Holiday in the sun

In just a few short days I will be commencing my journey to Iten, Kenya in the Rift Valley.  We fly out Thursday and land in London on Friday morning and then fly to Nairobi, stay one night in the city and then fly out Saturday morning to Eldoret and get a quick car ride to Iten.  Who is “we” you ask?  My travel companion is none other than Larry Abbott.

Larry racing a Cross Country race.  I’m not sure if he really gets into the “hurt zone”.

Leisure Suit Larry hails from Sarnia, ON and has just graduated from McMaster University.  In ’09 he missed being an All-Canadian by one place in XC and somehow he messed up this past XC season and didn’t get into the coveted top 14 at the CIS championships.  He wanted to do some sort of travelling after University and when I told him I was going to Kenya he was all over it.  I’m not sure he really knows what training full-time is really going to entail but he’ll get a crash course very quickly at 7000+ feet.  I think he’ll come out of this trip pretty damn fit and ready to roll some PB’s this Spring.  Larry is also in a band called Chemical Valley which may sound like he is into recreational drugs however, the name is just paying homage to their hometown of Sarnia.

We’re staying 28 days in Kenya and then racing a Cross Country race in Hannut, Belgium on February 13th on the way home.  Because of my recent injury I’ll still be easing into running and renting a bike when I get there.  It’s obviously not going to be ideal for training but this is a trip that I’ve wanted to do for many years.  I will be able to determine if Iten is a training venue that I’ll want to incorporate into my 2012 season.  I’m still relatively new to the marathon (3 marathons) and now is a good time to experiment with different training so that I’m confident I know what works for me when I prepare for the big races.

Stay tuned for photos and updates from Iten.