When asked to conjure up images of Kenya, no doubt thoughts of beautiful mountains, many of them snow capped, colorful every day and ceremonial costumes, silverback gorillas and several marathon runners come to mind, right?
Indeed all of those images are accurate depictions of the beautiful east African country, which borders Ethiopia to its north, Somalia to its northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west and the Sudan to the northwest. An independent nation from the UK since December 12, 1963, Kenya boasts a population of just over 39 million people. It’s a fairly poor and continuing to develop nation, with unfortunately a few diseases that limit the life expectancy of its people.
Amid all this, have emerged some of the greatest athletes of the world. Indeed several countries can boast this, but in the case of Kenya, it’s staggering how many have emerged from there who have gained international fame. Several women and men have represented their native Kenya in running at the Olympics and in marathons in various cities around the world. Kenya has boasted many a winner of the gold, silver as well as record breakers in sprints and long distance running alike.
One incredibly bright star among several of Kenya’s finest is a woman named Catherine Ndereba. Born Wincatherine Nyambura Ndereba on July 21, 1972, which is the same year that Norway’s Grete Waitz competed in the Munich Olympic games. Significant only because it was the first time women had been allowed to compete in the 1500-meter race on an international level.
It would be in high school that Ndereba would fall in love with running. It is said that she was so fierce a runner, even in high school that when she showed up to compete, both the boys and girls would forfeit rather than compete and lose. Indeed her brother and sister, both of whom are also runners, admitted that there was something special about their sister.
Something special indeed caught the attention of recruiters and trainers in the United States who invited Ndereba to train with them for three months in 1998. What is most unusual is that even after giving birth (her daughter was 1-year old when she left for the US), unlike most women whose bodies are never quite the same post delivery, her best years were ahead of her.
On a chilly October morning in 2001, Ndereba, was back in the US again, this time to compete in the Chicago Marathon. For years women marathoners tried, in earnest, to break the 2 hour and 20 minute marathon. Grete Waitz, with 11 wins (between 1978 and 1986), four of them world records, was unable to achieve this. Six days prior to Ndereba entering the Chicago Marathon, Japan’s Naoko Takahashi, while competing in the Berlin Marathon, posted a record-breaking time of 2:19:46.
Almost as though she’d done so effortlessly, Catherine Ndereba smashed Ms. Takahashi’s incredible world record. Winning the Women’s Chicago Marathon, Ndereba posted 2 hours 18 minutes and 47 seconds. Indeed a reporter with the Chicago Tribune who was covering the marathon dubbed her, “the greatest women’s marathoner of all time.”
To Her Credit
In Catherine Ndereba’s illustrious career, to site each and every win, one might need five or six pages to enumerate them. However, here are some highlights, or as the expression goes, “the abridged version”:
1998: Named Road Runner of the Year by Runner’s World Magazine; Named Road Racer of the Year by Running Times Magazine; Ran the world’s fastest time for the 5k race with a time of 15:09 and for the 15k with a time of 48:32; Entered her first marathon in Boston, placed sixth overall
2000: Winner for Boston and Chicago Marathons; named World Athlete of the Year by Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS)
2001: Winner again for Boston and Chicago Marathons; broke world record running it in 2:18:47
2003: Won the Gold Medal for the World Championship Games; Placed 2nd for New York City and London’s Marathons
2004: Silver Medal Winner, Marathon runner in Athens, Greece; Boston Marathon winner
2005: First woman to win four Boston Marathon
2006: Osaka Marathon winner
2007: World Championships Gold Medal winner
2008: Silver Medal Winner in Beijing, China
She and her husband, Anthony Maina, live in Nairobi, Kenya and are together raising their daughter Jane who is now 13 years old.