We spent a few of our last days in Kenya staying at Rongai Athletics team camp.
There are 11 athletes staying there at the moment. They train together each day with Sunday being a rest day. They are a mixture of junior and senior athletes running at national and international level.
Calvin ( one of the athletes) was tasked to help us settle into our few days there. He showed us where to buy food and helped us get where we needed to go. We enjoyed eating together with Kelvin, Leonard and Victor in the evenings.
I greatly enjoyed an 'easy for them' 10k with Vincent, Victor and Kelvin at 6am on our first morning there. It was such a privilege to run with these amiable, kind guys. Their kindness especially showed when after about 2 paces of starting out I embarrassingly tripped and landed on my knees!! There was no laughter just concern.
We loved being able to go to the track with the boys where we met the rest of the team. It was absolutely amazing to watch them train, such dedication, focus and speed. Just wow. Many of them were training for the Kenyan trials for the forthcoming World Championships and Commonwealth games that morning.
After the track session Timothy ( 1500m World Champion & Olympic silver medallist) took us out for coffee with Vincent and Calvin . It was fab to spend more time with them, very easy going humble people which is inspiring given their incredible success on the world athletic stage.
The club is coached by Bernard. It was a fun to have dinner with him and stay a night with his family. It was great to learn more about them, the club and future aspirations.
Our hearts were so warmed and inspired by being able to stay with the athletes at the camp. There is such an evident comoraderie and fun between them which was also extended towards us.
It was especially great to be there as my youngest brother Malcolm is the manager for many of the athletes. We loved being able to see more of his world and felt so proud of all his hard work over many years to enable more and more East African athletes be supported to reach their incredible potential.
So great you were able to be part of this and see more of Malcolm’s work first-hand!