![]() It wasn’t until the early 1960s that Kip realised that his thighs demanded a greater challenge and he took up competitive athletics on the side from his day job. In fact, Kip was one of the first great runners the country produced. At the time, Kenya was not the runner generating powerhouse it is today. Instead, Kip became a physical training instructor for the Kenyan police force. After finishing school, though, he didn’t immediately get into competitive running. You may think that with this impressive running ability, Kip was destined to be a runner. If your mind is still trying to work out the maths for that one, Kip ran 16 miles every single day in Kenyan heat without shoes just to get to school- Kip managed this starting as a 5 year old. I ran in my bare feet four miles to school in the morning, home for lunch, again for afternoon school and back at the end of the day. When once asked about his childhood and how he got started running, this was Kip’s response: Things didn’t get better when both of his parents died when he was very young he then moved in with his aunt who raised him. Kipchoge is a Nandi expression for something to the effect of “born near the grain storage shed.” If you guessed he came from humble beginnings, you’d be right. ![]() The story we want to share is the time Kip was almost late for his own race and had to (literally) run to get there, then won a gold medal anyway, despite another major adversity in that race, which we’ll get to in a minute.įirst, a little info on the man himself, because he’s awesome. ![]() Throughout his career, Kip earned almost a dozen medals, half of which were gold, for being an amazing middle to long distance runner. Kipchoge Keino, aka Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino or (thankfully in the interest of avoiding typos) just Kip, is a retired athlete who ran for the country of Kenya.
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