Henry Rono - GoFundMe page to help Henry get home

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Why is his bank account empty? What has he been doing the last 30 years? With his name he shouldn’t have had any difficulty getting an assistant distance coach gig at a college. Not trying to diss him, just seems like there must be more to the story.

Chaplin was a tool wrote:

Why is his bank account empty? What has he been doing the last 30 years? With his name he shouldn’t have had any difficulty getting an assistant distance coach gig at a college. Not trying to diss him, just seems like there must be more to the story.

Did you actually read the link?

If anyone does need a one-way ticket out of this country, it's Henry.

No offense, but Goat Dude blew it more times than I can count. It's too bad he didn't go back on his own, or go back 20 years ago, or ten years ago, or last year. Go back, Henry. Do those things you can.

When you make a donation, a popup notice allows you to post this GoFundMe page to Facebook so more people can see it. Please do this.

I met Henry and raced him in his comeback attempt a decade ago. The next day we went for a run together and I got to know him a little better. After the race, he graciously posed with me and the son of friend who was thinking about running high school cross country. Maybe meeting Henry was the little push the kid needed to run XC.

At one point, Henry Rono was arguably one of the most famous runners in the world. I remember traveling to Italy in the late 1970s and seeing a two-story-high poster on the side of a building promoting Henry's participation in an upcoming race. He looked invincible and bigger than life. So much promise... the future looked so bright.

Sadly, this wasn't the case. Many of Henry's problems were his own doing, to be sure, his alcoholism, his weight problems, his inability to grasp the most basic aspects of the business world.

Still, many 67-year-olds would have given up, but Henry, to his credit, still has a dream. We should chip in to make it happen. Let's support this old man's dream.

Well said. His come back ten years ago was a bid to return to competitive running? Just curious.

I think he wanted to be a competitive masters runner/perhaps break masters world records but he kept getting injured. Or maybe that was Steve Jones. Or both, can't recall.

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

I think he wanted to be a competitive masters runner/perhaps break masters world records but he kept getting injured. Or maybe that was Steve Jones. Or both, can't recall.

Cheers.

Sorry no I am not giving my hard earned dollars to someone I don’t know and have no connection to. He’s lucky he lived in this great country this long.. came here, shat on it and wants to leave? Not on my dime. USA! USA! USA! ?? ?

What a week. First Alberto, now Hank -- the two main characters in that fantastic Hayward Field 10,000 back in 1982.

Life can indeed be cruel.

https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a21991652/henry-ii/

What is he doing with that degree from WSU, a much better school than oregon?

I looked at this post and made up my mind to either support the cause or not. Why the LR crowd needs to bash a guy when they have no idea what he's been through is beyond me. I've seen many elite athletes driven from this site by the same behavior. I'll never understand and it has certainly made LR and it's readers poorer for it.

IIRC, Henry had just turned 50 and set a goal to break the M50 world record in the mile. He had scheduled a tune up race in my city with a goal of running sub-5. That wasn't the record at the time, but it was where he wanted to be at that point in his training.

I was at the upper side of M50 and I was asked to pace him through 800m in 2:35. We had some younger guys in the race, so I was in 3rd place at 800m, going through in 2:34, just as planned. My job done, I moved out to lane 3 to let everyone by... but no Henry. I kept jogging to recover and reached the backstretch before Henry finally passed me. Obviously, something was wrong with Henry. He had pulled out about 40m ahead of me by the time we started our 4th lap. By then, I had recovered enough to maintain the gap.

With 200m to go, I looked up and saw Henry impossibly far ahead of me... still about 40 meters. I remember thinking, "This is the only time in your life when you have a chance to beat a world record holder. DON'T GIVE UP. GO! NOW." Realistically, I had no chance, but I had nothing to lose, so I sprinted as hard as I have ever had. Even at 50m he was still 10m ahead of me, but I pushed harder, nipping Henry at the line. The time was slow and frankly, I don't even remember what it was... 6:10 maybe? I didn't care... the time was insignificant. I had beaten a world champion! Since then, I've been fortunate to set three age-group world records, but the memory of that one moment when I chose not to give up is one of my best memories in 40+ years of running.

Afterward, Henry confided that he had a calf/ankle problem. Rather than sulking, he graciously posed for pictures with me and again with my friends.

Yes, Henry has made some mistakes. I felt sorry for him when he told me about his life on our run together the next morning. The machinations of agents, politicians, and business in general seemed outside his ability to comprehend. His view of the world, and I don't mean this to be disparaging, was filled with a childlike innocence.

Still, at his core, Henry Rono is a good man. He doesn't exactly deserve another chance, but by God, I'm going to do my part to see that he gets one!

I would urge you to donate $40 or $20 or whatever and post the link to your Facebook page and ask your friends to chip in.

I love hearing about these stories. I will tell/show Henry these comments and hopefully he will come on here to update people and answer any questions.

I find it so telling how posters on this site love to kick former and present great athletes in the balls every chance they get. Don't you guys realize it just shows how shallow and insecure you all are. Just because you never made it big doesn't mean you have to go and try to knock others down to your level . Henry Rono was a terrific athlete. He came to this country with limited resources, coached by an individual who used athletes to win championships and then those athletes had to learn to deal with life, just like the rest of us. Some of us were very lucky and had family, mentors or friends that made growing up a bit easier. Others seemed to struggle trying to figure out how to deal with all the hurdles that come along in life. Henry isn't the first to have had a problem with alcohol and he won't be the last.

I just think is is so small minded that people who do not identify themselves come on forums and sound off as if they are so much better than the rest of us. Give me a break.

careful now wrote:

Jessie, I hope that you do not give the money you get directly to Henry.

Nandi governor Stephen Sang offered to fly Henry to Kenya back in January. Why did he not go then?

I'm sure Henry is a nice guy, but you can't trust an alcoholic not to spend the money on booze. It's find if you buy is ticket and pay his rent, just don't give him the cash.

I have heard that multiple people have offered to fly him home. Why is he still here? Is he a US Citizen? Does he collect social security?

careful now wrote:

Jessie, I hope that you do not give the money you get directly to Henry.

Nandi governor Stephen Sang offered to fly Henry to Kenya back in January. Why did he not go then?

I'm sure Henry is a nice guy, but you can't trust an alcoholic not to spend the money on booze. It's find if you buy is ticket and pay his rent, just don't give him the cash.

This is the first thing that came to mind for me. I heard about Sang's offer a few months ago and a friend in Kenya told me there were other offers to help bring Henry home as well. The stated reason was that he was in poor health. But there was no further information about that or about any reason he wanted to go back to Kenya or even, for that matter if he actually did want that. That he didn't take Sang's offer it suggested that maybe he really did not want to go back, though there could be some other reason(s).

I am sucker for Go Fund Me kinds of things and would normally have already contributed. But I'd need to know more about the details here.

Agreed, we are not going to simply hand over the money and sending him off. We have a small committee: another local Kenyan runner who has known Henry for over a decade and was coached by him, (he has also heard those rumors of Kenyan officials/politicians wanting to bring Henry home), a lawyer and myself. There are plenty of others that give us input, but the fact of the matter is no one has really done anything. Henry has told us that certain Kenyan officials back in Kenya have talked to him about bringing him home, but it honestly sounds like broken promises. No action has been made. I feel confident that if our group can organize the funds, then we can ensure a safe and comfortable transition for Henry to get back to Kapsabet. We have done weekly check-ups with Henry over the past 2 weeks. After posting this on LRC it’s been good to read the conversations and interests.

Sadly, if he does make it "home" where he hadn't lived for what, more than 30 years, the drinking culture there will consume him.