In Kenya or in Oz?

Adharanand Finn is a Scottish journalist and runner. He goes to Kenya to learn from some of the greatest runners in the world. Who knew he would find himself mentally in the land of Oz?

I head out past the edge of town and into the countryside. Mist hangs blue in the dips, thick and magical. Pointy-roofed huts and neatly sown fields rise up here and there, the red track stretching out before me. I run on, like Dorothy, through a strange, Technicolor world. And who is that I see now, running toward me, his bright yellow jacket glowing in the first rays of sunlight? The scarecrow? It’s Japhet, grinning to see me. He turns and runs beside me, back the way he came.

We run together, easy, passing bigger groups, people running hard, the sweat beading on their anxious foreheads, pushing themselves on in search of the elusive Oz, sure that someday, if they just keep running, they will get there.

[This post is dedicated to the friends attending the Oz Convention next weekend.]

source: Running with the Kenyans: passion, adventures, and the secret of the fastest people on Earth by Adharanand Finn
2012. Ballantine Books, New York