Why Tergat walked to school

March 19 1997

OTTAVIO CASTELLINI reports from the heart of Kenya on the life and times of the remarkable Paul Tergat

Any attempt to gain an insight to the life of World Cross Country Champion Paul Tergat, the Kenyan distance star, requires a little detective work. Robert M. Maxon writes in his book: East Africa, An Introductory History: "At the beginning of the 16th century, the Nandian group was still largely concentrated on the Western slopes of the Rift Valley to the east of Mount Elgon. They then moved east to the territory between Mt. Elgon and the Cheranganyi Hills. Here a division appears to have taken place with the ancestors of the Elgeyo, Marakwet and Tugen moving east and those of the Nandi and Kipsigis to the South West".

The Tugen are a tribe who, like the Elgeyo, the Marakwet, the Nandi and the Kipsigis, are descendants of the Nandian Group, which, in its turn, is part of the subdivision (with the Elgon, Pokot and South Kalenjin) of the Kalenjin people. The roots of the Kalenjin can also be traced back to the Highland Nilotes, whose homeland, as Maxon notes, "was the south-western area of Ethiopia, from where they went on to occupy portions of north-west Kenya stretching roughly from Mount Elgon to Mount Kenya." If you take a map of modern day Kenya, it is easy to see that in the centre of a hypothetical line traced from south-east to north-west between Mount Kenya and Mount Elgon is Lake Baringo, now home to the famous pink flamingos. Tugen and Lake Baringo bring us straight to the home of our subject: Paul Tergat.

Tergat was born in that area of Lake Baringo which is the heart of the land of the Tugen. He grew up there with his parents: his father Kiptuna who had three wives. One of the wives, Esther, bore five children, four boys and a girl, and among the boys was Paul, born on June 17, 1969.

His childhood was like that of most other Kenyan children: there was the daily trip to school, but not made running as folklore would have it. If you go to this area and stand by the roadside between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning, waiting to see groups of children running past on their way to school, you will be disappointed. Nobody runs, they all walk; for very long distances, but they walk.

Tergat went to primary school in Riwo, near Kabarnet, the main town of the Tugen region, and then went on to secondary school – or High School – in Kapkawa. This was a boys only school, as is customary in Kenya for children of this age. It was here that Tergat used to play basketball with his schoolmates, giving birth to the legend, reported in biographies, that he was a former basketball player. With a shy smile, Tergat sets the record straight: "No, I have never been a basketball player. I just used to play with the other boys in the school.". The truth is that Paul Tergat did very little sport during the first 20 years of his life and, in any event, never ran!

In 1990, at the age of 21, Tergat was conscripted into the Air Force and had his first contact with running during military training. He recalls that some of his fellow conscripts encouraged him to run in a competition. "They told me that I was a good runner, that I could do it". And so dawned the day of his official debut. He ran his first race, over 12 km, in 1991 at the Air Force base at Nairobi. "A terrible memory," Tergat said. "I had never had such a hard time. I came 25th after a lot of suffering. After the race I felt lousy, I was sick and spitting blood. It was awful!"

His supporters convinced him to persevere and so he went to take part in a race organised by the Kenyan Federation, at Nyahururu. "I came 12th, in better shape than the first time. I thought to myself: ‘If I have been able to beat so many of my friends today, then I can become a good runner.’ And so, I decided to carry on." This conviction was strengthened by a third place finish in a cross country race at Embu. And at the end of 1991 Paul Tergat figured in the list of African athletes compiled by Yves Pinaud for the first time. His name appeared in the 10,000m list with a time of 29:46.8, at Nairobi on May 11. This ranked him eightieth African of that year. Not bad for someone who had only been running for a few months!

This result – 29:46.8 – only became public knowledge halfway through 1992, with the publication of Pinaud’s definitive "African Athletics", where Tergat was classified among the group of "those who will become famous." His progression between the end of 1991 and the opening months of 1992 was striking. The readers of Athletics Today – the definitive British athletics magazine of the early 1990s – first discovered the name of Paul Tergat after his first place in a cross country race run at Nyahururu on December 14, 1991. On that occasion Tergat left Kirwa, Chirchir, Dominic Kirui and many other better known athletes in his wake.

He asserted his presence even more strongly on the occasion of the Kenyan Armed Forces Cross Country Championships at Nanyuki, on January 31, 1992. A report in Athletics Today stated: "The extraordinary depth of Kenyan distance running was amply demonstrated by the results of the Kenyan Armed Forces Cross Country Championships at the picturesque Nanyuki Barracks. Running on a 13.8 km course, part road and part across dry grassland, David Kibet won a spectacular finish from Richard Chelimo. There was a surprise third placer, however, in Philip Tergat, who began cross country running only last year."

As the mistake in his name shows, Tergat had yet to join the ranks of the greats. But he only had to wait for two weeks, until February 15, when, on the well known Ngong Racecourse, at the gates of Nairobi, the National Cross Country Championships took place as trials for the World Championships, to be held later that year in Boston.

The result was totally unexpected: Tergat beat a field which included Chelimo, whom he overtook in the final stages, Bitok, Sigei, Koech, Kiprono Kimwigur, Lelei and Dominic Kirui. John Ngugi only finished 13th, but was nonetheless selected for the World Championships team in a risky move by the Kenyan Federation. But the gamble certainly paid off. On a day of snow and freezing temperatures Ngugi won his fifth world cross country title.

Just a week after winning the national title, Tergat went on to win the Nairobi International over the same Ngong course, beating Dominic Kirui, Sigei and Chelimo. Writing from Nairobi for Athletics Today, John Bicourt said: "Elegant and composed, Tergat dominated the race from half-way, opening up a lead over Richard Chelimo, William Mutwol, Peter Koech, Simon Kirui and William Sigei." After this win Tergat became a serious contender for the world title. In common with all the others selected for Boston, Tergat went on retreat at Embu, where the Federation trains every year those selected for the World Cross Country Championships. To be included in the most famous team of runners in the world was a dream for Tergat. And this, after just a year of activity.

But misfortune was just around the corner. He left with the team for Boston already suffering an injury, which turned out to be relatively serious. "It was a muscular injury to the left leg," recalls Dr Gabrielle Rosa, who had already contacted him to join his team in Italy. Tergat himself remembers Boston as a nightmare. "To be there without being able to run was terrible for me, an experience which made me cry. I will never forget it in my life."

His recovery took four long months. Then, in August, he arrived in Italy. "My first race was Amatrice-Configno", he recalls. The disappointment of Boston, the long road to recovery after the injury, combined with his conviction that he could make it, strengthened his will. "During those sad months I decided to get stronger, much stronger, and I worked hard to achieve this." And the first results, which included a fifth place in the first edition of the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships from Newcastle to South Shields, confirmed his recovery. His time of 61:03 showed that Paul Tergat was back with talent to burn.

The rest of the story of Paul Tergat is well known. His results, particularly those of 1995 and the first part of 1996, have destined him for greatness. He has now won two World Cross Country titles, in Durham 1995 and Stellenbosch 1996, and also ran the world’s best time for half marathon in the famous Stramilano road race earlier this year. With Atlanta looming he is quietly preparing to improve on his third place finish at 10,000m in the 1995 World Championships in Göteborg.

In a very few years, Tergat’s existence has altered dramatically. "Yes" – he admits with his softly modulated voice – "success has greatly changed my life, but I try to stay the same as before. Everything I do is for my family: for my wife and children."

The family is one of the pillars of his life. In November 1993, Tergat married Monica. "But we had been engaged for ever", he says with a pinch of poorly concealed reserve. The couple have two children: Ronald, who is six, and Hariet, who had her first birthday on March 12. For Tergat, the memory of the birth of Hariet is beautiful and a little sad at the same time. "Hariet was born four days before I had to leave for the World Cross Country Championships and it was a torment for me. Not to be close to my wife and my little girl was unbearable". But the birth of this second child gave him the drive to win his first World Championship race. Being separated from his family is always very difficult for him and he doesn’t hide it. Dr Rosa and his partner Loretta are the first to see it when Tergat has problems. "He needs affection," says Loretta. "He cannot stay away from Kenya and his family for very long."

"It is true, being far away from my family is the hardest thing for me, even if Italy has become my second home", says Tergat. When, in the summer, Dr. Rosa takes his athletes to St. Moritz in Switzerland to prepare for major events, Tergat has some moments of anguish. Even though he loves St. Moritz so much as to say: "I love the place, St. Moritz is like Kenya."

This is the human side of a great runner. A side which is not always on display and has led some to label him as withdrawn. Then again, maybe this is just self defence, the delicacy of an over sensitive spirit?

When you see Tergat in his second home, close to the training camp for military athletes in the Ngong hills – on the road which leads to the lands of the Masai – Paul Tergat is the picture of the athlete and family man. The tenderness he displays to his wife and his children would surprise skeptics.

Early rising guests in Tergat’s house, at around 2000 metres above sea level, can watch him train on the paths of red earth which run through the forests. When you leave Nairobi and head for this home, you have to drive through a district called "Karen", Kenya’s homage to the great Danish author Karen Blixen. Her most famous work, Out of Africa, seems an evocative way to describe the rise of Paul Tergat.

Ottavio Castellini of Italy is a Competitions Officer at the IAAF and an athletics writer and statistician. This article was originally published in Volume 11, issue 2, 1996 of the IAAF Magazine. See the main IAAF web for subscription details.

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