Who’s your Baba?
Meet Stephen Kiogora, but please call him “Baba.” It is a term of endearment used by the other KIMbia guys to reflect Baba’s personality – nice, quiet, and considerate. The Swahili word translates to “father,” but in this case the meaning is probably closer to “great guy.” In that regard, the nickname is spot on. Baba is a great guy – always smiling, always friendly, always laughing.
Most of the KIMbia guys you’ve met so far have been from areas not too far from the training camp in Iten, but not so for Baba. He’s from Meru, a busy administrative center in Eastern Kenya on the slopes of Mount Kenya. To get to training camp each season, Baba must ride a matatu (remember those buses that Yuda drove?) for ten hours. The ride from Meru to Iten is arduous, traveling through Embu to Nyeri to Nyahururu to Nakuru to Eldoret and then to Iten. When Baba is late to training camp, which happens quite often, the KIMbia guys point to the summit of Mount Kenya that is visible in the eastern sky and joke that, “Oh, Baba must be lost over there.”
But the long journey is worth it for Baba, whose racing success keeps getting better and better. When he paced Timothy Cherigat at the 2004 Boston Marathon, he decided not to stop and ran to a fourth place finish. Then at the Chicago Marathon he ran for himself and clocked a 2:09, his introduction to the elite level of the international marathon world.
This is an honor even more impressive coming from Meru, Kenya, which has never had an international athlete before Baba. Meru is an important coffee producing area, harvesting two crops a year from the high-altitude volcanic soils of Mt. Kenya and the Nyambenis. And while Baba may be the area’s first international athlete, he still helps support the local coffee cooperatives. When he’s not training to run sub-2:10 marathons, he is a coffee farmer and also a member of the Armed Forces.
But now he is training for a marathon – the ING New York City Marathon – and his days consist of eating, sleeping, and running. He and his training partner, Tom Nyariki, work together each day to complete Dieter’s workout and prepare themselves for breakthrough races in November. Baba has come on strong recently and appears to be rounding in great form. And no matter how grueling the endurance run or how fast the interval work, Baba keeps his trademark smile and is quick with a laugh – an all-around great guy.
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Related Content:
View the Chasing Baba photo gallery.
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October 2nd, 2006 at 9:59 am
I notice that in the picture of Baba doing yoga he’s doing one of the “warrior poses”. I’m sure you’ve already mentioned it but how often do they do yoga. I know at Iona Richard Kiplagat used active release stretching. Is that also incoporated at the KIMbia house, and if not does he still do it on his own.
October 2nd, 2006 at 12:37 pm
The guys try to do yoga twice a week, but it really depends on their schedules. I’m going to do a whole post and video/pictures about yoga with Uta. It’s coming soon.
Regarding active release stretching, it’s not something the guys do. However, Richard still does it on his own. Probably not as religiously as he did at Iona, but he still does it regularly. The rest of the group does some stretching as it’s incorporated into their therapy treatments. I’ll be writing more about the treatments in the coming week.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:00 am
I have had the plesure of meeting Baba. AKA spephen Koigora way back in Kenya in the early 90.sH’s trully a gentleman and I personally think is a good athlete too. I just wanted to wish him all the best in NYC marathon
November 30th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Dear sirs,
I would like to ask you to give my kind and warm regards to Stephen and wish him luck with the preparations for the Boston marathon coming april! On november 6th, the day after the NY Marathon, I had the pleasure to meet him on our way back to Holland. I was sitting next to him in the airplane, and we exchanged adresses. Unfortunately I lost them, so I would like to know how to get in touch with him.
I hope to hear from you!
Kind regards, Yasmine