Had I not gone off to Kapsabet, I would still be a shopkeeper, which is not a bad thing. But I wouldn’t be a long-distance runner who has won major marathons like the Tokyo Marathon (2024), Chicago Marathon (2022), Boston Marathon (2021), and Toronto Marathon (2018), among others.
Most people take a year off after high school to figure out their career path before furthering their studies. Not me. Immediately after Form Four, I started hustling, looking for small jobs to keep me busy. My first business was a kiosk. For a little while, I was a shopkeeper until I went off to Kapsabet to start my career in athletics. The kiosk is still running to this day. However, that trip changed my fate.
Since then, I have participated in many marathons and races, but perhaps one of my best was the Tokyo Marathon, where I set a new course record and beat the legend Eliud Kipchoge, who is also my mentor. Winning that marathon made me happy, but I know Eliud was happy for me, too, because when you mentor someone, it gives you joy when they do better than you.
After the marathon, we didn’t get a chance to meet until we got to Eldoret, and he told me, “Mambo yako sio mbaya.” He asked me how long I’d been running, and when I told him seven years, he said, “You will go far.”
Eliud is my role model and I’ve been following in his footsteps for years. He’s shown us how to run and live, how to be disciplined and consistent, and that’s why I look up to him, even when it comes to things like investing.
I’ve been fortunate enough to accomplish so much on the field in the short time I’ve been an athlete, and that has also opened my eyes to the fact that I need to plan financially for the future.
The kiosk business I started years ago is still running; I just employed someone to run it. When I started earning money from athletics, I bought a few plots of land and built rental houses. Where I come from in Nandi County, we grow a lot of tea, and that’s another venture I’m also getting into to earn some money. Besides government bonds and treasury bills, which I’ve invested in, I would one day like to own a supermarket.
I’ve had great successes in my career as an athlete, with just as many wins as podium finishes, and when Eliud retires, hopefully not anytime soon, I’m ready to take over from him.
In our culture, we are told to follow in the footsteps of the master, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m overjoyed to be running with Eliud at the Paris Olympics because he has experience. It will be his fifth Olympics and my first, but it’s still a huge opportunity for me to represent my country at an Olympic event and to be shortlisted in the top three in the men’s team among marathon elites.
