Why don't more Kenyans run the Dubai Marathon?

It is too close to spring marathon season, so Tokyo, London and Boston are highly coveted.

scorpion_runner wrote:

It is too close to spring marathon season, so Tokyo, London and Boston are highly coveted.

But that doesn't explain why they Ethiopians all do it and not the Kenyans. Wouldn't the Ethiopians covet Tokyo, London and Boston too?

Again, Tokyo, London, and Chicago are bigger. Those are three of the big six races. Dubai is not one of them. Also, there is more publicity and notoriety with running chicago and london, then there is Dubai.

All the big horses are going to be in Boston and London...The women's field for the London marathon is outrages!!

Kenyans are not going to waste their time on Dubai anytime soon. ..maybe in the future. However, ethiopians are like brasil in soccer, there will participate in any and everything.

Huh? ....The question goes unanswered. Am curious also, tho a Kenyan did sneak in for like 5th or 6th in men's race. But it looked like 20 of top 25 seeds were all Ethiopian! Why???

Too hot and dry for someone from the cool rainy rift valley.

They don't typically pay appearance money although Bekele probably got some.

Pretty obvious.

Agents and coaches may work with Ethiopian OR Kenyan runners, but rarely both. It's hard enough to get deep into either one of those worlds.

Dubai organizers hace a long history of working with agents who deal mostly with Ethiopian runners, even when the race was very small, and then in the Geb era and so on. The pattern gets established among agents, coaches and training groups. It's really not unlike the selection of invitationals a given HS or college team might travel to.

There are other patterns like this but going the other way. Look how many Kenyans race Lake Biwa or other races in Japan and how few Ethiopians.

I've heard its a cultural/political issue between the countries.

Possibly also religious.

Managers like to be able to corner the market on a 2nd tier marathon. The managers for the Ethiopians have pretty much taken over Houston (except that Dominic Ondoro sneaked in a win this year in bad weather) and the same for Dubai. They do this to make the race a platform for developing their talent. Ethiopians used Houston as a stepping stone for Deriba Merga, Dire Tune and others and used Dubai for WR attempts and to get fast results to move runners up to the WMM races. The quid pro quo is that the race organizers will not recruit Kenyans to compete with the Ethiopians so the Ethiopians can control the pace and are guaranteed a win.

Precious Roy wrote:

Managers like to be able to corner the market on a 2nd tier marathon. The managers for the Ethiopians have pretty much taken over Houston (except that Dominic Ondoro sneaked in a win this year in bad weather) and the same for Dubai. They do this to make the race a platform for developing their talent. Ethiopians used Houston as a stepping stone for Deriba Merga, Dire Tune and others and used Dubai for WR attempts and to get fast results to move runners up to the WMM races. The quid pro quo is that the race organizers will not recruit Kenyans to compete with the Ethiopians so the Ethiopians can control the pace and are guaranteed a win.

Like I said.

Another example is Toronto, which for many years had Kenyans but not many Ethiopians.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Too hot and dry for someone from the cool rainy rift valley.

So Kenyans like races in the rain??? Always heard the exact opposite.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Too hot and dry for someone from the cool rainy rift valley.

No.

Only during 3 months of the year are there prolonged rains. Those months are March, April, May. Even then, maximum rainfall for an entire month is only about 6 inches.

Average temperature during the dry season is between 50 F and 73 F in some highlands of the Rift Valley, and up to 83 F in some lowlands. During the rainy season, when they would presumably be dealing with greater humidity, the temperature is up to 75 to 86, depending on location and the day.

Source:

That was a generous source. The following source, while admitting that the lake waters can be cooler, points to higher temperatures and even less rain:

Temperature during the race yesterday was 69 degrees, humidity above 60 percent. Forcast for Nakuru, Rift Valley, as an example, is 77 for a high, humidity to change between 33% and 73% during the day.

Dubai was not too hot for them, not too dry for them, and frankly not really dry at all.

uninformed guy wrote:

I've heard its a cultural/political issue between the countries.

Possibly also religious.

Religious? Appropriate user name.

My guess is that getting a visa has a huge part of it. Kenyans can get a visa for nearly anywhere, whereas Ethiopians have a very hard time. Dubai is one of the few places that an average Habesha can get a tourist visa, so it would make sense that they would flock for an easy entry and a short flight.

Obviously I don't think Bekele has problems getting a visa, but getting 9 girls over to Chicago just isn't going to happen.

I think religion could play a role. Many Ethiopians - especially Oromos (the ethnic group of many Ethiopian runners) are Muslim, and obviously the UAE is Muslim. Whereas, far fewer Kenyans are Muslim. But the organizer of the Dubai marathon is Irish, so maybe it's not a religious thing. It's curious to see how many Ethiopians there were compared to Kenyans.

climate check wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

Too hot and dry for someone from the cool rainy rift valley.

No. ...

Average temperature during the dry season is between 50 F and 73 F in some highlands of the Rift Valley, and up to 83 F in some lowlands. During the rainy season, when they would presumably be dealing with greater humidity, the temperature is up to 75 to 86, depending on location and the day.

no it's not.

86 is near the record high ever, and the numbers you're quoting are average highs. Average daily temp year round is 60 degrees, and much cooler than that in the morning. Average relative humidity is above 70% for six months out of the year.

A long distance runner training in Kenya is generally going to run when it's 50 degrees out, not 70, and that's possible every day. More generally, as efficient heat dissipation develops best from acclimation, the generally cool temperature most of the time hinders adaptation even if they always train in the hottest part of the day. You want to run well in the heat, live somewhere hot. For example Eritrea, where the average high is above 80 year-round, and average low never under 65.

How's it feel to be proven 100% WRONG! Ha ha.

Precious Roy wrote:

Managers like to be able to corner the market on a 2nd tier marathon. The managers for the Ethiopians have pretty much taken over Houston (except that Dominic Ondoro sneaked in a win this year in bad weather) and the same for Dubai. They do this to make the race a platform for developing their talent. Ethiopians used Houston as a stepping stone for Deriba Merga, Dire Tune and others and used Dubai for WR attempts and to get fast results to move runners up to the WMM races. The quid pro quo is that the race organizers will not recruit Kenyans to compete with the Ethiopians so the Ethiopians can control the pace and are guaranteed a win.

Nice story bro, apart from your theory any evidence/links?

expert ranking wrote:

Pretty obvious.

Agents and coaches may work with Ethiopian OR Kenyan runners, but rarely both. It's hard enough to get deep into either one of those worlds.

Dubai organizers hace a long history of working with agents who deal mostly with Ethiopian runners, even when the race was very small, and then in the Geb era and so on. The pattern gets established among agents, coaches and training groups. It's really not unlike the selection of invitationals a given HS or college team might travel to.

There are other patterns like this but going the other way. Look how many Kenyans race Lake Biwa or other races in Japan and how few Ethiopians.

Correct the other replies are just guessing

Nice story bro wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

Managers like to be able to corner the market on a 2nd tier marathon. The managers for the Ethiopians have pretty much taken over Houston (except that Dominic Ondoro sneaked in a win this year in bad weather) and the same for Dubai. They do this to make the race a platform for developing their talent. Ethiopians used Houston as a stepping stone for Deriba Merga, Dire Tune and others and used Dubai for WR attempts and to get fast results to move runners up to the WMM races. The quid pro quo is that the race organizers will not recruit Kenyans to compete with the Ethiopians so the Ethiopians can control the pace and are guaranteed a win.

Nice story bro, apart from your theory any evidence/links?

It would appear not.