedish press will of course be centered around the 3x world champion Stefan Holm, and the 2x champ Kajsa, but I think the middle/long distance runners in Sweden do a fantastic job considering the inclement weather they have to battle for a large portion of the year… on that note the last elite Swede to be invited to run the NYC Marathon (last year) is doing well training on her cross-country skis!! Go Lena! (And a special message to her coach Richard, try to pick up my guitar for me please!)

We were looking for crocodiles in the river, we saw none.

Jurg Witz came by also -- the man who wrote the Tergat book that came out last year. By the time we got back to Iten it was mid afternoon so we stopped at the Amani Cafe for lunch, and who was there but Brother Colm stopping in for a coffee.

Ah life in Africa, the stress, the stress! The most complicated thing of the day was choosing the soda…

12km senior men 1. Abebe Dinkesa (Prisons) 35:30 2. Ketema Negussie (Muger) 35:37 3. Gebregziabher Gebremariam (Ethiopian Banks) 35:39

Can anyone beat Burika this year? The Baby Faced Assassin will have her work cut out if she does the double….

SWEDEN win the Ice Hockey -- not the only medal worth winning in the Olympics, but a Key one - Heja Sverige!!

What’s more two of my fav players were in the team (same as the ‘94 squad) AND they beat the biggest rivals, and usually the ‘thorn’ Finland. Sweden have always been 1,000 times better at Ice Hockey than the Finns, but often in a big competition ‘if’ there was an upset it would be Finland somehow toppling the Swedes - Not yesterday!

Full results from PR --
1) Wilson Kiprotich, Kenya, 27:44*, $30,000 2) Gilbert Okari, Kenya, 28:04, $12,000 3) Samuel Wanjiru, Kenya, 28:09, $8000 4) William Chebon, Kenya, 28:15, $6000 5) Patrick Ivuti, Kenya, 28:38, $4000 6) Linus Maiyo, Kenya, 28:39, $3000 7) Reuben Chebill, Kenya, 28:40, $2500 8) John Korir, Kenya, 28:44, $2000 9) Samuel Rongo, Kenya, 28:49, $1500 10) Robert Cheruiyot, Kenya, 28:56, $1000 U.S. 13) Ryan Hall, USA/CA, 29:25 *course record (previous record, 27:47, John Korir (KEN), 2004)

WOMEN
1) Lornah Simba Kiplagat, The Netherlands, 30:50, $30,000 2) Susan Chepkemei, Kenya, 32:08, $12,000 3) Zhor El Kamch, Morocco, 32:19, $8000 4) Birhane Adere, Ethiopia, 32:55, $6000 5) Tatyana Petrova, Russia, 33:01, $4000 6) Jelena Prokopcuka, Latvia, 33:03, $3000 7) Hilda Kibet, Kenya, 33:07, $2500 8) Nataliya Berkut, Ukraine, 33:33, $2000 9) Adriana Pirtea, Romania, 33:49, $1500 10) Lioudmila Kortchaguina, Canada, 34:31, $1000

Bumped in Herb the Verb on the street, just before I met Shiney.. I had been down to Manny’s Guitar shop to get my bridge pins (made of Ivory no less). So I am locking up my bike to the pole outside the store door and just as I wiggle out the key (from a difficuly lock I might add) a camera man says, “You’ve got to move it, we’re filming.” and at that very moment I guy walks up to the camera man and says, “Hi, I won the gold medal at the Half Pipe…” to which the camera man says not yet, not yet, we have to move the bike… I’m like can you say permits? Before disappearing into the store -- now if he had asked me when I first arrived, instead of after I’d been fiddling and fumbling, but… besides I was in and out faster than a fox through a farmer’s yard.

Besides my celebrity doings were with the famous OzRod of the Rodney Cutler Saloons on 57th St (East) & Broadway, Soho. We finally hooked up and I was super impressed to hear that Ozrod has just completed an Ironman in 10:30, and he has a marathon coming in six weeks, yikes! I have not got the scoop on the Grammy’s yet, but I did tell him every paper I pick up these days, or magazine, seems to have something about him in it - what a star! And speaking Stripes I was out with Rapido the other night and we got a free drink (for being good customers) and I did not drink it; getting old, gosh that is a first.. Perhaps it was seeing the drunk girl who got thrown out of the bar, that was after she fell flat on her face, then later was throwing abuse at the bar staff… Meanwhile

Down in Puerto Rico, “Tulu cancelled but Adere is here..” Starbucks reports on the race for Sunday, with the expected weather to be 82-degrees!

What an indoor team - four athletes - Tarkio & Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, and Meseret Defar for the 11th IAAF World Indoor Championships, Moscow, Russia, 10 – 12 March.. Interestingly enough Kenny said, when here for Millrose, that he did not want to do the indoor as he felt it would interfere with his chances to double at the world cross.. So there you go.

Notice how Starbucks is guarding his special gourd…

“Better shoot the camera quick, because this is the first and last time I am ever going to serve you food!” said the Simba on Xmas Day.

Women: The Simba Jolene Byrne, Ire Asmae Leghzoui, Mor Kimberly Saddie, Usa Emile Mondor, Usa CAN Susan Chepkemei, Ken Zoila Gomez, Usa Marie Davenport, IRE Adriana Pirtea, Usa Zhor el Kamch, Mor Jelena Prokopchuka, Lat Natalya Berkut, Ukr Olga Kravtsova, Rus Berhane Adere, Eth Derartu Tulu, Eth Hilda Kibet, Ken Hui Na Xing, Chi Jeanine Rocks, Usa Meselech Melkamu, Eth Meseret Defar, Eth Tara Quinn Smith Worknesh Kidane, Eth

Wow,what a line up.. And thanks to the Russian Rocket who is transporting a heavy box and bag over to San Juan for the Shoe4Africa lets-save-postage drive!

Kenya continued
The day after the race I was invited as a guest up to Paul Tergat’s race in Baringo, and Ezekiel Kemboi came to pick me up at 5:45-am (youch) to drive down into the hot valley and up onto the other side - his wife fell asleep on me in the car which made the journey somewhat hard.

The wife, Jane Kemboi a former runner from Singore who ran the 1500, when awake. Amazingly enough I have a picture from her ten years ago when she was at the Brother Colm training camp, and a friend of hers used to send me letters.. Small world!

We ate breakfast at the Sportsman in Kabarnet which is owned by Paul Tergat

(check out the posters on the wall if you visit the place for clues), then arriving at the race field I met Paul who had just arrived from a two week trip to Angola. He was looking every bit a superstar and driving in his Landcruiser.

Former American world 100m champion Torri Edwards made her return after serving 15 months of a two-year drugs ban and finished fourth.

Meanwhile on the third day of the Russian Indoors, Yelena Soboleva has set a women's World Indoor 1500m record with a time of 3:58.28! 2. Yulia Chizhenko 4:01.26 #3. Yelena Kanaris 4:03.53 of Urban Athletics.

The Simba is going to start her ‘hard’ training on Sunday with a two hour easy long run through the forest. Her goal is a very fast 10k at the end of February. The world‘s best 10k falls on Starbuck‘s birthday, and he has asked for a world record.

I have now been in Kenya for two weeks and only signed on to the internet once(!) I bought 500-minutes imagining that I would get to Eldoret once every few days to sign on, but it has not been the case; even when in Eldoret I have not made it to the café with the connections. It is good business here, and Moses Tanui wants to expand his sports complex to being an internet café. You would not believe the state of the computers they use for such locations -- talk about bring back the Atari!

As usual it was a who’s who -- It was a great honor to sit and chat with John Ngugi, Joshua Chelangi was there - 2:07 who won at Machakos the year I raced there, ten years ago to this day-New year‘s Eve(!!), Paul Koech also from the same camp we had -- great to see him. Anyway back to the race Sammy Kipketer was second in the 12km-- was a very tough & fast race, Augustine Choge and Isaac Songok went 1-2 in the 4k (both are on the morning runs).

02/05
Three weeks ago I was sitting with John L. talking about this is going to be his year. The guy is exceptional, both in character and in sporting results. His raw speed insists that he should concentrate on time trials for running a PR, and slow tactical races for medal pop’s… I thought the only way he could ‘lose’ in the commonwealth trials was to try and run a fast time (he has the stadium record at Kamaring & Eldoret)… with 20.7 200m speed, he should be a kicker… He has ran a 1:44 and has his goals set on a 1:43 for 2006, but based on his training, speed, and attitude I was telling him a commonwealth medal and a 1:42 are going to happen for him this year… so I was absolutely delighted to see that he won the trials!!

Here’s the team--
400m: Thomas Musembi, Ezra Sambu, Selesio Njiru, Vincent Mumo, Ismael Kombich. 800m: John Litei, Alex Kipchrchir, Cosmas Rono. 1500m: Haroun Kaitany, Jonathan Komen, Churchill Kipsang. 5000m: Augustine Choge, Joseph Ebuya, Benjamin Limo. 10000m: Barnabas Kosgei, Geoffrey Sielei, Paul Lagat. 3,000m steeplechase: Reuben Kosgei, Ezekiel Kemboi, Wesley Kiprotich. 400m hurdles. Daniel Katonon Marathon: Jacob Yator, Fred Mogaka, Julius Kirwa Choge. 20km walk: David Kimutai.

Women:
400m: Florence Wasike. 800m: Janat Jepkosgei, Caroline Chepkwony. 1500m: Jeruto Kiptum, Viola Kibiwott 3000m steeplechase: Esther Chebor. 5000m: Isabella Ochichi. 10,000m: Evelyn Wambui. Marathon: Hellen Cherono, Rose Nyangicha.

Choge and Limo in the 5 is a great team, as is the steeplechase squad - the last two steeplechase Olympic Champs.

Females: 1.Hellen Kimutai (Kenya) 1:15.03 2. Lyubov Denisova (Russia) 1:15.19. -- a fabulous time for Titus as this course is a monster!

A good 800m too - Yuriy Borzakovskiy 81 RUS 1.46,99 2 Wilfrid Bungei 80 KEN 1.47,82 3 Belal Mansoor Ali 88 BRU 1.49,01 and the crowd fave -- 1 Kajsa Bergqvist 76 SWE 1.98 winning the high jump!

In the men’s 1000 another stunning Nordic result from one of the two Icelandic Brothers! Elkana Angwenyi 83 KEN 2.22,22 PB 2 Suleiman Simotwo 80 KEN 2.22,53 PB 3 Neil Speaight 78 GBR 2.22,93 4 Yuriy Koldin 83 RUS 2.23,23 5 Björn Margeirsson 79 ISL 2.24,52!! Way to go.

Meanwhile somewhere in Kenya, training on the ‘field of dreams’ track at Kamaring La Simba, Hilda, Silvia and Mrs. Zimbabwe under the auspicious eye of the legendary Starbucks.

Lagat & Bekele, getting ready for the race today! Millrose-- Bernard Lagat, “I’m glad he visited us first before I visit him…“ eluding to Bekele’s drop down in distance, and Lagat’s eventual move up…. Coming tonight - The Clash! The first time ever three Olympian medalists are in the Wannamaker Mile together.

Bekele was wearing a coat despite being indoors in a warm hotel, Lauren Williams wants nothing less than a PR today.

Bekele says that his hardest feat is the XC doubles, racing twice in 24-hrs, he also said he is completely free of the Achilles injury that caused him to DNS at last week’s indoor meet in Germany.. His PR for 800 is 1:51, and wants to run as fast as possible tomorrow. He will not be running the indoor world’s. Bernard Lagat said that the indoor track suited short runners, so it would be good for him and Bekele, he envisions the first 800m to be run in 1:55... Lagat will stay with the 1500 for the next couple of years

PPTC--“Are your members looking for a mid-winter long distance race? Want a great tune-up for the Brooklyn Half? PPTC's Cherry Tree 10M (Race for the Hard Core) is for you and them! Here's the link for more information and a printable form on our website - http://www.pptc.org/upcoming/forms/2006_cherrytree.pdf or runners can register at www.active.com. As an alternative, your members can still be part of the fun by registering for the three-person relay. Same great long-sleeve tech shirt.

The garden at St Patrick’s

Jumping jack at the Iten Location Field.

To the trial on the hill…. The Urblazers were out last night fighting the gradient with no complaints -- Michelle (received tonnes of compliments from the other runners saying she looked the Biz), Jaime - first session and she rocked, Robin of the Hood, Susan back after a long while - did great, Denise in the army now, Queen of the Harriers - one eye on the workout, and one eye off it, Sir Alec unfortunately tweaked his foot en route to a storming work out, Dan looking smooth, Rich getting it done, Dave the Trackman pushing his achilles, Rick & The Commander pushing the wall, Doug - welcome, Chucky following off his promising half, Anil & Luis making an appearance to make some comments, and observations… “All unquotable, all off the record…,” told Anil before the tongue spoke…. Something about being banned from bars and blouses, or something like that -- I was up the hill from the words…

After which I passed the Post Office to say hi and post some letters before getting back to the camp where I had just missed a man getting arrested (the scandal!) Three police came to take a gym instructor, who was coming for an interview at Starbucks gym and had worked at Moses Tanui’s gym, to the cells as he had taken about $450 of Tanui’s money to the bank to deposit but failed to deposit the funds.. Drama in Iten.

But back to Doris: She is considering joining the Armed Forces as she wants a stable career here which will mean six months of non-running (they have to do boot camp with no running time allowed)-- we are hoping she chooses to focus on running instead as she is currently one of the top Kenyan female xc runners. However they will let her run up until the Kenyan trials…. A couple of Lornah’s little nieces are also at the camp -- they hate running! (However they did do the health walk and ran!). At the camp you easily forget the rest of the world exists; something happens everyday, but in its own little way -- you become insular to the surroundings.

The amount of Dutch runners increased with the arrival of two more and it is a lesson of the reflection to see the different attitudes, minds and conjectures of the countries. Anyway it so happened that when we were running we passed a few other runners and there was this one Kenyan guy who zipped on & hung with us for a while; I thought nothing about it. Later that day I went to visit the St Patrick‘s HS. It was eerie to re-enter the house where I used to live, walk the paths where I had ran daily, and look about the place trying to recall days gone by.

Of course I happened to bump into a runner there who was washing his shoes in a basin of water - the winner of the last Kenyan Athletics Federation XC at Kisii -- Mangata. He was also 4th I think in the World XC. So he asked me who I was, and then asked if I was a runner, I told him I was now just a business man but used to live in the house opposite his ten years ago, he again asked if I competed anyway more, and I said that no I was just a fun runner… “Ah, you were not a fun runner this morning -- you were serious business man.” Ah, so it was him… It is kind of embarrassing to call yourself a runner in these parts…

This morning Brother Colm dropped by with two athletes to stay at the camp Viola (African Champ at 5000) and Nancy Kemboi #3 in something spectacular (See what I mean about saying you are a business man instead of a runner?) Then heard some news about Magdalene Chemjor-- Apparently the Jam-jar now has a kid and is living near Nakuru but still has land at the Iten Viewpoint. Anyway time to get moving as this morning I am supposed to be visiting Godfrey Kiprotich at the camp with Evans Rutto, Cherigat (the preacher), and Paul Koech (who has gone back to Nakuru). The camp of Dieter Hogan.

Then this afternoon I am going to the Kip Keino Orphanage which is now really the Phyllis Orphanage. I have decided to add some prize money to the race for the oldest and youngest competitors to try to attract some grandma’s to the starting line -- Lornah has promised that her Mum will run, Kool! And the good news is Starbucks is still training each day at the gym - but wow, what a great complex this place is now for training!

Doing business with Moses Kiptanui, and a timely reminder on Monday I will be boxing up and sending off to his camp for Shoe4Africa’s drive for the Kiptanui Camp. Moses was a legend of the track in the 90's - three world championship titles, wr's at 3000, 3000 ST, and the 5000 - virtually unbeatable at the steeplechase from 91-97 unless at the Olympics (silver).

Back at the camp I heard that Martin Ojuku (who used to live in Sweden and claimed many a course record) and was a friend when I was there is now having problems with drink -- he has lost all his possessions and the wife has ran off, very sad to hear, but apparently the younger brother is an amazing talent. And that, washed down with red wine was xmas, as Starbucks said, “We celebrate ten years of friendship, wow!” -- it has been a long time; that I knew both Starbucks and Simba individually a decade ago, how time flies…. starbucks met Simba in ’97 but that’s another story! Strange to think in 1990 when I decided to start running I had not a pot of glue what would happen with my life, how it would change, how I would travel, and what I would do… but one of the finer things is the friendships I have made through running - Starbucks, as they say in Sweden, is Toppen!

After eating some chapatti’s I went to the cooking hut with Hilda to make Ugali for the family. I had a big wooden spoon at least two foot long and cooked over the open fire -- it was very hot and smoky, but super fun.
After cooking Hilda showed me around, we saw the sheep she had bought and the cow, and walked over the field’s where she used to play when younger, and also visited the hut of the grandmother. It was really nice and peaceful out there with a stunning landscape -- a real surreal experience and a special day. Then I went down the hill to the well to go and fetch water, the river was nearly dried up as there is currently a big shortage of water in Northern Kenya and its effects reached even these parts. I saw a chameleon on a log when climbing back up the hill with the water and caught its tail in my hand. Sadly it did not change its color.

Then we sat and talked with the family about all kinds of things -- the little settlement is called Chebisos (if I remember correctly). For the drive home we brought a little sister (caroline) who is going to look after the baby of Silvia (Hilda’s sister). For those of you who don‘t know too much about Hilda she is verging on being ‘the‘ next Lornah -- last year she was #2 in the world at 4-miles with a sub 20-minute clocking!

Upon reaching Iten I met Luc who was going out for an evening jog -- I decided to join him and we went the sawmill route (where Christopher Cheboiboch lives). In a true Kenyan fashion (as Brother Luc is nearly a Kenyan) he says, “Shall we push a little on the uphills?” Twas a good run finishing a good day as we ran with the setting sun on roads where your footfall was soft and the shadows of the runners on the road were are only company…

The man who is winning everything in Kenya right now, from Mt. Elgon (like Doris & Edith Masai)…. Watch the world’s this year….

Leading the way Caroline Kiptoo, who is in the news today winning the Marrakech Half Marathon in a snappy 1:10:01... She finished #3 in the Shoe4Africa 10k.

Today opening an account for Shoe4Africa at the local bank we discover that for a small business you get free checking, but for a Not for profit you pay for checking! Unless you have a balance of over $7500. I keep on forgetting that you neeed ID for everything in America, like opening bank accounts… and here is the new logo: Speaking of which thank you to Joy Dushey & her daughter Tunie Sophia for Sneakers, and a contribution for postage!

Asics launch the flagship -- The Kinsei. Currently on the foot of the Chubby Boss; Available now from Urban. What a shoe! It has swept past the flagship models from the other companies with, and we quote from the tester, “Excellent smooth ride, that eliminated all my knee and back pains on each stride and is light enough to feel responsive despite being a fully-loaded model -- We suggest you go and try the Kinsei at Urban Athletics on 1291 madison!

Riding back to Iten we had the good fortune to bump into the Israeli girl who was leaving the camp so we could say goodbye before she went home, then I went for an evening jog. As luck would have it the old injuries have come back making running a challenge -- maybe due to a run I did a day ago.. Anyway so I am running through the bush when straight ahead is a group of boys dressed up in sacks with painted faces and bows n arrows -- I immediately recognized the group to be the pack that are going through the circumcision rituals. So I continued to run and they chased after me growling and trying to make noise, so I am thinking ‘whatever next! They ran past me and stopped in my path and raised their bows and arrows… Well back in 2002 when Starbucks and The Man From Amsterdam (Michel DeBoer) were out they got shot at by these young men who are learning the ways of being a tribal warrior -- so I say, “Go shoot me, be a hero!” I was pissed off that I had to stop my run. They looked at me and continued to make these noises waving their bows in the air, so I ran on with my hide intact-- well that’s Kenya.

In the evening we had a party dinner at the camp which was very nice. Lornah folded all the napkins into special designs, and we had special xmas foods. Starbucks went to the gym to work off all the fats he‘d eaten at Moses‘ house earlier -- he‘s on a mission.

We had a big lunch in the garden, the sun beating down like a blacksmith’s hammer, The Simba hunting for a xmassy CD to play in the garden (“Let it snow?”), and lots of food. Then following lunch we went to visit Sylvia at her house.

Silvia lives with her husband close to St Patrick’s, and we insisted that Brother Luc came along too. After sitting for a while looking at photos and talking with the family I went on my Christmas Mission -- I wanted to knock on the door of at least 20-houses and give xmas greetings. I took Brother Luc along but he got a touch shy at the very first house so I soldiered on with a Kenyan guy instead -- he was very happy as he got to know the entire neighborhood by the end of the day (“Imagine I live here every day and have never met any of these people at all.”) I was very lucky as I met people from the Samburu I also met many Maasai tribes people including Leitan (who won the Ostrava Golden GP800m last year), and the house of Gregory Konchellah who now runs for Bahrain who is of course one of the world’s fastest 800m runners @ 1:43-- in fact I went to over 25-houses which is a task as at each house you usually have to take a cup of tea to accept the hospitality. I met ‘Bush’ again but this time with the wife and his little child, “I am going to the marathon now, it seems I am not making it in the 5000m, 13:11 is not good enough.“

Every single family was really welcoming and happy, it was as I had expected but quite different from some Western countries -- for instance in Sweden when I moved into an apartment in Stockholm I baked some cookies and went to greet everyone in the apartment building and I can tell you people were not very friendly yet here in Kenya everyone was super-welcoming and insisting that you come back again… I had one failure -- I was going to get some of the special Kenyan ’sleeping milk’ Maziwa Lala from Joyce, but time ran out.
I was gone for quite a while (bad guest) ‘Sylvia, “I thought you were supposed to be visiting us!” Next time!

So why Sleepy Sylvia? Well we were doing hill repeats (Hilda Sunshine, Sylvia, and I) and Hilda suggested that Sylvia led one repeat as she was hanging behind Hilda. So Hilda says ‘Go‘ and it was the shortest repeat of only 10-seconds, and Sylvia set off at the speed one might for an Ultra 50-miler…. I guess it was one of those moments that you had to be there for, and have the tiredness of 50-mins uphill running already in your head…

Prisca Jepletting took the senior women's 8 km race running 28:49.1 ahead of Edna Kiplagat (#$ in the Shoe race) who was timed at 29:01.3

And to all Urbatto’s -- WILLIAMS SHAWN STEWART CHRISTOPHER GUPTA SUNEET NZEUTEM FRANCIS ZLOTCHEW ETHAN ROMANO RON ALDERSON BOB QUINTANILLA MANUEL ZLOTCHEW DAVID MARGULIES DENISE DUSHEY JOY MCINTYRE KAREN KAVANAGH PAUL LABINER NANCY DARCY DAVID ROMAN HENRY SHUFRO LEE COLLETT CAMILLE HARVEGO ERIN CHESLIK THOMAS… Urban Men finished third so the top five can collect the team medals after Wednesday at the store…..

The last time these two were so close was coming down Boylston in the year 2000 when with 300m to go Moses was leading, Elijah clawed back and took the win in the last 50-meters.

Out strolling on a Sunday afternoon with Kenya’s next generation of the Moving Feet.

Speaking Me(a)t I met Salad Girl at the Supit yesterday.. She was perusing the pita breads…”I am waiting…”
“For??”
“My psychic told me I am going to meet a Man with a name with a letter M who is going to change my life.”
“Kool - have fun, maybe he’ll be wearing a sweater with a motif or something..” She did not think that helpful advice.

So we asked him; what are we to do, when will the right order come and when will the right sizes and colors come? Well the problem was he now had no money, or claimed so. We asked him for any compromise, any bargaining, but he just sat their looking dumb. So nothing else to do but call the Police and threaten to throw him in jail. The C.I.D. arrived and took the guy to the cells, he had to call his Mother to bail him out, and with the Police on our side we now have a deal that he will now pay back a portion of the money in February.. Meanwhile we went to a coffee shop called Friends on the High Street, I was going to check my email again, but coffee won the day. Next it was to a Colonnial House built in 1952 that houses a restaurant, Gym and offices the great Moses Tanui. For the memory I stayed with Moses back in 1996 and trained with him before he won the 100th Boston. Also present was Leah, the wife of Moses who would bring me sweet ginger tea when I limped home after the two hour long runs that finished at 500-mph. And Lucas Sang was there - probably the most reliable pace maker of the 1990’s for the 800m -- he was Mr. Split Second Sang. And last but not least was Elijah Lagat who reduced all the weight to run 2:07 in Berlin and also win Boston 2000 -- against Moses in a sprint with Gezhenge finishing second.

#88 is Samson Barmao, who won,he also was the victor at the Nairobi Standard Charter, watch out for him at Rotterdam.

In a bizarre double Sonia O'Sullivan is to get Australian nationality in the hope of competing in the Commonwealth Games with hopes to compete for Ireland in this year's European Championships! Theoretically if this happened we could see Lornah Kiplagat in the Commonwealth Games for Kenya and the Euro’s for Holland.. Posing the question would we get a Shaheen in the Arabic Games, and Stephen Cherono in the Commonwealth?

Kenya - Continued: Then we drove to Moses Kiptanui’s farm, which happens to be next door to Paul Ereng’s farm (remember him? He won the Olympic 800 in 88) before we ran into Paul Biwott, “I had bad luck, I was only #7 at the world Marathon this year in Helsinki, sorry…” (so many Kenyans are really humble, and seem to think that anything less than a medal is a failure!) He is running Paris in April, and will begin the training in January by doing long progressive runs -- he had some interesting ideas on training (Am picking everyone‘s brains here as one could guess). I went to his house to greet the family before we drove off.

I was looking out for Joseph Chebet (who asked me to come to this district many times) but could not find him, these days he is joining the tribe of time spent sitting at the bar stool unfortunately. Back to Iten I bumped into Brother Colm again and we went to the gym at the HATC with Songok and Choge, Japheth the coach (now) and others to watch some ‘weight’ instruction given by an Australian Coach.

Kenya was not all fun and games, here I am working hard collecting fire wood when visiting The Simba‘s Mother -- of course I took the troops with me, but they got scared in the forest….

Isaac Songok, mentioned below….

In the mailbag… “I am a fan of your blog. Do you still grow a little plot of grass and trim it with scissors instead of a plant in your apartment?” Tom from 93rd… I do have plans to resurrect my little Manhattan garden -- I have all the flags ready for flying on the national days.. As for other plants, hm, not even a cactus -- that says it all huh.

One of the nice things about going back to Kenya was seeing old friends -- I used to visit Sally a century ago when she was at Singore Girl’s High School.

My tip for the London Marathon victory this year - see below.

“We have never had a Golden League (for marathons) before…” Paul Tergat.
“The first in many steps… A long term project.” Guy Morse.
“A million dollars more in the sport today than there was yesterday… what’s not to like?” Mary Wittenberg.
“Like Mary said, something to look forward to. I am definitely excited, so thanks for having us.” Meb Keflezighi.

Willie Kemei is very ill right now, Sammy Langat the 800m runner is now dead, Joseph Tengelai has fallen on hard times -- he built a big house in the bush that took all his monies, Japheth Kimutai has decided to retire, “I‘m getting old and tired“ -- I met him on the location field with Brother Colm watching the runners doing Boot Camp and strides.

James Songok ran from the army got brought back, ran again and died in the village-- he used to be a xc star in the mid nineties, William Koech left the army, became broke, and is now re-enlisted. William Mutwol left the army last year is doing well, Joseph Keino lives with him and is drinking a lot of the local brew, as is Vincent Malakwen, as is Benson Koech who was last seen in his slippers walking around Moiben drunk. Sammy Lelei is opening a big school and has lots of success with business. Likewise in farming for Lucas Sang-. Yobes O. is coaching. Chris Cheboiboch has opened a private school a few kilometers from Iten. Christopher Kosgei has lost it and drinking too much of the local brew. Andrew Kiprono is barefoot wandering the streets looking for shillings and has drunk too much, he barely remembers that he was once one of the best road racers in the world. Nixon Kiprotich lost his mind, received some therapy, and is now working on the pipeline and is close to penniless. William Tanui went to Qatar as a coach. Phew, a whirlwind catch up…

I had a meeting with a government official who is going to be the Shoe4Africa AIDS representative for me in Kenya. I have commissioned him to come to the race with leaflets to hand out, the next step is to get them printed into the Keiyo language. He will travel to all races in Kenya and hand out info -- tomorrow I am going to look at his offices and visit the local hospital.. Ah there are some memories; I had to go there back in 95 with a foot wound that had turned skeptic and seeing the conditions and lack of cleanliness I discharged myself-- they had two wards, one for men and one for women. Everyone received the same medicine regardless of diseases as there was a shortage of all medicines.

The T shirts for the race are terrible; the sizing, colors, and printing is all wrong-- so now I have to go into Eldoret and sort it all out. It will be hard to return 300 T shirts, Lornah’s sister apparently paid the guy without checking! What to do, what to do.

At the Baringo race I was sitting in the pace car with Kemboi (the Olympic Steeplechaser Champ) and this man -- talk about expert commentary on the proceedings! Ben Limo, Kenya’s World Championship winning 5000m runner -- he is back in the news, see below!

By some good fortune the local dignitaries asked for me to go over for pictures -- here’s me with Kenya’s Sports Commissioner, and his wife. The man to the extreme right of shot is the CEO of the Mombassa World XC 2007 Committee -- Mr. Isaac Kalua. To the left at the back is Martin Keino and his sister Susan.

5000M. Women Final. 1. Ruhama Shauri Zanzibar 16:46.38 2. Natalia Elisante T-100 17:12.65 3. Banuelia B. Mrashan Moshi 17:18.60

Famous names in n2 & women’s third as fasr as marathoning is concerned.

Other news 2001 World 10,000m runner Charles Kamathi is back in Spain winning at the XC’s -- most famous for the time when he was ‘put’ onto the Kenyan team at the expense of another runner and the team stayed up all night arguing with Paul Tergat as the mediator -- it cost Tergat the race the following day methinks… Kamathi is a Kikuyi and did not have so many supporters on his side, but had the Army who were the coaches at the time… Eliud Kirui was flying the Kenyan flag in Italy in the big XC there and…

Over in Kenya --The first big domestic XC Race: "But I am happy to win at home. This gives me encouragement to attempt the nationals in what would be my last appearance in the 4km . So I am not going to Melbourne as we are needed in the cross-country even much more." Benjamin Limo, the 5,000m world champion won the men’s 4km race Armed Forces cross country meeting at Engineers Brigade in Thika. . Commonwealth 5000m champion, Sammy Kipketer, (11:31.2) was placed second while two-time world 4km champion, John Kibowen, came third in 11:31.5.… Kiplimo Muneria fifth in 11:37.3 -- who now runs for Qatar. Limo last won the world 4km title in 1999 in Belfast. He won bronze over the same distance in 2001 in Ostend, Belgium and 2003 in Lausanne. Shadrack Kosgei reigned supreme in the men’s 12km after clocking 35:15.7, beating the former world silver medallist, Patrick Ivuti, to second place in 35:18.0. With Abraham Cherono (Brother to Stephen) in third hoping for World XC slots instead of Commonwealth places….

The legend, Former world 10,000m champion, Sally Barsosio, was beaten to second place in women’s 8km as Irene Kwambai ran away with victory. Naomi Mugo was third in 28:35. -- All three women run for the Army.

I saw a video of the Edinburgh meet - Wow I can tell you Burka is going to win the World XC this year - soz for the Baby Faced Assassin but unless she buys a turbo it is going to happen.. Great to see Hilda come in fourth!! The men‘s race was kool to watch with Shaheen looking like a tower of pisa next to Bekele who ran so fast the final 200m you thought it was a track race.

In the evening I was over in Brooklyn -- I took the L train and felt like a stranger from another planet as everyone looked like a garbage grunge fashion plate on the platform, station, and streets over there -- woolly blazer, dark colored with buttons and a scarf, some form of a hat, scruffy trousers - yep everyone, except something that was dressed head to toe in leather. I was going over to talk to the MAAM Running Team -- great, Charlotte said, “Only talk for 5-minutes!” The shortest speech I have done in a long time, but I found it harder than rambling on for hours, as I am oft inclined to do (as the Essex Running Club can attest to)… I made a blunder congratulating the hostess on the wonderful Carrot Cake -- it turned out it was flourless Clementine Cake.. Same thing right?

Congrats to Frostbite winners -- Matt Downin 28 RUNC NJ 52:50& Carter Hamill 22 NYAC NY 1:00:53.. Age group focus on the women 40+ -- 1 Susan Pearsall 40 CPTC NY 1:10:42 2 Danielle D'Angelo 44 WTC NY 1:12:00 3 Mary Wittenberg 43 NY 1:12:15

Receiving the great compliment from The great Moses Tanui when I was at Paul Tergat’s (white jacket) race as an invited guest. “You are a great friend, and a true Kenyan… even if you look a bit different from us!”

Other fast women --Jamaican superstar Veronica Campbell has joined the women's 60-meter field for the 99th Millrose Games, organizers announced today. Campbell, a 2004 double Olympic gold medalist, will go up against her biggest rival, USA sprint sensation Lauryn Williams, the 2005 World Champion at 100 meters and Olympic silver medalist. Millrose should be a great meet as usual -- I am sure the Lagat Vs Bekele draw will be a big one!

In the afternoon I did something I have never done in my life; I got down on my ands and knees and scrubbed the floors of the gym that would be opened the following day. The tiles were very dirty with mud and the gym is massive, it took all afternoon-- the Kenyan girls in the camp helped. Then we moved the gym equipment different points round the gym -- wow, heavy stuff, for that we borrowed some Kenyan workmen who stunk of sweat and meths, but the goodness was that they were strong -- later we did a chin-up test and everyone cleared 20 (upon seeing this I canceled stage two of the tests) Besides my next job was to decorate the gym with xmas stuff, so I climbed high up into the roof rafters and walked along the thin girders to hang tinsel and stars. I nearly killed myself when I realized I was hanging on to an exposed electrical box. Luckily I did not kill myself -- well it would have been fitting after the devil excuses for getting out of going for church -- it was a long day!

The following day was the opening of the camp gym and Isaiah Kiplagat was the chief guest. Isaiah has been in charge of Kenya Athletics for donkey’s years. Also the Dutch Ambassador would be present as well as many other invited guests of honor -- in a day I went from scrubbing the floors to being a Guest, what a whirl.

On that note it looks like I will get a classy field, but numbers may be small -- we have a meeting with the local federation soon to see ‘how we can get involved’ (their words, hmm). The last race in Iten had only six women with a 100-plus men! The World Junior Cross Country Champion has committed to coming, and she is a rocket. Other business; just made it to the post office to send a letter, and the post mistress is still Mrs. Koila, wife to William another former competitor. William came round in the evening with the news that he is trying to start a multi-cultural masaii center as there is scant info on the tribe and to date no(!) female runners….

Former President Daniel Arap Moi 1978-2002, Kenya’s longest serving Prez.

Back to the camp for breakfast.... A small world part one -- a girl from Israel was training at the camp, so I asked her, "Do you know Amit?" "Amit, for sure! He is my coach!!" She cried. I told her I had trained with Amit one year back in the nineties at a camp in America.. so she started talking, and she says, "Four days before I left he gave me this good book to read about Kenya, he said the guy was a friend of his -- very nice.." Well you can guess the rest... but Small world number two was that there was one other non-Kenyan girl at the camp from Zimbabwe, so I asked her, "Do you know Bigboy Goromonzi, Cephas Matafi, Kingstone Maringe, and Nicholas Nyg.?" Of course they are her best friends -- so text messages come from them -- I used to live with the Zim-Zimz for the summer of '97 along with a few other Africans in a huge house in Hofors. I swear the world exists on a postage stamp.

The race, being held that morning was a half marathon on a dust road -- It was a good chance to meet some other friends - Like Solomon Busendich who ran 61- at Stramilano a year or two ago, prior to that we had met up in Kenya and one could see this guy was about to 'happen'. I met Solomon also in Central Park in November -- so it was nice to hook up so soon again, he is (like many) looking for races in Europe. I also talked with Brother Colm, "The Circle has turned its full circle -- you are back!" And the coach from Kapcherop, Boniface, who was responsible for finding all the legends from that town -- Richard Chelimo, Ismael Kirui, and Moses Kiptanui to name a few-- he coached the world junior XC Champ and promised he'd send her to the shoe4africa race, 'if' I came to visit Kapcherop -- so we put that down for Wednesday.

The race was won by Samson Barmao, the same man that recently won the Standard Chartered Marathon in Nairobi -- Sharon the Zim-Zim won the women's with Luc nicely pacing her. Both winners won a ticket to the Rotterdam Marathon -- strangely enough Samson already had an invite, and Sharon does not want to run a marathon yet in her career as she is an 800m runner turned road racer.

After lunch Starbucks and Simba made expresso’s at the house before taking me to see their new beautiful home on the Escarpment of the Great Rift. The last time I was there it was only land -- and they showed me my place in the grounds if I come to stay there in the guest house (cool). To get there the camp has a typical Kenyan taxi car -- in the old days you could pack as many people as you wanted into these vehicles and a conductor would hang off the back shouting a price to a destination. Well the police have stopped all that, and now you must be inside the car and not have more people than there are seats. Well there are no 'white' taxi drivers (matatus) so with Pieter at the wheel I hung off the back door shouting, "Trip to Nairobi, as far as we go -- ten bob (70 is a dollar)." I got only laughs, no customers, so when we pulled over at a turn, I jumped off and pulled and pushed two people into the taxi-- they were very happy as they had a huge sack of maize and a baby to carry to the market. I don't know how happy Starbucks and Simba were, but off we went. I did not manage to get any more customers that day but we did deliver those two who told me, “Nobody will believe you are a taxi conductor in Iten!” I think I might have to sew a uniform. It is a problem to get a job in this place if you are a European.

Next stop was the gym -- I challenged the entire workforce to a lifting competition saying that if I beat them they all had to join me on a run tomorrow morning-- talk about a dumb bet as believe me not all Kenyans can run and shepherding this lot would be like poking pins in the eye of a bull! Luckily the designated piece of equipment was not yet fixed up, so we had to call the contest off.

Iten has grown since the last time I was there -- everyone in the Kenyan running world seems to be training here from the 800m distance (Konchellah 1:43, Letei 1:44, The Dutchies 1:43-45) to the marathon - Rutto 2:06... Quite a fast village! There is little distraction, a few cafes -- the in place being called the Amani right now, though slightly more expensive is Kerio View (where Renato Canova stays -- I met up with him the next week)…

Kenya‘s first ever Women‘s Only Health Walk -- Phyllis Keino (left of shot), and Lornah‘s Mother, (#413) coming to the finish.

Playing in the streets of Eldoret again. Patrick Sang asked if next time I can play outside his store to attract a crowd to his business -- I told him I would do it for a free hen, and it’s a deal.

I stayed at the Meridian Hotel in the center of Nairobi, looking at the please do not leave anything valuable such as your camera, money, anything of value in the hotel room sign made me decide to stay at the hotel in the morning and not go out before the midday engagement for the Shoe4Africa thing. The press conference was held at a mid town cafe in Nairobi, and the good news was that three television crews, one national radio, and twenty pressmen turned up for the event. The major newspapers -- The Daily Nation and The Eastern Standard sent the two famous Kenyan journalists for running - Peter Njenga and Chris M’basi. The exposure was more than good - so good that the next day that when I was at a race Gilbert Koech, & his wife Edna Kiplagat, (who had just returned from the LV Marathon) came up and said, "Hey we saw you were in Kenya by the TV."

After being in town we shot to the airport for the flight to Eldoret. Starbucks managed to find the best coffee shop in Nairobi - Dormans (highly recommended, super strong and a leaf design on the froth!)
Stand by - Ten minutes before the plane left the doors opened. I got the very last seat on the plane (only 20-seats) and anyone who has had to go back into town and take a communal taxi knows how lucky I was to get that seat! The plane flys low and over a game reserve… didn‘t see any lions however.

Arriving in Iten I met Lornah, the newly crowned European Champion, and indeed Dutch Female Athlete of the Year. Immediately the conversation turned to body weight, with Luc Krotwaar, a Dutch 2:10 runner leading the scales-- Lornah was saying how in Kenya people are honest (Starbucks added, "Yes someone told me I was fat today"), The Simba added, "You don't hear that in America right?" But I had to correct her; "Hey I told you were fat that time in Puerto Rico." "Yes, and I was!"

The very next day I decided to go for a run, The Simba said, “You are going to suffer with the air (2440m).” But I knew I wouldn’t as altitude fortunately does not really effect me… So we ran starting with a large group, but soon it was The Simba and Doris (East African XC Champion last year who would become my regular training partner with Hilda for this trip) as we ran on a route called the Banana route over the dirt roads onto the tractor route. Out in the bush we met two athletes that I did not recognize, but when we had passed them Lornah told me, "Augustine Choge and Isaac Songok" (two of the biggest up and coming names trained by Brother Colm)…. Proving once again that Kenyan elites do run very easy when running slow in training…. Both would be seen a week later in a race-- rocket speed! Finishing the run Evans Rutto came past in the opposite direction - double Chicago and London winner, he lives in Iten when training. Welcome to Kenyan running (2b continued)….

Having big African withdrawal symptoms right now… NYC feels a cold place to be! As for wishing to go out and run, wow-- talk about the most extreme opposites you can think of… Waking up in Iten, Kenya -- the only noise is the cockerels starting to crow. You go out to the gate and meet up with a few world class runners, and set off in shorts and a T shirt along a soft red clay road with loads of different routes to take. Within minutes you meet ten to twenty other runners all going on a variety of speeds, and routes, should you wish for variance. The sun is now up as the pace increases, the roads lilt and the soft undersurface allows that you can not even feel the slightest pain in your body.

Finishing the run, typically 45-60 minutes, you stretch in the garden and talk, a bell sounds calling for breakfast, so you quickly run off to shower before eating… and so would start every day…

“In employing the change, all participants will be staged and begin on a single commercial street (Main Street, also known as Route 135) in two waves of approximately 10,000 athletes in each wave. No longer will runners wait to begin the race while lined-up on residential streets. Hundreds of volunteers will escort runners from an expanded Athletes' Village at Hopkinton High School to their starting corrals, preventing them from stopping on or in front of private (residential or commercial) or public property. Approximately half of the anticipated field of 20,000 official entrants will begin in the first wave, and the remaining half of the field will begin one-half hour later in the second wave.

“The starting time for the first wave of runners will be Noon, and the second wave will begin at 12:30 p.m.