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Being in Kenya, I have been pretty cut off from the running world for the past five plus weeks. We'd hear some news here and there--like that Saif Saaeed Shaheen is injured (we saw him standing by the road one day during a drive to Eldoret), the Russian 800 runners running fast and then getting busted, Jenny Barringer's American record, Shannon Rowbury's new 1,500 PR, and the fact that Paula Radcliffe is indeed running the marathon. However, for the most part, not much running news made its way to Iten.
We flew to Nairobi last night, where we are staying in a luxury apartment which has, most importantly, satellite TV. I got to watch the women's steeplechase prelims uninterrupted, as well as tonight's women's 10,000 meter final. I know that my Olympic Trials women's 10,000 coverage focused on Amy Yoder-Begley, but that's because it was a big deal for her to make the team, and not such a big deal for Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher (if making an Olympic team can ever not be a big deal...). If any Americans were expected to contend in this event, it would have been Flanagan and Goucher.
After staying at Lornah Kiplagat's High Altitude Training Center for the past five weeks, it was thrilling to see her leading during the early stages of the 10,000 meter final. It was unfortunate that she couldn't hold on at the end, but I couldn't help but wonder how all of our new friends at the HATC were reacting, or if they were even able to watch it on TV. Earlier in the week, Lornah's sister Monica said that they didn't have the channel which was showing the Olympics, but they were hoping to have their cable fixed by today.
After spending this summer in Kenya, I can't help but cheer for the Kenyans. I am very unimpressed with Athletics Kenya and all of the obstacles they put in front of the athletes who compete on their Olympic teams. I also understand how much more life-changing an Olympic medal is for a Kenyan than runners from most other countries. However, I am a Massachusetts native and I have followed Shalane Flanagan's career since her high school days. I watched her struggle a bit early on in her NCAA career, and wondered at one time if she would ever win an NCAA title. I watched her make her first Olympic team, then I saw her struggle with injury for a long time, before showing up in Boston in the winter of 2007 and surprising the heck out of everyone with her 8:33 3,000 indoors. Though I am sure there have been bumps along the way, she has been pretty unstoppable since then, and while it's certainly a pleasant surprise to see her win an Olympic medal, it's not at all shocking.
Though I am still out of the running loop, I got email earlier tonight from occasional eliterunning.com contributor Parker Morse, who is in Beijing. He mentioned that Flanagan had a food poisoning incident recently (which may be widely reported elsewhere, as I said, I'm out of the loop), and if she wasn't feeling okay, she was planning to drop out of the race at 6k or 7k.
We are flying home from Nairobi tonight, and I expect that regular updates to eliterunning.com will resume on Monday, 8/18. Congratulations to Shalane Flanagan for kicking things off on an excellent note for Team USA. Let's hope there's more good stuff to come!
Posted by Alison Wade at 12:02 p.m. | Tags: 2008 Olympic Games