Running in Kenya

This past December (2012) I had the chance to travel back to Kenya and while I was there I ran. I was in Nairobi for most of the time, in Langata/Karen.

Nairobi is at 5,889 ft above sea level, compared to Toronto which is 246 ft near the Lake Ontario shore to about 686 ft near York University. And because it's near the equator, at such high altitude, the temperatures are almost perfect. It can get cold during June/July where the temperatures can drop to 10 C, but the hottest season is December to March and the temperatures only get to the mid twenties.

When I got there, December 18, it was raining heavily every night. Since there are no sidewalks in Karen, the shoulder of the road (where I ran) was muddy and completely impassable. So for the first two weeks, I didn't run much. The first time I went out, I finally felt the impact of altitude running. In Toronto, I was running 12 to 14 k every morning, easily. Pushed up to 17 and 20 k weekends. The first time I stepped out of the gate of my home, my legs felt heavy and after a minute, I was already breathing heavily.

Driveway from the house to the gate

But as you can see from the picture above, the land was very green, the air crisp and clean (at least in the morning).

Outside the gate, it was running on dirt. The ground is packed murram soil with stones littered everywhere. I had to watch my step very carefully lest I land badly and twist an ankle.

Once off the murram road, I was able to run on asphalt and then a sidewalk heading towards the busy Langata road.

And then a left onto Langata road...

As you can see running on Langata road is risky business. In Kenya, cars keep on the left side of the road, so running on the left shoulder means that the cars are coming up behind you. Fortunately, there's so much traffic and there are a number of speed bumps that the cars don't race. The only problem might be the matatus which pull over on the shoulder to pick up, and let off, passengers.

Occasionally, I had to switch to the right side of the road to avoid the Masai grazing their cows. This is Karen road, heading towards Bogani.

Past the Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens.

Past the Karen Club.

Karen road is a quiet road, though the shoulder is very narrow and on this particular stretch, the cars really speed.

I fell once, not on this particular visit, on this stretch of Bogani. I'd forgotten about the rocks!

Back onto sidewalks! This is about the 9 k mark... about 2 k left. It's about here that I walked so many times. Worn out, wheezing. It was definitely the altitude though my legs felt very heavy.

So that's the route... a 11 k loop around Karen.

That run taught me a lot about distance running. As difficult as it was, and as confused as I was because I found it difficult to keep a steady pace, I found that there's no shame in stopping and walking for a bit. By my last week, I was comfortably running that 11 (11.26) k route. Slowly, and not pushing too hard.

The result is that my Toronto runs have become pure joy. In fact, I've stepped up my morning run from 12 k to 14.5 k. And, it's an easy 14.5 k. I don't work too hard. I just keep a very slow, but steady pace. Real tortoise style.