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| Iten - Home of Champions |
I was pretty skeptical about heading
over to Kenya on my first ever altitude trip and had previously
declined to go out with the Uk Athletics Endurance Squad as I felt
training was going well enough at home. Another limiting factor in my
head – was that I have struggled with low iron in the past and so
didn't want to risk becoming anaemic again – as it is a total ball
ache to get yourself fit and healthy again! But after much persuasion
from Big Liz (coach), we decided that an initial 3 weeks training
spell in January – whilst the apocalypse is happening back in
Scotland (weather wise) – would be beneficial. Within my first day
of stepping foot in Iten, my opinions changed dramatically. I asked
if I could stay out a further week and a half – but to be honest –
I would of gladly stayed out for longer had I not had to return back
to my real life... University – boo!
The whole culture in Iten is just
completely different to anything I have ever seen before. Running is
normal. Back in Dundee, Scotland... running is not normal. You have
to persuade people out on a run by claiming they can have a
McDonald's after it or that they can down 10 Jaeger bombs later that
evening and still keep fit. On my first steady run, we had several
little kids – no older than 5, with no shoes on – running
alongside us for a good mile. It was amazing to see. They get excited
seeing 'mazungos' (white people) out running and so come along and
join them. Every single run I did there were always kids joining in,
asking my name, what country I came from – a really unique
experience. I would literally have to throw my little brothers Xbox
out the window to watch him run outside 2metres to collect it – yet
these BABIES were out casually jogging alongside me. Everyone kept
mentioning that the kids eventually become quite irritating as many
of them only know very limited english words – these words being
'How are you'... to which I honestly must of heard a billion times.
But to me, it was never irritating. I was too much of a melt –
answering every single time someone shouted “HOW ARE YOU” from
miles away. It's much nicer than ' RUN, FOREST RUN' or '118' being
shouted at you...
I had one little girl run alongside me,
in her shiny Sunday Church dress for a good 2 mile – she was
telling me how she loved running and that one day she hoped she could
be like David Rudisha. Kenyan athletes to these kids are like gods –
athletics offers a way out for most people but the main problem is –
there are HUNDREDS of top class athletes, even just from this one
town!
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| Track session |
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| Asbel Kiprop |
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| track session |
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| the stream of kenyans |
Going down to the track was an
experience in itself. The dirt track was completely invaded with
hundreds of kenyans all doing sessions at 9am on a Tuesday morning –
and when I say hundreds that is no exaggeration. In one separate
training group, doing 20x 1k reps, we counted 58 kenyan athletes.
58!!! I also spotted, former Olympic 1500m Champion Asbel Kiprop,
casually running around in the huge group. I could of sat and watched
them training all day, running is so effortless and full-time for
these guys. That's the difference to back home, there are so many
distractions – silly little things you don’t think about until
you realise out in Kenya they aren’t there. It is the bare minimum
– constant power cuts,cold showers, limited internet etc.
Thankfully within Lorna Kipligat's High Altitude Training Centre we
do have certain 'luxuries' that allow us to keep sane.
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| My kenyan dust-tan |
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| Shower |
The food within the camp was actually
not as bad as I expected it to be – although after 4 weeks it does
get a bit repetitive. Ugali (a sort of maize.. not sure how to
describe it – but it tastes of nothing, has the texture of play-doh
and if you threw it against a wall, it would probably stay there) but
the Kenyans SWEAR by it. The other food we received every evening was
Kale (looks a bit like seaweed – still don’t actually know what
it is...). Alongside these two wonderful kenyan delights were more
standard 'home foods' which ended up being some sort of 'beef' stew
most evenings. Every day was set and so after 4 weeks you knew
exactly what was coming up. In the evenings for desert we were mainly
given watermelon or oranges but ONE DAY a week, we had cake day. The
best day of my life. It was hilarious to see how everyone's moods
completely lift on 'cake day' but extremely worrying how quick the
freshly cooked cake and chocolate sauce vanished. People were
skipping their main meals to get their cake fix before returning back
to the Ugali and Kale.
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| CAKE |
Breakfast and lunch were by far the
best meals of the day. Every morning there were always freshly cooked
pancakes or crepes along with some variance of eggs. One lucky
morning we were treated to 'mandazies' – genuinely amazing – like
little doughnuts with a slight taste of cinnamon. Lunch consisted of
rice or pasta most days along with lentils or vegetables – but the
most amazing part were the freshly cooked warm bread rolls. I
genuinely lived off of 8 bread rolls and jam every single day out
there – so, so good.
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| The ONLY time I got in the pool - picture proof that it DID happen. |
Daily life in Kenya is pretty simple.
Everyone gets up, has breakfast, meets for their morning run, gym,
shower (well.... some people.. mainly the girls), lunch, chill
out/play angry birds/nap/explore, go out for our second run, gym,
shower, tea, play cards/quizzes, bed. It is genuinely like that-
EVERY SINGLE DAY. Crazy, wild lifestyle....It does get repetitive but
once you are back home, you really do appreciate how nice it is to
live like that – simple. Card games were a vital part of the
evenings as there was genuinely nothing else to do. Thankfully one
day a week, Gaz (physiologist) made up a quiz for everyone to take
part in. Without Gaz around, the evenings would have been a lot
duller. Myself and Dean Miller are the two undefeated team members of
BOTH quizzes – clearly just far too intelligent for the rest of the
group.
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| Myself, Gaz and Del |
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| Mo-bot |
We were very fortunate to have a really
good selection of folk out in Kenya. When I initially looked at the
list, I only really knew a few... but after 4 weeks of being thrown
into such an enclosed camp – you get to know everyone pretty well!
Mo Farah's room was directly across from my own which was lucky for
me as whenever my shower went cold, Mo's went cold and it was always
swiftly fixed by the local 'DIY' man who worked at the centre, Willy.
For a double Olympic Champion – Mo is so laid-back and genuinely
one of the nicest and most down-to-earth person i've had the
opportunity of meeting. And from speaking to the other athletes –
he seems to be the exact same person he was before his huge success
within the sport – which is hugely refreshing to see.
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Willy Songok... getting really into some Jerry Springer (look what i brought to the Kenyan culture... car crash TV shows!)
Thank me later Kenya... |
There were some really funny moments
out in Kenya but it's a different situation were in now - social
media has taken over - a small, funny story can be taken way out of
context and blown out of proportion so unfortunately they will be
saved for family and friends, maybe i'll write an anonymous book in
years to come and make a shed load of money...or not... :)
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| The 'World Champ' trees |
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| St Patrick's dining hall |
We were lucky enough to go on small
trips throughout our free time. One to the Giraffe Park and the other
to St. Patrick's School. They were both pretty sweet – the 'giraffe
keeper' was so casual about the fact we were standing less than a
metre away from these huge giraffes. Health and safety precautions
aren’t particularly high on kenyan's lists – I quickly realised –
but it made it all the more exciting compared to back home! St.
Patrick's School is quite a well known boarding school due to the
fact that the school has produced a ridiculous amount of Junior and
Senior World Champions – who all get to plant their own little tree
in the grounds – so cute. The school has the craziest athletics
records I have ever seen! It was pretty cool to have a look around
and visit the kids classrooms and dorms, it's a bit of a contrast to
boarding schools over here.
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| The crazy school records |
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| St, Patricks Dorms |
One day, myself, Jenn Walsh, David
Devine and Dean Miller decided to take the trek into Eldoret for one
reason, and one reason only – CHOCOLATE! Iten had very, very
limited supplies of chocolate and after three weeks, I really started
to crave some. Everyone had told us to hire a 'matatu' (a small van
used as a taxi...although it definitely wouldn’t class as a van
back in the UK...) but instead we decided to flag one down at the
side of the road. Not our finest idea. We climbed in but then as the
matatu stopped every 5metres along the road, another 3 people would
climb in. In a 6 seater van, we had... 14 people! 14!!! Totally crazy
but it added to the whole experience.. I couldn't stop laughing –
two men were hanging out the door as we were driving away. On the way
back – I decided to sit in the front in order to guarantee a seat.
After chatting away to the driver, I found out some vital answers to
the hundreds of weird questions flying around my head.
What happens if a car hits a cow?
Who pays? - The person who owns the cow has to pay the driver to fix
their car – even though the cows are people's living and worth
quite a lot of money!
How much do you make as a matatu
driver? - $2 a day, then they have to pay the owner of the matatu
whom they rent it off.
What's his favourite food? - Ugali
(he's a liar... it taste like mud) but after a slight language
barrier, I found out his 'leisure food' was crisps although he
didn't buy them very often.
Why do the police stop all the
cars? - Most of them are corrupt and take 100 shillings off every
vehicle, even if nothing is wrong they will make excuses in order to
take some money off the drivers.
Riveting stuff – I know. Thank me
later.
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| Giraffe Park |
The views at Kerio View alone, made the
trip worthwhile. I have never seen anything like it. There were
several Para-gliders staying in our resorts all casually jumping off
the side of this mountain (you would honestly have to sedate me in
order to get me in the air) and after watching how many of them came
back with broken legs and arms – I definitely wont be doing it
anytime soon. A funny story though (sort-of), one of the guys landed
in another town a few miles away from where we were and banged into
some sort of building and managed to damage it. He was met at
knife-point with a lot of angry villagers who cut all the ties on his
para-glide until he paid them enough to fix their damaged goods.
Slightly scary but thats what happens if you decide to throw your
body off a cliff – karma.
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| Kerio View |
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| THE HILL SESSIONNNNNN |
The first session I did was a week into
the trip in order to allow me to acclimatise to the altitude. On my
first easy run – I genuinely thought it was the end of the world.
Iten is HILLY, there is genuinely no flat road at all unless you go
down to the track. My first 20 minute jog consisted of me crawling up
the hills... and I mean crawling. I thought these hills were bad
until the first session – UP THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. I have never
seen anything like it. We ended up covering just under 5 miles and
yet none of it was even remotely flat. At the top of Kerio View, we
decided to take a photo to mark our achievement, however they were
having to stop me jumping off the edge and putting myself out of my
misery. My legs have never felt anything like it and it allowed me to
feel sorry for myself for the rest of the day. If this wasn't bad
enough – we then did another 3 sessions up this mountain, genuinely
think the coaches were out to end us. Thankfully, I wasn't alone and
had a few other crazy athletes join me – Helen Clitheroe, Sonia
Samuels, Del Hawkins and Ultra Paul.
The physiologists, who came out with us
on the camp were always on-hand in sessions to take lactic levels in
order to see how we were coping with the training. I already knew my
lactic levels were always quite low but I slowly became the running
joke (great pun) amongst the group as my levels were never above 3 –
which supposedly is extremely weird. My first tempo run – I only
managed to get my lactic up to 1.3... clearly I have been running
these far too slow, so it was nice to get some feedback on this part
of my training.
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| My Kenyan-Scottish bracelet |
Kenya was not only an amazing
experience but also a bit of an eye-opener into how other athletes
from the UK train and why they are as good as they are. These people
are professional – I still view athletics as a hobby for me. Yes –
I train hard, but at the moment thats the only thing I do. I don't do
any gym-work, drills and in my day-to-day life, I don't know what i'm
doing in an hours time – never mind sticking to a daily routine.
This clearly needs to change and since my return, i've tried my
hardest to be more professional and get into a proper routine but
it's difficult whilst trying to attend university amongst part-time
work etc. Time for a change.
I will definitely be jumping at the
chance to return to Kenya again next year. The whole experience is
something I wont be forgetting anytime soon. At this time last year,
I was just starting back jogging again after months of being out with
a broken foot – so I am extremely grateful to UKA for giving me
this opportunity and allowing me to have my most successful and
consistent winter training season so far.
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| Saying goodbye to the ladieeees |
On my return to the UK, I wasn't sure
how I would react to the altitude but also to the long travel home so
I decided against racing the trials this weekend and train instead. I
ended up doing my quickest ever session by a significant amount –
which is unlucky for me... as now Big Liz is determined to get me
racing indoors.
Next for me: A serious amount of
catching up with university studies. Two races indoors, Birmingham
Grand Prix 1500m and then a 3000m in Stockholm– albeit against
DIBABA! (getting lapped once would be a positive).
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