Last night the World Harmony Run stayed in Eldoret, one of the meccas of Kenyan distance running. It lies at over 2000m altitude and the thin air makes it an ideal place for distance runners to train. Many of Kenya’s champion distance runners have their homes here, including Rogers Rop (winner of Boston and New York marathons) , Susan Chepkemei and Kip Keino after whom the local track is named. A group of local runners, including the winner of this years Tegla Loroupe Peace race met us at our hotel for a short run to the Kip Keino stadium.

We asked them how long the run would take and they replied 5 minutes…so we asked how far it was and were told 2km!! Luckily they had already completed their first training session of the day at 6am, and we all ran together at a comfortable pace . At the track there were several groups of runners each doing their separate workouts, and many of them joined us as we ran a few laps of the track with the torch. We then gave them a short presentation about the run and passed the torch around to everyone.

For some of the World Harmony Run team the temptation to join in with the Kenyan’s workout was too much , and led by Hutashan (our co-ordinator in Kenya) we tried to sprint after them. The group we joined were doing 15x 400m in about 60 seconds. We joined in at the 200m point, but we immediately felt the effects of the altitude with our breathing and in our legs...This workout was only one of three training sessions they do every day, demonstrating it’s not only because they have talent that the Kenyans produce so many champions. They have no special facilities (the track here is cinder and becomes impossible to run on in heavy rain) but their dedication to their training and their simple love of running sees a steady stream of them climb to the top of their sport.

On the way to our next event we crossed the equator, where a young girl gave us a demonstration of how water poured into a bowl goes clockwise in the Northern hemisphere, and just a few metres away in the south,it goes anti-clockwise.

Our next stop, the Rhein-Valley Hospital in Kasambara lies about 5km from the main road, down a bumpy dirt track, which once again tested the skills of our van and driver! A few kilometres from the hospital we were met by a group of local school children who ran the rest of the way with us.

They had seen the Harmony Run at the Tegla Louroupe peace race on TV and their enthusiasm and eagerness to hold the torch and run fast was clear to see. When we arrived at the hospital there were more children waiting, as well as the staff of the hospital.

We introduced the Harmony run and then gave them all a chance to hold the torch.

The hospital, which is run by Ruth, a Swiss lady provides much needed medical facilities for the area.

That evening we happily arrived in Nairobi.

Next morning we met the star of marathon running Paul Tergat.

He is extremely nice and kind person and he does many things to help the poor in Kenya. He was kind enough to sign for us his new book "Running to the limit". We hope to stay in touch with him and help him with some of his humanitarian activities. We would also like to come back to Kenya one day.

---

< Kenya 20 November