Our runners are Super-Mega stars to the rest of the world
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The 112th Boston marathon starts next Monday and will take runners from all over the world through a gruelling 26 miles on the streets of Boston with a fat prize - US $150,000 - waiting for each winner of the mens’ and womens’ group.Kenya’s elite runners are in Boston and are being chaperoned around like valuable commodity the same way JayZ or Akon are chaperoned when they visit East Africa drawing large crowds everywhere they go.The difference though, is that when these celebrities return back home, they draw even bigger crowds unlike our athletes.The Kenyan community has a vibrant, diverse mesh of independent media/blogs that I believe in the coming years will give our mainstream media a run for their money.It is, therefore, interesting that there is almost no one (kenyan) covering the kenyan runners who have now landed in Boston in preparation for the race on Monday.These runners have for a long time been goodwill ambassadors for our country. I have heard of people who come to Kenya simply because they have been amazed by the discipline, determination and grace of these runners and decided to see where they come from.I think It would be really neat to have a Joseph-Karoki-esque type coverage of the Boston marathon from a Kenyan perspective. (Joseph Karoki covered the 2007 post-election crisis by letting pictures do the talking and it was really powerful)Ah, well, maybe next year I will be better prepared.
