MEET SYLVIA

Sylvia is a girl who was taken in by relatives and in return, does most of the housework for a large family. She surprised me though because rather than lament about how exhausted she is from the long school days, endless homework, weekend classes and housework, she talked excitedly about what she loved most: running. Every day Sylvia wakes up at the crack of dawn and heads to her school field where she runs sprints and does exercise drills before class. She loves to compete and dreams of the day she can become a professional runner. A Kenyan pro-runner? Who would’ve thought? Well, I’ve run two half marathons before in fancy places like Alaska so I asked what any professional like myself would ask.

“Do you have running shoes?”
“No”
“I’m going to get you some running shoes.”

I walk-ran two half marathons…wait did I say I ran them before, excuse me, I half-ran two half-marathons, and I have expensive orthotics that have my name full name engraved in them that I only got after enduring the torture of a 15 min foot massage from a handsome podiatrist. Worst experience of my life 😉 I also have running shoes that I got from a running store only after running on a treadmill and my gait observed on a monitor for over-pronation. I’m professional at running shoes. I could tell she found my American insistence that shoes are the key to success amusing, so I decided not to go into something I know even better than running shoes, sports bras. I can talk about sports bras all day.

“I really can’t run in shoes” [blank stare] “Even if I wear them, I take them off right before the race”
“Even at national competitions?”
“Yes”
“Well…Huh…Huh.”

I tried to imagine her taking off her shoes at the Boston Marathon and the thought amused me so much. Talk about good TV. She would be so popular. I could see the headlines…’the key to running like a Kenyan, no shoes!’

“Alright Sylvia. Keep running. Keep winning.”
“Yes, Madam.”