What happened to Daniel Komen?

I think sometimes runners are a little too obsessive. What if the guy did what he had to do to make a life for himself and then threw in the towel. Most of you rejects are so obsessed with getting to the mountain top that it is hard for you to realize that some people get there and decide it wasn't worth the effort. I have met Daniel Komen and although I don't KNOW him by any stretch of the imagination, I would say he is a pretty normal human being. I helped him use a phone card at the Goodwill games in NYC 1998. He then sat around and talked to me for an hour. Maybe he is just too normal to be an obsessive loser like most good runners in the U.S.

20/20

At the end of the day, none of us will really ever know. I guess there are the 2 main schools of thought:

1. He made it to the top of the mountain, made a boat load of cash and then lost the fire to keep pressing forward.

2. His performances were assisted. As mzungu pointed out, his incredible performances during those few years in the late 90s was probably the best possible time to use EPO as it was available but there weren't reliable tests.

Both offer quite feasible explanations. Personally, I think it could be a combination of the two. The relatively quick transition from world beater, against whom only Geb could rival, to finishing in the middle in 13:00-13:05 definitely arouses suspicion.

Regardless of what the reality of the situation is, it sounds like he is placing more emphasis on other areas of life. I think it is pretty cool that he spoke at a first grade graduation. I'm sure the kids got a kick out of that. Hell, I would be quite excited if I got to meet Komen.

Regardless of whether he was juiced or not, 7:20 is so amazingly fast that you have to admire the guy's talent/hard work/gift. You could pump all kinds of steroids into me, or my dog, or Bob Kennedy for that matter but chances are none of us could run 7:20.

No, none of us could run a 7:20...but I'll bet Seabiscuit could do it. I haven't even seen the movie yet, but I think the preview had Toby McGuire saying something about Seabiscuit being capable of a 7:20 3000m.

morcelli: actually, i don't think the kids cared a bit. they were, however, very interested in throwing grass in each others' hair and chasing the white guy with the camera. of course the chairman of the PTA was a guy named "mr. kibowen" - you may have heard of him too - so it's not like komen was the only fast guy in the house.

the highlight of the day was when a preschooler, age 4, gave us a speech in english. the boy was so small that his uniform "shorts" nearly touched the tops of his shoes, but he spoke with tremendous confidence as though he was getting the troops fired up for war or something. it went as follows (i have it on video):

"ladies and gentlemen. greetings. my name is sheldon, and i will tell you about a cow. a cow is an animal which has 2 eyes, 2 ears, 4 legs, and many stomachs. thank you very much, my name is sheldon, good day."

komen leapt to his feet and initiated a standing ovation as if the kid had just run 7:20 himself. that's what impressed me - it wasn't as if komen was there to honor the kids with his esteemed presence - he seemed to be into celebrating the accomplishments of the kids. even more impressive was that it was his second graduation ceremony of the day, and afterward we rushed off so he could attend a meeting at a his old high school where he serves on the school board. i think that was not an unsual day for him, which may explain at least a little of why he's slowed. once a kenyan reaches superstar status, they often have trouble training at home unbothered - some choose to train in europe, the US or mexico for this reason.

after our speeches we all were served simple lunches of boiled eggs, bread with margerine, and hot tea - without plates or anything. komen, who once reigned as the king of track and field, sat on a rough hewn timber bench, ate his lunch just like the semi-literate farmer on the other side of me, and acted like the school's directors had done him the greatest honor by having him there. he had used his own car to drive down the miles of awful dirt road to the school, burning $3.50 a gallon gas the whole way, sat in the blazing sun all afternoon listening to my boring speech, and then acted like he was the lucky one to be there. all i could think about was someone trying to get a mo green or tim montgomery to do something along those lines. maybe they do, but we sure don't hear about it.

anyway, i don't know how komen ran that fast, or why he stopped, but no one's be close since, and there's something to be said for that. one interesting note in closing, i've spent a lot of time in "who's dirty and who's not" conversations with some of kenyas top athletes - i've not once heard komen's name mentioned on the "who's dirty" list. either he's too revered to name, or everyone believes he's clean.

Komen did get malaria and appears to have never fully recoverd.

In an article recently i read that Wilfred Bingei 1:42.33 800 runnner contracted malaria in Jule but is now back and running. Was this malaria rumore false?

mzungu,

That's a great story. Nice to hear about athletes, especially one with Komen's incredible credentials, doing something like that. It definitely goes against what you get accustomed to seeing here. It's nice to see he is doing something with his time and position instead of just being an arrogant celebrity. Reminds me also of an article on Geb shortly before world indoors this year. It showed him taking off on a short dash with some young kids when he visited their school. This was just a few days before a huge race.

I have a very hard time imagining someone like mo green or tim montgomery doing that, let alone a basketball player. And if it was done, maybe I'm just a cynic, but I bet it would be simply more of a publicity stunt. Clearly not what Komen was looking for.

mzungu - You probably don't want to ID yourself, but could you at least say a little about what you do in life that brings you to Kenya and in contact with these guys?

actually, i don't mind IDing myself at all. my name's jay bawcom, and i teach HS english and coach XC and track at a private school in atlanta - at least that's what i do now. in 2000 i was doing the same thing in arkansas when i was challenged by a former professor of mine to consider leading a mission/development team at a flegling school in rural kenya - no electricity, no H20, etc - like NYC this afternoon. i had no clue where in kenya it was, but after months of prayer and contemplation i agreed. i'd never seen myself as a "missionary" as i'm not really the preachy type and am not a huge fan of organized religion. anyway, back on point. i agreed to go and was told where the school was - kaptagat. i did a google search and all the sites that came up were stories about the fila camp there. well, as a HS XC coach i was pleased that there would be at least something of interest to do.

anyway, my main purpose was to work in school development, and i thought i might get to work with the runners in our school. the first saturday i was there, one of the school's runners invited me to go with him to meet training group he did long runs with. i took my bike and after 6 miles of muddy roads we came to a clearing in the kaptagat forest that served as the meeting point. over the next 20 minutes guys started emerging from the woods and down the road until a group of around 25 men and 10 ladies was standing around stretching and arguing about the day's route. philip maiyo, a head teacher at a nearby elementary school, showed up as their "coach," meaning that he recorded times and led a prayer after the workout. the group included james kipketer, samson kiplagat, philimon maiyo, albert chepkurui's younger brother, and some other guys who were eager to develop their talent (stats now available at tilastopaja.com). i thought it was cool, but didn't really have any intention of working with the group - i was in kenya for other reasons. early the next week philip maiyo came to visit me at home and asked if i'd considering working with them to form some sort of club that could allow athletes to develop their talents while encouraging them to stay in school and also pursue educational opportunities through athletics. i agreed, but it was a pretty informal thing. this was in september 2000. my students at the school included james koskei's little sister, komen's sister, ben limo's nephew, and a kid named philip lagat, then a district champ 200m runner, who has since run 63 for half-marathon and a couple of then 10th graders who may be here running for US colleges this fall (including one who ran 8:50 for steeple at 7000ft while in HS).

unrelated to this, i came into contact with some of the younger athletes training at the fila kaptagat camp - including shadrack kosgei, robert cheruiyot, benson mbithi mutisya, nicholas kemboi, and a number of others. they were interested in improving their english skills as they felt this would enhance their marketablity as athletes. i began making occasional visits to do conversational english practice and take some books i managed to scrounge up for the atheltes - they actually almost got into a fight over "simplified shakespeare." through the contacts at the camp i was invited to a celebration at kip keino's home honoring his being named to the IOC and noah ngeny's win in sydney.

meanwhile, things were progressing with our "club." with news that a white man had appeared at the saturday workout, the group grew rapidly with the erroneous notion that i was a manager or agent - i was regularly misidentified as gianni demadona, duncan mckay, michel boeting, and any number of french and italian managers. the athletes were disappointed to find that i was only a missionary and teacher, but they kept coming anyway, and i promised to vouch for their performances to any managers who asked.

because i was one of only maybe 10 white people in the whole of kaptagat, and certainly the only one a these weekend runs, i got to know people and i guess i got a reputation as a decent guy who didn't mind eating kenyan foods, sleeping in mud huts, walking many a mile to visit people, and doing my best to learn swahili and at least trying to communicate with the locals. many of the top athletes in that area own cars, and they wouldn't hesitate to stop and give a lift to a white guy trudging along a country road, so i also came to know a lot of guys that way - my house was within a couple of miles of the homes of benjamin limo, richard limo, john kibowen, leah malot, and others.

i was also asked to host a bible program on the eldoret radio station, so every monday night the airways carried me into every home within 70 miles of eldoret. i didn't even own a radio, but i did pass several people when walking who were listening to me on transistor radios - kind of a wierd experience. i thought it was a pretty sorry program, but i got tons of positive feedback from the athletes i knew - who then introduced me to their friends as the white guy (mzungu) on sayare radio. this didn't hurt my getting to know people.

in november of 2000 we officially "launched" our club as a developmental program to help young athletes train while pushing them to stay in school as well. the local guys i worked with invited plenty of people, but i ended up having to accompany a roommate of mine home when his appendix burst and he was evacuated after an emergency surgery in eldoret. i got back to kenya in january 2001 and these guys pulled out the pictures from the "launching" - a small meet on a homemade track at a school. well, i look at the picture and there's kip keino, komen, moses tanui, leah malot, kibowen, and some other bigwigs who heard about our plan and came out to show their support. a couple of weeks later we took our athletes to district competition and actually beat the fila team (admittedly they held out some of their top girls), but one of our guys won the 12k and we had several others place in the top 10. as the only whitey at the race i met still more people.

anyway, since that time i've stayed in contact with a lot of those athletes, and last summer i lived with a group of them here in the US while i worked on my swahili and helped their manager by driving them to races, etc. last fall i went back to kenya and worked with our club's coach there to shift our emphasis from working with all athletes to working exclusively with those who want to go to run collegiately. we were a bit disappointed with some of the scams we saw being run against hopeful student athletes there, and we felt called to do something different. many of the big athletes shared our vision and have been very helpful with words of encouragement, donations of gear, and financial support. i have been approached by several big name athletes about working as their manager, but this is not something that interests me. i am a teacher at heart and a christian by faith, and i value the relationships that i'm able to build with athletes when i work with them in a non-commercial setting. i also am smart enough to recognize that i don't have the knowledge necessary to successfully manage athletes, and as a christian i'm not willing to make some of the "compromises" that many deem neccessary to be successful in this business. they're great people and good friends, but that's enough for me.

anyway, that's a pretty long post, so i'll wrap it up here. many people ask "why do you do what you do?" i was an orphan and adopted at a young age by a great family that, through nothing but their own choice, sent me to private school, paid for college, and raised me as their son. i felt a sincere desire to pay this forward, because in doing so i will be paying them back. secondly, i am a christian - not a preachy, holier than thou zealot - but a person who believes that jesus christ was who the bible claims, and that the lifestyle he taught is a kickin' way to live one's life. i spent several years teaching in a christian school where i daily joined my colleagues in challenging my students to choose to "live in the world, but not of it" to "build up treasures elsewhere." one day a student, an all-state running back, perpetual cynic and child of privilege, came to me and said "hey coach, i've been at this school twelve years and have heard every day that i should live sacrificially and help people like jesus told us to. i realize that you guys make less than you could, but you have to admit that your life if pretty comfortable. it would mean a lot more if one of yall actually gave us an example instead of suggestions." i've made it my personal challenge to make that last sentence my mantra.

anyway, that's way more than you asked for, but i hope it clears some things up for you.

you can learn more about our club at

www.chepkero.com

- though it's in horrible need of an update, but my classes and team here in the US take priority for the moment.

god bless

mzungu

Jay,

Thanks for your candid reportage. Much appreciated.

mzungu - thanks for an incredible post

Compelling story. Thank you for sharing. Never met you and may never ... but your path inspiring.

Jay,

That was a great. Hopefully one day I can scrounge up the courage and faith to do what you have done.

thanks for the encouragement - hope that didn't come off as being about me, but it was actually kind of nice to sit down and try to get that experience into words.

here's a direct link to the page with pics of komen at the graduation:

http://www.chepkero.com/pictures_2002-2003.htm

god bless

Outstanding post.

who is the 850 high school steepler chaser and where is he going?

i'll wait to reveal that until after his visa hearing on monday. he should be able to make an immediate impact at the DII level, but no need to get worried till after his visa goes through. i think his actual times are like 3:52, 8:52, 14:50, and around 29:50 all at altitude. and don't worry, he's not an old man - finished high school last november, took the SAT in may, starting college this fall i hope. he was also valedictorian in his HS.

the club has a couple more guys in the 3:50-3:55 range if anyone's interested for the spring.

mzungu

We are all human and our bodies if overworked it get worn out, it like an automobile at high miles what happen? Kenyan train hard and that is way that get the very execellent results and pay the price by going back quick, look at the likes of Bob Kennedy, train with the kenyan, does he still running the same times? Senacer train hard in college and was able to attain outstanding resultsbut where he he now?

I dont believe EPO on kenyan, may be misiform by there managers.

BKK

Daniel Komen was incredibly fit in 1996-7 when he was training with Moses Kiptanui,whom he called \"the greatest coach in the world.\" It was the training they did as a group, that made them for a time,the fittest group of runners in the world, and Komen was the fittest in the group. they didn\'t need EPO because their homes in Kenya were at 8000 feet altitude, and their camp near London was near sea level, giving them the best of both worlds. Komen,probably doesn\'t realise how much training he did then. At the time, it was all new and exiting to him, travelling the world and breaking world records,trying to prove that he should have been selected for the 0lympics in 1996. After 1997 he just wasn\'t as motivated.