Meet the new Arete Squad Stablemates

I arrived in Iten early October and a post is long overdue—apologies, I’ve been very busy. Now that things have settled and I’ve found a daily weekly rhythm, I’ll keep everybody updated with the latest news and events.

To kick-off things, let me introduce the newest members of the Arete Squad:

Paul Ayabei (28)

PBs/PRs

10000 meters 29:05

8k 23:10

Paul is a cheeky chappie, who lives in Iten and his favourite food is maize, beans, and milk. In 2011, he was to struck down with typhoid and malaria, which kept him out of running for 2 years. Since then, he has been building back up again, although he missed 2017 with injury. He started back training again in June 2018 and showed great potential in the workouts he did to support Richard in his preparations for the Ravenna Marathon. Over the last four weeks, he’s got stronger and is now making great gains. He’s a possible for Dublin Marathon in 2019.

Andrew Kipruto (29)

PBs/PRs

3000 meters 7:49

Half Marathon 64:05 (Eldoret at altitude equates to 63 ‘outside’)

Marathon 2:21 (Standard Charter Nairobi Marathon)

Andrew’s favourite foods are ugali and rice. He lives with his brother (in a single room) and helps his brother maintain a small plot (subsistence farming) in Iten. Like Paul, Andrew worked with Richard in his preparations for the Ravenna Marathon. Given Andrew’s 7:49 3000 (2009) it is clear he has a lot of potential in the marathon. We will tap into his talent and with a progressive and structured marathon plan over the next 12 months, we will see some impressive results.

Kiprono Opia (29)

PBs/PRs

10k 28:56

Kiprono started life as a 400 meter runner at school. From 2010-2012 he trained at home and in 2013 he moved to Iten and joined Canova’s group. While running for Canova, he ran cross country and served as a ‘foot soldier’/pacer/cannon fodder, for Canova’s superstar athletes. Late in 2014, he picked up an injury and was out until recently. Like Paul and Andrew, Kiprono worked to help Richard with his preparations for Ravenna. Over the next few months we will be working on his speed and will then take him to Europe with the other Arete Stablemates to race a half marathon late spring/early summer, before moving on to an autumn/fall marathon. An interesting fact about Kiprono is that in order to survive in Iten, he taught himself sports massage therapy and now he manages to keep his head above water by providing massages for many of Iten runners (for very cheap prices).

Duncan Yegon (23)

PBs/PRs

1500 meters 3:48

10000 meters 30:01

Half marathon 68

Dan is the newest member of the Squad and we will be working over the next 12 months on improving his half marathon PR. We want to get Dan down to 64 minutes (in Eldoret, equivalent 62 ‘outside’). From what we’ve seen so far, Dan has plenty of speed and character. He’s keen to move up to the marathon but we’ll be prudent in the management of this process.

Lydia Jepleting (18)

PBs/PRs

8k 30 mins

Lydia started running as a sprinter in school. She completed the Eldoret 8k fun run in October (off no training) and ran 30 minutes—effectively, that’s 6 minute mile pace for 5 miles. It’s clear that Lydia has oodles of talent. Lydia is the first female member of the Squad, and Aoife will be overseeing her training. We are looking at introducing more women into Aoife’s group.

The new Arete Stablemates will be active on Strava soon. We are just sorting out watches and phones etc so they can upload their runs.

Next up, details about the Malindi 10km road race (15th December)…

Cheers

John