02/09 Sad News: Kipkemboi Kimeli died on Saturday, aged 43. Best remembered (running wise) for his Olympic Bronze in the 1988 Olympic Games. He leaves a wife and kids back home in Kapsabet, Kenya.
02/08 Getting wimpy, I was going to run the race in Central PArk yesterday, but I looked at the thermo, well at the computer actually, and it was 22-fareinheit which is lots minus. So I thought... hm, coffee instead? It was a no brainer! I don't have these issues when in Kenya; there you roll out of bed and dress the same way every day.
I am going through all my old biz cards, so if you get an email from me and think wow it has been ages since I heard from him it is because I am going through all the old names. All those leads that have not hooked up as yet.
Shopping for food yesterday, I think I was the only man in the entire supermarket! Is the superbowl a male thing? It was like being on Planet Venus, not that I was complaining at all!
02/07 Big thanks to Andy Robinson for writing in, "More Fire" has been well-thumbed by half a dozen eager borrowers
already....thanks for one of the most inspiring running reads ever!Made my first ever three sided leaflets today for shoe4africa!
02/05 Shoe4Africa is looking for office space, ie free "desk and filing cabinet space" that is all we need. Wish list #1 harlem, #2 Upper East, #3 Upper West, #4 midtown. If you have any ideas please email. I would love to get all the paperwork out of my house!Fast running in Germany - Yuriy Borzakovskiy in 1:45,77 in the 8, and Paul K. Koech 13:02 in the 5000!Orsay for Lunch, Island for Dinner. I went with Tony after we met the Head of Pediatrics at CORNELL -- thinks looking good, they are very enthusiastic, a nice smile surprise! Food anyway was Salmon Burger, good n fresh, mesculin salad - very good. Stella's - perfect, and the biscuit platter, good enough.
Island - Spaghetti and a white sauce with broccoli, ok but I could have easily cooked this myself. Chocolate cake; if you like it rich... and Heinekens, that bit was right.
02/04 MORE FIRE is out of print, but hopefully ONLY for a week as they are reprinting; always a good sign. Good book, well I think so. I am actually looking for a book to read right now, my library has closed down sadly.Today I was on the phone with Indiana University and a Prof Lemons there who was the mainstay of a building. All of which keeps on helping the proposal. Get ready soon we should have a new and improved website; something that looks less, urm, homemade?I got a great shock, my friend Et has sold her citizenship and become something else? Well not that dramatic, but... Another foreigner jumps the boat.I hear that the Ethiopians dominated in the Marakkesh Marathon, that would be a great city to be in now; this cold is extreme, how do people manage to survive here?
02/03
Gladys Chemweno back running very strong in Kenya, we hope she makes the World Cross team. oops I have never posted a pic the wrong way, I was going to change it, but maybe it looks better this way...
Big nes is that Usain Bolt comes to NYC on JUNE 12th at the ADIDAS GP.
I was pedaling all over Manhattan today, I don't think that bikes were meant for these sub-zero degrees, or humans for that matter either. I miss Kenya so much. In fact thinking about that please remember if you want to donate ANY stuff for prizes, or shoes, for the THIRD annual Shoe4Africa Martin Lel race it is coming in May. I am also working with Robert Cheruiyot for his Orphan's football match in the Nairobi slums in May too... so this is the time if you want to get involved!Sign up at the NYRR for the HAITI Support run, speaking of which I bumped into Pierre the Pusher the other day. He was honking on his horn in his new car and of course I did not recognize.. usually when someone hoots at me it is for good reason (let me not tell you how I was driving in Eldoret earlier this year).Anyroads the GOAL for 2010 is to break ground and build this hospital, so again I need to reach out to 1.5 million runners and grab a $10 brick from all of them - any ideas shoot them this way, please!I thought I lost my cell phone today, I was actually not too bothered as it is a piece of trash, and later in the day something starts ringing in a pocket of who knows where. You see the thing is until November I never had a cell phone so I never remember to pick it up, or take it anywhere. At least the thing rings and discovers itself. And of course that came when I was doing the ironing - yup actually just a SHOE4AFRICA logo as Arnaud the Euro Indoor 800m champ from Holland is gonna be a S4A man this year!!Speaking of which someone is offering 15,000 Euros if Lornah runs a Half Marathon in Holland for S4A, so Lornah said she'll do it if I run with her... I better get in shape, when it gets warm! Lornah is still the World record holder but I believe there is an attempt to take her record this month in the RAK half, but I don't think it will work, the record will stand. The woman who could take the record was blocked by the AK in January, Linet Masai...
02/02 Unbelievable again to where the year has disappeared to already. Ok, so it is COLD in NYC, not good.
Today I had lunch at the Core Club on East 55th, a nice private club for biz meetings etc etc in midtown. Salad beet for a starter, risotto for the main and a fruit platter for the finish with about six cups of good coffee,t he sour dough rolls were great too - thumbs up.
Then it was up to the Store to have a meeting with Brooks concerning H&P. We see that Anil is now a painter and beginning to decorate the place, he was zipping up the paint so fast Jan was worried her jacket would get covered, very prof work. Speaking of which I need to paint myself.My runs have dramatically shortened since returning to NYC, back to a miniscule crawl, though I did manage to cycle all over town and back again doing jobs which was super needed.
01/31 Sleepy Sylvia wins the women's indoor 3000m at Karlsruhe in 8:41 thus qualifying herself for the World's where we think a medal is there! In the men's Shaheen runs a world leading 7:43 to take the men's race.
01/30 Met Mary D down here, she is at a hotel along the road with Jorge from NYC too. So I had a drink or few with them at their hotel. I came back for the Team Lifelife heroes - they have raised a million dollars this year at the Miami event; amazing!The weather continues to be fab, I will miss running on the beach for sure when I get back to NYC. I really like T-shirt weather, fits the life much better, and we are only three hours south, albeit on a plane but...
01/29 Running Nut; Not sure what is happening, I went for a run again this morning, thinking small after yesterday, and instead I did not come home for two hours!
I turned on the jacuzzi, before the water levels were over the Jets. Aiy! I was on the phone in the tub. The baths here have windows so you can look out over the Ocean.. all was good until that moment - then all got soaked, capissa!Another Haiti - remember today is the URBAN store day!! *VOLUNTEER BLURB
Concern's annual FUN RUN needs volunteers! Concern Worldwide US, an
international humanitarian agency--currently implementing an emergency recovery
plan in Haiti--needs 100 volunteers to organize its annual FUN RUN fundraising
event. Scheduled for April 10, at 9.30AM, in Central Park, the event is a 4 mile
run or walk.
All of the proceeds from the Fun Run will support Concern's
Emergency Response to the Earthquake in Haiti. Starting in early February, at
our offices in Midtown Manhattan, Concern counts on volunteers for a variety of
tasks in preparation of the event and, of course, support in actually executing
the FUN RUN on April 10. For information on how you can do your part to help
Haiti, please contact Dara Burke 212 557 8000 or write her at
dara.burke@concern.net or visit www.concernusa.org to learn more about Concern
Worldwide.Skills, Only enthusiasm!
*RUNNER BLURB
Join Concern Worldwide US— an international humanitarian agency currently
implementing an emergency recovery plan in Haiti —for its annual 4 mile Fun
Run/Walk in Central Park! Scheduled for Saturday, April 10, at 9:30AM, all of
the proceeds from the Fun Run will support Concern's Emergency Response to the
Earthquake in Haiti. For more information and to register, please visit
www.concernusa.org or email dara.burke@concern.net. Runners and walkers of all
skills welcome! EVENT DETAILS Phone Number: (212) 557 8000, Event Web Address
www.concernusa.org
01/28 Sitting on a balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in my beach towel... Just come back from a run on the beach. I was going to go for 30-minutes but I ended up running for 1hr 41 it was so nice to plod along in the sand. A few miles along the way I met my friend Ahuva! She is here for a holiday and running the half on Sunday, how nice! So we ran a bit and chatted. Ah, life is sweet.Last night when I got in to Miami Roselyn picked me up, she's rented a cabriolet so we went for a drive and went to a restaurant in Northern Miami called something grill. A very friendly waiter and good red wine. I can understand why people retire to Miami... now if only I had something to retire from!We read that Shaheen will race at Karlsruhe - Shaheen is a class act on the indoor boards, I wish him well. He was racing in Eldoret at the XC a couple of weeks ago. Also running there, and looking for a Sub 8:50 3000m is Sleepy Sylvia; and I bet she'll easily do it. Still, the first race of the year can also be a rusty one. But she is training so well... and you know what they say, Train Hard Win easy.
01/27 Want to help Shoe4Africa? Calling ALL ladies, we need Women's running shoes up to a women's size 10, and all men BELOW size ten -- if you could send even JUST ONE pair to Africa, you would be changing a life! Our next event is in MAY. If possible please run to your closet, grab a pair. Wrap them up in a small box, and write on the box M. Kiplagat/Shoe4Africa, PO Box 6945, ELDORET TOWN, KENYA.
~THANKS, so much, so much!!
I do not think I could have spent a better Christmas than this one. Here is a shot of giving out the food, at the second of five stations. Right next to me is Precious, my adopted student (she is also on my FB photo). I consider myself to be so lucky to do these things; this was the project I was working with Small Voices and I was standing there giving put 2500 bags of food thinking WOW, I mean I remember when I was a kid and saw Live Aid on TV, and sure yes that was a million times bigger, but than was 200 -rock stars selling records. I had no clue anything like this would ever happen, but as I said I consider myself so lucky to be a part of it. It beats anything, anything else I could have been doing at Christmas.
The little cup the boy has is because they thought they were going to get a cupful of beans.
SUPPORTING SHOE4AFRICA. THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR!!
