January 7th, 2008
Ran: 4:30pm
Wore: sports bra, tee shirt, light cotton pants
Temp: 62 degrees, real feel 64 degrees

"We hate these people."
ROBERT TUTUNY, of Kenya’s Kalenjin tribe, on the violence that is forcing the exodus of the Kikuyus, the tribe of Kenya’s president, from the western part of the country.

Hmph....what the hell's going on with the Kalenjin? This quote makes it into the JuggerLog, because 12 of the top 20 marathon runners in the world are from the Kalenjin tribe of Kenya. Right now, it seems they're taking a break from distance training to massacre Kikuyus over land rights and what looks like a rigged election. The conflict seems to have been brewing since Kenya's independence in 1963. Let's hope that, after sifting through the bones of the 50 women and children burned alive as they hid in a church for, the Kalenjins can get their minds right and get back to running.

Nevermind. Looks like the Kikuyus are killing them back. A Kalenjin Olympic runner has already been murdered in this chaos.

Never in my life did I think that politics and world issues would make me think about sports.

- I dedicated my run today to the people of Kenya - from all tribes. Whenever I felt a little tired, I thought about the recent world champion who barely survived a machete attack, and I thought, "If your life depended on it, you wouldn't stop,now would you?" Then it was easy to keep running. I dedicated the footfalls and the smell of donated post-Christmas pine trees and the people playing with their babies and their dogs in the park. I marveled at the accustomed peace of living in America, and I was thankful for my luck. I wrote some other things in my notebook about this, but it's 2am, and I'm tired. I'll write more tomorrow, or I won't. All is well, and it's been a full day.

And I ran for 25 MINUTES without stopping today. I really can't believe it. I am a runner now. I have arrived.

Finally, Seth, my downstairs neighbor wants to run the marathon too. Crazy talk. He did a half-marathon in August, so he'll have a lot to offer. Plus, he seems like a fun guy...