Adharanand FinnRunning with the Kenyans: Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth

In "Running with the Kenyans", the author describes his 6 month adventures living in Kenya, trying to discover the secrets that make the country the top producer of the best long distance runners in the world. The author starts his inquiry by exploring the idea of barefoot running, largely influenced by the classic book "Born to Run". Actually, one of the few things I didn't like in the book is the insistence of the author in this subject. Gradually, by analysing his own training progress and interviewing several of the best coaches and runners of all times, the author concludes there is no single secret Kenyans success, but instead a complex set of factors for that. He then elaborates a list of the main ingredients of that make the Kenyans the best runners in the world. In his journey, the author moves with his family, including small children, to Kenya, travel throughout the country, put together a running Team, knows some legendary runners and coaches, run in the track with the pros, run and half and the famous Lewa marathon. It is really impressive his courage. The presence of the author's family with him in Kenya makes this book more human and makes it memorable. Besides, it is well written and very easy to read. If you like running, this book is worth reading.

I'm one of the growing legion of US-based readers who makes it a regular practice to read The Guardian UK's web. There, I learned of Guardian writer Adharanand Finn's book. This enjoyable tale captures the enthusiastic spirit and genial disposition of its author and the willing, "let's go for it" all-in cooperation of his wife, Marietta. [Without her support, no trip, no book.]Finn's recounting details his decision to up sticks for Iten, a town in Rift Valley Province - the epicenter of Kenyan running dominance for the last decade or more. Ostensibly, this book is about Finn's 'game improvement' plan: having tasted a bit of success as an undergraduate runner, he takes up a friend's counsel to train hard for a year and reap the benefits. Being a good journalist, why not do that in the Rift Valley?In truth, the book is more about an exploration of Kenyan running dominance. What makes them such astonishing world-beaters? Finn's neat writing approach is to look for "the secret," all the while taking note of - and tallying - one factor after another chapter after chapter. The secret? After piling on the evidence, he concludes rightfully that there's no one thing. Here's his well-considered summary:"For six months I've been piecing together the puzzle of why Kenyans are such good runners. In the end there was no elixir, no running gene, no training secret that you could package up and present with flashing lights and fireworks. Nothing that Nike could replicate and market as the latest running fad. No, it was too complex, yet too simple, for that. It was everything, and nothing. I list the secrets in my head: the tough, active childhood, the barefoot running, the altitude, the diet, the role models, the simple approach to training, the running camps, the focus and dedication, the desire to succeed, to change their lives, the expectation that they can win, the mental toughness, the lack of alternatives, the abundance of trails to train on, the time spent resting, the running to school, the all-persuasive running culture, the reverence for running."I love the construction of the story: instead of formulating this list and studying the factors, it's the reverse that happens - Finn encounters each of these factors in turn in his daily life and training and then thinks, hmmm, that's another thing to add to the list. Well done.One disappointing note in the book is Finn's admission of an odd gap in his knowledge of running history and culture. It involves a neat serendipity in his book: one of his co-runners in Iten is a "young American student named Anders" (we're never told his surname although - hint - it's 'Samuelson') Eventually, he "work[s] out that Anders' mother is Joan Benoit"...a fact not easy for Finn to work out because he gets a jumbled tale from his host, Godfrey, and - unstated - Anders is a humble kid (the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree).Later, upon the occasion of a visit to Iten by "Anders' Mom," Finn relates that "not knowing much about her career, I looked her up on the Internet and managed to find a video of her Olympic victory in 1984." He then proceeds to school his readers about her 'amazing' breakaway run in which she "plow[ed] on with a look of steel on her face..." Huh? By most accounts the seminal event in the history women's running and you have to look it up on the Internet to see what it was about? Seriously? Then, two pages later he recounts an episode with her while driving in Iten and describes her as a "small, elderly white woman with short gray hair." Elderly? Joan Benoit Samuelson is an attractive, 55-year-old woman who, yes, wears her hair short and naturally gray.That irritation aside, "Running with the Kenyans" is a delightful book. Anyone with an interest in sport should pick it up.

Adharanand Finn’s Running With The Kenyans stands as part personal odyssey, part Kenyan running exploration. On the surface Finn sets out with two primary goals in mind: first, he wants to find himself as runner, person, and writer, and second he wants to tap the Kenyan well in an effort to figure out what makes the country so dominant in distance running. In order to achieve both goals, Finn uproots his family, complete with small children and moves to Kenya to train for a marathon. With these two central themes, at times the book can inspire, at others it can meander along lacking direction as he searches for to find the answer to questions that boarder on rhetorical.As a runner, Finn is not world class, at least at the texts start, and regardless of his end stage fitness, he will never be elite. That said, he wants to live the dream, to run free as he calls it, “to live among people who don’t think that running is ridiculous” (Finn 45). In Iten, Kenya, the town he relocates to, people do not run for fitness—they are not dog walkers, they have to work too hard just to stay alive—here people run to be athletes, to seek a way out and to find a future. In Iten, a hotbed of Kenyan running, the home to the famous Brother Colm who started it all, people run because to run, they have a chance. Thus their training comes with “‘the hunger to succeed” (237).Finn explores this world, stumbling into record holders both current past at nearly every step. As he works toward his personal running goal, running his first marathon, he befriends locals, attends races, and visits training camps. Finn creates a running team with the goal of not only completing, but also promoting a few dreamers. Along his journey, he casually shows up to a morning run, one conducted at 5:30 am, to find the current Marathon World Record holder, Wilson Kipsang, giving directions for a fartlek workout. Success and greatness is so abound, that when Finn attempts to contact Kipsang, a 2:03 marathoner, he phones the wrong Kipsang, only this one has a 2:05 personal best. The running greatness becomes his focus, and much of the text tries to find the secret, one in the end has a complex and convoluted answer, a response deeply rooted and spread across the culture of the area.Finn’s marathon rests at the text’s culmination, standing as the final event beyond the afterword. While this path is interesting, the nuts and bolts rests in the sections highlighted above. Finn wants to know why we run. Why do people punish themselves? At times he follows the lead of Born to Run for he himself had converted to forefoot style to avert injury and mimic barefoot Kenyans, and he longs to know what running means. Throughout the narrative journey, he digs, ponders, and tries to find the answer: “Perhaps it is to fulfill this primal urge that runners and joggers get up every morning and pound the streets in cities all over the world” (195). He went to Kenya to become primal, and as an avid runner I can claim that his journey stokes the internal fires of those constantly searching for the same facts.Favorite line: “Twenty-six miles; forty-two kilometers. But they are just numbers. One step at a time. One breath at a time” (xiv). Works CitedFinn, Adharanand. Running with the Kenyans: Passion,Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth. New York: Ballantine, 2012.Check here for other reviews: [...]

I found this book very good for introducing me the Kenyan Culture since I’m interested in going for Kenya Experience. I recommend it!

A warm book that brings africa closer to me again :) travel running book

I really enjoyed reading Finn's story about his experience in Kenya. I learned some of the Kenyan's "secrets" and enjoyed imagining what it is like to live and train in Kenya.

Great read!

A lovely book on the 'secrets' of the run away success Kenyans have had in the middle/long distance events. The author captures the essence of running in Kenya and what it means to the people there very well. It is not a self help book for becoming a better runner, but fit certainly made me think about my running in ways i couldn't have imagined looking at the title. All runners are at some sense linked with a common bond and we share that with these extraordinary runners from the rift valley in Kenya.A must read for all running enthusiasts.