Day 1:
On the first day, we realized we were quite out of shape. After our first run of the DT, we were tired and sweaty. After we finished working out and getting cleaned up, we headed back to the classroom. Out big question for the DT was why are Kenyans so good at running. We got into groups and began researching topics. Following lunch, we watched a film called Cool Runnings. The movie was loosely based on the true story of the first Jamaican bobsled team. In the movie, they team was built from the idea of pushcart. Taking the best push cart driver and the fastest 3 sprinters who missed their shot on the Olympic team created the team. The team demonstrated going from nothing to something, overcoming obstacles and proving the others countries wrong. “A lot has been learned and I feel inspired to go to new limits” says Luke Henderson, 2020.
Day 2: Men’s 5000m Final Barcelona Olympics 1992
Starting the second day, we watched the inspirational race of the morning. Today’s video was men’s 5000m final at 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The only white guy in the lead pack, with others from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco, was German Bieter Bauman. At the beginning of the race he was lagging in the lead pack and then with 250m left, he found an extra kick and pulled ahead, winning the race. The film that was watched in the afternoon was Without Limits. The film demonstrated learning new strategies in order to win. Better to run with the pack, then getting out in front to showboat. A race was a work of art. The purpose of the race was to test the limits of the human heart.
A quote by Steve Prefontaine.
Day 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FToLNEr9YY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpMlAe7X8Uo
Third day started off with the daily inspirational race of the morning. Today’s video was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics men’s 10k. After, we discussed about their running strategies and a little about Olympics history. The runners don’t run to get the world record, but to win the gold. The idea is to keep pace and have a fast kick at the end to win the gold, but if you don’t have a fast kick, you should keep a fast pace the whole time and hope the others can’t stay with you. Later in the day, we continued our talk about running and why Kenyan runners are better than their neighboring countries. We looked into the country’s political stance, geography and a little about their genes and heritage. The movie for the day was Endurance. The film was a documentary about runner, Haile Gebrselassie and how he channeled his talent in rural Ethiopia to help his family. The movie was about the race we watched early in the morning (’96 men’s 10k).
Day 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTYwp-8hMFw
Today’s inspirational race of the morning was 2012 London Olympics men’s 3000m steeplechase. This event is like a distance event, but needs power surges in order to keep going after clearing each obstacle. As seen in today’s video, Kenyan runners were not the lead in the pack, but with a few laps left, they make their ways to the front and fight to the finish. After we watched our morning video, we went down to the track and did our day of service. We moved the hurdles to one corner of the track, 1 by 1, to experience the Kenyan lifestyle. The movie we watched was Chariots of Fire. The main characters all experience the passion of the sport differently. One of the runner’s motive for running was religious. Came the Olympics, he refused to run one of his races because it was on a Sunday and he believed that Sunday was for god.
Before we started our day of service activity.
-Isabella B.