On October 3rd, 2023, I set out on a journey to learn more about the way of life in the US, especially the sport of running road races.
The journey was long. It took me five hours to travel from Nairobi to the Hamad International Airport in Doha, with a layover of about eight hours there before another fourteen hours of flight from Doha to Boston.
It was, however, a fruitful trip. I got to meet some people in person that I had just been communicating with on the internet.
Like a tree that develops branches, part of my visit was to visit Richard Englehart, with whom we happened to have been submitting articles to the same publication some years back. Over time, he kept reading my stories on Kenyan running, and we became friends.
And so, like a tree developing branches, I got to meet with his kind and loving family, and my friendship extended to them and eventually to some of his family’s friends as well! His wife invited her circle of friends for a dinner party a few days before my flight back to Kenya.
Besides the Englehart family, I also got to meet new friends from around the area where I stayed, including a friend who introduced me to a big man from Kenya who was also around there: Eliud WabuKala, the retired Arch Bishop of Kenya and former head of the EACC commission.
Well, interestingly, I got so close to meeting up with some long-time social media friends that I would check out their posts on social media and notice we were actually in the same race.
More importantly, I saw the running and training culture among runners in the New England region of the USA, which I guess is typical across the US. I was not able to join any running club because of the little time I had trying to figure out the meeting places posted on their social media accounts but I will be sure to try and join one of these runs one time.
The club runs there often happened at dusk, and I once met a group that had headlamps going out on their run. Most other runners I met in my morning runs were usually running solo, or in twos.
The first marathon I ran when I landed in the US was the Hudson River Marathon, which happened on the same day as the Chicago Marathon, on October 8th. It was a privilege to run on the same day that the world record was set as I would later learn my countryman, Kelvin Kiptum had run 2:00:35 while I struggled to finish my race.
Talking of a scenic and picturesque race, it was! This marathon is set in one of the most beautiful places on earth, along the Hudson River, and it could never have been on a more beautiful day than in the fall season when the trees were beginning to shed off their leaves.
Together with runners who had spent the night in the city, we boarded buses in Albany city centre that took us to the starting line near the Niskayuna Community Center.
Sometimes, a race can be well-organized with all the help you can find in a race. A lead motorcycle and refreshment water and gels placed at the right positions on the course, and wonderful cheering fans along the route; but then your legs fail you. I felt pain in my calf and my hamstrings and had to struggle to finish the race, occasionally having to take some walk breaks in between.
It was a well-organized race if only my legs would cooperate. I finished limping but still got rewarded with a Boston Qualifying time and a cup for placing in the top three in my age group.
The following weekend, I attended the Mount Desert Marathon to cheer a friend’s son’s girlfriend there who was running the half marathon race. I was glad to be a spectator as I was still recovering from my marathon race the previous weekend.
Mount Desert Island is a beautiful place with beautiful hills, the ocean, rivers and bays blending together to provide memorable experiences to local and international visitors. I left there with a desire to be back there in the future.
Three weeks later, I ran the Delta Dental New England Half Marathon, which was another well-organized event. The race was a point-to-point course starting at Gould Hill Farm, a quintessential New Hampshire apple orchard with views of fall foliage and running scenic country roads to finish at the New Hampshire State House in Concord.
A nice-fitting and warm performance fleece that is given to all the entrants makes this a memorable race for runners who participated in the event. I also won a nice Aero Bottle and some other gift cards.
I attended the Franconia Notch Half Marathon a week later. It was an experience that would be hard to find in any other race. The race is advertised as happening in “the stunning beauty of the White Mountains here in the western part of the state, along bike paths that will keep you safely away from the car traffic on the roads and give you plenty of room to take in the beauty of the surroundings.”
It is run entirely inside the Franconia Notch State Park, and for most of the race, I was alone in the wild, not sure whether I was still on course, but getting relieved once in a while when I found an aid station with some volunteers. I met four runners who were already ahead of me and also running individually as they headed back, and I was finally sure I wasn’t lost. I think it was also the hardest course I have ever run, but it was great fun.
Below are some of the lessons I learnt from my trip to the US:
One road race could help you figure out what to do with your life!
“I think I can make a good coach,” was what I told Rich at the end of my half marathon in Franconian New Hampshire. He laughed longer and louder, more than I have ever seen him do before!
Englehart is a great fan of running. He was himself a runner, and now, two of his sons, Gregory and Timothy, are active runners as well.
He and his wife, Kathy, had been hosting me in Newburyport, Massachusetts, during my visit to the US, and he was always happy to drive me out to do some road runs over the weekends.
“If you can travel to do a race and finally discover what you want to do with your life, it doesn’t matter what position you take. That is a huge success in itself.” Rich is always witty and full of humour.
Richard Englehart
My coaching, running, and writing should focus on a greater percentage of the average runners who need basic information.
So, as we drove back from another disappointing race, we discussed the trend in international running magazines and publications. We scrutinized the publications that thrived, like Runner’s World, and realized why they did so.
We realized that plenty of runners do not have all that it takes to be the best in the world, but they would like to be able to keep running and improving at their various levels.
The average time that runners finish in the World Marathon Majors is 4:02:53, and we figured out that should be the focus of my coaching. To help most of them get into the 3-hour mark and below.
Photography is becoming a booming business in US road races
You’ll always wish you had taken some pictures after attending a road race, not only in the US but anywhere.
As time goes, some experiences and memories become hazy. There are a number of people, and great friends, like Mary Kate, who works with the elite field at the Boston Marathon, that I met at some of the road races in the US, and I didn’t take pictures with them.
Fortunately, some companies have seen this need, and there are photographers in almost all the road races in the US these days. All you will have to do is look at the race’s website after the event and check if there are any photographs you would like to download after the race.
If you don’t want to spend more money purchasing your images online next time, you should make it a point to take selfies and photos whenever you get a chance.
The experience of meeting and interacting with new people and runners is invaluable.
During my time in the US, while attending the road races there, I learned that it is so much more valuable to make new friends than to win races.
It is interesting how I could meet with runners who we had never thought existed in this world and we were soon chatting and laughing. These experiences made me see the world differently.
After being away from my country for many days, I remember how excited and happy I was to meet some Kenyan runners at the BAA Half Marathon.
Everything is relative to the previous day
On 12th November 2023, I ran the BAA half marathon road race under freezing conditions. This was roughly three months after having run a 10K in one of the hottest conditions at the Budapest World Championships 10K Mass Race with temperatures going over 93 Farenheight. I got the experience of running both at high temperatures and at low temperatures in slightly over two months.
In both situations, I am certain I would not have just landed in these countries from Kenya and been able to finish these races. It shows how the body is able to adapt to different conditions depending on what it is exposed to.
Were it not for the Strava App notifying me, I would not have known that I had actually run the Boston Half Marathon in freezing conditions. It felt warmer than it would have felt had I run under warmer temperatures while in Kenya.
It is hard to earn a living from running road races alone in the US without a sponsor
Some years back, some Kenyan runners went to the US for a number of months, renting an apartment as a group, running road races each weekend and collecting prize money.
At the end of the three to four months, they would have collected enough dollars to pay for their rent, bills, transport to races, and some extra to take home.
“Some years back, I had a friend who would literally move from one race to the next for almost a whole year. He would be invited to one race with accommodation and food from Wednesday to Monday. He would travel to the next race on the following Tuesday, where he would be offered another free accommodation and free meals for the same six days, and it went on and on,” Richard told me in one of our conversations.
Of late, most races are cutting down on the number of elite runners being invited, and also on the number of days they would spend at the host hotel. Besides that, the prices for entering into races keep going up, with most big marathons ranging from around $200 to $300.
The prize money in most of the road races has not been going up in tandem with the rising cost of living, in fact it has gone down for some of the road races.
A lot of money and time goes into the organization of road races
While I may not know everything that is spent in putting together a road race, there are some things and services that are almost a must during a road race. Advertising, Route signs, Portable toilets, merchandise, hydration drinks, lead vehicles and electronic timing elements are some of the basic things that a good road race should have.
As a runner, one should always be thankful to the race organizers for working tirelessly to get us the opportunities to meet together as a running family and enjoy some of these races.
See you in our next road race together!
If you would like a Kenyan coach to guide you to your goal marathon, check out my online coaching programs.