I’m sat on a bench, tall pines providing some welcome respite from the midday sun and the man to my left is extolling the virtues of Northern Ireland. Larne has a fan in the Kenyan rift valley.
In 2023, Daniel Mateiko got on three flights and found himself at George Best Belfast City Airport, the cold still one of the first things he remembers despite the August date.
The red jacket and yellow face of Mr Tayto waved at him from every angle. A car picked him up and out he drove north, the deep blue of the Irish Sea replacing the red clay of the Kaptagat roads of his home.
Two days later he lined up alongside four Kenyans, four Ethiopians, a Ugandan and many of the best that Britain can offer.
A lap of the town centre, out they headed on the Coast Road, the lead group shedding to two athletes locked in their own duel. Until one man won.
58 minutes, 36 seconds after the gun went, Mateiko lifted his arms aloft. The 2023 winner of the Antrim Coast Half.
Yes he had won before. The Istanbul Half in 2022 a notable victory. Yes he had run fast. His position at 13 on the all-time list (58:26) is testament to that.
But never had the two truly combined. Until that day in County Antrim.
Events and moments shape people. Races do too.
Confidence too experienced to die
Sitting in that Kenyan garden one year later, Mateiko had just dropped out of the London Marathon at 35km. His Olympic dream for Team Kenya was for all intents and purposes over. Yet still he had a bit of spike to him.
A confidence that was cheeky rather than cocky but came alive when he talked about mornings like that on the North Coast.
Moving from Antrim to the future, he told me of his plans to four weeks later compete in Parliament Hill at the Night of the 10,000m PBs. What a bizarre, small world this can be.
I told him I would be there too, not in the same race I may add. Mateiko gave me the look of a man questioning what he had got himself into.
Blind faith
I returned the quizzical glance when he stated his ambitions to run the 10,000m Olympic qualifying time and head to Paris. Four weeks separated his London drop-out and 25 laps of the track. It was plucky, bordering on the deluded.
Highgate was abandoned as the Pre Classic was mandated as the Kenyan trials and Mateiko instead travelled to Eugene. Almost two years since his last 10,000m race, the 26-year-old bided his time before hitting the front over the closing stretch.
26:50.81 his final time, behind him were no fewer than three different past world medallists. His winning time was the fastest in the world for 2024.
The confidence, the closing belief in no small part built from moments like that August day in Antrim.
Mateiko went on to Paris and was with the leading pack through the final bell. Whilst the wheels came off over that final lap, for 9600m the Kenyan looked every inch the athlete belonging at the highest level.
Standing in Mateiko’s shoes
As I sat talking to Mateiko, others sat relaxing as they often do in the Global Sports Communication camp. Sitting on plastic chairs, shoes off, passing the time between their two daily sessions. Some shout louder, others are yet to find their voice.
Hillary Chepkwony is one year younger than Mateiko but is more recent to the group. Short army-style cut, youthful he keeps himself to himself.
For a year or so, Chepkwony came down to the clay track at the Moi Moi University. As the top group wore the distinctive all black of the NN Running Team, a second group trains at the same time, rag tag in their different outfits. Where the chosen few lace the latest Alphaflys, this second group receive a few well-worn donations.
Both train under the watchful eye of Patrick Sang and after some time Chepkwony continued to be the one who stood out. In early 2023, Chepkwony was selected to take the step up, joining the top group as a live-in member of the camp.
The new guy
Watching him a few months later at the track, Chepkwony remained anonymous, taking his lead when required but otherwise sitting in on a relentless all decked in black train. Each of the 5 x (2km, 1km) repetitions repeated with monotonous consistency. It was only a few days later that I found myself asking who is this guy?
Every Thursday as the embers of a waking sun gradually turn the black of night into the red and green of a Kaptagat morning, the group sets out on their long runs. On this day in May 2023 it was the Boston loop, a 40km rise up the escarpment.
Setting out at intervals, depending on fitness or target race distance, the largest group sets off last. Nine or so athletes all generally in the early stages of preparation for an autumn marathon.
The usual names are present, Eliud Kipchoge, Geoffrey Kamworor all the other marathoners have run 2:06 or faster. As a pack they run but like a runaway train gradually things fall off the side.
They catch Geoffrey Kirui, the Boston and world marathon champion from 2017. Quickly out the back he goes. Next is Mateiko himself, at that time an athlete preparing himself for the shorter distances. The nine slowly splinters.
Out of the clouds
Together at 30km, the next time we see them emerging from the clouds, the group has shed. The rising cadence has taken its toll. Still it increases.
Until only four remain. Kipchoge, little surprise there, Kaan Kigen Ozbilen – the 2017 European cross-country champion, Philemon Rono the 2:05:00 Toronto Marathon course record holder and Chepkwony, unable any longer to blend into the background.
He keeps his head down, walks to a pickup and sits in the back, 40 minutes later he find himself home once more.
Since that day, the 25-year-old has gone on to break 59 minutes, running 58:53 for sixth at the Valencia Half in November of that year.
But Chepkwony has equally fallen short, three times trying to get the 10,000m qualifying time for the Olympics on the roads, the closest he got was 27:34 in Valencia in January 2024.
That time is of course ten seconds quicker than the British record but in a camp with at times four different world champions, for now Chepkwony can maintain his quiet touch.
I have a feeling that may change. On the streets of Larne, the Antrim Coast may find another admirer from the Kenyan rift valley. Another athlete there to find their voice.
Featured photo and all others courtesy of the NN Running Team
