My tip is coming to an end. I feel bad for not updating as much as I would have liked but I have been flat out with work recently. It can't be helped though, I have had deadlines so they have to take priority unfortunately. 

These last few weeks in Kenya couldn't have gone better from a personal perspective, I came out here in better shape than I thought off the back of the road relays and I've got some hard graft done. Only time will tell if it's been enough to challenge that top 10 or top 5 at Liverpool. I think my best finish was around 14th back in 2007 and last year I was 16th off the back of an interrupted winter. This time it's been smooth sailing so far so hopefully I can try and improve on my finish last year.

The race itself is wide open in my eyes, there's so many guys who could potentially finish in that top 5 so it's down to the weather conditions, the going under foot and just whoever has their weetabix gets it right on the day!

Back to Kenya and I've had some life changing experiences out here. Training on dust tracks with some of the worlds best knocking about. Going on training runs and bumping into athletes out for a casual jog and then being shocked when I hear PB's of 2:06 for the marathon or 27:20 for 10k or sub 60 for the half. After a quick Google I think the Marathon runner was David Kemboi Kiyeng as he told me he'd ran his PB in Paris. Then there is also the group running- last week Beattie and I arranged with one of the guys who works at the centre Muktche, he himself is a 61 minute half marathon runner, he met us at 6:15 at the bottom of the hill in Iten. Matt Clowes came along too and when we met him there was 5 or 6 Kenyans stretching round him, we thought that was the group but as we turned the corner we seen around 60 athletes all begining to jog. 

We got on the back of the group and then for the next 75 minutes not a word was spoken. We just knew to follow Muktche wherever he went as he'd told us earlier the group would split from time to time and some would go off on a different run but he was doing 75 minutes. We weaved out way through the hills of the Rift Valley and I was breathing in dust non stop but the experience was surreal. Just to be apart of 1 run made my trip. It's a shame we haven't linked up further but I hate to say it, these guys are just way to good for us! I don't think many would have been able to keep up on the easy run. Yes we started off a 8min miles for the first 4 or 5 but then it quickened to 7's and then by the end we were 6:30's but the last 3 mile of the run was uphill so it was tough going but just being surrounded by the group made the world of difference and there was no discomfort for us mzungus (white people).

I'm now backing things off ready to come home. We fly tomorrow afternoon to Nairobi and then overnight landing back into London on Thursday morning. Then it's just a case of giving myself the best preparation going into Liverpool. Fingers crossed all this work will pay off and the extra red blood cells will come in handy!

Also keep your eyes on athleticos.org I've got Part 3 of my training video's going up in the next day or so.

Some pictures:

Shaheen the Chase WR holder doing his recovery jog during his session.