At a training camp in Kenya

Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.

 

On Saturday Marna Egholm returned home from an exciting training camp in Kenya. The training camp took place on 5–20 February in Ngong Hills, near the capital Nairobi. Marna was part of a Danish group with 17 other runners, including the Nordic cross-country champion, Abdi Hakim Ulad, and the strong Silvia Kiberenge (1:12 in the half marathon). Erling Worm, a coach at Køge Atletik, was the main organiser of the trip.

The Danish group and coaches

Ngong Hills lies at an altitude of 2,000 metres, and from there it was possible to run up to 2,600 metres. This is the first time Marna has tried altitude training, and naturally she was excited. Running was very hard for the first few days. Her pulse was very high and she struggled to get air. After the first five days the endurance training started to go well, while running intervals was still very hard. And after a week she was running up to 2,600 metres comfortably, although the last 150 metres of climb were incredibly heavy.

Not so bad running in shorts and a top at this time of year

Along with the Danish runners there were also 50 other runners. And certainly not just anyone! Who doesn’t remember Patrick Makau, who set a world record of 2:03:38 at the Berlin Marathon in 2011? And Lucy Kabuu, who has represented Kenya at two Olympic Games, has run 5,000 m in 14:33 and has run a marathon in 2:19. Very instructive and exciting to train with such world stars!

Marna with Patrick Makau, who as recently as 2011 set the world record in the marathon.

Training was twice a day. The hard session was at 06:30 in the morning, and in the afternoons there was recovery training, with long runs of 28–35 kilometres on some days. Running there was a bit different. Heat, dust, hills and unfamiliar running surfaces were all an extra challenge. It is winter in Kenya now, and the temperature was 15–25 degrees, and fortunately it was often cloudy too. So it could have been worse.

The 70 runners ran in suitable groups for the training sessions. Here Marna can be seen second from the front

All this training also requires its share of rest. Bedtime was as early as 20:00–21:00 and getting up was at 06:00. While the runners were the best of the best, the same could not be said of the conditions otherwise. Luxury was a distant place. To eat there were beans, maize balls, spinach, kale and various other vegetables, pilau, pancakes and chapati, which is somewhat reminiscent of kleynir and holukøkur.

Not so bad munching on maize after a hard session

Just outside Nairobi lies the largest slum in Africa. The whole group visited, and there they organised a running event for the young people in the slum. An excursion was also made to watch the National Cross Country, where the best runners in Kenya competed in cross-country. Marna has been told that she can take part there next year, if she wishes.

Nobody knows how many people live in the Kibera slum. Figures from 200,000 all the way up to 1,200,000 are mentioned.

The tin shacks in Kibera are not the most life-affirming thing you can see

Marna is one of the athletes in ÍSF’s Úrval programme, and the support from Úrval helped make this training camp a reality. Marna came home safe and sound. Now it will be exciting to see the effect of the altitude training. The Danish 10 km road championships, the Faroese 10 km Championships and the Nordic Championships 10,000 m on the track: these are among the upcoming competitions that will show the result.

 

 

Photos