More than 36,000 runners set for 118th edition of America’s biggest road race

As the shadows lengthen and the sun sets on this Friday evening, Andrew Gitonga, a Kenyan resident of Dennison, Ohio, is busy putting final touches to a speech he is to give on Sunday in Boston as he presents his business to a congregation that will be predominantly Kenyan.

Mr Gitonga, a co-partner in Pata Pawa, a Kenya Power authorised electricity vending company based in Nairobi, knows that Boston will be swarming with Kenyans because of the Marathon.

He is aware that hundreds, if not thousands, of Kenyans will assemble in this historic city to cheer the country’s representatives in the race.
The occasion will therefore present a good opportunity for him to recruit would-be agents in the Diaspora.

“Around this time of the year in the US, its only in Boston that you are likely to find a good crowd of Kenyans. This is the reason we are going there to present our business to Kenyans living in Boston,” Mr Gitonga told Sunday Nation Sport on phone.

Tomorrow, the world’s attention will be on the Boston Marathon, the world’s most celebrated road race.

About 36,000 runners are expected to take part in this year’s race, 9,000 more than usual, in its 118th edition. The increased participation is because some of the runners who were not able to finish last year’s race because of the bombings have been granted entry. Many more runners will be competing to raise funds for victims of last year’s event.

With the increased entry, this year’s edition of the marathon could come close to the current race record of 38,708 runners, set in 1996 during the marathon’s 100th anniversary.

Athletes will be representing every state in the US and over 90 countries in an event that is believed to be the second biggest single-day sporting event in the US just behind the Super Bowl in terms of media coverage.

As it has become a tradition, the Boston Marathon is a huge event in the Kenyan community in the Boston.

“The best time to be Kenyan in the US is during the Boston Marathon. People will stop you on the streets for pictures if they see you carrying a Kenyan flag or dressed in clothes that give a hint of you being Kenyan. Around this time, every Kenyan is a star here,” says Wilson Wahome, Director of Run with Kenyans.

UNMATCHED PERFORMANCE

Kenya’s fame is largely attributed to the unmatched performance of its athletes in the event year in, year out.

Since 1988, Kenya has dominated the Boston Marathon which has practically become a Kenyan event.

Mr Wahome, a Kenyan living in Boston, who has dedicated his energies in promoting Kenyan athletes in the marathon, however, laments that the Kenyan government has not taken advantage of the international exposure that the Boston marathon provides.

“It breaks my heart to see all the free publicity generated by our Kenyan athletes going to waste because our government has not developed strategies to harness it. At the Boston Sports Center, there are only three flags hoisted there. The US flag, the BAA flag and the Kenyan flag. It is only Kenya, out of the more than 50 countries that take part in the marathon, that has the honour to fly its flag in Boston,” says Wahome.

Mr Wahome says for a country that heavily relies on tourism for foreign exchange earnings, the Boston marathon would be a perfect entry point into the American market. But lack of government presence has not stopped the Kenyan party from going on.

For the Kenyan fans based in the US, there is always an opportunity for them to meet their heroes at an annual event called ‘Dinner with Champions’ which for first time since its inception four years ago was completely sold out long before the weekend.

But whether the government will wake up and take advantage of marketing and promotional opportunities that the event provides remain to be seen.