Couple excels in matters of the heart and feet

• Husband and wife team of Gilbert Koech and Ednah Kiplagat has run global races and brought up a family, striking gold in both

With a bristling talent nurtured in hilly terrains, running couple and 42-kilometre trailblazers Ednah Kiplagat and Gilbert Koech only needed very little to stir their long distance prowess.

Ednah and Gilbert’s athletics scripts are identical as they were born and brought up in similar geographical settings, although they say athletics blood runs deep within them.

The husband-and-wife pair credit their tremendous showing in energy-sapping courses to their rural homes’ undulating terrains. And, unlike many high-achieving athletes, the two chose to stick to their rural lifestyles.

Ednah, the 2011 ING New York City Marathon winner, is another typical Kenyan runner that takes your breath away as she easily crushes opposition.

Born a distance from the scenic beauty of Torok Falls on the sidelines of the Elgeiyo escarpment, Ednah would train with football while herding her family’s goats at the nearby Kaptagat Forest and treks to their ancestral farmlands in Kerio Valley.

Gilbert, the 2009 San Antonio Marathon champion, was born at a stone’s throw distance from a cliff in the escarpment lying on the same gradient with his in-laws.

They launched long runs from down the valley upwards and that simply started off their life on the on the fast lane. Amazingly, they occasionally attend training sessions at the mountainous Boulder terrains in Colorado, USA.

“The rolling sites to school gave us the stamina and experience to hold back during races. You become more relaxed and move with your own pace,” said the smiling and soft-spoken Ednah, who attended the nearby Kapkoi Primary School in Keiyo North.

Ednah says she gave up football for running after her games teacher advised her to try her luck in athletics. Although she was a classmate of 2008 Chicago Marathon champions Evans Cheruiyot and 800m sensation Vincent Kemboi, she harboured little interest in athletics.

“I was a swift striker and the teacher told to run in 1995. I represented the school up to divisional level. We had competitions running home at lunch hour and that was quite helpful,” she said.

It was here that the Iten-based athletics coach, Brother Colm O’Connell, spotted Ednah together with Rose Kosgei, the 1997 World Cross Country champion, and enrolled them for the holiday training programme for student athletes in December.

It was here that Gilbert and Ednah met.

The training paid dividends as Ednah made the team to the World Cross in Johannesburg, South Africa, the following year, finishing fourth in the junior category. And since she had then gained some running experience, Ednah teamed up with Cheruiyot and Kosgei – who was at the neighbouring Matungen Primary School – in runs on the forest trails and escarpment paths.

She later attended Bro O’Connell’s April training programme at Tambach Teacher’s Training College.

The trainings emerged a windfall for the then Standard Eight schoolgirl as she comfortably booked her 3,000m ticket in the World Junior Championships in Sydney, Australia, in 1996, where she bagged the bronze medal. She finally ended her yearbook running in the Ekiden relays in Tokyo, Japan.

Even though she joined Form One at Kipsoen Secondary School, where elite runners – among them Olympic champion Brimin Kipruto, Nancy Kiprop, Jepkorir Aiyabei and Elizabeth Ewoi – studied, Ednah missed a podium finish at the 1997 World Cross in Turin, Italy, managing fourth position as training mate and neighbour Kosgei clinched the gold. She thereafter produced a poor showing in the track and Ekiden relays and even failed to shine at the 1998 World Cross in Marrakech, Morocco.

Major disappointment

Ednah’s running however picked up in the track season when she returned to the World Juniors in Paris, France, winning the in 3,000m bronze.