Eldoret 12km race!

So I was somehow convinced to run a 12km race this past Sunday. A bunch of us are training for a half marathon in February so we thought it would be good for training purposes. Anyway, my training buddy from the group got sick last minute so I ended up running by myself for most of it!

What we did not realize is that this was an intense qualifying race for Kenyans...aka I was about 100 meters behind within 30 seconds and then couldn't see the rest of the women after the first mile...

This led to some amazing comments from the Kenyans cheering on the sidelines that I would like to share with you:

1) Keep trying...Never die!
2) Unataka bota bota?? (Do you want a bicycle taxi???)
3) Good try!
4) Ooohh Mzungu!! (laughter) Will you finish??
5) Push it dada! (sister)


I decided to embrace the embarrassment and started yelling back "haraka haraka haina baraka!!" (hurry hurry has no blessing) which just led to even more laughter. Good times!

Towards the end of the race, an elderly Kenyan woman who must have been in her 70s or 80s decided to jump out and run with me towards the finish. Definitely the highlight of the race...










The only wazungu in the race!