It's the weekend

My long run. Meeting inspirational people giving back to the Iten community

I listen to woo-woo podcasts, I subscribe to being mindful and living a good life. I aspire to live with purpose, to give back and make an impact on the world. Today everyone I spent time with is doing just that.

I started the day at 630 am with Emmanuel. Today was my long run, 15K planned, 16K ran. With a marathon 9 weeks away I’ve been a little worried that the mileage is way too low but I’m trusting Emmanuel.

Emmanuel assured me 15K is the right distance for today. And, he was right. The run was on a rolling road route — a regular time trial spot for Iten marathoner’s long runs, which at peak marathon training will be 40K, 20K out and 20K back. As elite athletes effortlessly glided by, Emmanuel would casually remark “that lady in front is a world record holder”, “that guy runs 2.09”, and as he waved to a man getting water from the support car that goes with athletes on the long run, “that’s my cousin’s brother, he ran 2.06.”

I started well and felt stronger than the day before, having got a little more sleep last night. But at around 13K I started to feel the run. The tiredness is different to at home, it’s the ‘altitude feeling,’ heavy-legged, a bit spaced out and just knackered. “1K to go” Emmanuel encouraged, he could tell I was flaking. “600M to go” — it felt like the longest 600M’s I’ve run. But the session was done by 815am and I felt great to have completed 10 miles, on the same route as the champions.

Emmanuel is a good coach. He’s planning my training day by day. There’s plans for intervals and hills but nothing is too set in stone. He assures me he’ll get me to my marathon goal — and I have faith he will. He explained how he believes he is living the life he’s here to live. When he was young, he’d told his father he’d wanted to be a teacher and now that’s exactly what he is, albeit a teacher of running. As well as coaching the likes of me, he teaches in various academies in the region, as well as running around 180Km per week. “Life is short, you must make an impact,” he said as we ran up a hill, adding to what he’d said to me in another conversation about the importance of passing on good deeds and favours. When you receive a good act, you pass it on.

Breakfast was porridge, pancakes and pineapple, Kenya Chai Tea and water. Then I set off to meet Toby Tanser and his wife Chelimo, founders of Shoe 4 Africa. I’d emailed Toby before heading out and he’d messaged when I got here to suggest I visit on Saturday morning at 10 am.

Joan, the Shoe 4 Africa coach greeted me with a hug and the children all said hello, then said a prayer. Soon after Toby and Chelimo arrived – I asked Chelimo how she was and she said without any reservation, so I knew she meant it, “I’m living my best life”.

I loved this couple and their energy from the moment we said hello. Driven by purpose, they do appear to be living their best life, with a home in Edloret and a farm where they grow avocados, mushrooms and have plenty of cows.

For the next few hours, I met the children, and heard inspirational story after inspirational story from Toby, Chelimo, and their lovely friends. Camile, and Lucas (with three children age 10, 8 and 6), hail from Sweden but for the last 10 years have spent their winter in Iten, sending their children to the local school, letting out the house in Sweden and embracing the Kenyan lifestyle.

Along with two young ultra runners from Sweden I packed the shelves with a new delivery of books that Toby had delivered for the children to read and take home. He tells me how at first the children didn’t want to touch the books, they just stared at the packed shelves. Once given permission to take the books, they enthusiastically jumped in.

We packed bags with donated toiletries: sanitary pads, toothpaste, brush, socks, lip balm, and roll on deodorant for the girls. Razor, socks, soaps, dental floss for the boys. I demonstrated to the girls what lip balm and roll on deodorant was, the Swedish boys explained what razors and shaving gel did.

Toby, an elite athlete in the 90s is one of those people whose life seems to be led by purpose, he’s swimming with the current. He makes the impossible seem possible. Chelimo, is strong and beautiful and helping to change the tide for young girls and women through action not words. Prior to meeting Toby she’d been in a violent marriage. She not only got out of that marriage, she set up support groups for women, then established an ethos at the Shoe 4 Africa programme that puts girls and women first.

I haven’t got the space or time to share all of Toby’s great stories. But will try to share over the coming weeks. He told me about his arrival in Kenya, not knowing a soul. He spent two months sleeping in Brother Colm’s garden (another iconic Iten figure, more about him to come), to getting robbed for his shoes in which a machete was used and where he ended up with a brain injury. After this attack, a spell in hospital where he saw firsthand how limited medical support and supplies were in Kenya planted a seed for the idea of building a children’s hospital.

Some hard facts inspired him to bring this idea alive. Ninety per cent of kids with cancer in East Africa die, this is in stark contrast to the 90 per cent in the US who recover. In New York there are three children’s cancer hospitals. Here there were none — until Toby built his.

It was a busy morning, packing goodie bags, putting books on shelves and sharing out the lunch. And it’s something Toby and Chelimo do every Saturday morning. They monitor the progress of the building works for this amazing project, check in on the children, and ensure the whole project continues to move on, and in the right direction. This on top of running the farm, and the children’s hospital in Eldoret.

Donations are needed to help the work progress at pace. A starting point is to buy one of Toby’s books and read his stories. Here’s what others are saying about is bestseller, Running With Destiny, which you can buy from his website.

Reviews:

“You hear stories of people who are mugged, not with a knife and a machete and a baseball bat, and not even injured very much, and all they’ll tell you is how you should never go back there it’s a dangerous place they’ll never go back. Not only does the guy go back, he takes the thing that they were robbing him for and decides to give them to the community—I mean his brain’s wired differently than most people.” Ali Velshi, NBC Television.

“An unforgettable story from an unforgettable storyteller. Toby wanted to be an elite runner and seemingly had the talent and motivation. Yet on a trip to Kenya, he almost loses his life, amazingly recovers and goes on to change the lives of tens of thousands of people. When you finish this book, you will feel that every one of us can do more to help our fellow human beings. Truly inspiring!” ​George Hirsch, Chairman NYC Marathon, founding publisher New York magazine.

“I became a member of a team running for a charity called Shoe4Africa. I assume you have never heard of them. I know I hadn’t. Shoe4africa, founded by a former elite runner and a fascinating guy named Toby Tanser, works to improve the lives of impoverished people in Africa. Read Toby’s story and the consequent origin of the charities name. As a teaser, the story involves a machete—as, I assume, all the names of charities do.” Joel Cohen, The Simpson’s Emmy Winning scriptwriter, and author of the wonderful book, How to Lose a Marathon.