Festus Langat - a middle and soon to be long distance runner.

Instead of bring running news to you, I thought to write a small caption of a person that I have slowly seen growing and hope will become one of Kenya's Elite in the marathon world.  We will follow his progression on bushdrums.com

Festus Langat - a young family man living in the highlands of Kenya.  

I had the pleasure of meeting Festus several years ago at a race in Italy and he has over the years developed into a mature middle distance runner having won the Indianapolis half marathon on 2 occasions and last week he came second in the latter race as well as many other national and international races.

Festus trains with his brother and a few friends in Kerichio and is known by the local boys as their coach.

He is one of the best pacemakers out on the field and we had the luck of seeing him at his full potential this March in Rome where he did a splendid job in pulling the race at a good pace to km 25 facing a strong head wind.

His manager Hussein Makke and Massimliano Monteforte (race director of the Rome Marathon) brought Festus to Rome this March where we spent time training, filming a documentary on the negative influences of doping in the running world (the short film called PUROSANGUE - translated "Pureblood" will be launched next year) and generally having fun and a good few laughs around Rome.

This July I will be spending time with him in Iten with a film crew to finish off the documentary and will be able to report how his training is proceeding to start competing in full marathons.

Next year he will start the season by running as an Elite in Rome and attempt to go for the podium; I will be there helping him the whole way.  Keep an eye out for Festus Langat - the future Kenyan Champion on www.bushdrums.com

Nico Pannevis

(c) Bushdrums 2011