Training Continues

Today I caught up with Catherine at Costco where she was with Lisa and the 8 other Kenyan athletes on their weekly shopping expedition. The usual Wednesday routine is to hit Costco on the way back from their chiropractic adjustments with Johnny King-Marino at Advanced Health and Performance Center. The car was quite full today because Samuel Ndereba and Hosea Rotich both arrived from Kenya yesterday much to the delight of Linus who was the ONLY male in the camp for the past several weeks with the 6 women: Catherine, Jane, Caroline, Irene, Nerri and Kellen. Pretty soon Lisa is going to need a bus; the 3-row car is getting really crowded! Everyone seemed very tired and anxious to get back home to get ready for their afternoon training runs.


Catherine returned late Monday from her race in Bogota where she placed 5th with a time of 1:16:07. Bogota is a very tough race because of the high altitude and she ran at a comfortable pace. She is looking forward to her next race in NYC at the Half Marathon. Unfortunately, it was announced late yesterday that Lornah Kiplagat had to pull out of the race due to an ongoing knee problem. When I interviewed her in Kenya she was still rehabilitating the knee from an injury in March. She was hoping to be back in competition soon but evidently she isn't ready. It is a shame since it would have been only the fourth time that she, Deena Kastor and Catherine would be in the same event.

What's next

Yesterday Catherine left for the Bogota Half Marathon which will be run on Sunday August 2, 2009. She had a short layover in Miami to collect her visa and she should arrive in Columbia later today. The Bogota race is not an easy one because it is held at such a high altitude. For comparison, Catherine trains in Ngong, Kenya which is a hilly area with an average altitude of just over 2000 meters or 6500 feet. The altitude in Bogota is 2600 meters which is just over 8500 feet! Catherine won this race in 2006 but she will tell you that it is definitely not easy to run at that altitude.

Here's hoping she has a good race!

photo: Catherine Ndereba at 2005 World Championships courtesy of Victah Sailer

The Return to Roots

Friday May 15^th, 2009

I woke up thinking it was morning only to find my watch said 1:03am! I woke up every two hours and finally got up 10 minutes before my alarm was scheduled to ring at 4:30am. I got up (and made sure I had socks on before walking on the floor) and got ready for a shoot that needed to take place at sunrise. We got to our van and there was no driver to be found; I had to call and let him know we were all waiting for him; (he said his alarm didn’t go off but I wasn’t happy because we couldn’t afford to miss the sunrise!) We left Nyeri and drove back to the little shopping center near Kahira Ini and when we arrived there was already a whole group of students from the school waiting watch us film and this was 5:45am!

We filmed a segment with 2 young girls and then dropped them off at Ngorano Secondary school. (The primary school was closed because they were scheduled to have a track meet with the surrounding primary schools and it was being held at the secondary school field). It was no short distance from where we were shooting to where this track meet was being held, yet all of the other kids had to walk and arrive by the start of the meet! It really is amazing how far these children walk on a daily basis but then it's no surprise when they learn to run well to get to places more quickly! We ran (in our car!) back Karatina to have breakfast and then returned to Ngorano to film there for the day. We were initially supposed to film at Kahira Ini in the morning but they found out they had the track meet and had to postpone. We rearranged our shooting schedule to accommodate that event so went to Ngorano Secondary School instead. The athletic director there had arranged for some of Catherine’s classmates to be there as well as a former teacher and a former cook. It was really cool to talk to them and learn more about Catherine. I interviewed all of them and waited for Catherine and Anthony to arrive. When they did, it was obvious that Catherine was surprised to see former classmates! She seemed to enjoy reminiscing with them and we learned some fun tidbits :-)

We ended up staying there much later than I had anticipated and they prepared lunch for everyone as well. Kenyans are extremely hospitable and it is considered an insult if you are invited to tea or a meal and can not accept. The former classmates helped to serve and we all had lunch together including some of the current teachers.

After lunch we set off with the athletic director in search of Mr. Wambugu, the former headmaster of Ngorano who had great influence on Catherine's life but whom she had not seen since graduating. She wanted to surprise him with a visit. The athletic director said he knew where to find Mr. Wambugu, that it was not far outside of Nyeri but after 2 hours we still had not arrived at the place where he supposedly was. It seemed as if we drove for ages without seeing anything and then we finally reached a tiny town! keeping spirits up on the long drive!

at least it was pretty!

After a half hour of inquiries, we learned that Mr. Wambugu had moved and no one knew where he was. It was disappointing not to be able to capture Catherine reuniting with one of her mentors and it also took the remainder of the day and it was too late to do anything else, but at least the scenery was beautiful and we got some great footage at the secondary school today! I'm looking forward to filming at Kahira Ini tomorrow, Saturday.

Kibera

I can’t believe it is already May! The time is really flying by. Today we got a call back from the person we had called to take us into Kibera. You need to go in with a local who has connections and knows the place because it is easy to be robbed there and we were going in with our equipment A Kenyan who I have been in touch with just finished filming a feature film inside the slum so she referred us to her security man, Bangkok. He directed Willy where to meet him and we parked the car outside of a police station and met him. He was a very striking man with a commanding presence. He had a scar on his face from a knife wound that he told us was received during a clash with police some years ago. He enlisted one more man to go with us so our equipment would be protected and he also helped carry the tripod. The first thing we did before going in was to buy “sweets” to give out to children. We bought two bags of lollipops and headed in. I wanted to learn if the children inside knew who Catherine Ndereba was and thought it would be interested to know what they knew of her.

We headed into “town” down a dirt road and we were struck by what we saw; just like the outside view of wall to wall rooftops, inside was wall to wall buildings, stores and homes. It was the Kenyan Labor Day so we knew there would be many kids around since there was no school that day. As soon as we got into town there was a railroad track that stretches straight through the town.

We just caught the end of a freight train. We are told that the train runs from UgandaKenya. We were immediately surrounded by children and when I asked if they knew who Catherine was they had no idea. This was just the beginning of what would be a huge eye-opener; throughout this slum, almost no one knew who she was! We went through the lollipops on no time and had to stop and buy more sweets; this time colorful sucking candies. Even adults would come ask for some! What struck me most about Kibera was how many children were there and all alone; brothers and sisters wandered along taking care of each other with no parents in site.

The shops were tiny and one after another. There was a toilet area that smelled awful and was concentrated in an area at the end of a block of homes. There were actually some TV antennas around but for the most part, it was dirty, dingy and crowded; 1.5 million people live inside this slum (I need to research what the square footage is). However, as dreary as it seemed to us, the children there are happy; they don’t know any different and that is sad. When we did find children who had a hero or role model, it was of a football (soccer) player. They have no Kenyan role models but they like to kick around the football and they know the players. It was interesting to think about why the runners in Kenya are not celebrated throughout the country like our sports heroes are in America! We spent about 4 hours inside just walking, looking and talking to people of all ages. When we left I had a new view of Kenya; while some places are extremely beautiful, it is contrasted by this sad place where people rarely get out. It was great to have Bangkok with us as he was able to handle the locals well and they all seemed to know who he was and respect his authority. He said he had recently formed a security company and he and his men have worked with several film crews inside.

Bangkok & Willie in Kibera

When we left there we stopped by Willy’s offices at Film Studios. It is a complex with several film/production companies that rent office space inside the compound. We met with some of the executives there and all exchanged business cards for future. We left there and stopped for some lunch at a place called Java House which is owned by Americans and is a chain similar to Starbucks but they have a full menu. It was good and they have free wifi :-)

Overall, it was an extremely interesting day and I am glad we experienced it!

kids everywhere love the camera!