Ryan Shay & Marty Rosendahl Represent US
MOMBASA, KENYA (3/24/07) - Michigan runners Marty Rosendahl and Ryan Shay's trip to compete in the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya, March 24 proved an experience they'll never forget.

There was much pre-race controversy over security, the course and weather. As the event drew closer, several top runners, some teams (including the U.S. junior women) and countries completely withdrew from the championships, citing various reasons.

But there was no way Rosendahl and Shay were going to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime to run against the best in the world. The 2007 championships will not soon be forgotten, for reasons far beyond results listed on paper.

All races were run under late-afternoon sun, in high heat and humidity on a small, three-hole golf course with no shade. The course was a 2K loop which included 10 sand bunkers per lap, a couple ditches, many turns and switchbacks.

Between the senior men's 12K, senior women's 8K, junior men's 8K and junior women's 6K, 82 runners didn't finish, mainly due to heat. That was just under 20 percent of the total athletes, highest rate of DNFs in event history. Among the casualties was five-time defending men's senior winner Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia.

While in Kenya I spoke at length with Shay and Rosendahl about their seasons, plans for the future and overall experience of being in Kenya for the championships.

Shay may be best known in Michigan as a four-time state cross country and seven-time track champ during his 1993-97 career at Central Lake High School.

He was NCAA 10,000-meter track champion and a nine-time All- American for Notre Dame University, and U.S.A. Track & Field champion in the marathon, half-marathon and 20K.

Shay represented the U.S. at the World Cross Country Championships in 1998 as a freshman at Notre Dame, leading the junior team to sixth place by crossing 20th overall.

Mombasa was just Shay's third cross-country race since 2001. He usually trains for spring marathons. But the East Jordan native, who currently lives and trains at altitude in Flagstaff, Ariz., is focusing this spring on racing well on the track. So he made the most of the U.S. cross championships being in Boulder, Col., in February and placed high enough to be picked for the U.S. team.

In Mombasa, Shay scored as the third man on the 11th-place U.S. team. He was 99th finisher overall.

"I'm not the best heat runner," he said afterward. "I don't think I could have done anything more to make the race other than it turned out to be: a death march. I tried to position myself as best as I could, and ended up in no man's land.

"In retrospect, I am glad I went. The cultural experience was something I'll not forget. The heightened security made it impossible to really take in Mombasa, but what I did observe gave me a greater appreciation for what most of us take for granted here in the states."

Among trip highlights was visiting St. Peter's Rock School, a poor, barely-sustainable institution. Of its 96 students, 46 percent had mental disabilities.

Its classrooms, Shay said, felt like dungeons with steamy dampness, the smell of mildew and crumbling cement walls. Children's sleeping quarters consisted of two small rooms (one for boys, one for girls) lined with bunk beds with mattresses on the side, to be placed on the floor so students could sleep on them. Rooms were filthy and had a smell one can only imagine with 20-plus kids sharing small space in sweltering heat.

"They were happy and shy to meet the U.S. team," Shay remembered. "We presented each child with a pair of running shoes and distributed candy, which I think they appreciated more than the shoes.

"The teachers and staff were amazing. They do the best they can with almost no resources. They work under conditions no teacher here would think possible, yet somehow create an environment in which children can acquire skills needed to become contributing members of society and to survive independently.

"The Mombasa experience left me with greater knowledge of what real poverty is, and how small acts of generosity can have a positive influence on individuals," Shay said.

The rest of his 2007 will be busy. Next came the 5,000 meters at the Mt. Sac Relays, meant as a tune-up for the 10,000 at the Stanford Cardinal Invitational. Shay will return to Michigan for the 30th annual Fifth Third River Bank Run May 12 in Grand Rapids, followed by the USATF 10,000-meter championships in June.

Shay plans to run the U.S. 10K road championships July 4 at Peach Tree in Atlanta, followed three days later by marrying Alicia Craig, an NCAA record-holder during her days at Stanford. The couple will make their home in Flagstaff. After that, Shaw will focus on the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Nov. 3 in New York City.

Rosendahl, a member of the Hansons Brooks Distance Project since graduating from Minnesota State University in 2002, prepared differently for Mombasa.

Being based near sea level in Michigan, he and other Hansons team members traveled to Colorado for 16 days of altitude training prior to the U.S. cross championships in Boulder.

Conditions there proved completely opposite of what Rosendahl faced in Mombasa. After qualifying, he did what he could to get ready by wearing multiple layers of clothes, cranking up the heat and running indoors on a treadmill.

Rosendahl vied in the USATF 8K road championship in New York the week before Mombasa. The race was supposed to be a tune up, but instead he (and fellow U.S. team member Matt Gabrielson) found snow and ice in the city.

The two ran the race, delayed a day due to conditions, then flew out that night to Kenya. It made for a long and tiring journey from below-freezing temperatures into torrid heat far away.

Rosendahl planned to start the cross championships as conservatively as possible, build speed through the middle of the race and start picking off runners one by one. For the most part that's how his race played out, as he moved through the field to 103rd place overall and fourth scorer for the U.S. team.

"Man, what an incredible experience," Rosendahl said of his adventure. "The temperature was in the mid-90s and it was humid, so the heat index was probably over 100. Those were the most brutal conditions I've ever raced in.

"We sat in the team tent before our race and watched runners from the junior race being carried to the medical tent nearby. Most were completely unresponsive, eyes rolling back in their heads, almost lifeless.

"I started to think just finishing the race would be a victory. That's the wrong mind-set going into a competition, but there was reason to be concerned for one's health under those conditions.

"So I started off very conservatively. I hit the first turn about 300 meters into the race and was last of the people who were still running. About 20 people had already been knocked down, so at least I was ahead of them.

"From there, my goal was to run even splits for each 2K and try to make the final 2K my fastest. My splits (unofficial, just ones I hit on my watch) were 6:20, 6:40, 7:10, 7:10, 7:10 and 7:08. I moved up in places throughout the race and competed with some of the guys in back.

"There were about 180 people entered in the race; about 160 started and 120 finished," said Rosendahl. "It was carnage.

"I couldn't believe how many spectators there were. They reported a paid attendance of 30,000, but there were at least that many standing outside the gates, along roads and sitting up on the hillsides.

"This was by far the biggest crowd I'd ever seen at a cross-country race. They cheered for the Kenyan athletes, they cheered when Bekele dropped out of the men's senior race, they cheered for Kenya native Lornah Kiplagat, who won the women's senior race; and they cheered for the U.S. teams, chanting 'Obama, Obama, Obama!'

"They loved us because of Presidential candidate Barak Obama, who has Kenyan roots. They said the U.S. was number one and the greatest country, because they love Obama.

"After my shower at the hotel, the water was still running brown off my body because I was just that dirty. The sand, dirt and dust kicked up during the race was unbelievable. I was glad I wore my sunglasses, which helped keep that stuff out of my eyes, but it still took a couple showers before I was clean.

Rosendahl's focus this season is similar to Shay's. Next up was the Mt. Sac 10,000 meters, followed by the USATF track championships in June, then preparing for the Olympic Marathon Trials. MR