First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has intensified training ahead of the fourth edition of the First Lady Half Marathon which is scheduled for March 10 in Nairobi.
The First Lady allowed members of the press to join her morning training session at the State House grounds which lasted an hour and was done under the watchful eye of her trainer Douglas Wakiihuri.
Wakiihuri, a former long-distance runner who won Kenya’s first ever gold in marathon at the World Championships in Rome, said that the First Lady is getting in shape for the race by the day.
“This is just one of our routine runs. We normally start at 6.30 in the morning and we have been doing so for the last three weeks. The First Lady’s training regime is identical to that of elite runners, only that hers is less intense,” said Wakiihuri.
“We are now scaling up preparations to ensure that she is ready by the day of the race,” Wakiihuri told the breathless journalists who had completed the hour-long jog within State House.
The half marathon, which had been shelved for the last two years but is making a return, is part of the First Lady’s Beyond Zero campaign that seeks to raise funds for maternal healthcare.
The event was launched in 2014 to help provide fully equipped mobile clinics to all 47 counties.
Beyond Zero is a flagship programme by the First Lady that aims to save the lives of mothers and children by preventing unnecessary maternal and child deaths.
“For the first time this year we have added categories for the visually impaired, specifically the T11, T12 and T13. We have also incorporated a wheelchair and tricycle race so that we don’t lock out anyone who would like to join us for this worthy cause,” said Charles Gacheru, the Chief Executive Officer of IMG who are the event’s organisers.
“Registration is ongoing and we expect about 25,000 participants. Because of this huge number, we have planned to have a separate start for elite runners. The route has already been mapped out and we shall be releasing it later today.”
The Beyond Zero Campaign aims to eliminate Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (eMTCT) by 2020 besides scaling up the war against new HIV infections amongst adolescents.
Earlier this year, the First Lady launched the second Beyond Zero Strategic Framework (2018-2022), which expands the initiative’s healthcare programmes to include previously neglected health challenges like obstetric fistulae, children living with disability and the increased involvement of men in reproductive health.