Taking running to the extreme

The first time Limo Kipkemoi ran a long race, it was 21 kilometers, for two and a half hours.

“I almost died,” he says. A few months later, friends introduced him to a run in Jinja, Uganda.

“At Jinja, he did 25 kms, admiring people running 50 kms. I asked them what I needed to manage 50 kms. I couldn’t imagine anyone covering those number of kilometres,” Limo says.

He was told of a group in Kenya doing long runs and he soon joined them.

From then on, Limo has been in a quest to do ultra runs, which is any race longer than the standard marathon’s 42.2 km. It often involves a long test of grit across uneven terrains, running in the desert and mountains. Ultrarunning is a new sport that has been growing at a fast rate, with around a 1,000 percent increase in participants globally in the past 10 years.

Limo wants to be the first person to run in each county in Kenya — a total of 47 ultra runs.

When we catch up with him, the architect had just completed covering 100km in Trans-Nzoia and Bungoma counties over a weekend. It took him 10 hours.

“I have always wanted to cover two counties in one day, so I started at the border and tackled 50km, back to start and then ran the opposite direction another 50km. It is fun but tough. Now I’m on to the next one,” he says.

Limo started running in March 2020, just before Covid struck, and has done 34 counties. He hopes to complete the 47 counties by March this year.

He has run around Lake Naivasha twice which is 75km, in six hours and 40 minutes. He has also run round Ngong Hills which is 50km for six hours and 14 minutes. He also did all the bypasses in Nairobi in one day, from Northern to Southern and Eastern bypass. He covered 100 kilometres combined and took him 12 hours 49 minutes.

At the start of January this year, a group of friends and him ran around Mount Kenya, 370 kilometres which took them six days. This 51 and a half hours run, Limo says was so tough that it shredded his new shoes.

“My running friends usually join me once in a while. I have had company in more than 15 counties, most are from my club, Ultra-Running in Nairobi,” he says.

One of his daunting runs was from Nairobi to Moshi in Tanzania which took him and his seven friends five days-53 hours and 46 minutes to run 360 kilometres.

The run was staged from Nairobi to Kajiado, Kajiado to Namanga, Namanga to Longido which was a short run because of the clearance at the border, then to Arusha, and the last leg to Moshi.

On day five, drained and bruised, he had to give someone his shoes halfway and run barefoot. He reached Moshi at 10 pm.

“I was at 335 kilometers when I noticed a guy in tyre sandals, running parallel to me. It was raining. After two kilometres, he was still keeping up and he asked me why I was running in the rain, I told him that I need to get to Moshi. He told me he needed to get to Tanga, which was 500km away.”

His story was that he had been employed for three months without pay and he was going back home after taking his wife upcountry.

“His right leg was bleeding because of iron string holding the sandal in place. That is how I gave him all the Tanzanian money I had to use for his transport. I removed my shoes I had just bought from Run Beyond specifically for this run and gave them to him so he could walk comfortably the rest of the journey. And that is how I ran barefoot for 18km and finished with no shoes,” he says.

Flat foot

Limo explains with ultras, it is not so much about athleticism but more about endurance for extreme mental and physical strain.

“My body is not built for a runner, I do it for pleasure and fitness. I have a flat foot and research shows flat feet are not ideal for stress running, as they lead to aches in the ankles, knees, hips and lower back, I mitigate this by buying wide feet shoes,” he says.

He has run from Nairobi to Nakuru with friends. They started as 20 people and only five of them made it to Nakuru. It took him 17 hours.

He explains he does not listen to podcasts, music or audiobooks when he is on the run. The sounds of nature soothe him.

“It gives me time for me to belong to the environment,” he says.

At the start of the county runs, Limo would link the running with his out of town projects. If he had a client to see in Kisumu, he would take a day after the meeting to do his runs in the county.

He cuts costs by having his camping gear which he pays as low as Sh200 to pitch, sometimes he drives back to Nairobi after a run so he does not spend money on accommodation. Some of the remaining counties will need him to take a flight which will add to the costs.

His costs have also been brought down by a partnership with local franchise Salomon Kenya, which gives him the running gear, from shoes, thermal socks, shorts, t-shirts, bags, thermal hand gloves, headlamps and jackets.

“Salomon wants to build a running and outdoor community by supporting and encouraging local talent and bringing international awareness of the diverse playgrounds we have here in Kenya and East Africa,” said Sushil Gohil the CEO of Going Outdoor, Salomon’s franchise distributor in East Africa.

“We spotted Limo and his passion for self-fulfilment through his run and his great ambitions led us to support him, he was the first to be selected to represent the brand in Kenya.”

In his runs, the architect who has an architectural firm in Nairobi carries a backpack containing a first aid kit, three litres of water, snacks, energy bars and sweet drinks. “But of late, I have decided to carry less, I carry only a litre of water and will get the rest from people’s homesteads, or fetch from the rivers, I have not gotten sick from drinking water that is not bottled,” he says.

He describes most Kenyans that he meets as friendly. At one time when traversing Taita Taveta, he stopped at a homestead to ask for water.

“I was at this gate and when the owner of the home saw me, he got scared and thought I was a mad man, when I explained that I was just doing my runs, he welcomed me in, gave me tea and a good meal.”

“I have never experienced any hostility from people, I meet a lot of children who get fascinated by what I am doing, sometimes we take photos with them and I ask them a few questions about school and encourage them to study hard,” says Limo who is also the vice-chairman of Scrabble Kenya, the official body governing the professional game of scrabble in Kenya.

Some counties are tougher than others. Tana River was especially hard for him. He started his run at 6.30 am and an hour later, the sun got unbearable and there was no sight of people or place he could take shelter. He pushed through and finished in five hours and 28 minutes.

When he knows his next county will be in an arid place, he does a 50km dry test run-running without taking any water.

“For normal counties, on the night before a run, I make sure I hydrate, I take over four litres during the run and on a normal day I take at least two litres of water.”

“Stretching after a run also helps me recover faster from the fatigue, and I also make sure I get good sleep after a run.”

With less than 15 counties to go, the 34-year-old is on the lookout for the next adventure.

With three other ultra-runners, they are planning to run up and down Mt. Kenya three times in 24 hours.

[email protected]