Boulder – If Lornah Kiplagat wins the New York City Marathon this coming Sunday, young girls depending on her assistance to escape the rural poverty and rigid gender roles of her native Kenya will win, too.
The more Kiplagat earns as one of the world’s best distance runners, the more she can invest in the High Altitude Training Center in Iten, Kenya, a camp she founded in 1999 to help teenage Kenyan girls pursue running careers and further their education.
“It’s not only about running for women. It’s about giving a future to women,” said Kiplagat, 31. “I think it’s really not fair to turn our back and not look at them. It is my responsibility. It doesn’t cost a lot of money, and you can change so much in somebody’s life.”
The top woman in New York on Sunday will earn $130,000 in prize money, a record for women. Kiplagat, who trained in Boulder this fall, will be the competitive favorite. Maybe the sentimental one, too.
“At the very peak of her athletic career – just the moment when many athletes are most self-absorbed – Lornah has managed to focus on building a future for others,” race director Mary Wittenberg said. “If Lornah’s immense talent shines on race day, she will be cheered worldwide for much more than her athletic prowess.”
Kiplagat won a silver medal at the world half-marathon championships Oct. 1 and finished fifth in the 10,000 meters in the Athens Olympics in 2004. She led the Athens race with 150 meters to go but was outkicked by gold-medal winner Huina Xing of China and three Ethiopians, missing a medal by 5.5 seconds.
“If there is something I would like to win, it is this race,” Kiplagat said of New York. “I’ve done all possible. This summer I skipped the world (track and field) championships just to dedicate for this race. I really, really want to go for it.”
A citizen of Holland since 2003, Kiplagat also trained in Boulder for New York last year, but a calf injury limited her training, and she finished seventh.
“I like (Boulder) very much,” Kiplagat said. “There are so many options for training. The people are so different. They are so warm.”
In a typical year, Kiplagat will spend time in the U.S., Holland and Kenya. Her camp, which can accommodate 36 girls, has access to hundreds of miles of dirt roads and a 400-meter track. Kiplagat created it because Kenyan girls didn’t have the same opportunities to pursue running careers as boys.
“Established clubs – army, police, prison, railway, post office, banks – have competitions,” Kiplagat said. “They were all (for) men. The women had to stay home and take care of children. Nobody believed in Kenya they can make (running) a career. I thought it was not fair.”
Kenyan girls usually don’t have the same access to education, either.
“When it comes to getting an education in high school, you have to pay a lot of money,” Kiplagat said. “A lot of families can’t afford that. For most the choice is very easy: If there are boys and girls in the same family, they first take the boys. The girls stay home, because their brothers have to be educated. The girls have to be married, have children.”
Kiplagat and her Dutch husband, Pieter Langerhorst, identify girls with running potential, paying their tuition to boarding schools. When not in school, the girls train at the camp. Kiplagat supports them until they become elite runners or qualify for college scholarships.
“To see your money in the bank, I don’t think that gives a good feeling,” Langerhorst said. “We are healthy and we can buy our food. What else do we need? … Just to see those girls’ faces, you can’t believe it.”
This winter the camp will have a new weight room and a physical therapy clinic.
“So far it’s been going good,” Kiplagat said. “You’d like to do it in a large number because there is need. There are so many to be supported.”
