Patrick Kipngeno, two-time world champion in vertical climbing, and Philemon Kiriago, winner of the Sierre-Zinal, the Cathedral, in August, share a life lesson with big smiles as they prepare for the Mammoth Lakes at the foot of Yosemite National Park (California). final test of the regular Golden Trail Series calendar. “I work just to eat, ten euros a day, no more effort.” Both are expecting a child in the coming months, which may have led to these Kenyans dominating the trail universe, a family need and a national odyssey: “The Kenyans don’t like the mountains, but we want to show that we are capable of doing them.” There are clouds of victories.
Kiriago started running at age 12 because his friends did. He aspired to become a police officer and earn money. “It’s just a business,” I thought at the time. Kipngeno started later, at 23, pursuing the same ambition. “There is someone like me who was a two-time world champion and you want to be like him.” Back then, before Eliud Kipchoge – marathon world record holder – Abel Kirui was the reference. Both came to the mountain by chance and tried their luck in races run by their club Run2gether in Longonot, near Nairobi, with peaks near 3,000 meters.
They are not slow athletes on asphalt: both have completed a half marathon in under 63 minutes. But it’s not enough. “We can’t compete with the best,” admits Kipngeno. Meanwhile, his partner talks about “specialization” and the ability to make sacrifices. “Running at the same pace, even if it is less than three minutes per kilometer, is easy. You just have to maintain it. In the mountains you have to use all gears. It is tactical, running vertically is much more difficult,” they emphasize.
His recipe is commitment, training without shortcuts. “You can’t go from bottom to top, it’s little by little.” His toughest weeks are 150 kilometers, with two days of mountain climbing, a long session, another at speed and a final one with changes of pace. The competition week is something different, they take the idea of “saving energy” literally. Sessions that rarely last longer than 45 minutes or ten kilometers. Some of her competitors sum up their feeling when they see her running to breakfast: “It’s amazing how people who run so fast can walk so slowly.”
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What they promise as an easy workout – a term with double meaning due to its lightness and slow pace – begins with a first kilometer at 6:38; affordable, even if it is on the rise. The third, already at a 5% grade, drops below 5:00 as the Californians cheer them on as they drive past. Things get hot and in no time the pace drops below 3:00 at times: after a three-kilometer route under 3:30 they are out of reach for any motivated amateur. With the clock stopped, they defend their session, for them a simple walk. Simply? “Easy for Kenyans”.
They never miss the discipline, so they rest while other athletes visit Mammoth Hot Springs. “If we were at home, we would go for a walk, but since we don’t know the places, we stay in the room.” The good relationship between the athletes of the Golden Trail Series concentration favors their integration. Details like being spotted at airports when her manager is away or looking for a costume for a themed party. Their eternal gratitude – their favorite sentence is “We are blessed” – and the sense of humor that they display in just a few words do the rest. “It is humanity that allows you to automatically interact with people.” Perhaps that is why they lead tours for a wide audience in their home town of Austria without charging anything in return. “We do it to motivate people to keep running.”
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Their demonstration took place in Sierre-Zinal, where they stood at the top of a podium with three Kenyan flags. Kipngeno led on the climb and Kiriago overtook him on the way down the slope. “Winning is not the most important thing,” emphasizes the first, who speaks of the beauty of the place, of integrity and of the best person winning. Therefore, when his compatriot arrived, he handed over to him with a clap. This was the big win of his career at just 21 years old. “Winning a big race is not a joke, it is the result of all my teammates who pushed me in training, but I didn’t win Sierre-Zinal, it was Run2gether.” This collective militancy, the tracksuit that they never take off .
A national pride, a responsibility. “It is precisely because I can walk well that I have to run,” insists Kipngeno, 30, someone who has spent a decade at a threshold of two kilos over or under. His compatriot takes on the privilege of competing in the United States, the metropolis of a sport in which there is no visa for Africa: “All Kenyans must fight to the death to make our country proud.” If Kenya does not respond to the Mountain goes, they will bring the mountain to Kenya. Runners, pioneers and prophets.
Rémi Bonnet wins the Goldens’ last regular race
Rémi Bonnet won Friday’s Mamoth 26K, the last of six events on the regular Golden Trail Series calendar, held at a California ski resort at the foot of Yosemite National Park. The Swiss won (1h54m49s) against the attacks of the Kenyans; first Patrick Kipngeno and then Philemon Kiriago. The two of them got lost several times on an inadequately marked route and reached the destination with two kilometers more to their name. Chad Hall, second, was disqualified for going over a checkpoint and cutting off. Dani Osanz was fifth and Álex García eleventh.
Romanian Florea Madalina got lost while leading the race in the final kilometers. Judith Wyder, the favorite, was about 15 seconds behind and took her second win of the year (2:18:21 hours). The best Spaniard was Malen Osa, fifth. Julia Font was eleventh and Sara Alonso was thirteenth. After the six races of the overall calendar, the Golden Race will be decided from October 19th to 22nd at Il Golfo Dell’Isola (Italy). Bonnet leads the men’s ranking by a large margin over his pursuers: Roberto Delorenzi, Manuel Merillas, Eli Hemming and Kipngeno. Meanwhile, in the women’s race, a head-to-head race is planned between Wyder and Sophia Laukli, the American who leads the rankings.
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