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Kind of difficult to find words to explain what I lived during this trip in Kenya.
It’s certainly on of the best trip of my life (and those who personally know me, can say I’m not a beginner in this area…).
This aventure, unique moments I could live there, in this small town Iten, perched on high trays overhanding the Rift Valley. I’m very grateful for Yoann Kowal. As you know, an amazing athlete (European Champion and 5th for Olympic Games on 3000m steeplechase ! He’s part of the world athlete elite) but first a guy with an extraordinary generosity, kindness, and unbelievable humility. Thanks to him, I could discover a lot of nature trails around the town, far-flung locations too like this jogging we ran in the forest (I believed this time I died !). Good to know, here nothing is flat. And particularly in this loop.
He introduced me to numerous Kenyan athletes (all amazing) and to an athletes group from Clermont-Ferrand (France) who stayed at the next Bob Tahri’s Center. And he is the planner of my famous 1500m (which looks like a comedy looking it from outside but what I lived during this race was like a descent into the hell !!!). Fortunately I got a highly prized public who cheers me until the end of the race.
So, again a big thanks to Yo Ko (as we usually call him) to give the opportunity to discover a awe-inspiring world of courage and dedication.
It is a true chance I got, one week memorized for life in my mind.
It’s what the World Sport Challenge is about : show that each time, we can live gorgeous things through  sport, exchange with local peoples. Discover and learn always, to grow fat with privileged contacts.
About the mid-distance discipline. In track and field, it’s races from 800m to 3000m. Shorter, it’s is considered as sprint and longer, this is distance.
To give you an idea, after experienced both, I would prefer run again a marathon rather than a 1500m. It’s an extremely hard event. I rather consider myself in good shape and nevertheless I totally went off in this type of race.
I knew this event was hard, but experienced it confirmed for sure this feeling.
I’m so respectful and admirative for all these mid-distance runners.
To suceed in this event, practice is very hard, you have to be enormously rigorous and work hard. It’s usual that athlete train for 10 sessions a week (and more). Taste of effort is essential and you need courage to get out of your comfort zone.
Here we understand why athletes are excellent. Perfect training conditions, elevation, which imposed organism to work with less rate of oxygen, various hilly trails and a climat always lenient (sometimes a little bit hot, but not inconvenient when you start running at 6 a.m).
They usually run at dawn and an other one at the end of afternoon. Running does part of the culture here. Everybody runs here. The first run I did in the morning, I was quickly ditched (within 20 minutes) because the pace comes to high and my lungs get contracted because of elevation. In that

70 runners pack, Kaya (The kenyan naturalized Turk) and European Cross country champion was there. Than, all guys are able to run the marathon under 2h30 (2h20 for almost).
I early stopped running with them to continue with a moderate pace. On my way, I always met peoples who ran a bit with me.
I could experienced the training of a very high level middle distance athlete during practically a complete week. The unique workouts I was able to join him were slow recover jogging on the afternoon. For the remaining part, I was lag behing, or I adapted the work to my level, or I followed them biking. Nearly completing 100km a week (it’s certainly not the 200 weekly km ran by Yoann Kowal, and not the same pace !!)
We often speak about individual sports, but running without sparring partner, it’s hard to give everything of themselves for each workouts. Therefore mid-distance runners are often cohesive team. And it is one of the reason why European athletes frequently come to Iten. It’s not just about training conditions. It’s the guarantee to find athletes ables to push hard themselves. Among Yo Ko’s sparring partner, we join Meishak, who already run 2h19 for the marathon with a transit time in 64’ for the half marathon, or Frederic, who ran 10000m on the Eldoret track (2300m elevation) within 31 min.
Sunday, last day go the week, I followed cycling Yoann and Frederic on a threshold/ tempo run workout and our olympic finalist get passed on the 3rd set before coming back in the last seconds.
An other solidarity exemple in this discipline is the support and cheering I got throughout the 1500m. From the Clermont mid-distance group joined by an other famous french athlete Yohan Durand, but also from other concurrents of the race, who ran more as sparring than opponents. These runners have few minutes before a 3000m competition on this mythic track of Kamariny (1 set won in 8’14 and second in 8’17 to give you a preview of guys’ level). The 1500m ran in 5’40 was a good walk and they have no difficulties to link up the two races. For me, I got off at the first 500m.
Elevation and the two times a day practice since the beginning of the week certainly made me tired. But also, the managing of my race was disastrous and my powerlessness for that kind of effort : means run really fast for a long time. You can’t improvised. I still remember me the last time I suffer same effects in a race : it was in high school when mid-distance runners told me to join them to complete the cross country team, whose the leader was the 1500m specialist Patrice Bedier, at the academic UNSS championships.
I was starting at the top and get continuously passed by 80 guys. I had already choose in the sprinter side in this small world of track and field.
More than 15 years later, I made the same mistakes !!
With 2 cameras, a GoPro and a drone, I think it was the best video realization for a 1500m as slow as mine. I take the opportunity to thanks Melissa Benoumeur, Yoann Kowal and his physio Oliver Laoust for filming.
I think when I will come back to France Matthieu Lonjou will ask for me to give him back his France national team short which gifted me. I still have 3 track and field events where I maybe should take advantage (one of sprint, one of jump and an other of throws).
Why this choice for the 7th World sport Challenge destination, this place is mythic, it is the place to be for mid-distance discipline (David Radish, Abel Kiprop, Wilson Kipping … they all touched the land of Kamariny).
We’ve seen that a package of parameters build Iten’s athletes to make them among the best of the world. But what is the most notable, it is the cultural aspect of this discipline. The culture received, or the culture from a town or a country in the domain of sport is for me the more important valency in the way of excellence. Here, everybody run, schoolchildren, elderly peoples, peoples going to work … and the landscape made of red trails in the middle of hilly grasslands and forest is the game place of all inhabitants.
Pierre

NB :
The week in Iten
tuesday : 1 hour un in the afternoon @11km/h pace
wednesday : 1) 14,5 km at the dawn in 1h20 2) Jog in the afternoon : 12 km in 1hour
thursday : 1) 10x30/30 with warm-up and rest (10km) 2) jog in the afternoon 12km in 1 hour
friday : 1) morning : 1500m 2) afternoon : run in the forest : 13k
saturday 1) morning : track session : 5x200 R = 3’30 2) VTT : 50 min
sunday : morning : bike : 25 km (threshold workout 3x12 min @ mean of 18km/h)