First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has over the years maintained her consistency participating in marathons since she launched her Beyond Zero campaign which advocates for the provision of quality healthcare to women and children.
In line with her advocacy, Ms Kenyatta has taken her love for running to an international platform, becoming the only first lady to run a full marathon at the Virgin London Marathon in 2014.
Tasked with ensuring, she is in tip-top shape for the runs, is athletics trainer and former world marathon champion, Douglas Wakiihuri.
Wakiihuri, who is Ms Kenyatta's coach, revealed that the first lady has maintained a strict training regimen over the years, which she accelerates in the weeks leading up to when she's supposed to run.
“You have to do endurance, speed, strength and at the same time take care of the wear and tear of your body. All this, combined with proper nutrition, puts one in good stead and fit enough to run the half marathon, ” he told journalists prior to the 2019 edition of the Beyond Zero Marathon.
Wakiihuri, who is the founding director of Nairobi Sotokoto Safari Half Marathon Limited, maintained that to run a race of that nature, one has to be disciplined and observe a strict training regimen.
With an athletics career spanning over three decades, Wakiihuri put Kenya’s name on the global athletics arena, winning the gold medal of the World Marathon Championships in Rome in 1987.
He boasts of an impressive collection of medals, having been crowned the London Marathon champion in 1989, Commonwealth Games Marathon Gold medalist (1990) at Auckland, New Zealand, and World Cup Marathon champion in 1995 at Athens, Greece.
The marathon legend bagged a silver medal in the marathon held in 1988 during the Olympic Games at Seoul, South Korea.
Other than coaching Margaret Kenyatta, Wakiihuri runs the Kibera Running Club, where he nurtures children to take on athletics while providing breakfast for the kids.
