Running with the Kenyans

Adharanand Finn is a runner and a writer (and yes, that is his real name). At school, Finn showed a talent for running, he joined a club and started competing. Later, as a professional writer, he wrote for running magazines. Like most observers of athletics, he noted that Kenyans dominated long distance races all over the world. Unlike most, he set out to find the secret to their success. Running with the Kenyans tells the story of his journey.

To investigate the Kenyans’ incredible results, Finn, his wife and their three small children moved to Africa. His family immersed themselves in the local culture, living in Iten, a town where hundreds of the country’s best runners live and train. There are so many world-class athletes in Kenya that a local track meet produces finishing times comparable to Olympic heats and it’s common for last year’s winners of the New York and London marathons to finish outside the placegetters. Against that background, Finn also decided it was a good opportunity to train for a marathon.

During the early part of his career, Finn was an international journalist. He put his skills to good use investigating Kenyan success. He observed the training regimes of accomplished athletes, and interviewed expatriate coaches from whose stables future record-holders will emerge. He takes all this information and puts it into prose that is informative, interesting and fun to read.

Finn’s book is a mixture of anecdotes and observations. He relates amusing incidents in a conversational style that lets the reader share the experience. From the humour of daily living in a small African town to his injury fears while stumbling along a dirt track on a predawn training run, Finn’s storytelling ability enthrals and informs. He makes good use of the present tense, conveying a sense of immediacy: when his alarm clock sounds at 5.45AM, the reader grimaces at the thought of waking in the dark, faced with a hard run in the cool air.

It’s easy to classify Running with the Kenyans as a journal. Although correct in the literal sense of the word – it follows the journey of Finn and his family – it is so much more. The comparison of cultures, of living in the United Kingdom versus living in Kenya, goes beyond athletics and moves into the realm of social commentary. Finn’s observation of everyday life in Kenyan towns describes a lifestyle at odds with the mores of western society, an analogue for success achieved through simplicity and dissatisfaction with complexity.

Running with the Kenyans is inspiring, marvellous and well written; read it for inspiration, to marvel at the achievements of incredible human beings, or simply for the enjoyment of a story told well.

Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5

Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the World’s Greatest Runners
By Adharanand Finn
Paperback, 304 pages, RRP $29.99
ISBN: 9780571274055
Faber Non Fiction/Allen & Unwin