Kenyan runner’s 14km daily journey to Hong Kong marathon success
Rutto Bethwell Kipkemboi, the 32-year-old winner of this year’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, talks about finding his feet in the city
After I graduated from secondary school, I started to really engage with training. I would do a morning run, then go to some classes. After I got home in the evening, I would do a small run of maybe 3km before resting. My parents encouraged me to do sport. Before me, there was nobody in my family who were athletes. But after me, my younger sister and brother started running, too.
In athletics, there is often a transition. People in their teens might start young in track, running short distances. Then maybe after you might try 10km, 15km or a half marathon. For me, in my 20s, the first real marathon I did was in 2021. It was during Covid. I went to the city of Eldoret, in Kenya. I came in sixth. From there, I was selected to go to a training camp about 50km away from home. I trained there with some elite runners. The coach also introduced me to a manager in Europe, from the Netherlands, and the manager then invited me to run a marathon in Siena, Italy. I came in 12th.
It is really hard to stay at the top among marathoners. If you look at most races, you have maybe five Kenyans and five Ethiopians at the top of the list. I also have about 50 individuals that are training mates. In this year’s Hong Kong Marathon, the top four male runners were Kenyans. We came as friends but during the race, we were competitors and rivals. We all understand each other as Kenyans. In a race, at first we assist each other, as well as Ethiopians or anyone else, but after some time you focus on yourself.
Sometimes the managers don’t want us to communicate so much before or after because other guys might be sponsored by different labels or they are with another running club, so they want us to keep our secrets to ourselves. But because we are all Kenyans, we advise each other anyway.
The course in Hong Kong was tough. Out of all the marathons I have run, this was the toughest because of the elevation. Other races are more flat. What assisted, or rather, pushed me was the training. I do hill work, hill sprints. I never focus on speed; I just focus on mileage. I’m hoping to run for another five years, but my goal is the Olympics. With the time I have now, I can qualify, but to be selected for the Kenyan team is very tough. If not the Olympics then at least the World Championships or the African Championships. After retiring, I might go into coaching because I love the sport. I really like athletics, and I like working with younger runners.
