Running with the Kenyans
British journalist Adharanand Finn moves his young family from Devon to Iten, a small town in the Rift Valley of Kenya that has produced a staggering share of the world's elite distance runners, and spends six months trying to train the way they do. He runs barefoot dawn workouts with world-record holders, lives on ugali and strong tea, interviews coaches who shrug at talk of altitude or genetics, and slowly assembles a team of local runners to train for the Lewa Marathon on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Published in 2012, the book is part training memoir, part social portrait of what running has become in Kalenjin life, and a working argument that the Kenyan advantage is less a mystery than a set of unglamorous, copyable habits.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Running with the Kenyans
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Marathoner and journalist Adharanand Finn moves with his wife and three small kids from Devon to Iten, Kenya, the high-altitude village that produces a strange share of the world's elite runners. He runs with them.
Yes. Running with the Kenyans (2012) is Adharanand Finn's nonfiction account of moving his family to Iten, Kenya for six months to train among the world's best distance runners. Finn is a Guardian journalist.
Yes. Adharanand Finn has written The Way of the Runner (about Japanese marathon culture) and The Rise of the Ultra Runners. The three books form a loose running-culture trilogy.
Running with the Kenyans was written by Adharanand Finn, published in 2012 by Faber & Faber, Limited.
Running with the Kenyans is 304 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Running with the Kenyans takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Running with the Kenyans is a standalone novel by Adharanand Finn, not part of a series.
Running with the Kenyans is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.