KIMbia Athletics

Peter Vigneron is in Kenya for the next few months to work on Kimbia Foundation projects. Here’s his account of the Iten Peace Run, held last Saturday in Kenya’s unofficial running capital.

A little after 8am I arrived at the soccer field in Iten center, shepherded by Paul Koech and with 30 girls from Silgich Hill Academy following in two matatus. Already I was traveling with a former world champion, and presently I would meet another, then an Olympic gold medalist, then a reigning world champion at 800 meters. I snagged a picture of the man who holds the greatest record in track and field, and—true to form—he made an early exit from the scene. This was the start to my fourth day in Kenya, 74 hours into the trip.

Toby Tanser and Lornah Kiplagat have held a girls race in Iten since 2004. This year’s edition was scheduled for January 5th, but events intervened and the race did not proceed. On February 28, Kenya’s rival politicians signed a power sharing agreement that has brought a nervous peace to the country, and the event, which in normal circumstances promotes education and athletic achievement for young girls, was recast as a peace march and 4k cross country fun run. This year, it featured nearly every prominent Kenyan runner of the last four decades.

When the idea for a peace run was born, Kenyans had made precious few serious gestures toward peace and reconciliation nationwide. In fact there is still a disheartening shortage of such gestures, but the running community is beginning to make its voice heard. “Actions speak louder than words,” Olympic bronze medalist Mike Boit said after the race, “and we have told everyone that we want peace in Kenya.”

The elephant on the field Saturday afternoon was a report published by the International Crisis Group (ICG) February 21 that accused runners of funding and organizing some of the post-election violence in Rift Valley Province. It quoted sources who suggested that Kalenjin runners with military training helped to drive the Kikuyu supporters of Mwai Kibaki out of the Rift after the election, and were thusly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people and the widespread destruction of Kikuyu homes and shops.
These allegations came several weeks after several athletes received SMS text messages threatening violence against runners if they purchased abandoned Kikuyu land. The ICG paper reports that runners involved in the violence had “partly economic” motivations for supporting Kalenjin militias, and the SMS threats were probably intended to deter athletes from buying Kikuyu land at low cost. Moses Tanui, who owns several large commercial buildings in Eldoret, was also harassed by police, whom many Kalenjins say sided with the government against the opposition.
Tanser recruited nearly 600 girls from local primary schools for the race, and gave each a yellow t-shirt bearing the Shoe4Africa logo and the words “Run for Peace.” Tanser’s organization distributes running shoes to underprivileged Kenyan children, and each girl received a pair of sneakers at the finish line.
Each elite athlete was also asked to don a shirt, and so shortly after 10am, a parade of yellow clad runners—past, present, and future—marched through the small commercial center of Iten. 1988 Olympic silver medalist ‘87 world marathon champion Douglas Wakiihuri carried the Kenyan flag at the head of the parade with Luke Kibet, the reigning world marathon champion who was injured in the violence. Wakihuri is Kikuyu and Kibet Kalenjin.
The 31 page ICG report contains only one paragraph on athlete participation in the violence, but that paragraph has attracted worldwide media attention. An article on ForeignPolicy.com noted how disappointing it would be if athlete role models were responsible for or involved in violence. It is a concern that has deeply offended the Kenyan running community, who view themselves as the face Kenya shows to the world.
After the march, KIMbia athletes Chris Cheboiboch and Tim Cherigat led the girls through the two-lap 4k course. 14 year old Paskaline Kosgei took an early lead, running alongside Cheboibach for a solid victory over Chelimo Ng’etich and Gladys Cherop, who were paced by Cherigat. Kosgei won a Compaq laptop for her school, and Ng’etich and Cherop took home 12,000 and 8,000 Kenyan Shillings, respectively, or roughly $185 and $125 USD. All but a few girls racing went barefoot, and the scene at the finish was at times both chaotic and comical. Race organizers and staff rushed to hand out shoes but were quickly overwhelmed. At one point the queue for the finish grew to over 100 meters.
The athletes I’ve spoken with are furious that the paragraph implicating runners in the ICG report has been seized upon by the media. “It’s all political,” one told me. “It’s people taking advantage of the situation to tarnish big names in the running community. They see an opportunity and they take it.”
In Iten, business is back to usual. The hundreds of runners who normally train on the town’s famous red dirt roads have returned. KIMbia athletes Cheboiboch, Cherigat, James Kosgei and Mike Jeptoo put in a very good 25k effort on Wednesday, and Charles Kibiwott ran 2:08 at the Seoul International Marathon on Sunday. World Cross County is coming up. The athletes would like the violence, and now the accusations, behind them.

International athletes in attendance, Shoe4Africa Run For Peace:

• Daniel Komen
• Janet Jepkosgei (The Eldoret Express)
• Lornah Kiplagat
• Yobes Ondieki
• Joyce Chepchumba
• Amos Biwot
• Moses Tanui
• Luke Kibet
• Moses Kiptanui
• John Yuda
• Paul Koech
• Mike Boit
• Douglas Wakihuri
• Ezekiel Kembio
• Jephart Kimutei
• Ben Maiyo
• Matthew Birir
• Kimutei Kosgei
• John Litei
• Durka Mana
• Silvia Kibet
• James Kosgei
• Rebbie Koech
• Peter Tanui
• Christopher Koskei
• Paul Cherop
• Ben Kogo
• Rose Tatamuye
• Wilson Juma
• Jonah Birir
• Luke Kipkosgei

Charles Kibiwott took fifth this morning at the Dong-A Marathon in Seoul, South Korea. Tom Ratcliffe was there and filed this report:

A nice, sunny, cool day here. Very little wind at the start, but a bit of a headwind over the final few kilometers. The pacemakers were supposed to start with 15:10, 15:10 and then drop to 15:00 and continue through 30k, but they started with 14:43, 14:56, 15:33, 14:48. I’m not sure why the organizers wanted 15:10 x 2 and then 15:00, but that didn’t matter as the pacemakers seemed to have no clear sense of their orders … just that someone was shouting at them to slow down, thus they ran 15:33 for the 3rd 5K and then to speed up and then ran 14:48!

Regardless, it was quite a good race with Sammy Korir always near the front, pushing the pacemakers along and then taking the lead at 30K and periodically injecting a significant increase in speed. The field was down to 5 at 30K and Charles fell off at just before 35K. Korir got a bit of a gap at 41K, but 2nd place finisher Mbote looked like he was going to take the lead as they entered the Olympic Stadium, but Korir was too strong and ran away over the final 300m.

Sammy Korir 2:07:30
Jason Mbote 2:07:37
Edwin Komen 2:07:45
Francis Kiprop 2:08:30
Charles Kibiwott 2:08:33

Then Kimbia would have taken the team title. (Well, if scoring was 4 deep.)

This morning in Central Park, Jason Hartmann, James Carney, Fasil Bizuneh and Tim Nelson took 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th, respectively, at the U.S. 8K championships. Jason ran 22:48 to finish 6 seconds behind winner Jorge Torres and Andrew Carlson. James and Fasil were also in the lead pack that went through 5K in 14:10. James finished in 22:53, Fasil in 23:03.

Tim was the top finisher from the chase pack, closing well after splitting 14:22 at 5K to finish in 23:05.

Results | Post-race video of Fasil

Tim Nelson returned to competition this morning at the national 8K championship in Central Park. Here’s what he had to say for himself last night.

Falmouth was your first road race as a pro. What have you been up to since then?

I headed to Kenya for 3 1/2 months for a study abroad program, which also allowed me an opportunity to do some pretty intense training with some of the Kimbia guys in Iten. I took classes in Nairobi for the first 7 weeks, then did a 6-week “internship,” in which I hung around at the Singore Girls School with Coach Kipchumba, shadowing him during practice. I also help lead some core and stability strengthening sessions with the girls, but many of the girls were better at the exercises that I was since they had learned them at Brother Colm O’Connell’s camp. So I was pretty much there for the experience and the training.

At noon on Saturday, you’ll be satisfied with your race at the Central Park 8K if…

…I place in the top five or otherwise run a “good” race. It is difficult to set goals or limitations since I haven’t raced in about six months. But I definitely want to get in the mix of the likes of Webb and Carlson and see what I can do.

What else are you racing between now and Olympic Trials?

I will be at the Stanford meet on April 4th, running the 5K. Then I hope to go for the Olympic A standard in the 10K at the Cardinal Invitational on May 4th. That’s all I’ve got right now.

Have you incorporated into your routine anything you learned or observed in Kenya?

Well, the most important things I learned in Kenya don’t seem to have a lot to do with running. In some ways I learned more about myself and how I am different as an American than I did about running. But I also saw how the unique culture in Kenya plays into developing amazing distance runners: the value for hard work and the unmatched focus that the Singore girls shared was inspirational in itself. The most important thing I learned is that there really isn’t a “secret” explaining why many Kenyans excel in distance running. From my experience, I would say that many Kenyans simply work harder and have a stronger motivation to work harder than most American distance runners.

You mentioned homework. Of what sort?

I’m finishing up my 5th year here at UW-Madison (it feels good to almost be done!). I’m taking 14 easy credits, 6 of which I need to graduate with a degree in Communication Arts: Radio, TV, Film. The other classes are just for fun: second semester Swahili and African International Relations. I’m enjoying it. It only took five years, but I think I finally enjoy school.

Our friends over at The Final Sprint have a new podcast up with Matt Tegenkamp about last month’s national championship and what’s in store between now and June’s Olympic Trials.

Would you listen to podcasts with Kimbia runners produced specifically for this site? Why or why not? Comment away below!

Paul Koech’s take on the sad situation in Kenya of the last few months. Paul is a captain in the Kenyan Army, and recently spent a year as part of a peacekeeping force in Darfur, only to return home and find senseless political violence occurring in his own country.

Hope this will find you and your family in a fine mode. We are coming to terms with what transpired in our country in the last two months. Although things are returning to normal, it is at a snail’s pace and suspicion and tension remain in several areas. We have high confidence with the results of the mediation team led by former UN Secretary General Koffi Anann. The team has a positive intention towards stability in our country. We hope that the government is ready for change, as they will be significantly affected.

The cause of this conflict actually is power greed, which is what most of our old guard leaders were brought up with and thus they believe that they can stay in power as long as they wish. That is, as long as they control the arm of security forces.

Those involved were surprised by what occurred after all their plans of rigging were exposed before the election actually took place. They had tried to use administrative elements to ensure victory, but then realized that many of these people were not on their side in several areas where they were not popular. They then decided to use Administration Police, whom, since President Kibaki took power in 2002, have been trained and equipped to support the government in case of any uncertain resistance by citizens to any government project. There is evidence that these police were sent to several polling centers, which were unfriendly to the government, with marked voting papers, with an intention of stashing them into the ballot boxes.

This plan failed when some of these very police passed the information to the opposition. The opposition leader went to the press and condemned the presence of police at the polling centers. Thus, this marked the end of government power in unfriendly areas, as any suspected police in civil or uniform were aggressively stopped.

With this plan aborted, they staged another scheme whereby they waited for the results from various regions and then altered the figures in favor of Mwai Kibaki. The alteration of these figures was noted and complaints were raised by returning officers, who had been in the poling station. They were then threatened and replaced and the specific forms used in placing results were changed and signed by the different officers. Also, the chairman of Electoral Commission was forced to announce the doctored results. He complied since, as it has been suggested, one of his tribesman was bound to be vice president and could eventually take over leadership after Kibaki’s term ends.

The act was not just vote rigging, but even more significantly, the stealing of Kenyan rights. The events from the time Kibaki was announced as the winner to swearing in was a clear indication that there was a scheme hatched prior to the election, for the normal ceremony protocol was not followed when the announcement of the winner took place. This immediately marked the beginning of the clashes on December 28.

It is also interesting to note that it took the Electoral Commission three days to announce the presidential election results, while the parliamentary results were announced immediately. In the party result, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM, led by Raila Odinga) had 99 members of parliament against 43 for Party of Nation Unity (PNU, led by Kibaki). Other small parties had 65. This indicates that Kibaki had the support of less than a quarter of the MPs. When ODM raised complaints of rigging in the specific areas, their pleas were ignored as the legal system appears to have favored the Kibaki and his government. If this continues, legal arguments against PNU will most likely take several years before it is deliberated or given a hearing.

The negotiating teams made considerable progress, and on February 28 the two leaders, Kibaki and Odinga, signed a power sharing agreement. The parliament was constituted on March 6 and will address needed changes to the Constitution to accommodate the signed agreement. The proposed changes designate that there shall be a president, who will be the head of state, and an executive prime minister, who will be the head of Government, with Kibaki and Raila taking the above positions, respectively. Although the general population accepts this compromise in a effort to save the country from breaking apart, in reality ODM followers are bitter about what occurred.

As a result of this controversial election, it may take Kenya ages to heal and to return to where we were. The most affected areas are the core ODM areas, where anger ruled over justice and common sense. People destroyed properties by fire and even hanged rival supporters who were living in the area. Destruction in some areas was not tribal, but rather as a result of political rivalry.

Our country is divided into eight regions, where Central Province is almost entirely Kikuyu. This is the largest tribe in Kenya and the tribe of Mwai Kibaki. The property in this area is owned almost exclusively by the Kikuyu. Kikuyus are also found in all the other regions and own many businesses and properties. The reason behind this dates back to colonial time, when the Central Province, in general, was not occupied by the whites, but the Kikuyu were used by the colonialist to fight other tribes and worked for them. By virtue of their close relationship, Kikuyus had early access to education and hence were able to prosper.

Thus after independence, the Kikuyu had an upper hand to succeed to most of the positions in the government. The government of our first president issued land to Kikuyu, through a settlement scheme, in the areas which were perceived to be for other tribes.This did not sit well with the other tribes, and as a result of resistance to this act, many were jailed and intimidated. People have been hiding their anger for the last 40 years, only to resurface by the election dispute.

Despite all of this, I remain optimistic and I hope that we have learned some positive lessons from this conflict. It is clear that the greed and selfishness of a few can negatively effect the lives of many. I hope that this is a lesson that we do not forget.

I feel that we should be especially indebted to Kofi Annan and to President Bush and Secretary Rice for their efforts to see us through this turbulence of greed.

To say that I’m angry would not do justice to how I’m feeling right now. I’m not going to sit here making any excuses or pointing fingers at anyone else; my performance today was poor, and it was my fault.

I went into today knowing that I was going to be facing a likely sit-and-kick race after seeing I had drawn the first heat. I was still confident, and after the warm-up and some strides I felt great and was in good spirits. Everything was going my way, I could breathe well, I had a nice bounce in my step (something I had been missing for the entire winter), and very confident that I belonged in the final. The race started, and I had decided before the race to lay low and stay out of trouble for the first kilometer and not worry about fighting for position, which I did fairly well at avoiding.

The problem was we went out right around 3:00 for the first K. I didn’t panic, took the next K to move up a bit to improve my position and attempt to ready myself for the finish. I got bumped around a bit, but managed to get myself in the middle of lane one and felt great.

We picked it up a bit, which was expected, but my mistake was not running MY race–I got slightly intimidated at the wrong time. After being so confident before and at the beginning, when I wanted to/ should have taken the lead with about 2 1/2 laps remaining to get some free running and stride out, I hesitated and left it for a kick. At the bell I felt good and was holding position of 4th, and even with 100 to go I was right there in 4th, but around the curve I got lit up. I thought I could kick hard that last 100 meters and was dead wrong. I ended up finishing 7th in my heat in 8:06 and found out later I closed in 4:03.

I crossed the line feeling like I could keep running, but I couldn’t change the gears to maintain or improve my position. It is the worst feeling to know that you are better than many of the people in the final and not be there because you screwed up and took yourself out of the race. I am incredibly frustrated with myself, but I learned a lesson (the hard way, once again) that I can’t be apprehensive to make a move that suits me for doing what I need to do. I had a plan going into the race and let the opportunity to execute that plan slip away, which now leaves me out of the final.

I learned to not worry about anyone else and just run MY RACE! If I have any advice for the younger runners out there, it is to do just that. Don’t be afraid to run YOUR race, no matter the level; if it works for you, DO IT, don’t alter that strategy or you will be on the outside looking in and finish a race with a lot of regrets.

If there is one bright spot I can take out of this it is that I did close in 4:03 at this time of year with only 3 track workouts under my belt feeling pretty darn comfortable. This means we are on track for the summer, which is the big picture. I’m glad I made these mistakes here and not the Trials or the Olympics, because those are the main focus for the year, not the Indoor World Championships.

Jonathon did make the final in the second heat, finishing 6th with a 7:59, so root for him. I know I’ll be in the stands cheering him on. Well, I guess it’s back to training for me and get ready for outdoors. Bring on the speed

Update: Chris was in the slower, first qualifying round, and didn’t advance to the final. Jonathon Riley was in the second, faster heat, and got through on time to Sunday’s final. Results

Hello again. So, an update on the luggage situation: Jonathon and I woke up to a phone call that our luggage was downstairs in the lobby, so that probably could have been the best way to wake up this morning!! I opened up my bag and felt like it was Christmas Day, because I could finally change my clothes!

After that great beginning, Jonathon and I went for our pre-meet run and strides. We ran through the great park that they have here It was formed by diverting the river water because of flooding problems, so the river dried up and they decided to turn this area into a enormous green space with many playgrounds, statues, amazing bridges, and fountains. We did a medium 35-minute run followed by 5 strides, and spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching the movies that finally arrived in my luggage.

So now for the important stuff. Tomorrow’s race is early–we race at 10:55 a.m., which is 3:55 a.m. Central Time. I’m not too worried about it because I’m just going to approach it like cross country, and that went alright for me. There are 24 entrants and 12 make the final, with the top 4 from each heat getting the auto bids, and then the next 4 fastest times getting in. I’m pretty confident going into tomorrow because I’ve been getting better and better with each week, and we closed down in 2:26 for the last kilometer in Boston all in the last 800, so that fits well with the prelim.

It is easy to be nervous, though, because it is a new level and a new level of championship that I have never really done before, but I figure that if I race as I always have, I should be fine. Plus I only have to beat half the field to make the final If anyone wants to watch the heat tune into www.wcsn.com for live coverage, or tune into the VS channel Saturday and Sunday to catch coverage.

As I said all along this year and last summer, I am not afraid to run with anyone in the world, and in my mind everyone in the world is beatable on any given day. I am just going to put myself in the position to capitalize on that day. I’m excited, a little nervous, but more excited to get out there tomorrow and get through to the final, so I can really have some fun there. Wish me luck, and I’ll talk to you all on the flip side for the reaction of tomorrow’s race.

Hello from Valencia, Spain everyone!

It was actually quite the surprise that I’m in Valencia right now, because going into the US Championships in Boston, we had no chance of going to the World Championships, not because we couldn’t possibly qualify, but because it wasn’t part of our schedule for the build-up toward Eugene and Beijing this summer. So when our group (Matt Tegenkamp, myself, and Jonathon Riley) finished the race 1-2-3, we were pretty pumped, but already had plans of getting back to the high mileage for a while to build the strength for this summer. In our view the races we ran this winter served only as a break from the monotony of our training regimen. So when Jerry Schumacher told Jonathon and I that we were going to Worlds, it was quite the surprise that helped to make a mediocre race look a little better.

The race itself was, as I said, mediocre. The time wasn’t fast, but it was a championship. I felt alright, but it was slow for 2200 meters and essentially turned into an 800. We closed fast as I was 1:54 for the last 800, which surprised me because prior to US nationals we did only two track workouts, so that was all off of strength, which was encouraging. Of course, it would have been nice to come out on top, but it was a good step in the season and a much better race then I had at Notre Dame.

Now we have three workouts in entering this race; otherwise, nothing has changed in our training leading up to this weekend. It was temping to focus on speed work and try to get that finishing gear sharpened, but we are 100% focused on this summer with the goal to get ourselves to the Olympic Games. With suddenly going to Worlds, the only thing that may be different is that our rebuild of mileage is delayed a couple of weeks. However, the workouts haven’t changed—we’re still doing our 10-mile tempo runs each week.

The last few days we quite busy for me, as the Big Ten Championships were held in Madison, so I was there both days cheering on my former teammates to victory. It was great to see so many people show up to support the Badgers, and I didn’t think that many people even knew where the Shell was, much less would go there for a meet. Also, it was fun watching my roommate Brandon Bethke continue his breakthrough season, as he learned a lot about racing and showed he is the next person to lead the Badgers’ distance crew.

After the meet this weekend, Jonathon and I began our trip from hell. This trip was the most aggravating trip of my life, and it started from the very beginning. In Madison, our flight from Madison to Chicago was cancelled, so we transferred airlines from United to American and they decided to use paper bag tags, not the electronic ones, which made me uncomfortable. We waited at the counter getting things straightened out until 20 minutes before our flight was scheduled to depart, had to go through security where both Jonathon and I were stopped and searched. Our flight from Madison to Chicago was delayed 30 minutes which left us 45 minutes to go from one end of the Chicago airport to the other to catch our flight barely to London. On this flight I couldn’t sleep because the person in front of me kept changing seats to sleep and kept reclining his chairs, which would hit my knees and add to my stellar mood. Once in London, we were met by nothing. Our bags never made the flight, and because they had paper tickets and not electronic ones, there was no way to trace the bags, which meant unless they turned up in London eventually, they would be lost forever. To top it off, we had to change airlines and our bags weren’t checked through to Valencia, so we were supposed to claim then and recheck them. After spending about an hour with a very friendly gentleman filling out paper work, we went to catch our flight to Valencia. Luckily Jonathon talked me into tying my running shoes to my backpack right before I checked my luggage in Madison, or I would have nothing to run in, and we had our spikes and uniform in the carry-on as well.

Once we arrived in Valencia we were met by USATF staff members and found out many others had luggage problems, so we didn’t feel as bad. One piece of good news came when I received a call stating that our bags had arrived in London and would be placed on three different flights to get to Valencia and delivered by the airline to our hotel. (Not too comfortable about this….) We were taken to athlete accreditation, where we got our passes for the weekend, then to the hotel, where we checked in and promptly went for a run with Rob Myers, who was on our shuttle to the hotel. As of right now (11:00 p.m. on Wednesday), we still have not received our bags and have been in the same clothes since 2:00 p.m. Central Time Monday. Needless to say, I feel kind of gross and not too happy about this situation, but I’m trying to be optimistic that our bags will show up tomorrow sometime, as I race in less than two days. I will not let this get me down as I’m here to race and gain much-needed experience for this summer.

Valencia is beautiful. We do most of our running on a river bed that they diverted the water from and now is an awesome park that goes on for miles. The architecture is incredible, and the city is great. It is awesome going from below-freezing temperatures to 60s and 70s, though it is deceiving because we are on the Mediterranean Sea, so the wind is very strong, making it feel quite cool, but I’ll take what I can get.

It’s been crazy being part of my first US team,. It’s something I’ve been trying for the last 5 years and been unsuccessful in obtaining. It was great to get the U.S. gear finally after trying all those times. Now the guys on my team can stop rubbing it in that I’ve never made a team and everyone else has U.S. gear. I never realized how organized everyone is and how much planning goes into everything. The USATF staff members do a great job taking care of the details so that the athlete has no worries.

Well this has gotten long, so I’ll cut it short and talk about the race logistics and goals tomorrow. Hopefully all is well back home. Until tomorrow……

Jason Hartmann returns to action on Saturday at the Gate River Run 15 in Jacksonville, Florida. The national championship will be his first race since November’s Olympic Marathon Trials, where he was 10th in a personal best of 2:15:27. Fasil Bizuneh will also race Gate River.

What he’s been up to since the Marathon Trials: After the Marathon Trials, I took some time off. Being so amped going into the marathon, I felt pretty burnt out after the race. I escaped to Boulder, Colorado and spent about five weeks at the infamous Fightclub, hanging out and really taking my time to get back into running. I love being in Boulder, but I found it difficult this time trying to adjust to the altitude. But, both mentally and physically, it gave me a break from the strict lifestyle I was living leading up to the Trials. After the New Year, I came back to Eugene , put my head down, and really started training again.

How his recovery from the Trials went: My recovery was not great after the Trials. I was so exhausted by the training and the event itself, that I really needed a break. Like I said, I went to Boulder and it was not easy getting back into running shape because of the altitude. I remember when I first got to Boulder I was out for an hour run and picked it up just a little bit the last mile. I felt as though I was really running fast, and I was definitely trying to run fast, but when I got to the mile mark, I looked at my watch, and it read 5:40. So as frustrating as it was, my body was obviously telling me that I was not yet quite recovered. So I just stuck to putting in some miles with with Eduardo Torres, Jorge Torres and James Carney (for some runs) and didn’t really focus on hard workouts.

Goals for Gate River and the 8K in Central Park the following week: My first goal for both weekends is to compete hard. That is always my number one goal when I line up. No matter if you feel in good shape or bad shape you can always compete. Secondly, I would like to get a good read on my fitness. I have been in a bit of a foxhole since the New Year just focusing on training hard. And now, it’s important to see where I am at and to compete hard.

Who he’s been training with: I have been running by myself most of the time. About four times a week I run with my dog Maximus. Dathan Ritzenhein and I get together every so often but he has been kind of banged up with his IT band. I know we haven’t been able to get together as much as either of us would like.

Gate River and the Central Park 8K are springboards to: the track season. I am really trying to get away from the marathon training for the time being and focus solely on the Olympic Trials 10k here in Eugene on July 4th.

And, of course, his height: Compared to everyone else I run against I do tend to stick out. But when I used to play basketball back in the day, I was generally the short one. So I guess I can relate to these shorter guys out here.