Distance running, the Kenyan way Distance running, the Kenyan way (August 20, 2004)

Marathoners train locally for major races

By Colleen Corcoran

At 5 a.m., three runners climb 1,000 feet along Rancho San Antonio Park's green hills. Deer, bobcats and the occasional coyote are their silent companions. Black Mountain looms in the distance.

As this morning's hour-long run approaches double-digit distance, the pace increases to five minutes per mile and never lets up. No coach waits at the finish. No sponsor lends support. No training schedule. No power gels.

"The Kenyans" is how many local residents refer to these dedicated runners.

Patrick Kamau, 28, moved to the U.S. from Nyahururu, the highest town in Kenya at 7,560 feet. Wilson Gatiha, 29, comes from Nyeri, just north of Nairobi. They are from the Great Rift Valley highlands, what some call the largest concentration of athletic accomplishment in the world.

Berkeley anthropologist Vincent Sarich has estimated that the average runner from this region could outrun 90 percent of the rest of the human race.

Now, in Mountain View where the weather is temperate and Black Mountain beckons, they live and train together along with John Weru, 25. This year, Weru took first at the San Francisco Chronicle Marathon. Last year, Kamau won it. And Gatiha recently won the Lost Dutchman Marathon in Apache Junction, Ariz.

Their personal marathon records: Kamau and Gatiha, 2 hours 14 minutes. Weru, 2:17.

"People think there's something special," Gatiha said. "But it's just train hard every day and do different types of workouts."

"Sometimes when we're training, it's like we are racing," Kamau added. "When we go to a race, it feels like we're just training. The more you train hard, the more you get used to it."

Kip Keino, whose defeat of legendary American miler Jim Ryun at the 1968 Olympics spawned a long line of Kenyan distance champions, has claimed that Kenyans are natural-born athletes who need only work on technical details to improve. "We feel that running is in our blood," he has said.

Even if not blood-borne, running in the Kenyan highlands seems to come naturally. Kamau and Gatiha ran to and from school every day as children, a six-mile round trip. They grew up watching John Ngugi train for and win five world cross-country championships.

"That's why we run," Kamau said. "We see Ngugi and get inspired. Right now, if you go to [Nyahururu], you can see professional runners training and kids running with them. People like running."

Of former training partner and marathon world-record holder Paul Tergat (2:04:55), Gatiha said, "Nothing special. Once you get in good shape and train like he does, you can do what he does. So we know we can do it. One thing we don't believe is, I don't believe [Kamau] can beat me and he doesn't believe I can beat him."

"That's what keeps us going and keeps our speed up," Kamau said. "We don't relax. We don't go slow."

Not surprisingly, they have met little resistance from West Coast competitors. One of the greatest challenges, in fact, is buying shoes, and often. At 100-120 miles per week, the Nikes they wear need replacing every few months.

"America is a dream country," Kamau said. "What you want you can get."

Kamau has adapted well to Western ways. He says "like" with the artistry of a California native and is best reached by cell phone. Sometimes, he admitted, he eats pizza.

"All I am planning to do, I know I can do it in America," he said. "If I go back to my country, I don't think I can do that."

In Kenya, there are few races. In the U.S., there are several every weekend. And they pay. One thousand dollars in race earnings is worth about 70,000 Kenyan shillings, enough to live on for three to four months. Life is cheap in Kenya but, at the same time, money is hard to come by.

"When we go to the race we say, this is our pay day," Gatiha said.

"If you don't push hard, you're going to go with a void check," Kamau added, laughing.

But the Kenyans' ambition is not just monetary. Gatiha, Kamau and Weru have left family and friends behind for a chance to win in unknown territory and with no guarantee.

Kamau is working to break 2:10. "That's something I've been craving," he said. "I deeply feel that if I can attain that, that would be an achievement in life."

Both want to run for the highly competitive Kenyan Olympic team, which they failed to qualify for this year but hope to make in 2008.

"I am very positive I can do it," Gatiha said. "Most marathon runners are between 30 and 34, and I'm 29. It's not too early, and it's not too late. That's why I don't feel afraid to stay away from my family because I want to accomplish my goal. What we need to do is just to focus, train hard and be mentally tough."

E-mail Colleen Corcoran at sports@mv-voice.com

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