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World's Best: Kenyan Runners in High Falls

photo by Roy Gumpel

The Mohonk Preserve’s and Shawangunk Ridge is best known for its world-class rock climbing that has attracted some of the best climbers on the vertical faces of this earth. Recently, however, the ridge has been discovered by a different group of elite athletes that have come in pursuit of activities more horizontal in nature.

Very discretely, for more than a year now, a small group of the best Kenyan runners in the world have been coming to the Shawangunks to train under the tutelage of Italian running coach and guru Dr. Gabriele Rosa, who considers the endless miles of well-maintained carriage roads at the Mohonk Preserve and Minnewaska State Park a flatlanders’ paradise.

“I have discovered New Paltz thanks to some friends who knew the area already,” said Dr. Rosa. “I was looking for a location where to send some of my Kenyan athletes so they could train for the road racing season in USA. We used to have a site in Boston for the same purpose, but we thought New Paltz would serve our needs better. Of course the trails are so good that it helped us to decide for that area.”

From April to September, Dr. Rosa sends five to 10 runners to the small camp, located on a secluded road in High Falls not far from the Shawangunk trails. The camp is mainly for Kenyan athletes, but Dr. Rosa said he will often use it to support his US athletes following the Discovery USA program (a successful running system invented by Dr. Rosa and the program’s sponsor, Fila, for testing and recruiting young long-distance hopefuls) when they are on the East Coast for races.
Dr. Rosa’s guru status comes from his many years of extensive education and experience working with and training some of the most successful runners in the world. Beginning in the early 1980s, Dr. Rosa managed the preparation of a group of Italian marathon runners, including Gianni Poli, who eventually won the 1986 New York City Marathon. It was after this success that Dr. Rosa’s team became well known all over the world and began to be a point of reference for other athletes on an international level.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Rosa began working with Kenyan athletes headed by Moses Tanui. Tanui went on to win the 10,000-meter race in the Track World Championship in Tokyo in 1991.
By the end of 2001 season, fellow Kenyan runner Margaret Okayo had won the New York City Marathon, the Fila Team athletes trained by Dr. Rosa had won 24 international marathons, and Rosa & Associati was managing more than 250 athletes.

Steve Clarke, the East Coast-based manager of Discovery USA, said that the success of the program has brought Dr. Rosa and his athletes a great deal of attention, and the New Paltz area works well as their training ground because of its location, seclusion, and peacefulness.
“It is very quiet up here, with very few disturbances,” said Clarke. “The athletes don’t have to worry about being accosted by strangers (as tends to happen in Kenya) and they feel secure. It is a very anonymous location for the most part—and the trails are perfect.”
Clarke said that once the athletes get to High Falls, he makes sure that they get proper training advice, eat well, rest, travel safely, and feel as comfortable as possible during their stay here.

He said the athletes typically train twice daily, once early in the morning, and then again in the evening after a day of rest, relaxation, and re-nourishment.

Their main nourishment is a tea made with 30 to 40 percent water, milk, and cane sugar. The Kenyan runners start drinking this tea immediately after their morning training session. For breakfast they have chapatti, a Kenyan dish prepared with flour, eggs, water, and sugar. Lunchtime consists exclusively of rice, sometimes with boiled vegetables.
Clarke said that one of the Kenyans’ favorite trails is Undercliff/Overcliff, a well-known five mile loop of relatively flat carriage road near the popular rock climbing area called the Uberfall. “The Kenyans love Undercliff/Overcliff,” Clarke said.

They also love running at Minnewaska State Park, particularly up “Cardiac Hill,” a notably steep ascent, en route to Lake Awosting. “There is a good mix of trails and the conditions are high quality,” Clarke added. “The Kenyans can run very fast without hurting themselves. They need to be in a place where they can run fast.”

Last year, one of the top Kenyan athletes from the High Falls camp, John Korir, had a very successful East Coast campaign—ultimately finishing the season No. 1 in the world road-race rankings. Korir won many of the main East Coast races, such as Peachtree 10K in Atlanta, the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in Washington, DC, the Utica Boilermaker 15K, the Bix seven-miler in Davenport, Iowa, and the Falmouth Road Race (7.1 miles) on Cape Cod.

“It’s here is the best,” said Korir in broken but steady English about the Shawangunk trails. “I like it so much. There are many routes [that are] good for speed work.”

Other Kenyan runners who have trained at the camp include Eliud Lagat, Titus Munji (who ran one of the top 10 fastest half marathons in the world in 2001), and Benson Barus (who broke the 22-year-old course record at the Broad Street 10-miler in Philadelphia in 2002, but got second place).

Some notable Americans training at the High Falls camp include David Spiller, Peter Sherry (on US team to World XC Championships in 12K, 2000), Eric Bonnette, Jill Gaitenby (the first American at Boston Marathon in ’01 and ’02), and Kelly Cordell.

—Eric Gullickson