Iten

We are in a small town called Iten.  Iten is on the Western edge of the rift valley, at an elevation of about 7400ft.  If you walk to the edge of town you can look across the rift valley from the edge of the Elgeyo escarpment.  The valley floor is about 3000 feet below the edge of the escarpment, and is home to the Kerio River, which flows north towards Lake Turkana.  Iten is the high point of the road from Eldoret (30km to the west of us) to Kabarnet (in the valley).

Iten is pretty much the running capitol of Kenya; this pretty much makes it the running capitol of the world.  There are dirt roads and trails leading in all directions, challenging hills, altitude, and temperatures in the 70s each day.  Runners flock to Iten from all over Kenya, and for that matter from all over the world.  Our first few days we stayed at the High Altitude Training Center, a beautiful facility known locally as “Lornah’s Place” after owner Lornah Kiplagat.  There were athletes on the national teams of several countries training there while we stayed.

We moved about 800m north to a house in a neighborhood known as Lilies.  There are runners everywhere.  People all around are wearing running clothes.  Laundry is dominated by running clothes.  Nearly everyone you see is a runner.  At 6 AM about 100 runners leave on a daily training run from a spot about 100 feet from our front door.  There are other meeting places as well.  Whenever you go walking you see dozens of people running.

There are several small apartments right next to our house.  I’ve been running with the people staying there.  They are friendly and welcoming.  One guy, James Kongogo, ran 3:35 for 1500m and if he were American he’d be well known.  As a Kenyan he is in the second tier trying to move up.  Another neighbor is a Somali-Dutch runner who is making a go as a professional runner.

All of the runs I’ve done go through the countryside.  Most of the countryside is made up of small farms, called shambas.  People grow maize, wheat, passion fruit, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and sukuma wiki (a relative of kale).

It is easy to see why runners flock to Iten!