10 Marathon training tips (Kenya stylee)

In seven days time, on 26th February, I will be running my first ever marathon. And as I said to someone today, I will finish, one way or the other. Hopefully not on my hands and knees. I’ve learned a lot from the process of preparing for a marathon, especially preparing in Nairobi. Here are some top training tips I would like to share. Most will be recognisable to those of you who have been stupid enough to attempt similar feats. But they all have a unique Kenyan flavour… 

1. Have Bruce Springsteen on your side…
This one was perhaps inevitable when you’re as much of a fan of The Boss as I am. But still, worth noting that there are few things in this world more motivating for a runner than listening to “Born to Run”. This is especially true when it blares out of our portable speakers on the roof of our South B apartment block as the sun sets on the Nairobi skyline and Eddie, Allys, Helen and I find the energy for one more round of circuit training. Whether it’s been our skipping, our press-ups, our core exercises or our squats, The Boss is there for us.

2. Get up really early…
Kenya, as you may know, is a hot country. This is especially true right now – even as the UK vanishes under feet of snow, this is Kenya’s summer. So when you’re planning a 3 hour, 30km training run, you have to factor in your desire not to be burnt to a crispy, dehydrated shadow of your former self. Add to this the desire to avoid the worst of the Nairobi rush-hour traffic and the associated pollution and chaos and, unfortunately, this means getting up bloody early. It has brought back with terrifying clarity memories of rising before the dawn for rowing back at University – not least the morning when I managed to successfully snooze then switch off my alarm without reaching any kind of conscious level of functioning, only to be woken half an hour later by Eddie’s phonecall and the inevitability of realising I’d over-slept. It used to be me making that phonecall to lazy or hung-over members of the Uni rowing team. Now, it’s my turn. 

3. Treat running like an obstacle course…
Nairobi, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is not the ideal training ground for long-distance running. There are few pavements, muchos traffic, plenty of open sewers and potholes, and a whole lot of dust and pollution. There have been times when we have questioned whether running has been taking years off our lives, rather than making us fit and healthy. But you have to persevere, treat the whole thing as an obstacle course, and think to yourself: “Even as I leap over this dead dog, pull my foot out of this stream of effluent and dodge this large rat, this is all adding to my preparedness. I will be more prepared for the unexpected than any other competitor in this race. This means I will win.” (Ok, maybe not win, but finish at least).

4. Don’t be intimated by Kenyans…
If anyone is “born to run”, it’s Kenyans. Kenya has won an astonishing 63 medals at the Olympic Games in races of 800m and above, 21 of them gold, since 1968. Kenyans run like you’re supposed to run. As Eddie and I huff and puff our way along, trudging through the 2 hour mark, we’ll be passed by a few Kenyan runners with calves that seem never-ending, and with a light, gliding stride that is the epitome of ‘not really trying but going twice our speed’. But we’re not intimidated, no sir. We share comradely waves. We grin at each other through the sweat and tears. They say things like “keep going” and “go faster”. Occasionally, Eddie loses his temper and sprints after them, managing a few yards before they move from 1st to 2nd gear, leaving us far behind, breathless and seeking lung transplants.

And then there’s the non-running Kenyans. They just stand and stare, or laugh uproariously as these crazy mzungus pass by. But again, we are at peace with this. In fact, we’re so not intimidated that Eddie has begun the game of “how many Kenyans can I high-five?” just to pass the time on the longer training runs. This almost ended badly once when he tried to high-five an armed guard at the Army Barracks we pass – there was a moment when the AK-47 twitched as the guard tried to decide if this crazy-eyed, sweaty mzungu was a terrorist threat. But at the last moment they decided to give peace a chance and went with the high-five. Thank goodness.

5. Have a buddy…
And speaking of Eddie, this is a definite top tip – have a running buddy. It’s easier to handle the pain, it’s easier to ignore the laughing Kenyans, and it’s easier to keep going, if you’re not alone. Eddie and I have different strengths – I provide the determination, he provides the entertainment – but I’m confident that once you pass the half marathon mark, it would be pretty near-impossible to stay motivated without someone to bug you every time you thought about stopping. 

6. Have the movie game on stand-by…
3 hours is a really long time to go running. There’s no two ways about it. It’s not something you would do unless you were (a) running away from something trying to eat you, or (b) running a marathon. So boredom is a big issue. Even with the obstacle course of Nairobi’s roads, we’ve become so familiar with them that seeing the long, straight, flat road ahead of us can be quite soul-destroying. And would test the conversational abilities of even the oldest of friendships. Thankfully, Eddie and I have the movie game to keep us going. It’s amazing how far you can run whilst trying to figure out how to get from Kevin Bacon to Patrick Stewart, or from Cate Blanchett to Harrison Ford. 

7. Don’t listen to your buddy…
Buddies are great and all, but sometimes, it’s best not to listen to them. Especially when they’re the kind of person that creates a google map of your route, and points out that the distance you thought was surely 30km was actually only 24km. Or the kind of person that finds a website that highlights the altitude and height gain of your chosen marathon race, and points out that the entire third quarter of the Kilimanjaro Marathon is a steady up-hill climb designed to break your spirit.

8. Get tips from a world class athlete…
By coincidence, a week before we run our marathon, we were at a VSO Workshop in Nakuru which we had helped to organise. And our guest of honour, after-dinner speaker turns out to be Henry Wanyoike, Kenya’s top paralympian and gold medallist. Wanyoike, who is blind, has won gold or silver medals in the marathon, half-marathon, 10 km road race, the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters and the 1,500 meters. He’s charming, funny and inspiring. He talks about only finding out about water stations when he ran his second marathon i.e. he ran his first marathon in 2 hours 40 minutes without drinking any water. Apparently the water in the second race “helped”. He talks about a conflict in scheduling which caused him to run the London and Hamburg marathons a week apart – “Imagine”, he says, “I was very happy when I ran the first in a new record time. So I was also pleased when I broke that new record a week later in the second marathon” (his time of 2:31:31 at the Hamburg Marathon in 2005 still stands as the world record for blind runners). There’s few things more inspiring than that, is there? I sought him out after his speech to get his top tips: “Ah yes, I ran the Kilimanjaro last year, it was very hard. But you will be fine. Just take it very steady. Drink lots of water. Oh, and don’t forget to eat lots of ugali beforehand”. I struggled to convince Eddie that ugali, Kenya’s favourite food, a tasteless, stiff maize porridge (looks like mash, tastes of almost nothing) should be the key to our carbo-loading strategy…

9. Have a Support Team…
Undoubtedly key to this whole process has been the patience of Helen, and Eddie’s fiancé Allys, in being our ‘Support Team’. This has included cooking breakfasts and dinners, and coping with the shadows lacking in social skills that we become after an early morning three hour run. 

But I also mean ‘Support Team’ in the wider sense – it’s been absolutely awesome to receive so many supportive emails, phone calls and, crucially, sponsorships. Between family, friends, ex-colleagues, ex-VSOs, current workmates and fellow volunteers, I’ve raised over 40,000 Kenyan Shillings for my partner organisation Special Education Professionals. That’s about £300. And in Kenya, that’s a huge amount that will make a real difference to SEP, allowing them to deliver great services to children with special needs and their families that they otherwise simply could not find or afford. So a massive thank you. You’re all legends.

10. Set a realistic target…
And so we have: Finishing. Our target is to finish the whole marathon, and still be alive. And drink a cold beer. Fingers crossed we can succeed….. Watch this space to find out.