Thursday, September 1, 2011

Day 5. Running in Kenya

P427

On Wednesday we went for a run at the AIU complex and chatted with a couple of runners what we saw warming up. Turns out that they are in training and one of the runners, Gladis is an olympic hopeful. They invited us to run with them the next morning at 6AM.

A few of us from our group were already up due to jet lag so we met together and ran up to the "Gray Gate" at 6 to meet Gladis and Milton. We said our hellos and then set out.

The run was relatively short, but at 5500 feet, I was struggling slightly. We talked about what everyone was working on, and how great it is to run with friends. I thought back to "Born to Run" as we ran with smiles on our faces.

We ran next to each other, not in a line, taking up the whole dirt road. That was different for me, it was so much more social. And if you fell behind, Gladis would put out her hand and encourage you to catch up. It was subtle, but so different than what I'm used too. It made it fun to be together.

Aftwards we streched in a field and we all learned new ways to hurt ourselves. Our guests teased us for not being able to do things and taunted us to try harder.

It was pretty magical to be honest. The feel of the run wasn't competitive, it wasn't how am I performing compared with the others. It was all of us together.

This morning, other's are going to join us and I look forward to the fellowship.

Posted via email from Color and Voice

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