The most common question I get is “what’s it like there?” Whenever I’m back in the US, even complete strangers can’t constrain their curiosity when I tell them I live in Kenya.

And understandably so! Kenya is a place that lives large in the public imagination. The birthplace of Barack Obama Sr. A wild land of elephants and lions. And, of course, home of the world’s greatest runners. But I know people crave to know more.

Before moving to Kenya, I spent years working in international development advocacy and campaigns. I’d rally tens of thousands of people to sign petitions asking the government to enact better policies to help some of the world’s poorest people.

During that time, I realised many of the people signing the petitions did not know what life is really like in a country like Kenya. In messages I received from them, it seemed many imagined universal destitution straight out of a famine relief appeal. I heard it all the time.

And it make sense: when you hear news from another country it’s always the bad news. After time, an image forms in your mind of all the worst stories about a place being the daily norm. Like the time in a hostel in Japan, a few students quizzed me about how many times I’d been shot at. Because that’s the news they got from America.

It’s been years since then, and social media has brought the world much closer together, for good and bad. Spanish and Korean music videos are global sensations and odds are that latest dank meme is straight out of Russia.

But our new global closeness is only good if we make it good. We make it good by using it to forge purposeful and impactful bonds. To build communities that span great distances to improve lives and mutual understanding.

So, as Enda, we’re doing that. We’re using the power of the internet to build a global community of people and sharing with them stories of positive change, exactly the kind you won’t hear on the news.

Having the chance to learn and engage should be one of the joys of buying a socially impactful product.

When someone buys Enda, they’re not just getting a pair of shoes. They also get to join a community for good. Part of the purchase price of each pair of shoes goes towards community development projects in Kenya. We then give those customers a chance to learn about those projects, and together choose which one we as a global community should support.

Our goal here is to increase understanding and connection, and the grant is a vehicle to do that.

Normally, determining which development projects receive funding is the exclusive domain of experts. We still engage experts to ensure all the projects are valuable investments, but we want the Enda Community to be deeply involved for two big reasons.

1) It’s about time customers got connected to impact.

So many products we buy are designed to do some good for the world. Part of the value of buying a product is knowing that we’ve made a choice to help others and/or our planet. However, more often than not, we’re far removed from that impact and companies don’t make an effort to report on their impact or engage customers more deeply in the process of making impact.

Having the chance to learn and engage should be one of the joys of buying a socially impactful product.

2) For development, the connection is perhaps more important than the funding.

There are many ways for organisations to find funding. But as I’ve seen through the years, genuine and meaningful connection across great distances and experiential differences are few and fleeting. But they’re hugely important. The only way we’ll come together to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges — like climate change — is if we feel a deep empathetic connection with others around the world.

Our goal here is to increase understanding and connection, and the grant is a vehicle to do that.

For years, we’ve heard the stories of how few Americans hold passports, but it’s changing. Across the country there’s increasing curiosity about the world. We hope the global Enda Community can be one of the ways that people explore that curiosity, all while enjoying a great pair of running shoes and supporting development in Kenya.

As we give our first grants, we made a video introducing the short list of candidates to our global community of customer, hopefully giving them a good answer of just what it is like here in Kenya.

The Author Weldon Kennedy is the Co-Founder of Enda. If you would like you buy your own pair of award winning Enda running shoes, you can order directly from our website.

Normally a decision for experts, we’re asking our customers instead. Here’s why. was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Kenya is currently ranked 80th in the world in the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings. One of my goals this year is to use my experience from Enda to assess areas where Kenya can improve its rankings, especially for local businesses.

SMEs globally are the backbone of economies. In the EU for example, they represent 99% of all businesses, created 85% of new jobs, and provided 66% of all private sector employment in Europe. If we are to solve unemployment and really rev our economic engine, we need to be obsessed with making SMEs thrive.

Below are suggestions, based on a recent experience of importing raw materials through the port at Mombasa, on how we can improve the import process to make it easier for SMEs.

1. Overall process simplification

The import process, by sea, involves interaction with three bodies:

1. The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS)
2. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)
3. The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

Each has its own processes and it is the duty of your clearing and forwarding agent to assist you in complying with the requirements.

Two challenges with the current process are that 1) the overall process is not clear, especially on actions to take if there is a problem and 2) there is little transparency over the agent’s activities. Both challenges leave room for misinformation, delays and cost escalation due to unplanned demurrage costs. Further, high costs can be an avenue for perverse incentives for shortcuts and bribes, especially when the money involved is significantly higher than the agent’s fees. In that case, there is no guarantee that the agent has adequate incentives to ensure that the process is smooth.

I have had the experience of applying for scholarships and visas online (story for another day) and one of the few good lessons from that experience is process simplification. The required documents are outlined in advance, there is an introduction page that explains the process and there are pages/tabs for each process. Some tabs even change colour or show a tick mark once the specific process has been completed.

An online system, pretty much like the e-citizen system, can provide a simple solution. It should have an introduction page that shows the whole clearing process, estimated clearance time and the documents needed for each process. Other tabs can include:

• A search page for selecting clearing and forwarding agents based on a variety of factors, including geographical proximity to the importers, performance rating and cost. The importance of ranking agents is discussed in the next point.
• Pre-import process detailing what needs to be done before goods are transported and a list of government approved inspectors around the world, including contact information by country.
  This saves SMEs from having to seek the inspector’s contact information in the country where the goods are being imported from, never mind possible language barriers. This page should also be very clear of the documents needed before the inspection — invoice, packing list and the import declaration form (IDF )— and the document to expect after the inspection — the Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for KEBS. The CoC should be a mandatory attachment before the next process can commence. Having copies of the documents online also improves transparency for both the agent and the importer.
• Clearing process detailing the documentation required, including Bill of Lading, customs, and VAT receipts, etc. etc. etc.(there’s lots) which should also be mandatory attachments.

Of very significant importance in each of the above process is a clear procedure to be followed in the event of a mistake. For example: if the Bill of Lading does not match the IDF, remedial actions should be clearly outlined, including the required documentation.

This reduces the amount of time taken to find a solution and also removes any perverse incentives that may lead to short-cuts. It also provides an evidence-based system through which KEBS, KRA and KPA can have real-time data on efficiency and performance.

2. Clearing and forwarding agent selection and rating

Your overall import experience is almost entirely dependent on your agent. While referrals are the main way through which most people hire their agents, there is opportunity to create a better system through which verified importers have an opportunity to select agents based on various factors such as agent’s geographical proximity and performance.

Further, after goods have been cleared, the importer should also have an opportunity to provide feedback on the agent’s overall performance. This boosts great agents who are committed to their work and improves the overall customer experience for SMEs. The KRA already has an elaborate process for issuing and renewing an agent’s license. The only critical addition to this process would be having on hand real customer data on the agent’s performance in order to assist in the decision-making process.

3. Changing mind-sets

The number of people I was in contact with does not fall within what one can define as a proper representative sample. Still, I find it sad that nearly all of them believe that the system can’t be better. None believed that courts of law would be effective in seeking remedy for losses incurred due to technicalities or negligence by a clearing and forwarding agent.

In my opinion, economic development is an attitude as much as it is a process. Thinking that nothing can be done negatively affects the likelihood of finding a solution. It is also a means through which desperate importers can be duped into taking shortcuts because even where a solution exists, they will be made to believe that it doesn’t exist.

To change the system, we also need to change people’s mindsets, including insisting on a clear solution that can be used to enhance personal and system accountability.

This article is my part as an importer insisting we can do better.

All stakeholders must also recognize their unique role in building the economy rather than doing what is best for them at a certain point in time but harmful to the entire ecosystem over time.

The government of Kenya has instituted various measures to improve ease of doing business, from setting up of special economic zones to the designation of manufacturing as a key agenda item for the next 5 years. Macro level policies are an important tool of getting there. Improving micro processes, such as the import experience of SMEs, also ensures that change and efficiency are achieved faster.

Part 1 in improving Kenya’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Score: The Import Process was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It’s always amazing and humbling to read each individual feedback and connect with so many people around the world who took the time to be open and share their journeys with us. We too want to share the collective lessons that we learned from our 2017 survey.

1. We needed to adjust the sizing

We had the data from exchanges, which showed us high exchange rates for smaller men’s sizes and larger women’s sizes. But the data didn’t paint the full picture.

The survey gave us the extra anecdotal evidence we needed to take the plunge and change our sizing. While we’d always wanted the Iten to be a snug fitting shoe, it was clearly too much. Nearly every woman above size 8 mentioned the shoes being tight. The rate amongst men wasn’t much better.

So we took note and made our shoes .5 size across the board. So, for example, our 8 is now the size of our old 8.5. Thanks to everyone who took the survey last year for helping us get that right. And for those who loved the fit of your shoes: don’t worry! Just order .5 smaller and they’ll fit just like your pair from 2017.

2. Keep on reducing waste

We knew whatever packing material we put into our shoes would be immediately thrown out by most people who received them. So rather than use new or even recycled material, we decided to use old newspapers that would otherwise be thrown away. We were nervous about doing this, as newspaper doesn’t have the same crisp feel as tissue paper or cardboard cutouts.

So we asked an open question about how people felt about our packaging and heard an overwhelming response that you loved it. And beyond reducing waste, for people outside, it brought them a bit of Kenya.

We heard the feedback, and are continuing to focus on reducing waste in packing and packing out shoes. Let us know what month’s news you get!

3. Bye bye pronation control

For a long time, brands have sold shoes based on how much they limited pronation — the natural rotation of the ankle — claiming it reduced injury. There was just one big problem with this: it isn’t true.

Thankfully the myth is slowly dying. In our 2015 survey 53% of people listed pronation control as an important feature to consider when buying a shoe. By 2017, only 23% of people still considered it an important feature.

Certainly there are people who need some additional support when running, and should have a medically prescribed orthotic. In the meantime, most runners don’t have to worry about this confusing marketing gimmick when picking the right shoe.

Thanks to everyone who took part in our 2017 survey.

We’re excited to keep listening and learning, so whether or not you took last year’s survey, we’d deeply appreciate a few minutes of your time filling out the 2018 edition.

Click here to take the 2018 Enda Runner’s Survey now.

3 Things We Learned from Enda Runners Last Year was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Between late May 2016 and July 2017, we ran a Kickstarter campaign transforming us from being just an idea to a start-up company. Now Enda manufactures running shoes in Kenya and distributes them around the world. We did it with the help of Kickstarter backers, volunteers, friends, and family.

We cannot say “thank you” enough to all the people who chipped in in one form or another to make Enda a reality.

As the recipients of such overwhelming generosity, we want to make sure we’re paying it forward as much as we can. We have learned many lessons along the way, some tougher than others! We hope this post will provide insight into the process of running a successful campaign and then creating a new product.

Simple advice for a Kickstarter campaign

Overall, our advice would be to look at the following three variables, and do everything you can to maximise each of those variables:

1. Traffic: How many people you can get to your page (from emails, social media, earned media coverage and adverts)?
2. Conversion: What % of those people will contribute to your campaign? This will be different depending on the source of traffic: friends receiving emails have a higher conversion rate than people coming from a news article.
3. Value: How much can you get each person to contribute?

These three variables come together in a simple formula to help you calculate what you’ll be able to achieve with your campaign:

Depending on what you’re doing with your crowdfunding campaign, how you approach each of these variables will be different. But here’s some are some of the tactics we used to maximise each of these variables.

Traffic

Our most important initial traffic was a long time in the making. As we built the company, we not only created relevant in-bound content, but also solicited and received feedback from a lot of people. We produced blog posts about Kenyan running, surveyed people about our logo as well as what name we should give to our debut shoe model, and surveyed runners about what they would want in a running shoe. All of this helped build an audience on social media and, more importantly, on email.

We then started asking people to sign up to support our Kickstarter campaign the moment it launched. We offered a small “early-bird” discount, so people who signed up would have a chance to snag a better price.

Our second chunk of traffic came from leveraging our existing audience to reach more people. We constantly messaged backers about sharing the campaign with their friends and created a referral rewards programme for backers who brought in their friends. The referral rewards programme served as a thank you to the people who were willing to make an extra effort to find more backers for our campaign.

Our third big slice of traffic came from media. Before the campaign even started, we approached several journalists offering them different exclusive angles of how they could tell the story of the campaign.

The story you tell, and how you tell it, is critical in helping you know which specific media outlets to target. Naturally, we targeted mainstream media but also deliberately targeted running blogs and gear websites, which gave us audience with runners and who would want to try out our shoes and thereby support our Kickstarter campaign.

The best advice we can give about getting media is to remember: journalists are humans with jobs to do. Don’t send them press releases like they are some publication robots. Their goal is to inform and entertain their audiences, so communicate with them with an empathetic understanding of the challenges they face in doing their job and help them as quickly and easily see how your story will be interesting to their audience.

Finally, we’d be negligent if we didn’t mention platform traffic. Kickstarter as a platform certainly referred a fair number of backers to us through their own editorial and algorithmic recommendations. We weren’t counting on this, but it was a nice boost and a good reason to chose Kickstarter for your campaign. It did also help that based on our product, story and generated interest, we were recognized as both Kickstarter ‘Projects We Love’ as well as ‘Project of the Day’. The latter gave us a chance to be on Kickstarter’s homepage for a day.

Conversion

This can feel like as much an art as it is a science. Since you only have one landing page to play with, you can’t really test to optimise for better conversion rates. So focus on having a fantastic story and video which:

• shows personality
• inspires the audience
• convinces backers they want the product
• gives a sense of what the creation journey looks like

Having a quality video also makes a great difference in connecting to customers. Projects with videos generally do better than those without, but the quality of video is also very important. We’d estimate 50% of our effort going into the campaign was in creating a great video.

Once you have a great video, the next thing is to listen to your audiences and make adjustments to address the barriers you’re hearing that might be stopping people from buying. For example: in our case, people were asking about sizing, so we added content to help people find the right sizing.

Overall, the Kickstarter page needs to have as much information as possible. Part of the reason people back a Kickstarter project is to be part of creating something new. So as we edited and revised page content we just kept on adding in more and more.

Value

The advice Kickstarter gives is that most people give around $20 so offering a great reward at the $20 level drives more contributions. We’re sure Kickstarter have great data to back up this advice, but we thought about it differently: we wanted to nudge people to increase their contribution. So we offered a nice reward (an Enda Bracelet) for a small contribution, but then a t-shirt and a bracelet for about the cost of two bracelets.

Of course the main show of our whole campaign were our shoes, so we focused on getting people to order a pair. Or two. We gave discounts on multiple pairs, and added in a “money can’t buy” reward of specially numbered shoes, which were our first shoes of the production run. By creating a collector’s item like this, we gave people a chance to buy into something special and also a good reason to increase their contribution.

FAQs

Maximising those three variables was the core of our strategy, and as we went along, we made our tactical decisions by asking ourselves what were the best ways to increase traffic, conversion rate, or contribution size.

However, of the questions we’ve had from people after the campaign are about those individual tactical choices, so here are answers to 4 of the most common questions we get about our campaign:

1. Did you hire PR specialists for your campaign?

No. We didn’t hire any outside PR help. Professional PR certainly has it’s place, but for a relatively small campaign, it’s perfectly possible for the creators of the campaign to manage a number of media contacts.

When you launch a Kickstarter campaign, a lot of PR and marketing firms will get in touch offering services. At some point, it did feel a bit as though they were like vultures trying to prey on desperate entrepreneurs who were stressed about hitting their goal. If you’re going to use a PR or marketing firm, make sure to figure out who you want to work with in advance, and ignore the multitude of solicitations you get mid-campaign.

2. Did you advertise on paid social media? If yes, which platform(s) and also, which platform worked best for you? And what was your budget?

Yes. We did try out some paid advertising on social media. We found our ads brought in new followers on Instagram, did practically nothing on Twitter, and netted some sales on Facebook.

We didn’t spend much money on the campaigns, but if we had a larger budget, we’d have invested it on Facebook so as to drill down into the audiences that were successfully converting to sales. Honestly though, considering the time it takes doing this, you might find it is better to focus more on producing new and better content to engage your base and have them spread the message to their friends. Kickstarter campaigns are exciting, so word of mouth tactics can be especially powerful during this brief window of time.

3. How did you keep momentum?

Campaigns are bound to slow down in the middle. The spike at the start of ours was largely due to the fact that we told our email list exactly when we would launch the campaign and also let them know we would offer discounted shoes for the first people to contribute. This helped drive a strong initial surge.

The surge actually helped keep momentum since it helped create buzz on social media, showed the press we were a credible campaign worth covering, and likely played a role in being selected as the Kickstarter ‘Project of the Day’ on the day we hit our funding goal. Beyond that: we organized a running event one week after launching the campaign, and created a referral rewards programme, which drove about 10% of our total contributions.

The main thing to remember: momentum will slow down mid-campaign. Stay focused and keep working to churn out content and drive people to your campaign. Don’t get desperate. You need to remember your backers are with you because they want you to succeed, and desperation makes potential backers doubt you will.

4. What would you change about the way you handled your campaign, given the chance?

First, we would wait longer to run the campaign. We felt a great deal of urgency to get started and we thought (perhaps rightly) that running the campaign ahead of the Olympics would get us a bit more media. We could have waited longer, built up our supporter list, and lined up more media for the launch of the campaign.

Second, we would do more live events. We had one small running event, which generated a great deal of media and social media posts about the campaign. If we had done 2–3 more events in different locations, we could have generated more enthusiasm and garnered more media coverage.

After the campaign

The hardest part of our campaign came after the campaign was over. We went to two of our key suppliers, and found they weren’t with us anymore. One offered to sell us their equipment so we could start our own factory, and the other decided we were too small and risky a client to take on.

So we had to rebuild our supply chain, creating a big delay in our timelines for delivering to customers. We were able to find new suppliers, and create a product we’re proud of. While there were many lessons along the way about shoe materials, supplier agreements, and much more, there are a couple of general lessons we learned during this time that are broadly applicable no matter what you’re building.

1. Stay loud

Kickstarter is all about creating something new, and people want to be part of the creation process. This means you need to keep backers up to speed throughout the process. There were times when we definitely failed to do this. When something wasn’t quite right, there was an urge to fix it before we let people know.

However, being quiet and leaving people in the dark is a worse type of uncertainty than letting people know there is a problem and you’re working on it. We had to fight our instincts on many occasions and put out a Kickstarter update before we had all the questions answered. Generally when we did this, people were much happier with us than when they didn’t know what was going on.

If we were to do this process again, we’d likely force ourselves to do updates at least every few weeks to keep people up to speed. In the end, the most important thing is to have your audience with you on the journey.

2. Experts aren’t always right

Having experts is important. None of what we’ve done would have been possible without input, advice, and support of experts in campaigning, design, shoe-making, logistics, PR, and many other fields. We’ve long since lost count on the number of people who given us invaluable guidance.

The challenge for us, being new to the footwear industry, was we sometimes didn’t know when this advice wasn’t right. There are certainly times when we got advice that, in hindsight, we should have known wasn’t the best. So trust your instincts and question everything. When you’re doing something new and innovative, sometimes you’ll have to challenge convention.

3. Everything takes longer

As we rebuilt the supply chain, we kept deliberating target dates with the whole team — when new samples could be ready, when shipments would arrive, how long it would take to clear customs, etc. We’d add up the dates and communicated to our backers when we thought we’d be able to start shipping shoes. But we found even the smallest error on estimates had a cascading effect; a small bump in the road would lead to significant delays in progress and throw off every subsequent estimate. When delivering a new physical product, our experience would be it takes about twice as long as initial estimates would tell you.

Getting product to customers

We navigated the post-campaign challenges and create shoes we love, but the logistics of getting them to customers proved the hardest mountain to climb. We got the shoes out, but learned the hard way you have to know exactly how you are shipping products before you launch your campaign so you can communicate that information to backers during the campaign.

While we were working on exactly how we’d be getting products to customers, we came across Blackbox, who have this sage advice about shipping for Kickstarter:

“Shipping is often the most complicated part of a Kickstarter project, and we only work with projects before they have launched. (If your project has already launched and you haven’t figured out shipping, may God have mercy on your soul).”

Kickstarter is like building a logistics system backward. Normally you’d expect a few sales to start, then grow gradually while increasing your logistics capacity. When you have Kickstarter orders, suddenly you’re going from zero to thousands. This makes logistics super challenging.

The way we dealt with shipping was to use a local logistics service in Kenya for hand deliveries in Nairobi and then a couple of other local courier services around the country. For the US, we were able to import our shoes, then use our own fulfilment center to post the shoes. In Australia and New Zealand, we got an agreement in place with a distributor who fulfilled the Kickstarter orders and will continue to serve customers in that region on an ongoing basis. We had fewer customers in Europe and other countries and had to send individual parcels via DHL.

Shipments to Europe and other countries were very expensive, and the customer experience wasn’t great, since in many countries it meant there was duty payable on arrival. We wish we could have avoided this, if we’d worked with a service like Blackbox from the very beginning, perhaps we could have.

Beyond not being able to create the best backer experience for everyone, we also encountered costs that were higher than we’d planned. This was because the cost of sending a package is usually the higher of volume or weight. Getting shoe boxes for each specific shoe size would be very expensive since suppliers require a minimum order quantity for each size. We therefore settled on a standard volume for each box, regardless of the size of the shoe meaning for smaller shoe sizes, especially women’s, we paid more than we could have for shipping simply because of the size of the box rather than the actual weight of the box and its components. In hindsight, we should have worked with both our design team and our courier services to design a box with a reduced volume, or perhaps even just shipping the largest men’s sizes in a different type of package.

Again, our deepest and most humble thanks to everyone who has made Enda possible. The volunteers who help us make the campaign, the many great people who helped us make our first shoes, friends and family who supported us in innumerable ways, and of course our backers who brought Enda to life. Asante sana. Thank you all.

Key Lessons from Running a Kickstarter Campaign was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Running is something different to everyone. One great thing we share as runners is the challenge of describing how and why we find joy in running. Early mornings, sore legs, early bed times on Friday nights, and lost toenails, windburn, dehydration, and a dozen other pains all endured for a sport we can’t quite explain our love for.

Of course, as a running company, this motivation interests us deeply. So for the second time in as many years, we surveyed runners, asking questions not just why you run, but what you love about running and what got you started in the first place.

Whether in the US or Kenya, three themes stood out:

1. Health
2. Friendship
3. Nature

Let’s take a look at what you said.

Health

Physical health, particularly weight, was widely cited as motivation to start running. But when talking about why we love running, many runners cited the mental health benefits and feeling invigorated.

What you said:

“The way it makes me feel mentally.”

“It’s therapeutic, and when you stick to it your fitness sky rockets in a very short period of time”

“The mental challenge it takes to keep going.”

“To stay healthy and energized :-)”

Friendship

Humans are social animals. So while there’s pleasure in the long silent meditative run, many of us find joy in running with our friends, or making new friends while we run. We challenge, inspire, and lift each other up. As we face down the miles together, the bonds we form become the motivation to keep running more.

In your own words:

“Running with friends and solving all the worlds problems on the run”

“Seeing a new city and meeting new friends”

“Hanging out with friends and enjoying nature”

Nature

There was a time when there was no such thing as ‘inside’ or ‘outside’. Incidentally, this was the same time as a species when there was no such thing as ‘being a runner’, every one of our ancestors ran to survive and thrive. Now, an hour run might be the majority of time we spend outside on a given day. We treasure that time.

We love running because we love:

“Getting outside in nature”

“Waking up to the sound of waves crashing on the beach outside my window every morning.”

“Getting outside and seeing the world and the beauty of nature.”

Hopefully next time someone asks you why you run, you’ll tell them about the time outside with friends and the health benefits. Hopefully we can convince a few more people to join us out on runs soon.

This is Why We Run was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After topping the medal table at the Athletics World Championships in 2015, expectations are high for Kenyan athletes to deliver some stunning performances and bring back a healthy haul of of Olympic medals. So as you watch (and cheer) along the way, here’s a handy guide so you can better know the exceptional athletes you are supporting.

Day 1 (12th August)

Women 10,000m finals

1. Vivian Cheruiyot
She was the first athlete to make the Kenyan team at the Olympic trials in Eldoret, and will also likely become the first athlete to win gold for Kenya on the first day of the Olympic Games. Though she came in 3rd place at the London Olympics, she’s only gotten better since then and is the reigning world champion.

2. Alice Aprot
The officials exempted her from running the Kenyan Olympic Trials, because as the reigning African 10,000m champion, she got a wild card to join Vivian Cheruiyot and Betsy Saina on the first day of the games having run a world leading time in Durban.

3. Betsy Saina
Familiar to Americans the NCAA Cross Country record holder, she’s yet to take the podium on the world stage. But finishing second to Cheruiyot at the Olympic trials this year has boosted her confidence as she hopes to medal in Rio.

Day 2 (13th August)

Men 10,000m finals

1. Geoffrey Kamworor
He is a man who is seen as the potential to run the legs off the competition, having finished second in the 10,000m at the world championships in Beijing and then winning the world half marathon championships in spectacular fashion after a devastating fall right at the start. Kamworor has the endurance to win it all, he just has to make sure he has enough of a lead not to be passed by someone with a stong final kick.

2. Bedan Karoki
He has been in Kenya’s 10,000m and cross country teams consistently since 2012. He is popular with fans for his fearlessness in setting fast surges and paces in races, which helps in making the races favorable for Kenyans to medal. Look for him to play a key role as a team player in the battle to beat reigning Olympic and World Champion Mo Farah.

3. Paul Tanui
He was the winner of the 10,000m race during the Kenyan Olympic trials and is a man who is clearly in good form. He won a bronze medal last year at the world championships in Beijing behind Farah and Kamworor, so he’s certainly in contention for the gold this time around.

Day 3 (14th August)

Women Marathon

1. Helah Kiprop
She won a silver medal last year at the world championships in Beijing and she also won the Tokyo Marathon early this year and cut nearly two minutes of the course record in the process. She’ll be well rested and ready to compete.

2. Jemima Sumgong
She won a bronze medal in Beijing world championships last year and just won the London Marathon this year, despite falling down during the race. Marathoners are tough, but she’s shown that she’s got the grit and determination on a whole other level.

3. Visiline Jepkesho
Winner of this year’s Paris Marathon this year, and has been steadily improving and is certainly of the caliber to compete with the best in the world.

Men 400m

1. Elphas Kishoyian
Winner of the Kenyan Olympic trials in Eldoret, he is seen as the competitor potential to medal in Rio for 400m.

2. Alex Shampao
He was second at Kenya’s Olympic trials in Eldoret.

3. Boniface Mweresa
He has represented Kenya a number of times in international competitions and has enough experience, but is yet to win a major competition.

4. Raymond Kibet
He represented Kenya at the African championships this year in Durban.

Day 4 (15th August)

Women 3000m Steeplechase

1. Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi
The reigning world champion and so far leading in the IAAF diamond league points, she is definitely the favorite to win the Olympic gold. She’s also a star in Kenya, having earned the title of Sportswoman of the Year for 2015.

2. Beatrice Chepkoech
Despite being relatively new, she already has a competitive personal best time of 9:17.41 which she posted in Eugene this year.

3. Lydia Rotich
Another new but promising steeplechaser worth watching out for. She trains with Hyvin Kiyeng so certainly is used to being pushed to perform.

Men 800m

1. David Rudisha
He is the Olympic defending champion and the world record holder. However, there are whispers that he’s not on form after struggling at Diamond League races this year. Still, every other competitor on the track will know that he’s the man to beat.

2. Alfred Kipketer
He was the surprise winner of Kenya’s Olympic trials and it remains to be seen whether he is going to maintain the win in Rio. Still, if beating Rudisha is no small feat, so certainly keep your eyes on him to be in medal contention.

3. Ferguson Rotich
He leads in the IAAF diamond league points so far, which means he has been consistently in top form this year. It’s tough to say that there’s someone with better odds of winning gold than Rudisha, but Rotich might just be the likely favorite.

Women 400m

1. Maureen Chelagat
If there is going to be a surprise in Rio, like the one that happened in Beijing last year when Nicholas Bett won gold in the mens 400m hurdles, it is likely to be when Chelagat wins gold in the women 400m. You heard it here first.

2. Margaret Nyairera
Known more for the 800m event, she will be running the two events in Rio. She’s certainly got the talent to compete at both.

Day 5 (16th August)

Women 1500m

1. Faith Kipyegon
The reigning Commonwealth champion, she is definitely a contender for gold having the world leading time and leading in the IAAF diamond league points. She won a silver medal at the World Championships at just 21 years old, and now a year later she’s only improving. Of course world record holder Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia will be in the race as well, so it should make for an exciting contest.

2. Nancy Chepkwemoi
Just like Faith KIpyegon, Chepkwemoi has focused on cross country and 1500m. As a junior athlete she was regularly in the top 3 competitors in the world at both events. At just 22 years old, she’s been a senior athlete for just a year, so odds are she’s got many great races ahead of her.

3. Viola Lagat
Lagat has represented Kenya at the World Championships and World Indoor Championships and her brother is the famous USA’s men’s 1500m runner Bernard Lagat, so talent is clearly evidently in their family.

Day 6 (17th August)

Men 3000m SC

1. Ezekiel Kemboi
Watch out for a new hair cut before the finals, it seems to bring him luck. He is known in Kenya as a championship runner who seems to struggle at times, but is always on form when there is a gold medal on the line. After winning four consecutive World Championship titles, he’s looking to bring home his third Olympic gold medal.

2. Conseslus Kipruto
He is in his best form this year and leads in IAAF diamond league points. He’ll have a tough time beating Kemboi, but if anyone can do it, then Conseslus is the man for the job.

3. Brimin Kipruto
His form peaked just at the right time for the Olympic trials in Kenya. He also has a lot of experience in championship races. With Conseslus and Kemboi, look for him to try and make it an all Kenyan podium.

Day 7 (18th August )

Men 400m Hurdles

1. Nicholas Bett
He is the reigning world champion, having won in spectacular fashion in Beijing last year. But the international competition will be fierce. Can he bring home Kenya’s first ever Olympic Medal in the event? We’ll have to watch and see.

2. Boniface Mucheru
He is the reigning African Champion of the event and this gives him a confidence boost as he goes to Rio.

3. Aron Koech
He is Kenya’s national champion and African Championship bronze medalist. So certainly a contender even amongst a strong field.

Women 400m hurdles

1. Maureen Chelagat
She ran comfortably to win the Kenyan Olympic trials in this event and is the only Kenyan who qualified to run in Rio. After Bett’s win at the 400m hurdles at the 2015 World Championships, this is an increasingly popular event in Kenya, so Chelagat might be just be the paving the way for future athletes to follow.

Day 8 (19th August)

Women 5000m

1. Vivian Cheruiyot
The “pocket rocket” will be back for another medal after having run the 10,000m on the first day. She was able to do that at the Daegu world championships in 2011, but it’s a real endurance challenge to race both events. At the London Olympics she brought home silver at the 5,000m, so this will be her chance to improve upon that performance.

2. Hellen Obiri
The world indoor champion was second at Kenya’s Olympic trials and just recently won the 3000m at the Monaco IAAF diamond league. She’s got the speed to be a contender so watch for her working with Cheruiyot to overcome the challenge a strong field of Ethiopian and American competition.

3. Mercy Cherono
She has mostly been finishing on second position in most of the diamond league races this year and finished 3rd during Kenya’s Olympic trials.

Day 9 20th August

Men 1500m

1. Asbel Kiprop
The three times world and one time Olympic champion currently leads in the IAAF diamond league points and is arguably the favorite for the gold medal in Rio. He’s widely regarded as one of the best 1500m runners ever, and he’s been chasing the world record lately. It seems poised to grab it either this year or next. Can he make that record performance on the track in Rio?

2. Elijah Manangoi
He is the reigning world silver medalist and is known for his strong finishing power. If he’s close to the front coming down the final straight, brace yourself for an exciting finish.

3. Ronald Kwemoi
He was third at the Kenyan Olympic trials, but just defeated Asbel Kiprop and Elijah Manangoi at the recent Monaco diamond league event. It was an impressive performance, and means he can’t be ruled out as serious contender for the gold in Rio.

Men 5000m

1. Caleb Ndiku
He did only a few races this year saying that his focus is the Olympic Games and that his rivals should expect a tough competition. He grabbed silver at the 2015 World Championships, and will likely be looking to work with his fellow countrymen to run a fast paced and tactical race.

2. Isaiah Koech
He is one of the most consistent 5000m runners in Kenya who has made the national team multiple times. He doesn’t have the final kick that seems to define 5,000m races in recent years, but he’s got the speed and endurance to be a contender if it’s a fast race.

3. Charles Yosei
He was a surprise second place finisher in the 10,000m during the Olympic trials in Eldoret, but he reached an agreement with the national coaches and decided to run in the 5000m. So he’s a bit of a wildcard to keep your eyes on for what may be a tactical race.

Women 800m

1. Margaret Nyairera
She was the winner of Kenya’s Olympic trials in Eldoret so certainly a contender. With legendary Janeth “Eldoret Express” Jepkosgei taking a break from running this year, look for Nyairera to lead the group of up-and-coming athletes trying to fill her shoes.

2. Eunice Sum
Was the IAAF diamond league winner last season, and medaled at the World Championships in Beijing, but the competition in the 800m is proving tougher this year. Still, she has the experience and credentials to be a serious medal contender.

3. Winnie Chebet
An experienced 800m runner, but seemed to be off-form of late. But she just a ran a competitive 1:59:88 on 23 July, so perhaps is ready to run a new personal best in Rio.

Javelin Throw men

1. Julius Yego
The YouTube legend. Growing up in a small village throwing sticks, he learned how to throw javelin by watching YouTube videos and endless practice. The method obviously worked, as his best throw of 92.72 meters happened last year at the world championships in Beijing making him the reigning world champion.

Day 10 (21st August)

Marathon Men

1. Eliud Kipchoge
Of the seven marathons he has run, he has won six and finished second in one. He’s coming off the back of winning the London marathon in 2:03:05, which is the second fastest marathon ever run. He is arguably the world’s best marathon runner at the moment, and indeed one of the greatest of all time.

2. Stanley Biwott
He won the New York City Marathon last year and finished second to Eliud Kipchoge this year at the London Marathon. In both New York and London he looked exceptionally strong and is certainly a medal contender in Rio.

3. Wesley Korir
Famous for being a member of parliament as well as running competitively, Korir has proven that he can do well in marathons run in warm weather conditions. He showed that skill by winning the 2012 Boston Marathon and being the first Kenyan finisher at this year’s Boston Marathon. After heat knocked the Kenyan men flat at the 2015 World Championships marathon, he might prove a valuable part of the team.

Your Guide to Kenyan Athletics at the Rio Olympic Games was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I once sent an email to 2 million people asking them to send a message to their member of ‘Congres’. I didn’t bother counting the replies alerting me to the typo.

It was a different era of technology. Thankfully, autocorrect makes it rather difficult for me to replicate that error now. Over the course of a decade, I used an evolving set of tools to engage tens of millions of people around the world to take action to change the world around them. I was a digital campaigner for the Democrats in the US and Labour in the UK, Bono’s ONE campaign, and later a regional managing director for Change.org, the world’s largest petition platform.

I was lucky enough to work with many brilliant and ambitious people who were making significant positive changes in the world by using technology to empower people to have their voices heard. I trained other campaigners around the world, and even co-founded Campaign Bootcamp to help out hundreds of others just starting down the career path I’d taken.

But then a year ago I stepped back from my career to start making running shoes.

These aren’t just any running shoes, they’re Kenyan running shoes. They’re designed to link runners around the world to Kenyan running culture and increase the amount Kenya benefits from it’s well earned running reputation. We call ourselves Enda.

There are two big reasons Kenyan running shoes made sense as a new career path for me.

1. I’ve been a keen runner since I started training in 2006 for my first marathon. I become obsessed with shoes after transitioning out of big heavy trainers in 2012, and making my own shoes would be a chance to turn a passion into profession.
2. I’ve always been driven in my work to try and have as much of a positive impact as possible. Certainly mobilising millions of people to participate in the democratic process was valuable work. But armed with a seldom-used economics degree, I’ve always been aware of the power of markets to shape people’s wellbeing. When I saw the chance to have a significant social and economic impact by creating Kenyan running shoes, I knew I had to take the chance.

We’re certainly not a thriving business yet, but with our Kickstarter campaign cruising past our initial funding goal I’m suddenly reflecting on the major career change I’ve gone through in the past year and how I got here.

First: make space for your dream

I think the phrase work-life balance is misleading. It’s really about having a good work-life ecology, the two fitting together well so that you’re enjoying both work and life. Sometimes this means work and life change. You take time off work for family and friends and sometimes have weeks where you don’t see anyone so you can make the most of a work opportunity. But if you don’t make space in your life, then there won’t be room for your dream to grow.

I met my business partner Navalayo (Nava) at a social enterprise pitching event. She was presenting on a school that would balance physical and academic education. We kicked off a conversation about the potential of sports for social impact, and agreed quickly that one of the most impactful things would be a company producing Kenyan running shoes. Enda was born.

Immediately we both recognised there were (and still are) a huge number of challenges to making this happen, but were so taken with the idea that we started find a path around all those barriers.

Doing this required putting some things aside. Learning to play guitar, reading James Joyce, and political campaigning all got set aside. Big difficult things take time, and Enda has taken all sorts of hours. Getting to where we are now required shifting hours around to have the time necessary to work on Enda.

Second: Networks are everything.

Especially if you don’t know an industry, social recommendations are critical to show the people you are connecting with that you’re a credible person. It’s also the best way to ensure the person you’re connecting with is credible and trustworthy too.

The vast majority of people Nava and I have worked with on making Enda are people we’ve met through dedicated, intentional networking. We’d find someone interesting on LinkedIn and ask for a recommendation. Sometimes a friend would say, “you should talk to my old colleague”. They’d then introduce us to three other people. Eventually we found people to advise us, invest in us, and work with us.

Networks have their limitations, but persistent and purposeful networking is critical to finding the people you’ll work with.

Third: Go Further, and faster, together

There’s a Maasai saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” But in both running and business you’ll actually go farther and faster with others.

First, in running both training and racing with a group will help you go faster.

Second, Enda wouldn’t have gone from inception to Kickstarter in a year without two co-founders working together. Many hands really does make light work, and many minds means better and more efficient solutions. Also when one of us has a tough time — a family crisis, illness, or welcoming a new member to the family — we’re there to support each other and pick up the slack. Yes, working with others will always have challenges. We’ve certainly had ours. But if you want to go the distance as quickly as possible, do it with a team.

Finally, it just hasn’t been the Enda team only on this journey. Like running an ultra-marathon, it wouldn’t be possible without an amazing support team. Friends, family, and our spouses, Ilana and David, have made this journey possible. If you’re going to make a big life-change, make sure to be there for those people as often as you can be, because there will be tough moments you’ll need them to be there for you.

Fourth: Admit your weakness and ceaselessly ask for advice.

After our second conversation, Nava and I agreed that we were going to make this happen. We would create Kenyan running shoes. There was just one problem: neither of us had ever made a shoe.

Through extensive networking we found designers and developers who not just helped us create an excellent shoe, but given us critical advice on establishing our brand, business, and production in Kenya.

If we’d just tried to figure it out, we could have bought the books about shoes design and perhaps eventually made something happen. But it’s a counterfactual I don’t need to worry about, because we did admit what we didn’t know and sought out the advice and help we needed.

I can’t say that I’m done with this career change. I’ve yet to go to an expo and certainly Enda has a long way to grow yet until it can be truly be deemed successful. But I’m on the way, and wouldn’t be here without each of these 4 things.

4 things that helped me make a radical career change was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From the day we launched our Kickstarter campaign to date, a curious phenomenon has been unfolding. People from all over the world have reached out in support, with services ranging from product design and development to marketing and distribution. Surprisingly though, out of all emails, meetings and offers made, just one has been by a woman.

There are various arguments for and against why this should matter. For each side, the reasoning is likely valid because truth as we understand it is a by-product of individual experiences. Therefore, given my background in terms of where I grew up and the expectations of what women should or should not be, to me it matters.

Where are the women? Could the absence be a consequence of a lower risk-appetite, and start-ups are too risky? Is it a fear of standing out and having other people question whether you are proud or arrogant? Nonchalance? Are there not enough of us who possess a particular skill, thus lowering the ratio of those who will reach out vis a vis the men in that same field? Or, are we not aware of opportunities around us and the world in general, that we do not actively seek them out? Is our brand positioning, product, and mission more interesting and inspiring to men?

The Swahili have a saying “usipoziba ufa utajenga ukuta” which essentially means that if you don’t deal with a crack, you’ll end up rebuilding the whole wall. Another saying “samaki mkunje angali mbichi” means you can only fold (or bend) a fish when it’s still raw. Essentially, it is difficult to change something the longer it sits. A big part of change involves identifying the root causes to a (perceived) problem so that you are better placed to come up with realistic ideas on how to remedy the situation.

In writing this, I understand that not all women follow a traditional career path in business. Some do the wonderful job of nurturing little humans, others are super comfortable with a carefree life (with and without children), others pursue academia, while others choose other careers such as sports, just to name but a few. This article isn’t meant to castigate any woman. Nor does it mean to diminish the value men are adding to this industry. Certainly we’ve benefited greatly from the help of many generous and talented gentlemen.

This is just me trying to understand why in a world where about half of the population are women, we’re not hearing from them. What do you think? Why have we encountered this imbalance? Also, women in the footwear industry or working with start-ups — designers, distributors, developers, marketers, and saleswomen — I’d love to hear from you.

You will love these shoes we made — the Enda Itens, first ever made in Kenya running shoes.

Where are the women? Observations from running a successful Kickstarter campaign was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Professional marathoner Justin Lagat of the KenyanAthlete.com blog shares with us how he fuels his training, and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Ander Wilson of Hot & Healthy Habits shares insights on how the Kenyan running diet helps fuel great running.

As Kenyan athletes, we don’t just train hard. It also happens that our staple foods, which we’ve been eating since childhood, naturally help bring out the best out of our abilities. Even if you don’t live on the edge of the Rift Valley, you might find that these simple foods will help you elevate your running.

Generally there are three guidelines when understanding a Kenyan runner’s diet:

1. Nothing fancy: the food that most elite Kenyan runners eat is the same one we have eaten since childhood: mostly Ugali (a dough made from maize flour), green vegetables, milk, beans, and eggs.
2. Simple cooking: The process of preparing the food is often as natural as possible — boiling or pan frying. Green vegetables are at times just boiled in water and cream from the milk is added before serving.
3. Food from farms, not factories: very few food items are bought from the shops, and when visiting shops we only buy a few items like cooking oil, sugar, and salt. The rest of our diet comes from local farms.

With these guidelines in mind, I’ll take you through what my daily meals look like.

Ander
This diet looks to be ideal for a distance runner. It’s high in carbohydrates from Ugali, contains great protein sources between the milk, beans and eggs, and packs in the antioxidants that a runner needs with the green vegetables.

Tip: To retain the most amount of vitamins and minerals from vegetables, choose a cooking method that exposes them to as little water as possible, like steaming or sauté in a small amount of water. When vegetables are boiled, some of the water-soluble vitamins and minerals are lost in the cooking water. Unless you drink that cooking water, you’re losing a lot of the very nutrients that are critical for runners (more on those benefits in a separate comment)

Breakfast:

When you walk around in Kenya and anyone asks you whether you have taken tea, they are actually asking you whether you have eaten breakfast. Tea is the main drink for breakfast, and especially among the Kenyan athletes it can serve as the largest portion of breakfast. Other drinks, like coffee and cocoa, are only consumed on rare occasions.

Tea is made by pouring a handful of tea leaves into a sauce pan of boiling water, adding some milk in it and waiting for five minutes to continue boiling. Some people, but very few, prefer black tea which doesn’t contain any milk in it. The final product is tea that’s not too strong and often will contain as much as 50% milk or more.

While tea is the most important staple of a runner’s breakfast, some sort of carbohydrate is an ever-present accompaniment. Most popular are chapati (a kind of pancakes made from wheat flour), mandazi (fried dough, also from wheat flour), sweet potatoes, bananas or bread. Fried or boiled eggs are also common during breakfast and are consumed three to four times in a week.

Breakfast is easily the most flexible meal of the day, and we will eat different sized breakfasts at different times depending on the training for the day. Three common variants are:

• Take a mug of tea before going out for a heavy training in the morning, then come back and complete breakfast.
• When the longs get very long, we wake up very early in the morning, around 4 AM, to go out for the long runs so that we can finish before it gets too hot. In such days, I won’t have to eat anything before going out, but will take a heavy breakfast once I get back in the camp at around 9 AM.
• For those days when we are doing intensive mid-morning speed workouts, we eat breakfast very early, around 6 AM, so that when we go out to train at 9 AM, we won’t get upset stomachs or feel hungry.

Ander
Eating between 400 and 800 kcal worth of foods, two to four hours before a run is ideal. However, it’s not always possible for early runs. When scheduled for early morning training, runners should consider eating a large and late supper the evening before, comprised of carbohydrate rich foods, a moderate amount of protein, and minimal fat. If supper time isn’t flexible, simply add in a snack before going to sleep for the night.

Lunch:

Rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, green grams (mung beans), and green vegetables like cabbages and sukuma-wiki (a type of colewort — the name literally means “push the week” since it is cheap, filling, and available year round) are the common foods for lunch in most Kenyan homes and athletic camps as well. Compared to what runners eat for supper, lighter foods are eaten at lunch so that runners can be able to go for their training again in the evenings.

For lunch, carbohydrates usually take the largest portion of the plate, often 50–60%, with the rest being vegetables and beans.

Ander
If you’re a distance runner who tracks macronutrients, your carbohydrate intake should be AT LEAST 55% of your total calories. The day before a long run or race, bump up carbohydrate intake to 65–70% of your total calories. If someone is eating fewer carbs than this, they will feel a huge increase in energy during their next run if they start eating the appropriate amount of carbohydrate.

Beans and vegetables also add great carbohydrate content to this lunch. Runners should consume at least eight servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, which help the body fight off free radical damage caused by the extra intake of oxygen during distance running.

When doing two afternoon workouts, runners will often have a second lunch. For this second lunch, a popular option is porridge made from millet flour, sometimes mixed with sorghum and soy beans. This is usually taken after the afternoon runs.

Ander
This works well for post-run nutrition needs. After a long run or race, runners should eat between 100 to 400 kcal of food comprised mainly of carbohydrates and a moderate amount of protein. This snack or “second lunch” helps replenish glycogen stores (the storage form of carbohydrates, which is the body’s best and preferred source of fuel), which the runner will need for the next training session.

Supper:

This is where the famous ugali features. Other food items are often there to accompany the ugali. Ugali is made from coarse ground maize flour. First the maize is harvested, shelled to separate the grains from the cobs, dried, and then taken to the local mills to be milled into flour.

The process of making ugali is simple, but it needs a lot of timing while doing it. Water is left to boil in a sauce pan. As soon as it boils, maize flour is added in small amounts as the cook keeps stirring to make sure that the liquid remains soft and that too much flour is not added at once which will cool the mixture and form undesirable hard texture. As the mixture thickens, a separate and relatively bigger stick is used to continue stirring and rolling over the mixture until it starts to harden. Then it is left simmer a little as more water evaporates and the ugali gets harder. The final product is a thick cakey paste that’s great for soaking up sauces.

Green indigenous vegetables are very common during supper, and a glass of milk to wash down the meal. Mursik, which is a type of fermented milk, is also available most of the time and often takes the place of fresh milk. Mursik is also a special drink among Kenya’s Kalenjin community and is usually served to special visitors when they visit and in many other occasions as a celebratory drink.

Ander
Fermented foods, such as mursik, are great sources of probiotics! Probiotics are living bacteria (the very good kind!) that help make up the intestinal (or gut) flora. A healthy intestinal flora is the foundation of good health, and yes, its health depends largely on the food you eat! Probiotics are found in cultured and fermented foods (kombucha, mursik, miso, yogurt, cottage cheese, kimchi, sourdough bread, buttermilk, sauerkraut, kefir, sour pickles, tempeh, maziwa lala, fermented porridge, osugha, susak).

Probiotics are important to runners because they improve digestion and can help prevent GI distress. It’s important to note that exercise, while a very positive activity, is considered a stress on your body. Large amounts of stress (even from exercise) can GI distress. Probiotics, along with several other stress reducers (most notably SLEEP! But that’s a separate blog post), help repair this damage.

Meat, even though it is economically hard for most of the households in Kenya to afford, comes to the table once or twice every week during supper for runners. Beef is relatively cheaper and more available in the local butcheries than poultry and fish, and is prepared with plenty of sauce to accompany the ugali.

Ander
I think this highlights a very important and often missed fact about sports nutrition — athletes do not need to consume large amounts of meat. In the diet outlined in this blog, protein is obtained from a variety of foods, including milk, eggs, beans, vegetables, and the occasional piece of meat. Runners should focus primarily on obtaining adequate amounts of carbohydrate, the body’s preferred source of fuel.

Snacks: Water and Fruits

One of the things you will notice when you enter a training camp in Kenya, is athletes walking around will always carry small water bottles. The amount of training you do, and what you expect in the next workout, will certainly force you to drink as much water as possible. Most athletes take around three to five litters of water in a day.

Like water, fruits are also common among the athletes and are eaten whenever they are required any time of the day, or night. Common fruits are oranges, bananas, avocados, pineapples and mangoes — depending on what’s in season.

Ander:
Hydration is a balance of water, carbohydrates, and electrolytes. What’s brilliant about the focus on water and fruit is that the combination provides all three. No sports drinks required. Needs are met through real food.

Ander’s final comment: In summary, this way of eating is ideal for a distance runner. Runners everywhere could benefit from modifying their diet to incorporate the eating habits listed here.

Eat Like a Kenyan to Run Like a Kenyan was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There are hundreds of thousands of us, all around the world, getting ready for spring marathon season. Here in the running highlands of Kenya, I’m lucky enough to be training with some of the best marathoners on the planet. We are getting ready for London, Boston, Paris, Ottawa, and many other marathons, and I want to share how we do it so no matter where you are, you can train to run like a Kenyan.

To start off, there are three phases of training for a marathon.

1. Loading

Go out on easy and moderate runs without caring much about speed. There are no hard speed or hill work sessions yet. This phase can vary in length, but should be at least 3 months.

2. Workouts

Athletes are now getting quite fit and can get into intensive tempo runs and speed workouts. This phase lasts about 2 months.

3. Tapering

When you start to reduce their training a bit in order to preserve enough energy for the race. Typically the last 2 weeks before the race.

Let’s take a detailed look at what you’re doing during each stage.

1 — Loading

At this stage, what matters is getting as much mileage as possible into your body without rushing your training. You want to build your overall fitness and get your legs and feet used to many hours of use.

You can start this phase easy running 3–4 times per-week, but want to build to the point of running 5–6 days per-week. You want to be at the point where you’re comfortably running 1hr 10 minutes to 1hr 20 minutes each weekday morning and adding a 2 hour easy run every weekend. The key words here are comfortable and easy, you should finish each run feeling like you’ve still got plenty of energy.

As time goes, you can slowly start adding one speed session or one hill workout session per week, but making sure they are not intense.

2 — Workouts

About 10 weeks out from your race, it’s time to start the harder workouts. You don’t want to start this period of more intense training too far out from your race because it takes a toll on your body and you become more susceptible to injuries, illness, or exhaustion.

It doesn’t matter so much which group one joins for training in Kenya because the programs here are similar. Even the days for particular kind of training program are almost the same everywhere. Mondays are hill runs; Tuesdays are for track intervals; Thursdays are for speed workouts on the road, be it fartleks or measured distances; Saturdays are for long runs and Sundays are for resting.

Some runners can rearrange their workouts, like moving the long runs from Saturdays to Thursdays and doing their speed workouts on Saturdays. It’s also important to allow some flexibility to allow for a mock race, fun run, or respond to how your body is feeling.

Before every workout session, athletes need to warm up for 20 to 30 minutes of slow running or calisthenics. Every day of a hard workout in the morning is followed by an easy 40–50 minute run in the evening.

Hill workouts:
In most of the training groups in Kenya, hill work is usually the first workout of the week. But no matter when you do it, it’s very important to do at least one each week to build strength and stamina. Depending on how close athletes are to doing their races, there are different ways of doing hill workouts.

Most athletes will start to incorporate hill runs during the loading stage. Hill workouts during loading stage will not be about the number of repetitions, but just the overall amount of time running up and down the hills — typically around 1 hour. With time, as you get closer to peaking, hill workouts start to incorporate timed sprints on shorter measured distances on a hill. These can be 400m, 200m or 100m sprints up the hill, repeating 10–20 times depending on the length of the sprint.

Track intervals:
This is the hardest workout of the week, as the trick to attaining great speed for marathon actually seem to lie in great track interval workouts. Most athletes call these intervals “lapping” because they are mostly 1600m, 2,000m and 3,000m hard repetitions around the 400m track, with a cool-down period between sets. The pace is typically brutally fast, much faster than marathon race pace. The total distance done in one session is normally between 12km to 20km. At the end of these “lapping” sessions, athletes do a few shorter 200m to 400m sprints before cooling down. There’s no better workout for helping build power and speed.

Road Speed — Fartlek
Fartlek is one of the most common speed workouts done by long distance athletes in Kenya. It is a great workout since it doesn’t need any measured portion of the road or a flat surface. The most common such workouts are 1 minute fast, 1 minute slow runs or 2 minutes fast and 1 minute slow repetitions. The total length of the run will normally be 40 to 50 minutes.

Road Speed — Tempo Runs:
Tempo runs are runs that mimic a race day. You want a good course for this run. There is usually a favourite route at every training spot in Kenya, and every one or two weeks athletes will try to run fast and set a new course record on the route. You want to be running at a hard pace for around 1 hour, so most courses in Kenya are 16km to 18km. But tempo runs are really about time and how long you want to run at this gruelling pace, so sometimes athletes decide to warm up for 20 minutes then run a hard 40 minutes. At the end of this run you should feel tired, like you’ve just run a race.

Road Speed — Road Intervals:
Alternatively, athletes can look out for a flat and straight 1km or 2km section on the road where they can do the intervals. You run faster than race pace, rest for a couple of minutes and then repeat.

Long runs:
In most of the training camps in Kenya, a long run is done once every other week and a semi-long run is done in between. Long runs are usually distances between 35km to 43km while the semi-long runs are usually 25km to 30km.

Water is crucial during long runs. If you’re consuming 300–600ml (10–20 oz) every hour, you’ll need more water than you can carry with you. Running groups here will have a vehicle drive along the course distributing water as athletes need it. Knowing that water is just right there when they need it and that there is a vehicle to hop into when the going gets tough, athletes are encouraged to give it their best efforts while training and also to run longer than they would have done without a vehicle by their side.

Easy days:
Other days in between the tough workout days are usually 1hr easy runs in the morning and 40 to 50 minute easy runs in the evening. Often this will be Wednesday after the hard track session on Tuesday.

3 — Tapering

This is the last stage of training, and is all about letting the body recover from the hardest training so you feel fresh on race day. Tapering starts two or three weeks to a marathon and typically means a 50% reduction in time spent running each week from the peak of training. There will be no more runs beyond 25km and the speed workouts can remain intense, but will take relatively shorter duration and fewer repetitions. You should feel like you could keep running even after a track session.

However, different strategies work for different athletes at this point. There are those who feel that when they slow down their training, they won’t be able to be fast on race day and prefer not to interrupt their training at all until race day. You just never know until you do a couple of races and know what type of taper works best for you. So listen to your body and aim to feel fresh on race day morning and strong all the way through the end!

To get the best running shoes for your training, these made in Kenya running shoes — Enda Iten will make you enjoy your runs even more.

How to Train for a Marathon like a Kenyan was originally published in Enda Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.