Why don’t Kenyans run ultramarathons?
In the world of ultrarunning, one race stands out as the most competitive, the Super Bowl, the London marathon of ultrarunning: it is the Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc.
Since getting involved in ultrarunning a few years ago, I have followed the race online each August. The start is stirring stuff: more than 2,000 athletes gather in the town of Chamonix in the Alps, with the sport’s crème de la crème gathered at the front. These are the supermen and superwomen who will race around the 105-mile route at mind-boggling speeds. They are among the greatest athletes on Earth.
Yet, watching it, I saw a big, red flag flying that no one else seemed to mention. Everyone on the start line was white. If these were the world’s greatest distance runners, where were the Kenyans?
I don’t need to explain to readers of this blog that Kenyans, along with their neighbours in Ethiopia, dominate the world of long-distance running in distances up to and including the marathon. After that, however, they don’t feature. Why?
Asking people at the centre of the Kenyan running world, in the town of Iten, about ultrarunning brings mostly puzzled looks. What is this thing you speak of, they ask? Running further than a marathon? Is that possible?
I told one 2hr 4min marathon runner that I had run 100km. He looked at me in disbelief and asked me how many days it had taken. I know 100km is a long way, but if you can do 42km in just over two hours ... well, do the maths, it is less than a day. But the concept was so alien that he couldn’t get his head around it.
Left with this puzzle, I decided to do something potentially disastrous, but also potentially gamechanging for Kenyans and for ultrarunning: I decided to introduce them to each other.
Since getting involved in ultrarunning a few years ago, I have followed the race online each August. The start is stirring stuff: more than 2,000 athletes gather in the town of Chamonix in the Alps, with the sport’s crème de la crème gathered at the front. These are the supermen and superwomen who will race around the 105-mile route at mind-boggling speeds. They are among the greatest athletes on Earth.
Yet, watching it, I saw a big, red flag flying that no one else seemed to mention. Everyone on the start line was white. If these were the world’s greatest distance runners, where were the Kenyans?
I don’t need to explain to readers of this blog that Kenyans, along with their neighbours in Ethiopia, dominate the world of long-distance running in distances up to and including the marathon. After that, however, they don’t feature. Why?
Asking people at the centre of the Kenyan running world, in the town of Iten, about ultrarunning brings mostly puzzled looks. What is this thing you speak of, they ask? Running further than a marathon? Is that possible?
I told one 2hr 4min marathon runner that I had run 100km. He looked at me in disbelief and asked me how many days it had taken. I know 100km is a long way, but if you can do 42km in just over two hours ... well, do the maths, it is less than a day. But the concept was so alien that he couldn’t get his head around it.
Left with this puzzle, I decided to do something potentially disastrous, but also potentially gamechanging for Kenyans and for ultrarunning: I decided to introduce them to each other.
Source: theguardian
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