Everywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet
Was Discovery Eldoret Cross-Country really so hard that I couldn’t crack the top 100? Not really, but it is a very deep race. The main reason why I know I could have finished higher up is the effort I put forth. I pushed slightly harder than I would in a session but not as hard as a typical race effort. One of the reasons I didn’t push harder was because I was afraid to get into oxygen debt trouble at 7000 feet altitude. Only 10 days into altitude training I’m still getting used to the thin air. Excuses, excuses.
The race was pretty nuts right from the start. They corralled the runners about 25-30 meters before the start line a few minutes before the race. And then a guy told everyone to get on the line. I think some guys took off to make sure they were going to get a spot on the front of the line and others then took off after them. I was content to be second, or third, row so I trailed the runners. Since everyone was in a panic to get going people just started racing and the starter simply fired the gun knowing he wasn’t going to be able to control the racers. I had to run really hard just to make sure I wasn’t trailing 400 racers. Even with my burst of speed I still came to a slow jog around the first corner.
There were five laps of two kilometres (plus the start) over grass and some farm field. I wore flats because I didn’t want to be sore from spikes and push my training back. In the first lap I was passing scores of runners. After two laps I wasn’t passing that many guys a lap but when I did pass a guy they would sprint back in front of me and then settle back into their pace. This was really annoying. It happened because these guys didn’t want to get passed by a mzungo so they put up a fight, for a bit. Throughout the race I didn’t feel like I was pushing too hard but at the same time if I were to push a little harder it would have hurt a lot more due to the altitude. The 30C+ degree weather just made it that much more uncomfortable.
After the race I had no idea what place I finished in so I went over to where they were writing down the places from the bottom portion of the bib number they tore off at the finish line. I started looking over the result recorder’s shoulder around 50th place. Surely I would be in the top 80… nope. When they got to 97th place the result recorder got a phone call and stopped recording names so I asked the other lady going through the bib tickets if I could see the next few names, hoping I cracked the top 100. She showed me a few more names and I saw mine which would eventually be slotted in 101st place (I may be off by one place either direction).
What an amazing and humbling experience. I had a great time, even though my time, 33:14, wasn’t great. I got what I wanted out of the race, which was a solid effort to make marathon pace feel a little easier up here. I was the first mzungo in the race out of the handful that started. Even if I was to race Discovery after being here a month and in cooler temperatures I think cracking the top 40 would be very, very difficult. To put a little perspective to the level of competition, Bedan Karoki finished 3rd, around 30 flat, he also finished 5th at the 2012 Olympics in the 10 000m. Hopefully I can find some results online soon…
Stay tuned for Eric’s video footage of the race on his blog. Link to the right >>>
These guys passed us on the drive from Iten to Eldoret heading to the race. They claimed they had the eventual winner in the truck.
Tennis courts at Eldoret Sports Club. Back in 1920’s and 30’s this place was booming with Brits playing Rugby, Cricket, snooker and tennis.
You cut your hair
On Wednesday I thought I’d go and get a haircut at a local kinyozi (barber). All I was looking for was a straight forward buzz cut (number 3), nothing fancy. And for 30 Kenyan Shillings (35 cents CAN) I figured it beat doing the work myself. After picking up some groceries Eric and I entered the small wooden shack where one can get a haircut and/or their phone charged.
I sat on the chair, he draped the apron around me, cleaned the clippers and started to clip my hair. He was starting from the top of my head and working towards the outside, which didn’t cut the hair as well as “going against the grain.” I told him “for a mzungo you have to go the other way to cut all the hair,” he clearly didn’t understand me. I’m almost certain that I was the first mzungo to sit in his chair.
After a few minutes with the clippers there were still some strands of hair falling down my forehead. He brought the clippers, without a guard, up to my forehead and I thought he was going to simply cut away any long hair. What happened next I had actually been warned about by Pete Watson a few years ago but had completely forgotten. The guy started to trim back my hairline on my forehead, making a new, straighter, hairline. Once I realized what he was doing it was too late to say anything or I would of had an uneven new hairline so I just sat there and took it while inside I cringed. And then whoomp goes the sideburns! More cringing ensued.
This whole time Eric is sitting on the bench behind me with the barber’s two little kids. At one point Eric was thinking of getting a haircut too but not long into my butchering he thought better of it.
The barber then got hot water and a wash cloth and wiped down my head and then put on some after shave on the hairline he shaved, which normally would just have been the neck but in this case my forehead as well. He asked for “thirty bob” and I gave him 100 ($1.15). I gave him a tip because he took his time and his kids were cute, not for a job well done.
Right when I got back to the HATC I sought out Scott Overall to use his clippers. After a few laughs I was clipping my hair down with a number 2. I ended up cutting out some tufts of hair the barber couldn’t cut because he only went down with his clippers. The shorter guard also blended my new hairline better with the rest of my hair. At least it will grow back soon enough.
There will be a big crowd in the lounge this afternoon watching the Glasgow track meet. And then tomorrow I will race the Discovery Eldoret XC, which may be 10km this year.
This trip would be much shorter
Travelling to Kenya is quite the ordeal. It started off with a 6 hour, overnight, flight to Amsterdam, which was delayed about two hours. The delay made us a little nervous about our two hour and 40 minute layover in Amsterdam. However our Amsterdam to Nairobi flight was delayed three hours so we had plenty of time to do nothing.
We were in line when someone from KLM told everyone that we had to wait for a new plane to arrive, we could grab a food voucher and come back in two hours. An elderly lady behind us had no idea what was going on and asked us “excuse moi..” I explained, in French, the delay and that she could grab a food voucher from the stewardess. Eric and I grabbed a voucher and headed towards the restaurants. The lady was following us down the terminal and then to the same restaurant. I told her what kind of food they had here and then she came and sat with Eric and I. It turned out Madame Jifar was from Comoros and had been visiting Lyon, France. The meal was a little awkward…Eric and I ate at our normal (too fast) pace while Madame Jifar had taken two bites of her omelette. I could either make small talk with the lady from Comoros in French and leave Eric out of the loop or talk to Eric in English, leaving Madam Jifar in left field.
After an eight hour flight to Nairobi we got our travel Visas really quickly, grabbed our bags and made our way to the hotel in a cab. The next morning we destroyed the breakfast buffet and then I did a 12km run on the treadmill, barely keeping my food down. That afternoon we flew the one hour flight from Nairobi to Eldoret. From the Eldoret airport we drove another hour to Iten.
Eric documented our travels with his GoPro… now that I’ve watched the video it’s actually only a video from the Toronto airport…
To date all of my running up here (8000 feet) has been relatively easy, my first real session will be tomorrow. After the long journey, 8 hour time difference and adjusting to the altitude it’s best to ease into training. Make sure I don’t dig a hole before I race Discovery Eldoret 12km Cross Country in 6 days. Whoo doggies!
I’ve been posting pictures on instagram http://instagram.com/reidcoolsaet/
Iten, Market
Sprit in the sky
Take a listen to the intro to these two songs…
Where are we now?
Only two days until Eric and I leave for Kenya. Eric recently got a GoPro and is planning on putting footage up on his blog, check that out. I’ll continue to put pics up on this blog but for more pics get into the Instagram game (@reidcoolsaet).
This weekend was a real treat for running in Southern Ontario as the temps soared into the double digits, the snow melted and the trails were run-able. On Saturday morning I got in a good long run. I was planning on 38km, Dave suggested 40km and I ended up with 42.25km. Runs have been pretty boring lately on the roads so I sought out a nice loop that had a lot of dirt roads and it was just what I needed. I did the first 17km with Scotty, Sunseri, and Genest and then continued on by myself*. I took in a few sips of Ironman Perform at 17km and then a PowerBar gel at 30km. I got to 34km and was feeling good so I decided on 40km. When I hit 40km I figured I might as well get in the full distance.
Earlier in the week I had an awfully slow tempo run. The plan was to run a solid 60 minute ‘tempo’ and increase the speed every 20 minute portion. I started out, what I thought, conservatively but then I only got slower. As the run got into the latter stages and I knew it wasn’t going to be a good one I started to be My legs have been super tired because I’ve been running more mileage than I have since before the Olympics and the running has all been on roads and snow (until this weekend). There will be a little lag until I get used to this volume and start to feel quick again.
Time to get packing. Later.
*I actually ran with music for the last 25km, which I normally don’t do but quite enjoyed for the long haul.
PreVail
Here is a nice little (10 min) documentary on American Ryan Vail. I paced Ryan through 30km at the Fukuoka marathon last month where he ran a PB of 2:11:45.
Eric is getting into the film business himself. This is his second project after his infamous “protein shake video.” He just purchased a GoPro for Kenya and is getting in some practice…
And the wind ain’t been blowin’ from the south
I like winter. I don’t mind the cold weather. I had two nice runs in the snow today (the wet snow provided some grip on the trails). What I don’t like is ice and having to run on busy roads when the trails aren’t run-able. Trying to hit certain paces in the winter can be challenging and it wears me down over time. The winter can be a great time to get in a solid base but I want to run a marathon in April so I’m looking for more than just a “solid base.”
To get ready for a Spring marathon Eric and I are heading to Kenya for 50 days and then hitting up the Den Haag 1/2 marathon in the Netherlands on the way home. I’m going back to Iten and staying at the HATC once again. A sweet set-up and a brilliant area to train.
I’ve done a couple of longer tempo sessions already but haven’t been pushing the pace yet. I like to take the first few sessions to get used to the volume before I add quality. I need a couple of decent workouts under my belt before I travel to Kenya because I’m racing on January 27th. Last week ,when it was still 2012, I felt like I had a lot of time before the race and then today it hit me that I’m racing Discovery Eldoret Cross Country in 3 weeks!
The XC race should be a lot of fun and very challenging because it’s a very deep field. The Discovery Cross-Country Eldoret race (and the Discovery Half Marathon Eldoret) is a launch pad for up and coming runners. A few established runners participate in the race but the majority of the runners are there to make a name for themselves. The races are put on by Dr Rosa and agents take notice of the top runners who are usually rewarded with trips to Europe or North America to race for bigger cash prizes. From what I remember the winners of the Discovery races win about $250, a relative small amount of money for the effort put forth in order to win such a competitive race.
I don’t expect to be in race shape in three weeks time but I think the harder effort will help me make a jump in my training. And I think it will just be a crazy and awesome experience, so why not.
Here’s a video I took of the junior boys Discovery XC Eldoret race back in 2011. I plan on starting on the start line even though it seems a popular tactic is to hide with the spectators and jump into the race when the leaders come by.
And the Discovery 1/2 Eldoret from 2012
I spent about four hours with Paul yesterday editing the Road to London documentary he made which followed my training leading up to the Olympics. I can’t even begin to describe how much time it takes to comb through all the footage he has and put things together. Paul has poured many, many hours into his project. The doc is coming along nicely and it looks like Paul will be able to get something online within a month.
And the word on the trails
Before I get into my running I’m going to list a bunch of my 2012 favourites.
Favourite Song – Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings – Father John Misty
Favourite Album – Allah-Las – Allah-Las
Favourite Book – What is the What – David Eggers (written in 2006 but since I read it this year and it’s my blog, here it is).
Favourite TV Show – Bored to Death (also came out earlier than 2012)
Favourite Movie – Moonrise Kingdom – (Although I haven’t seen Argo, Django Unchained and Dark Knight, and they all look good…)
2012 was a good year although I didn’t have one race which I felt was great. In past years I usually had a race that was the highlight of my year. Looking back on 2012 my best race was probably my first race, 4th place at Euro Cross Luxembourg. That race was immediately after my Kenyan training camp. At the time I didn’t think much of the race figuring that bigger and better things were to come, I guess bigger things were still to come. It’s funny how things turn out. A few weeks after Luxembourg I got injured and then recovered well good enough for Around the Bay but that race didn’t go so well, even though it was really fun.
Luxembourg XC – February 2012
My training block for the Olympic marathon was my best preparation for a marathon to date. My race fell apart because of the heat and lack of ingested carbs but, once again, the overall experience was amazing. Going to the Olympics has been a goal of mine ever since I surprisingly came close to the Olympic 5000m standard in 2004. To qualify and then actually stand on the start line of the Olympic marathon was a dream come true. It definitely made for a very memorable summer.
For the remainder of 2012 I decided to scale back my mileage (140-190 km/week) and train as if I was running 10km XC. The training went well, I stayed healthy and picked out races I thought would be a lot of fun. Throughout the fall I was happy with my fitness, pleased with my races and glad I ended with a solid half marathon. The time wasn’t fast liked I hoped it would be because the heat slowed everyone down but I was happy with my time/placing relative to the stacked field.
All in all 2012 was a solid year for training (second consecutive year over 8000km). I made breakthroughs in my training even though I didn’t have a breakthrough race. That sets me up well for 2013.
Another highlight of 2012 was the Road to London documentary that Paul Trebilcock put out in July. Beginning in July Paul has travelled all over the word as host of a TV show where he and his buddy tackle crazy endurance races. Now that filming is done for the show (look for the show in February on Travel Escape network) he is editing the documentary. For those who saw it in the summer the final edition will have much more running footage even though the length of the documentary will be about 15 minutes shorter. Paul plans on releasing the documentary online by the end of January. Stay tuned.
No end of the year review is complete without a fail compilation
Tune in Tokyo
Asia 2012 Tour has almost come to a conclusion. I’m in Tokyo tonight and fly directly to Toronto tomorrow afternoon. All in all it was a good trip with many positive points and lots of learning. First off I’ll recap the last race, the Zhuhai half marathon.
I really didn’t know how I was going to feel going into this race. On one hand my workouts all went well, the 31km of the Fukuoka marathon felt great (but… I also ran fairly hard for 31km…) and my last race, Chiba Ekiden 10km, went well (28:58). On the other hand I had been living out of hotels for a month in countries where I didn’t speak the language and didn’t eat my normal foods. You could say I was out of my comfort zone. The positive part is that I feel after this trip all future travel to races should be relatively easy. I was also walking around a ton everyday because there was just so much new stuff to see, I absolutely love exploring different places and I was not in Kansas anymore. Travelling to new parts of the world was one of the reasons for this trip anyways.
After a few strides before the gun I knew my legs felt good, it was just one of those feelings. I wanted to run fast but given that it was already 22C (but feeling more like 30C with humidity) I knew it would be pretty tough. I figured I was going to try and ignore the weather, it’s not like this was a full marathon.
Off the gun I didn’t feel that the pace was too fast and found myself in the lead. Sure enough we went through the first km in 3:06, much slower than I thought these guys would run. I ended up leading quite a bit of the first 5km (15:22) because I didn’t come all the way out to China to run conservatively. I also knew that these guys would start surging and if the pace was more honest than the surges would be a little more controlled.
At 5km one of the Kenyans started to push the pace a little more aggressively, which meant I could ease into the pack. I looked around a few times once I got swallowed up in the pack and counted 11 other guys, all African. By 10km (30:24) I was starting to feel the heat and was looking forward to the bottle I had out on the course. Sure enough one of the other athletes picked up my bottle. I yelled “hey pink that’s my bottle” (he was wearing a pink singlet) with perhaps another word inserted there. I sprinted up to him and grabbed it out of his hands, showed him my name on the bottle and took my drink. I purposely skipped drinking from the previous stations knowing my bottle was coming up.
After 10km the surges became more frequent and faster. One km was around 2:50, which gapped me a little but I caught back up to the pack, which was now starting to dwindle. Another surge close to 14km put some distance on me and the leaders and also put the hurt in me. At 15km (45:28) I was sitting in 9th and was pretty sure I could catch 1 or 2 guys to get in the money if I kept a hard effort. I probably needed a top 5 to make money on the trip but 6-8 would be about the break even point. I know I shouldn’t be thinking about money during a race but once I lost the pack I had to motivate myself to keep pushing in the heat.
I was about to catch a Kenyan and right before I got to him he dropped out, probably figuring he was going to be on the wrong side of the top 8. A little later I caught an Ethiopian. I then started to set my sights on my roommate, Merkebu Ayele. Every minute or so I would look at my watch as he ran over a crosswalk and calculate the time gap once I reached the same point. When I started doing this the gap was 13 seconds and I was chipping away bit by bit. I ended up catching him right after 20km (1:01:08) and tried to bury him then and there. I thought I put enough distance on him but he came back at me with 300m to go. I responded right before he caught up to me but I couldn’t quite hold him off and fell back to seventh place.
I have mixed feelings about the race. I’m glad I went because I like competing against good competition and this was one of the deepest half marathons happening at this time of the year. Unfortunately it was unseasonably hot and therefor I was not able to get a time that matched my fitness. Right when I finished I was pretty down on myself because I got beat handily. That’s when I start asking myself why can’t I be tougher, there is no sense in sulking but I’ll use it for motivation. When I started to write this blog I looked up some of the stats of the guys. I figured if I got beat by guys who have run under 60 minutes then it would take the sting away. I’m happy to what I found.
Top three 1/2 marathon stats: Abdellah Falil has run 60:43. Limo Kiprop ran 59:55 this year. Ezekiel Chebii ran 59:05 this September. My roommate was convinced that under good conditions the leaders would have been under 60 minutes Sunday, whatever that is worth.
Here is something strange…when I was looking up the stats on some of these guys after the race I noticed that the ninth place finisher, Eliud Cheptei, (who runs a lot of races in China) is presently under a doping ban. The ban isn’t up until Feb 2013 and yet he continues to race?
Morocco, Kenya, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Canada, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kenya
A very interesting trip indeed. For those that are curious about how this all works out with finances here is the breakdown. All of my flights were covered by the races. When I was at a race the hotels/food was covered for 3-6 nights each time (I had 13 of the 28 nights covered by races). If there was a per-diem I made it last twice as long. I’m not even sure if we get prize money from Chiba, we have in the past. I figured I would have needed to place 5th in Zhuhai to cover all of my extra hotel nights and food costs. I finished 7th which means all my extra hotel nights will be covered but not quite all my food. And eating out twice a day adds up (I usually had oatmeal, cereal and fruit in the hotel room for breakfast).
5 flights. 7 airports. 1 boat. 3 trains. Many buses and many taxis. 6 border crossings. Too many hours of Angry Birds.
8 hotel rooms and 1 capsule
Four different types of currency
It’s a purse!…Kay!
I wrote this entry a couple of days before the Zhuhai race but then realized WordPress is blocked in China so I couldn’t post until now…
I was only in Hong Kong for two days so I tried to squeeze a lot in thinking that when I went to Macau for five days I could take a couple of days and just relax. In Hong Kong I checked out Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. Both places were very crowded with signs and stores everywhere. I got a good track session of 800’s and 400’s and started to get used to the heat in this part of the world (much different climate than Japan).
I took a boat from Hong Kong to Macau and then jumped in a cab. I kept showing the driver the name of the hotel on my phone hoping he would recognize it because he didn’t speak English. Each time I tried to show it to him he king of laughed, probably like I would do if someone kept showing me their phone with Chinese symbols. Then he asks for my phone again and takes out his reading glasses. “Oh yes,” he says. Really man?!
Macau is a pretty crazy place but not nearly as crowded as Hong Kong. Macau has some older parts with distinct Portuguese architecture (there is also Portuguese on all the signs). Macau also boasts 5 of the 10 largest casinos in the world, including the biggest, the Venetian.
Cotai Strip
Venetian.
Old Macau. Largo do Senado
Indoors at the Venetian. Fake sky and all.
During the light projection show, put to music.
Macau also has some really nice trails for running. There are three dirt trail loops on Taipa (southern island of Macau) that are pretty good. All of the trails trace the perimeter of 100-175m high mountains. The longest one is about 7.5km (plus another 1km side loop). All of them have great footing, spectacular views and a bitch of climb to get up there. THe 7.7km loop, Coloane Trail has a nasty 1km uphill. Once you get up to the trails they’re pretty flat. The only thing I didn’t care for was a Bamboo Viper on the path one day, after that I didn’t pay as much attention to the scenery.
Travelling from Macau to Zhuhai was easy as they are practically one city divided by the Chinese border (Macau is part of China but, like Hong Kong, it’s “special administrative region” where you don’t need a visa to visit). I took a cab, and walked across the border (which pretty much everyone does). It would have been cool to drive across to see how they transfer you from driving on the left hand side to the right hand side of the road.
I’ve been told (and believe it) that Zhuhai is one of the nicest cities in China. There are a lot of palm trees, nice buildings, pedestrian paths and open space here. I took a course tour today, also to just check out the city while staying off my feet. The course seems pretty flat and doesn’t have too many turns however the heat and humidity will likely affect times.
Zhuhai.
Tons of Macanese travel to Zhuhai to shop for clothes, electronics etc (many more mainlanders go to Macau to gamble). I walked around Gongbei market (main shopping area) for a while yesterday and couldn’t believe how cheap some of the things are, even before you haggle for the best price. There are good quality (maybe even real) items and blatantly fake items too. There are also tons of purses, wallets and watches and sometimes the brand names aren’t spelled correctly. G-Shors, Dehsiol, Braka (Prada)…
Speaking of purses, men around here love their purses. And I would normally call it a handbag on a man except around here the guys have leather bags (Louis Vuitton, Coach etc) that look like purses women carry. I was told in the market that I should purchase a handbag for all my stuff I was carrying around (wallet, money, phone). I agree with the functionality of the handbag but a simple black would do just fine. Have a look.
The size of this guy’s phone is actually more impressive than the purse.
There is a big contingent of Ethiopians and Kenyans here for the Zhuhai half marathon. As far as I can tell there are no other elites from the North America, Europe or Australia. I’m not sure who the Chinese have racing but I expect it to be about 10 Africans (and hopefully myself) in the lead pack. Twitter is banned here but I can update Twitter through Instagram so I’ll try and get something out after the race. I’m not sure if the race website will have live results…
1:14
FLOAT ON 