More From Toby Out in Africa

Blogmaster's Intro: When he last left us at the end of Part 1 of this two-part series, Flyers Head Coach Toby T told us in his postcard from Africa of his most recent experiences in Kenya with Shoe4Africa.  But he left us hanging, as a race was about to begin.  Read on as Toby tells us more true tales from Kenya:

The morning of the race dawned, I was so happy to see that the weather was good. Kenya typically has a warm climate in December and as the distance was only 5km the hot sun should not provide too much of a problem.

I started the day by loading 1,200 T-shirts into the back of the car and dropping them off at the registration point. The race really comes together the day of the event, and the little issues always surface on a 'as is' basis. However as this event is in its sixth annual year it pretty much runs itself.

This year we were offering a $1,000 bonus to anyone who broke the course record, and one of Kenya's top female runners -- who had just won a track race in the pouring rain over in Australia -- was the favorite to not only win but also to break the record.

A time of 16:33, held by world championship team member and 2:23 marathoner Helena Kirop, does not sound too fast, yet when you factor in the 2400-meter altitude, the fact that you must run 90% off-road on dirt and rocks, and that there are two big hills where the local world class Kenyans do their hill work you may understand that this is a tough record to break.

Registration, by word of mouth, had sold out in less than a day and a half. Well I say sold out but a better term is "filled up" since we do not charge a penny for the local women to run this race.  Plus, each runner gets a free T-shirt, refreshments, and a one-in-three chance to win running shoes [if more people send shoes we can increase to one in two!]. We get about 100-elites and the remainder of the field is made up of children from the age of 5-years and above [one 6yr old ran 32-minutes!] and grandmothers over the age of 70! Not everyone is an elite runner in Kenya. In fact, many of the elites come and just jog this race to mingle with the locals... runners like the 2011 Berlin Marathon Champion Florence Kiplagat.

And what of the men? Well the elite men come and act as my volunteers -- imagine one of the best volunteers is the man who won the Frankfurt Marathon recently in a few seconds off the world record, clocking a 2:03:42 - Wilson Kipsang.

Elite Kenyan Marathoner (and One of Our Race Volunteers) Wilson Kipsang

So the gun sounds and boom, the women run like it is a 100m race. This is typical. I remember racing in Kenya back in the 90's; a 10km race feels like an 800m event, pacing is rarely accounted for, people run full out till they flop.

We stood on the finish line, 100m away from the start line and waited... then she came, almost stumbling as she had run the legs off her body, but enough to claim the record and knock over 10-seconds off the record... stopping the clock at 16:17...

The Winner: Joyce Chepkirui

In fact this video gives a good account of the day.

-Toby T, NY Flyers Head Coach
CEO & Founder, Shoe4Africa
Vice President of Achilles International