The "Rono Work-Out". The Beautiful Mind, Body and of Henry Rono (5 World Records between 10,000 and 3000 Meters over 3 Years) Left Us Much to Grow On.
Henry in 1978, 1981, and 1986, with A Set of Intervals Meant to Encourage and Improve Distance-Runners of Many Levels, from World-Class to Recreational.
Kiptaragon and 1978
Henry Rono, a Nandi tribesman from the Great Rift Valley village of Kiptaragon in southwest Kenya, set four World Records over 81 days of 1978.
Nandi country near the village of Kiptaragon in southwest Kenya.
His feats were without precedent or parallel. Only Jacob Inbrigtsen of Norway in 2023 has since approached such a season of Records and Championships as Henry Rono’s 1978. Three years later Henry came back from being 60 pounds overweight, with a self-confessed “beer belly”, to give the world four 5000 Meters in 13:12 or fast, including a new World Record, and a 27:40 10,000 Meters, during 18 days of August and September 1981.
In 1978 the 26-year-old Sophomore at Washington State University in Pullman first broke the World Record for 5000 Meters.
Running in U.C. Berkeley’s Edwards Stadium during an inconsequential ‘Triangular Match Meet, Henry lowered Dick Quax’s then W.R. by 4.5 seconds. He did 13:08.4, alone, his final lap 59.5. Next month, May 13, he raced again for love and glory. About 200 spectators braved wind and rain for a Meet at the University of Washington’s Track in Seattle. Rono’s event here was one he was learning. Running alone again, Henry took 2.6 seconds off the World and Olympic Record for the 3000 Meters Steeplechase that Sweden’s Andres Garderud had set in Montreal, battling fiercely with Poland’s Bronislav Malinowski, two years earlier. Rono’s 8:05.4 was almost 31 seconds ahead of 2nd-place, the very creditable runner Jim Johnson. Jim said that Henry’s “hurdles technique” was “ragged.”
The Nandi tribesman and WDU Sophomore traveled to Europe. On June 11, in Vienna, Austria, he bested his counryman Samson Kimobwa’s 10,000 Meters W.R. by 8 seconds, with Colombias Domingo Tibaduiza 2nd-place, 31 seconds behind. 16 days later, Henry ran in Oslo, Norway’s fabled Bislett Games and broke by 3.1 seconds the strong 3000 World Record set by Brendan Foster of Great Britain four years earlier. Henry’s 7:32.1 would stand as a World Record for 11 years, as would his 1978 Steeplechase time of 8:05.4 before about 200 spectators in Seattle’s wind and rain.
He was a phenom. He was something else. He won 31 races in a row. He won in 1978 Gold Medals for the Steeplechase and 5000 Meters at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Alberta and Gold Medals for the Steeplechase and 10,000 Meters at the All-Africa Games in Algiers. He was doing things never imagined, much less seen. He was like an ingenuous but regal King in his domination of fields and races—like a Prince become King out of Shakespeare and Epics of Africa East and West.
Watch Henry run. See that flow. Appreciate the heart behind his stride’s power.
In the 1978 Commonwealth Games 5000 Meters Rono took on Brendan Foster, Mike McLeod, Rod Dixon, Nick Rose, Steve Jones, Michael Musyoki, Sulemain Nyambui, …
Henry’s 13:23 here is 6 seconds ahead of Musyoki and 8 ahead of Foster.
Watch him in the Steeplechase. Yes, he really does accelerate like a sprinter—like a boy showing off—like a dancer or gymnast entering his or her most bravura exercise—toward his final Water-Jump in the 1978 Commonwealth Games
Henry’s 8:26, is 6 seconds ahead of James Munyala of Kenya.
Steve Prefontaine is famous for his elevating eloquence as well as for his “guts” and passion. He said: “A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they’re capable of understanding.”
Henry tells John Barbour of Track & Field News in this interview.profile toward the end of 1978. “It’s the real me, you know; running is the open me.”
No Olympic Stage to Fulfill a Tribesman’s Dreams
Kenya boycotted the Summer Olympics of 1980 in Moscow, as Kenya had boycotted the 1976 Games in Montreal. Solidarity with other Frontline States (Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania), opposing South Africa’s apartheid and supporting the armed struggle who fought to turn Rhodesia into Zimbabwe, was cause for Kenya’s 1976 boycott. Alignment with the United States against the Soviet Union;s invasion of Afghanistan was cause for Kenya’s boycott in 1980.
Henry was devastated. The Olympics were his ideal from his radio-days boyhood in Kiptaragon onward. Multiple Gold-Medalists in distance-running—such as Nurmi, Zatopek, Abebe Bikila, Kip Keino, and Lasse Viren—were models for his dreams.
In 1980 he began more often to drink till he passed out. Beer—Whiskey—Rum—oh, and those those very surprising Cocktails, sweetened and spiced. Henry drank for liberation and oblivion. He drank himself into states that writer friends of mine in San Francisco in the middle 1970s called: “Blotto.” That is: “We went to breakfast and Jack [or Ray, or Bill] got Blotto all over again on Champagne and Bloody Marys.” Blotto had a nice onomatopoeia, suggesting obliteration along with oblivion. I too knew what it was like to wake up with furry furnace subsituting for one’s brain.
Henry had demons complimentary with his drive as athlete and artist. Kenny Moore once talked to me about “the burr” that he said “all great runners have.” Kenny referred particularly to his friend Steve Prefontaine as one who carried such “a burr”, this evening in Eugene at a dinner given us by Pat, a new friend of mine from the 1976 United States’ Olympic Track & Field Trials.
Henry’s demons to excel and to expel might have owed to his father’s death when he was a toddler. The bicycle accident that Henry claimed “kept me from walking till I was six” may have haunted him onward. No doubt his being a rural Nandi among Kenya’s ruling majority of Kikiyu was another fierce and constant goad.
1981, Training Off a “Beer-Belly” to Set Another World-Record
Henry’s 1981 season shows him riding demons. His set of races and risks over less than three weeks of that Summer are again without parallel. They’re depicted nicely in Richard Amery’s tribute on the LetsRun website, ‘When Henry Rono Went from 15:40 to a 13:06 World Record in Two Months.’
In mid-July of 1981 Henry slogged through a 15:40 5000 Meters in Finland. Such an embarrassment woke him up. He undertook a regimen in Germany. He ran twice a day and cut down by seconds each session the splits for his repeat 400s. Such were his gifts, led by his will, that in one month he improved to 13:23 for 4th at the Weltklasses in Zurich.
Three days later, August 27, began Henry’s string of four 5000s and one 10,000 over a span of less than three weeks. All his 5000s were 13:12 or faster, all his races except one were victories. Koblenz in Germany came first, August 27—13:12.5, a win by 14 seconds on the night there that Steve Ovett regained his World Record for the Mile in 3:48.4. Two days later, Henry rallied from 30 meters behind to overtake Julian Goater in the Van Damme Memorial’s 10,000. 60,000-plus cheered the Kenyan in Brussels, his 27:40 finishing 8 seconds ahead of Julian. Next were three 5000s four days. First, Rieti, Italy, September 9, where Henry’s pace-making 13:12:47 placed 3rd behind Hansjorg Kunze and Victor Abramov. Next, September 11, two nights later, and 13:12.4 within the showcase of London’s Crystal Palace, chased again by Julian Goater 3 seconds behind. Finally, off to the Middle North of Norway and the village of Knarvik (population about 5000)), 300 or miles toward the Arctic Circle from Oslo.
Richard Amery writes about Henry . ‘His last three outings over five kilometres had all been within four and a half seconds of his 13:08.4 world record, a feat that must have been a record in itself.’ In Knarvik Henry is helped by three Brit runners, Olympic medalists Steve Cram and Ian Stewart and Maccabiah Games champion James Espir, over the first four laps. About Henry’s succeeding 1000s, there in Knarvik, Richard Amery writes. ‘Until the final stages he set a remarkably even pace, with each of the first four kilometres taking between 2:38 and 2:38.5. However, he clearly had something in reserve, running the final kilometre in 2:33.2, his last lap taking just 56 seconds, finishing in 13:06.20.’
What an athletic genius, you may exclaim! His ‘first four kilometers’ exactly ‘between 2:38 and 2:38.5.” Henry Rono had gained an attunement to the split-seconds of time like Jean Claude Killy—three times a Gold Medalist in Alpine Skiing, Grenoble, 1968.
Watch again, if you please, Henry run. Wonder at his stride and heart in his comeback victory over the Van Damme Classic’s 10,000 Meters (a night in which Sebastian Coe took back the Mile W.R. from Steve Ovett with his 3:47.33).
UTICA, ITS BOILERMAKER 15-K, THE A.R.R.A., AND HENRY FINDS A HOME WITH THE FULLEM FAMILY
In latter July of 1986 Dick Mattia called me in San Francisco from his home in Utica, a town once a manufacturer for heavy industry, nestled near the center of Upstate New York. Utica was by then renowned among distance-runners for its Boilermaker 15-K. The Boilermaker was so named by its founder, Earle Reed, to represent Utica’s and his family’s heritage. It was ‘put together’ by a ‘group of buddie.’
Dick Mattia “handled” the ‘Invited Athletes’ for this race. Dick was among devotees who made the sport of Road Running happen across the United States. These jewels among people admired distance-runners with a respect akin to love and they esteemed and extolled their communities’ road-runs comparably. Dorsey Chevront with the 20-K in Wheeling, West Virginia; Glenn Latimer with the 4-Miler on Peoria; Mike Long and Tim Murphy with the Carlsbad 5-K nearby San Diego; Bill Orr with the Gasparilla 15-K in Tampa; Phil Stgewart and Jeff Darman wth the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in D.C., Chuck Galford with the Cascade Run-Off in Portland, Oregon; Tony Desabado with the Philadelphia Distance Classic Half-Marathon; ….
These and more I knew in 1986 were among wheels who carried the Association of Road Racing Athletes Circuit forward in the 1980s. 1980 and 1981, when competing in New York City and along the West Coast, in Eugene and Portland, Oregon, I’d joined with more than a score of runners, male and female, to challenge the United States’ sham-amateur fronts and insist on Open Prize Money for us at road-races. Our beginnings became the ARRA and our Circuit grew to more than 10 prize-money Races. The ARRA rebellion and victory, backed by millions of runners worldwide, seeded the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) Grand Prix of Meetings in Europe. By 1986 dozens of Meets and Races paid athletes openly. Over the past year, too, the Agency that Bill Sevald and I had started, Crossing Lines (for ‘Athletes and Artists Crossing Lines’), had gained more than 20 clients, including Zak Barie, Filbert Bayi, Suleman Nyambui and Gidamis Shahanga of Tanzania and Sam Ngatia and Wilson Waigwa of Kenya. 1985-1986 was already banner for Crossing Lines. Friends and clients had won major Marathons across North America. John Moreno had won the 1985 Jersey Waterfront, Peter Butler the 1985 California International, and Ric Sayre had won in Los Angeles AND Long Beach, and then Bill Donakowski dropped his p.r. by 3 minutes and broke the Course Record at the Jersey Waterfront.
“Don,” Dick Mattia in Utica said, “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Dick,” I said. “I heard your message when I got back to San Francisco, and I meant to call you today. Everything has been rush-rush. I flew around the world after the Marathon here.”
“You did what? You flew around the world””
“Yeah. Something I’ve wanted to do. It was a cheap package. United, Lufthansa, and a really nice one, Sir Lanka.”
“Why?” Dick said. “Apart from flying around the world. That’s pretty exciting, itself.”
“Well, I wanted to see a printer in Hong Kong about two books of mine that will come out this year. Then Berlin—I’ve wanted to visit Berlin for a long time. Then London for a few days, where I just happened to stay in the same housing as a runner from New York you might know, Dick—Vince Draddy. Great High-School miler who’s now a 5000 Meters runner and training with Gerard Donakowski in Ann Arbor.”
“Vince Draddy. Sure—4:02 in High School. But to just up and fly around the world! That’s pretty great, itself. You must have left just after you ran the Marathon. I saw you finished 8th.”
“And your neighbor for Upstate won! Again. Pete Pfitzinger is tough in San Francisco.”
“Pete. Peter. From Pittsfield. Practically Rochester. We can claim him as Upstate, that’s right. But 8th is pretty good. I’m remembering, 2:22?”
“It was okay. Good fitness-builder. But YOUR news really is exciting, Dick. Henry Rono is living in Utica! Staying with a family there. And training.”
“The Fullems. Good family. Brian Fullem just graduated from Bucknell. He was Captain of their Cross-Country team, and he’s a pretty good runner. 14:25 for 5-K this past Spring.”
“And now he gets to train with Henry Rono.”
“Exactly. Exactly why it’s pretty nice all around.”
“And I bet you brought Henry Rono to Utica for the Boilermaker, Dick.”
“I thought it would be good. For runners here to appreciate him. They did, too, even though he only ran 49 minutes. He gave autographs for, gosh, half-an-hour.”
“Great. I can see the scene. You did a good thing!”
“Well, I thought you might be interested. Since you’re working with some of the Africans now.”
“Couldn’t be more interested, Dick! Couldn’t be more admiring of. Henry Rono the athlete. I said hello to him at the Cascade Run-off this June. He, uh, ran, I think 51-something there, and, you know,—he was not Henry the champion.”
“Should I tell them you’ll call? I’ve told Brian about you, and he’s passed it along to Henry. He really is trying to come back, and I think you two could work together great. You and Henry, though maybe you can help Brian.”
“Sure. More than glad, Dick! Honored, really, and thank you very much. Thank you all-around!”
I called the Fullems’ home phone-number in Utica and asked for Brian the next evening.
His young man’s voice had the Mohawk Valley directness I knew from staying with Ray and Janice Newkirk in Albany for the 1983 and 1985 Price-Chopperthon 30-Ks. It was both reserved and forthright and sound like hardwood.
Brian was quick to tell me about Henry’s progress.
“Two weeks ago—even a week ago—I could stay with him. He runs in the morning—every mornings—and together we’re doing 1000s on the Utica College track. Quite an unusual set of 1000s. Well, this week Henry is leaving me!”
“Well, he is—.” I let the implication hang.
“Henry Rono. I know. I can’t believe it. Should I call him?”
“Sure. Please. And thank you. Thank you and your family, Brian. I hope that we get to work together.”
Henry’s voice was soft and careful. He perhaps exaggerated his tentativeness with English to offset any fault, 10 years after his move from Kenya. “This is Mister Don Paul?”
“Well, just Don is fine. Very good to talk with you—Henry Rono. I’ve admired you for many years, And I’m so glad that you now have a home with the Fullem family, and a training-partner in Brian. We can just never know, uh, what’s around the corner.”
“Yes. That is true. I never expected a family and a situation like this. When I came to Utica. They are good people. They’re very good to me.”
“So nice, to have a home. A base.”
“You also are a runner. I met you in Portland. At the Cascade Run-Off.”
“You remember! Thank you. Yes, we shook hands, and then you were signing autographs.”
“You also hold a World Record.”
“Ah,” I scoffed. “For a distance so obscure hardly anyone bothers with it.”
“50 Kilometers is very far.”
“U’hm, far and obscure. But you—FOUR real World Records!”
“I have set FIVE World Records,” Henry said with an emphasis both controlled and sharp.
We agreed that I would represent him—Henry said that Ngatia and Waigwa, Bayi and Nyambui, Gidamis Shahanga and Zak Barie were all friends of his—and that I would. look for road-races nearby Utica. “Not Falmouth. I am ready to run with those guys. When I come back I want to be me again.”
We agreed to talk on Wednesday and Sunday evenings.
12 X 1000 Per Henry
That first Sunday evening I heard from Henry the Set of 1000s that’d run on the Utica College track. Brian stayed with him part-way.
“You want to know what I do? It is like the Magic Doctor’s Secrets.”
“Well, I would love to know what you do. Brian says it’s a quite unusual Set.”
“I don’t care who knows. Anyone can know, and anyone is free to do my Work-outs.”
“Great! You’re generous. So, Doctor—.” Again I let an implication hang.
“I begin slow. That is important. Begin slow and easy so that you can gain your breathing-rhythm and find a smooth stride for the Track. First of the 12 1000s to prepare for the 10,000 that you have for me in Baltimore.
3:10. Slow. Easy, Brian is with me. Not even 5 minutes-per-Mile Pace. We run a lap in 90 seconds. The lap is like my Morning Runs—6-minute pace. Then 3:08 for 1000. Slow, easy. A lap in 90 seconds. 3:06, 3:04, 3:02, 3:00. This completes the first half of the Set. We’re now at Pace that would be a World Record for the Marathon. A good Pace for you.”
“A good Pace for me,” I agree, aware already that Henry likes to joke.
“You can set another World Record. Maybe this 3-minutes per 1000 is my pace for the Half-Marathon in Philadelphia that you have for me after Baltimore.”
“That would be fine. A fine preparation for Chicago, if you decide to run that Marathon. The fastest course in the World, and you know Bob Bright will welcome you."
“I like Mr. Bob Bright. He treated me very well in the Midland Run that you and I ran. In May of 1980. He hired a helicopter to bring me to that race on time.”
“Unforgettable delivery. Onto that pasture. Something again never seen before. But please go on. I know that you get faster, and I bet you do so like a Swiss watch.”
“You are funny. You’re right. Of course I get faster with the second half of the 1000s, and that is how the best races are run. I ran negative-splits in Vienna and in Oslo.”
“Big negative-splits. That I bet you remember to the Second for each Lap. But please go on with your exploits.”
Henry laughed again. “Here we go! Very quick! 2:58. :56. :54. Are you following me? This is where I lost Brian. He stops and misses an Interval and then tries to go with me in the next 1000, but it is hard for him. I am also running faster in the Lap between our 1000s, too. I am running 80 seconds each Rest-Lap. So it’s more like a real race.”
“And you finish in 2:52, 2:50, and 2:48 for the final 1000,” I said. “Never getting carried away, but improving by 2 seconds each 1000. And you finish at a pace that’s close to your goal-pace for Baltimore., I think. If my mental arithmetic is right.”
“You see it! You understand! Tell me how fast I ran this past Saturday.”
“As if you don’t know! Let’s see. For the second 6000 Meters—2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and then 12 seconds under 3-minute Pace. That’s 42 seconds under 3-minute pace for 6000 meters, and that makes 17:18. If you doubled 17:18 for another 6 kilometers you’d have 34:36, and that’s close to the winning times at Bloomsday the past few years. “
“I ran 35:49 in Spokane, in 1982, when I was not in shape, and I won there.”
“It was a hot day, as I remember. Anyway, what you just did is a very good work-out, Henry! Even if you added your first 6000 Meters to the second you’d have a respectable time. Let’s see. You were 18:30 total for your first six 1000. Add that to your second 6000. 18:30 plus 17:18. Why, you just beat yourself in Spokane. 35:48! Congratulations!”
“You can do that in your mind? You just did all of that arithmetic in your mind?”
“As if you can’t, again, Henry. We’re distance-runners—we have a little abacus in our brains. But you can carry out splits, under stress, more exactly—well, as exactly as Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Abebe Bikila, Kip Keino, … Anyone in history.”
'“That is good,” Henry said.
“You’re getting faster by the week. You’re getting faster WITHIN each work-out. I think it’s a beautiful, brilliant work-out, Henry.. It’s a brilliant structure you’ve come up with, Henry.”
“You feel good afterward. You always feel very good when you finish a Set of 1000 Meters this way,” Henry said. “You know you can go faster the next time.”
(Brian Fullem is now an acclaimed Podiatrist, living neat Tampa, Florida.
Dick Mattia remains the Coordinator of Invited Athletes for the Utica Boilermaker 15-K.)
Baltimore, Brussels, and Philadelphia
Henry went to the road 10-K in Baltimore. It was, as I recall, a net downhill Course, with the downhill occurring over the second 5-K. Henry ran, as I recall, another negative-split: 14:23 followed by 13:50 for 28:03. After 51 and 49 minutes for the Cascade Run-Off and Utica Boilermaker 15-K.
His performance made Henry avid for Europe’s Tracks and Stadiums. I couldn’t dissuade him. Wilfried Meert, Director of the Ivo Van Damme Memorial. flew Henry and a second Crossing Lines client, steeplechaser Ivan Huff, over to Brussels. Henry dropped off the 10,000 Meters lead pack within a mile and finished over 30:00. Ivan lowered his p.r. to 8:16. Athletes stayed in the Brussels’ Hyatt. Over nine or so hours in the Hotel’s Restaurant and Bar Henry drank and ate like other Legends. Two whole Chickens, spaced a few hours apart. Steak after Steak. Bourbon. Rum. Cocktails. His tab exceeded $1200. Here I thank Wilfried Meert for partially absorbing those costs and thank Jos Hermens, the great plus to Athletics over 50 years as runner, agent, coach, organizer, and visionary entrepreneur, for gently arguing and then assuring Henry’s return to the U.S. on his scheduled Flight. “The funny thing was,” Jos said, “he wasn’t falling down. You could hardly tell he was drunk. Did you see his Bill?”
“As incredible as his races,” I said.
Philadelphia was also debacle. Henry took the short hop from Utica on Saturday and went to the Lobby Bar straight after checking into his Room. Tony Desabado called me around 5:00 in the Room that I was sharing with Ric Sayre. “Don,” he said, “Henry hasn’t moved from the Bar in three hours. He’s drinking like a fish.” “I’ll be down.”
We’d met in the Lobby when Henry had arrived. “This is nice race for you, Henry. A great race to prepare for Chicago. Three-minute pace, and be sure to beat me.”
His profile at the Bar was of one installed on a mission. It was like a smiling warrior’s bust. I touched him on his left shoulder. “Henry,” I said, “this can’t be. You’ve got to roll it up. Go up to your Room, get a nice rest, and race like you can tomorrow.”
He was imperious. His eyes gained a blaze. “Leave me,” he said. “I know what I do. This is how I prepare.”
“No. It’s over. No more.” I spoke to the Bartender and to the Front Desk and then to Tony. We were standing by the bank of Elevators when Henry strode up. He was ramrod-straight in his carriage and his eyes were even more focused by indignant rage.
“Did you cut me off?”
“I sure did.”
He punched me in the mouth, a short right that rocked my head slightly. “That’s it!” I said. “That’s all from me for you, Henry.” Tony had already bear-hugged Henry and a Hotel Security guy blocked the runner’s front with his fists in front of his shoulders. “Do what you want,” I said to Tony. “I’m just done. That was enough.”
Henry was taken by Distance Classic staff to Philadelphia’s Airport that evening.
As I thought he might, he showed up for the Half-Marathon’s Start. He ran with the lead pack up to 3 miles, according to Bill Donakowski, and I passed him along the Schuylkill River beyond halfway. He finished in 1:07-something.
I passed along representation of him to the generous character of Tracy Sundlun.
Henry’s Gifts
I relate the episodes in Brussels and Philadelphia to illustrate how helpless Henry was once he’d decided to drink. He was victim to his demons. The same ‘mighty will’ (Henry James) that drove Henry’s training and racing to his peaks also compelled him to the complete rebellion AND surrender that was his dipsomania. He was hugely considerate, responsive and sensitive when sober. He was hugely abusive, blinded and self-devouring when drunk. He was like Charles Mingus a Complicated Giant with a history wide as our world’s.
What remains an indelible boon from Henry for every runner and human being are his great races and his examples of a champion’s courage. Watch Henry run. See his grace and will in full form. Know that his feats were from “talent” exerted to very demanding boundaries in days and months of training and nights of competition.
Henry brought himself round to a grounding that he enjoyed, about 15 years after 1986. He got sober. He stayed sober. He completed that book he’d imagined in talking with John Barhour of Track & Field News in late 1978.
He was flown to Europe again, Monaco, to receive from the International Amateur Athletics Federation (now World Athletic) its Inspiration award in December 2008.
Simon Turnbull writes in his 2023 piece for the World Athletics’ Website. ‘Happily, though, in the late 1990s he started to get a grip on his alcoholism. He learned English properly for the first time, qualified as a teacher and started coaching.
“I’ve been to the top of the highest mountain and then came down to the bottom of the world,” Rono reflected when receiving the 2008 Inspiration Award at the World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo.’
Henry in 2007 published a book … a book at least partly like the one that he’d imagined while talking with a then 24-year-old John Barbour of Track & Field News toward the end of 1978.
‘If you were to write a book today, what would you write it about?’
‘Well, I think I would write about my philosophy … of life’
Henry became proficient in English. His Olympic Dream was written with the advice of Tomas Radcliffe in New Mexico. Only one of its 29 Chapters concerns his 1978 Track & Field season. He taught Special Education within the Navaho Nation. He coached and nurtured (with meals, with futons!) many aspiring runners in Albuquerque. He returned to Kiptaragon in 2019, to houses shared with his brother and other family and died in Nairobi this past January.
Two Work-Outs
Anyone can train like Henry Rono. Anyone can share the mind-set of this champion.
Below are transpositions of the Work-Out that Henry told me in 1986.
A runner wanting to break 40 minutes for 10,000 Meters can start at 4:10 for his or her first 1000. Then, like Henry in Utica, he or she can descend by a strict 2 seconds (remember the abacus in Henry’s head) through the downward ladder of governed acceleration, with a Rest-Lap around 100 seconds. The runner aspiring to break 40 minutes for 10-K will arrive at 24:30 total time for the first 6 1000s. He or she will “get faster” over the Work-Out’s second half, going 23:18 for the total time.
24:30 + 23:18 = 47:48 for 12,000 Meters, and a Pace of 39:52-or-so for 10-K. And, I think, this runner will “feel good” after this Work-Out. “You have gone longer than you want to race and you know that you can go faster.”
Henry’s structure can also work for a male runner aiming to be World-Class over 10,000 Meters in 2024.
Please observe the numbers. Imagine how each Interval will feel and how each will build toward a Whole. Begin at 2:50. “Very easy”—28:20 10,000 Meters Pace—for a runner wanting International Championships in 2024.
2:50. 2:48, and 2:46 arrive at 8:24 for 3000 Meters. “Easy”, still.
The Work-Out continues. 2:44, 2:42, and 2:40 add up to 8:06 for the second 3000 and pass through 5000 Meters in 13:50.
“Now I am going faster. And my Rest-Laps are faster, too.” Yes, the next 3000, according to Henry’s structure, approaches current World-Class tempo. It goes 2:38, 2:36, 2:34—7:48 for this penultimate 3000.
And then … The closing continuation of 1000s is at World-Record pace—2:32, 2:30, and 2:28—7:30 for this last 3000.
The Set passes 10,000 Meters in a cumulative 26:50. The fastest and most satisfying Interval finishes the session. Total time for the five last 1000s, or 5000 Meters, is 12:40.
“You always feel good after this Work-Out. You have run more than 10 miles on the Track. You’ve kept smooth even though you are going faster. It is like a race, but even better than a race, in some ways. You do not have to think so much. Because you have made yourself go faster and you know that can go even faster when it is a race!”
Thank you, Henry Rono, for talking to us now.
Don Paul and Rivers Answer Moons, his New Orleans-based band of steadily astonishing musicians (Roger Lewis, Kirk Joseph, Herman Lebaeux, Don Vappie), are working on a Album and Stage-Show titled LOUISIANA STORIES. Two remastered Tracks from his 2022 Album with Rivers Answer Moons, LOVE OVER WAR, registered among the Top-20 Jazz Releases worldwide through the PlayMPE’s service to 2120 radio-stations, writers and other media.
Amby Burfoot wrote in 1981 about Paul’s book of that year, Lawrence and Mann Overarching, Once Up the Country of Ujamas, Roll Away der Rock and Other Essays: ‘Whether soccer-playing in Tanzania, punk-rocking in London, or logging in Alaska, Don Paul searches for—and, yes, even finds—spirit, noble effort, honesty, hope. Paul reminds us that, though the hour draws late, we still have the potential and the time to reshape our lives and our society.’
Thanks VERY MUCH to these appreciators of Henry who have helped and informed this piece: Richard Amery, John Barbour, Toni Reavis. Simon Turnbull.
Urls to their work are below.
RICHARD AMERY—https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/04/when-henry-rono-went-from-1540-to-a-1306-world-record-in-two-months/
JOHN BARBOUR— https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/henry-rono.pdf
TONI REAVIS— https://tonireavis.com/2024/02/15/rest-in-peace-henry-rono/
(‘Wherever he went, he could always find kind-hearted runners willing to lend a helping hand to one of the sport’s all-time greats. People like Tracy Sundlun, Tom Sturak, Don Paul, Gary Moore (Alfred State coach), Brian Fullem, Bernie Allen, and attorney Merrill Rubin all did their utmost to put Henry on the right path. But despite their best efforts, often at considerable personal expense, and despite stints in rehab, Henry could never outrun his less ennobling habits. For a time, he even went homeless.’)
SIMON TURNBULL— https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/henry-rono-1978-world-record-spree
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‘Young Giants Are Coming: Track & Field 2018’
https://www.donpaulwearerev.com/flipping-the-script/young-giants-are-coming-track-field-2018
