It was a Sunday afternoon last month in the village of Leldaet, Kenya, and Kip Tisia’s mother and sister-in-law were cooking a feast. The family had just watched a livestream of Tisia’s brother, Elkana Langat, winning the Maratona di Ravenna, Italy, with a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 33 seconds. A few weeks before, another brother, Kiprono Langat Clement Ken, had won the Rome Marathon in 2:08:23.
Tisia, himself a winner of multiple marathons in upstate New York and Cleveland, Ohio, was giddy as he shared the good news in a telephone interview. Many in the village were coming over to celebrate with steak and ugali, a traditional Kenyan staple made from corn.
Distance running is practically the national sport in countries in East Africa. For families like Tisia’s, which have struggled, distance running provides a better income, as well as scholarships to higher education in the US — much like basketball in impoverished communities in the US.
Illustration: Mountain People
“At first, I thought it was a way to better my life, but the more I learn the more I realize you get a satisfaction when you finish,” said Tisia, 33, three-time winner of the Buffalo Marathon, two-time winner of the Rochester Marathon and one-time winner of the Cleveland Marathon.
“Your family is proud, your friends, so it’s more than money or getting famous. It’s that feeling of finishing something,” added the runner, who is in a Kenyan phase of his dual-country life between Rochester, New York, and his home village, which is between Nairobi and Lake Victoria.
“From winnings, I’ve been able to buy my shoes, my running gear, and also travel back and forth to train in Kenya... If I won US$3,000, I’d send my mother US$2,000,” Tisia said.
Tisia and his brothers are among a legion of runners from Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia and other parts of East Africa known worldwide for their speed, grace and agility. As this year’s marathon season wraps up, those who have been fortunate enough to secure sponsorship are making publicity appearances or resting up before the next training cycle for spring races.
Others are exhausting contacts to secure that elusive sponsorship that would help them compete and also support their families.
While rank-and-file runners in the US, unaware of their relative wealth, are obsessing over race medals, or the newest shoes and tech fabrics, runners from East Africa are encouraging one another, or regrouping in villages of red dirt and lush green, far from the races they have just run in New York, Boston and Chicago.
Winning this figurative race is a top priority and they are willing to go all out for that — from attending colleges in places with few people who look like them to bunking up with roommates to work with a specific coach in the US.
Some of the African runners have strong motivation to help family back home: Almost 36 percent of the population in Kenya lives below the international poverty line, and about 65 percent of the population in Eritrea lives in poverty.
“Non-sponsored runners who work or go to school while striving for elite running status are the very definition of ‘Grind now, shine later,’ a term I learned years ago working events in Savannah, Georgia,” said Ted Metellus, race director of the New York City Marathon and long-time race event manager.
“They are working hard to not only keep the lights on and food on the table, but also working hard on their craft,” Metellus said. “Their work ethic reminds me so much of my immigrant family, which had to learn a new language and new culture in a foreign land. They have to work twice as hard in many cases to get an opportunity to showcase their skill,” added the race director, whose family is from Haiti.
That road is made even harder by the quality of the competition.
“The market is very tough for the Kenyan athletes because there are so many of us that are fast runners, which makes it very competitive,” said Kenyan-born Peres Jepchirchir, 28, an Olympian and winner of the women’s race at the New York City Marathon this year.
The East African phenomenon first began bubbling in 1960, when Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the marathon at the Rome Olympic Games. Four years later, Bikila won gold again at the Tokyo Olympic Games. He set world records in both races.
In 1966, three years after Kenya gained its independence from Britain, athletes gathered in Kingston, Jamaica, for the Commonwealth Games. Kenya took home five medals in middle and long-distance running events. It marked the first time that Kenya had placed in any of the events for eight years.
Two years later, Kipchoge Keino of Kenya won a gold medal in the 1,500m at the Mexico City Olympic Games, despite severe abdominal pain from a gallbladder issue. By the 1980s, Ibrahim Hussein of Kapsabet, Kenya, became the first Kenyan to win the New York City Marathon and also logged the first of three Boston Marathon wins.
A network began to form of coaches in Kenya and the US, some connected with schools. In Kenya, training camps and groups surfaced around Bekoji and Iten, where St Patrick’s High School and its running program attracts legions of would-be distance champions. Hussein opened a training camp in Kapsabet.
By the 2000s, the Georgia-based One More Mile athletic wear company began selling shirts and other merchandise with the phrase: “In my dreams, I am a Kenyan.”
Fast forward to this year, and it seems that all the East Africans do is win.
In 2019, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, a two-time Olympic marathon winner, broke the two-hour marathon barrier, finishing a race in Vienna created just for him in 1:59:40. That event was completed with pacers and Kipchoge has credited his Nike shoes with helping him.
Last year, Aliphine Tuliamuk, a native of Posey, Kenya, was the women’s winner with a surprise time of 2:27:23 in the US Olympic marathon trials in Atlanta, Georgia.
The distance running world has been at a loss to fully explain East Africans’ dominance. Some of today’s champions grew up running after cattle, running to school, running to errands — all at high altitudes and over hills. When East Africans commit to running, they train hard.
Garrett Ash, an exercise physiologist at Yale University who has studied Ethiopian runners, has said that it is likely a combination of genes and environment that makes East African runners so fast.
However, Kip Tisia said that the explanation goes beyond science.
During those periods when he is living in Rochester, his face is a fixture in the lead pack at local races. He lives from race winnings and, for a time, worked at a local running store. He stays with friends.
“You have to have that ache,” Tisia said of runners in East Africa. “You can see 10 Kenyans, 20, running every morning or evening — that is the tradition that has affected our running. But if you don’t have that drive, you’re not going to succeed.”
Tisia did not have it easy growing up in Kenya with five brothers and two sisters. The family lost their father early on, putting more pressure on their mother.
“We started trying to figure out a way so that we can make it in life,” Tisia said. “My brother dropped out of school and started running.”
Another brother began running, too, motivating Tisia to do the same. Tisia excelled and won scholarships at Youngstown State University and Kent State University, both in Ohio. He later trained with an elite running group in upstate New York before settling into his dual-country routine.
Sammy Kibet, 37, who lives in Chepterit, Kenya, and has placed in marathons around the world, began running as a youngster growing up in the village of Kapyagan. Kibet’s break came after he was spotted by Ibrahim Hussein and joined Hussein’s athletic camp in Kapsabet, Kenya.
A few years ago, the race invitations began coming.
Kibet sold his goats to take part in his first race, the marathon in Kigali, Rwanda. He finished sixth. He came in second place at the Good Life Marathon in Toronto and has won the Enschede Marathon in the Netherlands.
Now, back home in Kenya, Kibet is hoping for a sponsor, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt on an invitation to run the Philadelphia Marathon last month. It is not easy, because he has a wife and two children to help support.
“Now, running doesn’t support us because of COVID-19,” Kibet said. “We are suffering.”
Jepchirchir is fortunate that she stood out from the pack and secured sponsorship early on.
The athlete grew up running 5km to and from school each day in western Kenya, where her family farmed tea and corn. In school, Jepchirchir ran track.
“My brother was the one who motivated me and discovered my talent when I was a young girl,” she said. “I didn’t really go through a period of struggling to find sponsorship because at my first National Cross Country Championships a sponsor noted me and offered me a contract.”
Today, Jepchirchir is sponsored by Adidas and is part of the company’s “Impossible is Nothing” campaign. She reached a turning point last year when she won the Valencia Marathon in 2:17:16, the fifth-fastest marathon by a woman. Then, at the Tokyo Olympic Games in July, Jepchirchir took gold, finishing in 2:27:20.
However, it was Jepchirchir’s victory on the streets of New York City that gave the public a first-hand view of another part of the character of East African runners: support for fellow runners. During the trek through the five boroughs, fellow Kenyan Viola Cheptoo told Jepchirchir that she was not feeling her best and asked Jepchirchir to stay with her. It was not until mile 25 that Jepchirchir broke away from Cheptoo and finished in 2:22:38, seven minutes over her goal.
“I knew that the course was going to be tough, with no pacemakers,” Jepchirchir said. “For me, it was more important to win than to focus on my time. I ran with Viola and she asked me not to push very much and stay with her until the last few kilometers.”
Asked whether her generosity cost her those seven minutes, she said: “I ran alongside my fellow runners for the majority of the race — it makes me really happy to win next to my fellow runners and when they do well, too. But I prefer to win than be No. 2.”
That humility and support has also been seen in Olympian Meb Keflezighi, who has won both the New York City and Boston Marathons. Keflezighi — who is an ambassador for the New York Road Runners’ Team for Kids Charity — is known for spontaneously popping up at races to cheer on runners or taking the time to chat with fans.
During the hiatus for major races, Jepchirchir will rest and train, while runners like Tisia and Kibet will exhaust their contacts trying to make an impression on potential sponsors and race directors. Tisia is also busy with organizing a race back home in Kenya called the Race for Inclusion, which aims to raise awareness for autistic children and children with special needs.
Metellus said that the world can learn much from the altruism practiced by East African distance runners.
“Our society, events and races should showcase and learn more from our global runners,” Metellus said. “We can learn the value of community development through sports.”
“Running is the one sport in which an everyday person can compete on the same stage as the greatest in the world. As a kid, I could never play on the same court as Michael Jordan, but I can lace up my sneakers and run in the same race as former New York City Marathon champion and Olympic medalist Meb Keflezighi,” he added.
“We might never know who will be the next great East African runner,” he said. “They might be standing right next to you at the starting line.”
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