We Share the Sun: the Incredible Journey of Kenya's Legendary Running Coach Patrick Sang and the Fastest Runners on Earth by Sarah Gearhart

Author:Sarah Gearhart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2023-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

haba na haba hujaza kibaba

little by little fills the pot

KEEPING THE FAITH

Heavy rains have saturated the dry grassy field at the training camp, leaving the soft rusty-red soil slightly squishy. It was barely 54 degrees Fahrenheit by the time Faith Kipyegon had slipped her braided hair into a ponytail and outfitted her 5-foot-2, 100-pound body in maroon running tights, fluorescent yellow knee-high socks, a purple jacket and a pair of Nikes. She steps onto the 380-meter dirt track, stripped of white lines with the exception of a faded one along the perimeter.

Kipyegon jogs counterclockwise with two camp mates, warming up for the workout. Tuesday mornings are one of the hardest sessions of the week, and this day in April 2021 calls for 2 × 2,000 meters, 2 × 1,200 meters, followed by 3 × 600 meters.

By 10 A.M. Kipyegon peels off her warm-up clothes and begins her first rep. She clicks the start button on her watch and takes off sprinting. Her bubblegum-pink short-sleeved shirt and matching arm warmers make her easy to spot among 30 men running around the track. The sound of long, lean legs stampeding on the ground cuts the silence in this countryside corner of Kaptagat.

“Mtarudia!” assistant coach Richard Metto says. You will repeat.

Metto is tall, and though lanky, he has the kind of towering frame that belongs to a basketball player. He can easily intimidate. His voice carries a businesslike tone. When he speaks, one listens. Must. When he gives direction, one does as instructed. Must. Sang met his right-hand man in Italy in the 1980s. Metto was a former athlete, competitive in 10,000 meters. He knows the game. He knows the stakes. As much as Sang is serious on the field, so too is Metto. He is the kind of authority figure one does not want to disappoint.

So when he calls out a directive, the athlete understands it’s in their best interest to follow suit. In this case, the distance was somehow miscalculated. Kipyegon’s group had run 400 meters shy of the expected 2,000. “Tutaanza upya,” Kipyegon says. We will start afresh.

She takes off again, led by her pacer, a man named Bernard Soi, who has aided her for the past eight years. Kipyegon kicks her heels up with power. She strides with authority as beads of sweat on her forehead sparkle in the soft morning light. When she finishes the rep, she lifts her shirt to wipe the salty dew, slightly revealing a sign of motherhood. Two years ago, in June 2018, Kipyegon gave birth to her first child, Alyn, by cesarean delivery.

Her daughter is 25 kilometers away in Eldoret, where her husband Timothy Kitum, an Olympic bronze medalist in the 800 meters, lives and helps take care of Alyn. Kipyegon will see her family in a few days, when she leaves the training camp on her lone day off. While it’s not easy being away from Alyn six days a week, for Kipyegon it is the only way to live at the moment.

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