Hi Henry;
This record of your efforts to carefully and methodically work yourself back into form is mesmerizing. I found this thread a few months ago, and keep coming back once a week or so, to see how things are unfolding. It looks like some of the toughest stretches are past, with the weight getting closer and closer to where it needs to be, and your body responding well to the slow transition to more concentrated efforts.
I only bumped into you once, at a 1/2 marathon in Las Vegas, December of 1990 or 1991. While the memory of what year it was is hard to dredge up, the memories of the events of that day and that race are clear. My wife and I were in graduate school in California at the time, so we always had our eyes open for money-races. There was a small purse at the Vegas event, and I was pretty sure the race wouldn't attract too deep a field. When lining up, though, I heard a murmur go through the field, that someone had seen Henry Rono warming up! I took a quick look around, feeling an odd mix of excitement and worry, but didn't see you.
Minutes later the race was off, and we were barreling down the first fast mile or two along the old Vegas highway, until the course veered right, along the up-and-down road that ran over to Henderson. Pretty soon it turned into a two-man race, Frank Plasso and I running in tandem, clicking off fairly comfortable miles. I had forgotten the rumor that you were in the area. Everything was going along just fine, until, rather suddenly, someone went flashing by us, as though our 5 min/mile pace was a slow walk. I immediately recognized you, though all I saw was your receding back. I used to have a poster of you going over a hurdle at the Commonwealth games, a shot of you from the back, and other than the lack of barriers on the road, Frank and I were seeing what your competitors saw that day in Edmonton in 1978.
Luckily for me, Frank was calm about the whole thing - 'He'll ease up in a bit', he said. True enough, after you'd put about 50+ feet on us (in the course of maybe 200-300 metres)I could see that you settled down. A bit after 9 miles mark Frank and I pulled up on your shoulder. Over the next mile or two you put in a few more of these patented Kenyan surges, but Frank and I were able to keep you in range. Just after 11 miles the road began to undulate, up and down gullies and little rises, as we got close to Henderson. I knew I wasn't likely going to out-kick you, and Frank was labouring, so I put all I had into a long push to the finish. With a mile to go I finally managed to get some air between me and you and Frank.
This is where knowing the course beforehand might have helped (or hindered - it's hard to really say). With maybe 600 metres to go the course took a right turn, up the main drag into Henderson, and up one of the nastiest up-hill finishing stretches I've ever seen. I was already committed to the long push, but I'd pretty much blown out the energy stores by that point. Somehow I kept going, and now I could hear people along the way cheering for you, cheering that was getting closer and closer. I could see my wife ahead, close to the finish, and she was having a bit of a fit, which confirmed my suspicion that you were making major inroads on my once comfortable gap. One last push, going well past physical energy into the realm of deep-down-in-the-gut will-power, and I somehow made it up the last few metres and across the line. I suspect you shut down a bit over the last few metres as well, as I got you 1:04:30 to 1:04:40 on the clock.
Since my racing career ended over 10 years ago, it's safe to say at this point that this race lives as one of my most memorable efforts (and that's not because of the green bile I spit up past the finish-line, complete with bits of rice from the cheap all-you-can-eat barfeteria meal I'd had the night before). Of course what made it memorable was your presence - I've had a few days like that, where a supreme effort at the end of a race managed to get me across the line (sometimes ahead of someone I was dueling with, sometimes not), but the fact it was a running god I was dueling with made all the difference.
Keep it steady, and know there are many, many people touched by this thread.
Gordon