Track and Field Blogs - Francis Coral - Mellon

Hi Everyone,

My name is Francis Coral - Mellon and I am currently in the process of making a running documentary in Iten, Kenya, the Mecca of Kenyan distance running. I have decided to write a series of blogs during my time here to let people know what I am doing. I am making a film about what it takes to become a champion. I will be filming across three age ranges and characters. Starting with a young boy who has the dream to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before, documenting his training and general life. Then continuing on to a sub elite athlete who is training at a high level but has not quite yet made it. Then finally a professional athlete who is making money and giving back to the community. In short my objective is to give the general public an idea of what work goes into crossing a finish line first from the perspective of a Kenyan athlete. This is because I feel that many do not appreciate when a Kenyan wins a major marathon in a foreign country.

As for me I will be living here for four months until April 1st, training for a half marathon. My goal is to run under 70 minutes when I return to Canada. Training here consists of twice a day running plus gym work and exercises in between. The Kenyan athletes train up to 3 times a day, Normal training starting at 6 am followed by another one at 10.30 am and finally the last one at 4.00 pm. I have seen many famous athletes here including training in the gym beside 2 1.44 800m athletes at the same time. About 500 high level athletes reside here , and can be seen tearing up the dirt roads that are covered in "Red Dust" at any given time (The tentative name for the movie being red dust). As for me I am currently in the process of finding my characters for the movie, and filming some beautiful scenery. The altitude up here is about 2300m above sea level and I can already feel the heaviness in my legs with every run. Watch for lots of photos of runners with my next blog as I watched my first Kenyan Cross Country race today. The winner of the Junior race being Moses Masai, who supposedly came second in the senior race at world cross champs last year. I leave you with these thoughts to return to the outside where constant shouts of "How are you" and "Mazungo" reach my ears while running. I will be making the hour trip by bus to the nearest city for the internet again in about two weeks, hopefully having more info on my film by then. Thank-you for listening.

From Francis