IAPS Cross-Country at Turi

This year’s IAPS Cross Country at Turi, was upon us on Saturday 11^th May. As usual, this is that time of the year where we call upon the children to dig deep in themselves to find their endurance, resilience and sheer determination to conquer the tough terrain at Turi, which is not only as rugged as they come, but also at a higher altitude than our children are used to running in Nairobi.
The run up to the actual event, started off with the Iten High Altitude training two weeks ago, which was attended by many of our runners for their warm up. Our journey on Friday 10th, had the children excited, and the thought of camping out on the field made it even better. On the Saturday morning, the children woke up in high spirits, and before breakfast, walked the course and had a feel of what the 3km runners would be encountering.
At the starting point at 09:30hrs, the U9 girls who were to run 3kms eagerly awaited the start. We had 6 representatives from Braeburn, as had every other school. Our girls did an amazing job, with all of them completing their race. In as much as they were not among the top girls to finish, they did justice to the race. The U9 Boys and the U11 girls, were up next, and in the latter race we had two out of the 6 runners in our school finishing in top 10 positions. These were Lara and Carla, dramatically finishing at position 7 & 8 respectively for the U11 girls, and there was notable effort from Trey, Nhial, and Lorenzo for the U9 boys.  
In the U11 boys and the U13 girls’ races, we had some outstanding performances from Kit and Caterina, who were both second in their races with a convincing distance between them and the third placed runners. The U13 boys’ race was the longest of the day. They were to run a distance of 5.2 km, which required them to display an attitude that was above and beyond the rest. Our boys all crossed the finish line, and although they did not finish in the top 10 positions their effort was remarkable.
In terms of participation, this was the best team that has taken part at the event in a while, and they should all be commended for their performance on the day.