Go White Girl

From the back of my sub-conscience an infuriating beeping disrupted my dream. As I groggily opened my eyes to darkness I fumbled around for my glasses...race day. Last night around 8:30 pm Alex, Megan and I had the brilliant idea to compete in the Kasigau Marathon. We set out for the race a solid hour later than we had planned, in America this would have meant that we would probably have missed the race, in Kenya this means that not only are we  on time but we have a couple hours to kill! 

The race is set to start at 8 am, at 10:40 we mosey on over to the starting line, around 11 the race begins. The race is broken up into seven heats: professionals, men 40+, women 40+, men 28-39, women 28-39, men 14-27 and women 14-27. Although we registered for the women's 14-27 we decided to make our own bracket...white people. A race in Kenya is quite unique, no US race can parallel that of a rural race in the Kenyan back country. The streets are lined with cheering village people as they all gather to cheer on their fellow villagers. It is difficult to decipher racers from fans because everyone is dressed the same the only distinguisher is the bright colored numbers pinned to the competitors chest. The men are dressed in T-shirts and jeans the women wear a blouse and a kikoi (traditional Africa wrap) and of course everyone is barefoot or in sandals. As the rope drops everyone breaks into a sprint we coast out in a jog (don't want to overexert ourselves). As we pass through the streets cheers and jeers arise from the crowd "go wazunga (white girls)!" If you know anything about running you know that Kenyans are infamous for their fast paced barefoot running, this is absolutely NOT an exaggeration. As the cloud of dust in front of us begins to fade we all laugh, there is no way they can keep that up for 10 miles. Guess again...as we hit mile two we are feeling pretty good about ourselves as we rock out to Ke$ha and then in the distance that dust cloud appears again. Grant it they started before us but not that ahead of us. He was on the home stretch and we were just out of the gate...if I were to make excuses about our performance I would blame it on the altitude, the heat or the terrain but when it comes down to it were just three white girls competing against phenomenal athletes what can ya do? 
Anyways back to the race. It was a 16 k (10 miles), in a race back home there would be water stops every mile or so, and they definitely had water stops at this race but if you take a sip you are tempting disaster (there is a high chance that you will get the Kenyan version of Montezuma's Revenge). As the racers fill there little cups I gawked in envy for our water comes randomly as we wait for Steve (Alex and Megan's father) to appear on the motorcycle with a water bottle. We never really knew when we would actually get water, and each time I was about ready to call it quits Steve would appear. Each sip of water propelled us to keep going, that and we really didn't have an excuse (or a means of transportation) not to finish the race. As we crossed the finish line I would like to say Alex, Megan and I were met with cheers and hugs from our friends and fellow racers bur in reality most of the competitors had finished long before and everyone's attention had been diverted to the relay races. Nonetheless we were ecstatic (or as excited as you can be after you run 10 miles in the blistering heat) endorphins and adrenaline were pumping as we desperately searched the crowd for Steve (aka our bottles of water). After we retrieved our water we retreated into the shade for some salt, carbs and water. 

As we victoriously walked to our shaded benches ("the winners circle") we all congratulated each other for a job well done, this was my entrance back into the racing world. It has been seven months since I tore my  ACL and six months since my surgery. Everyone picks some sort of feat to accomplish just after their sixth month mark, mine was a half marathon in Kenya...not too shabby. 


In case you were wondering: 
The winner ran 20 kilometers in 55 minutes (this was unofficial because he's a professional marathon racer he also went farther than everyone else).
The men ran 16.1 kilometers. 
The women ran 14 kilometers. 
We ran 16.1 kilometers ( we were misinformed about the turning point).