World Record Marathoner Patrick Makau in Honolulu for London Tuner, by Toni Reavis, note by Larry Eder

Marathon World Record holder Patrick Makau

Honolulu, Hawaii — Marathon world record holderPatrick Makau of Kenya arrived in Honolulu last night in preparation for The Hapalua, Hawaii’s premier Half Marathon whose second edition will be run this Sunday morning beginning adjacent to world-famous Waikiki Beach.  The race, and its Chase format, will be Makau’s final tune up for the April 21^st Virgin London Marathon where he will test himself against one of the strongest marathon fields ever assembled.

While there are some who might question why an athlete of Makau’s stature would travel so far for a tune up when his marathon is just six weeks away, and chance a major disruption to his training, Makua has always run to his own rhythms, and with evident success.

Having visited Kenya last year, I can attest to the Makau Way, which, by the way, is the title of an e-book Patrick hopes to have published within the next few months, which will outline his training philosophy.

“His is a very basic approach,” explained Makau’s manager Zane Branson, managing director of International Athletics Consultancy out of Prague in the Czech Republic.  “In Eldoret (Kenya) everyone is training in the Wilson Chebet group, maybe 230 to 250 runners in all.  But Patrick has a different confidence.  He trains in Ngong (outside Nairobi) with a few hand-picked guys, and sets up his own program.  You never hear anyone say, ‘you won’t believe what Makau did n training today’.  He trains to race fast, not to train fast.”

Proceeds from the Makau Way e-book will go toward a nursery school and orphanage Patrick is building in the village of Kangundo near his home area in Machakos, Kenya.  The area has suffered as high an incidence of HIV / AIDS as any in Kenya, leaving many orphans in its wake.

“(Paul) Tegat is also helping,” said Branson. “They are the only two Kenyan men to have held the marathon world record.”

Hoping to raise their own standard of living through running has only been part of what drives Kenya’s great runners. Extending that prov
idence to their large families and their villages has also been a prime motivator.  Paul Tergat has long been a United Nations World Food Programme “Ambassador Against Hunger”.  And on February 23rd Patrick was named  the United Nations Environment Programme’sclean air patron. Read more of this post