Kenyans Live, Win Together in U.S.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The two-story, red-brick duplex contains three small bedrooms, one bathroom, a cluttered living room and nine elite Kenyan runners.

It also contains sacks of cornmeal, packages of Kenyan tea and a special hand-carved giant wooden spoon called a muiko that resembles a boat oar and is essential for stirring ugali, a favorite dish in this house. A Kenyan flag is tacked above the television in the living room. Three female runners share one bedroom, four men share the other two bedrooms and two other male runners sleep in the basement.

The defending New York City Marathon champion and last year’s Boston Marathon runner-up stay in this house. The holder of the world record at 25 kilometers shares the basement with the world record-holder at eight kilometers. (All four will run in today’s New York City Marathon.) The three women have won a combined 25 races this season. Together, the nine have earned $420,383 this year, according to their agent, Lisa Buster. That’s a staggering total, considering only a handful of road races offer more than a few thousand dollars to the top finishers. Their living arrangements--they share the house during the running season, about half a year--are hardly glamorous. In the living room, a bureau stands sideways between a wall and a sofa. A mattress is propped behind a second couch. Magazines, newspapers, compact disks, trophies and running shoes are piled everywhere. There is hardly an inch of free space, yet Joseph Kariuki, the world record-holder at 25 kilometers who will run in the upcoming New York City Marathon, said:

“This is a big place.”

Kariuki was not kidding, not even grinning, although the dimensions of the living room in which he stood seemed to contradict him. These runners, even when offered solo hotel rooms during racing weekends by race directors who pick up the tab, choose to share rooms. If given separate rooms, they will pile into one or two rooms together. “We stay with many people. We do not like to stay by ourselves,” Kariuki said.

Outside, children played in a driveway down the street. John Kagwe, last year’s New York City Marathon winner, passed through the living room on his way out for his daily afternoon run in preparation for Sunday’s marathon. Kagwe wore a woolen hat, gloves and a dark sweatsuit with the pant legs tucked into his socks.

He looked prepared for a blizzard. The temperature was about 60 degrees.

“It’s cold,” Kagwe explained before bounding down the street.

The American vantage point, clearly, should be set aside when considering these Kenyan athletes. To them, moderate temperatures are cold, small spaces are roomy and crowded rooms are congenial. And $5,000 is a fortune. The $52,700 earned in U.S. prize money by Catherine Ndereba, the most successful runner in the household this year, could buy several farms or small businesses in Kenya. Ndereba, the top-ranked female runner in America according to USA Track and Field’s Road Racing Information Center, placed first in 13 of 17 races this year. She will use her earnings to support her extended family and 19-month-old baby.

Most of these runners left spouses and children at home when they arrived here in the late spring or early summer. Peter Githuka, the 8K world champion who plans to run the New York City Marathon, said his share of the phone bill sometimes reaches $400 a month. All will leave this temporary home and return to Kenya within two weeks.

“You have to call them regularly so you know if they are okay,” said Daniel Kihara, who has earned more than $17,000 this year and has children ages 1 and 4. “If you stay away from home without hearing anything from them, you can’t run good.”

Said Teresa Wanjiku, who is not married: “We share talks at night and forget about home. Normally, when you are in your bedroom all alone, you think about the people at home. But when we are all together, someone comes out with a story, and then another one, and the night gets over quickly.”

Last year, Kenyan men held nine of the top 10 spots in USA Track and Field’s world rankings. Kenyan women held the top two positions and three of the top 10. Eight years ago, Kenyans earned just 3 percent of the prize money in U.S. road races. Last year, they earned a whopping 27 percent (some U.S. races offer money only to Americans). “The Kenyans are the best distance runners in the world,” USA Track and Field researcher Ryan Lamppa said.

In the decade since Kenyans began dominating the worldwide running scene, agents have been eager to facilitate their living and training in the United States. The Norristown group is only one of several camps of Kenyan runners throughout the country.

In Homewood, Ill., four Kenyan runners have lived for several months in the four-bedroom house of agent Bruce Meyer, with his wife and their two children. Meyer’s 11-year-old son took Joseph Kahuga, the fourth-place finisher in the Chicago Marathon, to school with him one day. Meyer, a golf pro, registered as an agent with the Kenyan federation after he met a couple of Kenyan runners several years ago.

Another group of Kenyans--and a few other foreign runners--has been living in a house and apartment in Albuquerque, N.M., their arrangements made by agents Shawn and Eddy Hellebuyck. The Chicago Marathon winner, Ondoro Osoro, has trained in Boulder, Colo., and Concord, Mass., with groups of Kenyans under agent Tom Ratcliffe.

Because of the money and pride at stake, the Kenyans’ companionship generally ends at the start line.

“We train together, but running is individual,” Kagwe said. “When we run, everybody likes to win.”

Reasons for the Kenyans’ running excellence have been widely discussed. Kenyans develop their talents as runners early. Many of them run several miles to and from school as children. They benefit from living and training at high altitudes. And with numerous role models such as Kagwe, Ndereba, Moses Tanui and Tegla Loroupe, young Kenyans consider running a means of escaping poverty much in the same way Brazilian youngsters consider soccer a way to wealth.

Kenyan women, however, lag behind their male counterparts. They face societal hurdles that prevent many from getting involved in running. Still, the number of ranked female Kenyan runners has increased rapidly. In 1993, USA Track and Field’s rankings included nine Kenyan women. Last year, there were 23. By comparison, there were 110 ranked Kenyan men, Lamppa said.

In Norristown, all of the runners are equals. They form two-person rotations for cooking and cleaning duties. They eat almost all of their meals together, sitting around the two mismatched tables in the dining room. For the male runners, preparing food is something new. In Kenya, husbands do not cook. Things are different here because the three female runners “are not our wives,” Kagwe said. “We respect them. They cannot cook for us all of the time because they train all day. We know that everybody is tired.”

In the kitchen after lunch, Githuka demonstrated the proper way to make Kenyan tea. He poured milk and water into a metal pot. Then he sprinkled in tea leaves and cooked the mixture together.

Most of the runners have jobs at home. Joseph Kamau, the second-place finisher at last year’s Boston Marathon who will run in New York, works as a clerk. Joel Onwon’ga works for the post office. Githuka is in the armed forces. Wanjiku works for the city council in Nairobi.

“My family congratulates me; they say they see me on TV,” said Wanjiku, who won eight races and at least $43,450 in prize money this year. “You have to prove to (your employer) you are coming here to do something worthwhile. You have to put in your mind that it’s not just for yourself, but you are also running to show them what makes you come all the way here. If God wishes, I will be back.”

Buster rented this house in Norristown from a Kenyan native who went back to West Africa as a missionary. A few of the Kenyan runners moved in in April; the others arrived throughout the summer. During their free time, they watch television, listen to music and rest. They celebrate birthdays with their favorite junk food--Philadelphia cheesesteaks. They rarely venture out, other than for their twice-daily runs.

The Norristown nine do much of their training together. They go on long runs--sometimes 25 miles--in nearby Valley Forge Park. They run sprints at a local high school track. They each average between 50 to 120 miles per week.

“Sometimes I feel bored and tired, but because of the group, I hang on,” Githuka said. “You follow the others, because they are doing it. When I feel tired, they pull me.”