Welcome to Iten, Kenya
Video from Francis Coral - Mellon (More Videos)
Welcome to Iten, Kenya
May 15, 2008VIVA Colombia, Pasto, y Narino. Gracias Here are some points to help you follow my vid. 1. The town in the speedup is a shopping area in Iten, the Mecca of Kenyan distance running. Out of a population of just over 2000, 800 - 1000 are high level distance runners. 2. The rainy season happens every year from March to June and is torrential almost every day. Kenyans do not run in the rain!! They wait until it stops. 3. The boy in the video is Kipchumba Chirchir, he runs/walks 5k to and from school every day and herds cows and does chores after school. An example of what kind of life the past champions led. 4. Kenyans always run in groups, so if someone is having a bad day they are pulled along and energized by the group, this also leads to lots of friendly competition. 5. Workouts. Speed work on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at Kamariny track, the main track in Iten. Large amounts of people show up on Tuesday morning, up to 200 at once. 6. The race was the 800 finals at the KCC opener in Nyayo stadium in Nairobi. Asbel Kiprop did the 800, his first track race of the season and managed a 1.45 at 1800m altitude. What was even more amazing is that about 7 Kenyans behind him ran 1.46 / 1.47. Wow.... K I hope you enjoy. If I win, I will be taking my friend Kibet Rutto who I lived with during my time in Kenya. He has lived a life of poverty as a new Kenyan runner. It will be a great experience for him.
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Loving of Sports and a new World Vision
FLOTRACK - Perhaps you can give the other 9 video owners a consolation prize from one of your sponsors... like a pair of shoes or something to help smooth over any hard feelings from their voters.
To those who continue to bash me. I did not pay any Colombians , My Dad is Colombian and he got my family down there to give their support, they like to leave messages and that seemed to make some people to think the "entire" country of Colombia was supporting me. If so why don't I have 120 million points. Seems strange. I garnered support of people I knew, just like everyone else and put a lot of time and effort into promoting flotrack. Just like the other videos did.
To "Upset Fan", I am also a College kid (19) how will I not have the experience of a lifetime? How will my Kenyan runner friend , Kibet who has lived in poverty all his life, not have the experience of a lifetime? Karma has already worked by allowing me to go on this trip for Kibet and for the bad luck I have had in my life last year.
I want to give a shout out to all the other videos that entered this competition. Everyone put huge effort into making a video and trying to win, and I want to thank everyone for that, especially Kevin Turko, Joe Siebert, Seth De moor and Gary Rowbury. Flotrack will become better for this effort. Also from various posts I have read, You guys all have acted very honorably and fair unlike some posts that were made. If I could share the trip I would and if anyone here is in Beijing they are welcome to pile into my hotel room. I will even sleep on the floor. You can have the bed.
Thanks again, From Francis
To the others: I don't see how getting lots of people to vote for you is cheating? I'm pretty sure there was nothing in the rules about that. Flotrack can track accounts, email addresses, and IPs to make sure that everything is fine. If you don't like the video; fine. If you're upset that Francis won; fine. If you're mad that he managed to get more people to vote for his video than you did for yours, fine. But if you have to resort to underhanded comments and personal attacks, well, that makes me doubly glad I've been voting for Francis, cuz I know he's an upstanding guy and a good sport, and I know if one of the others had one he'd be congratulating, not criticizing.
You've done Grebel proud, Francis!
PROS - good quality (as in hi-def),
not 27 minutes long
CONS- i was not moved at all by watching a boy walk to school,
i didn't understand what was going on until i read some comments in the comments section and was able to put it together (and i'm not dumb)
i was disappointed that such an amateur video (other than the hi-def of course) took first prize, but i am excited for whoever is going to Beijing.
i believe you made a good choice when you promoted another country's beauty and used hi-def equipment. enjoy your prize...
You don't have to like the video, it's not up to you alone to decide. Crawl in a hole or something. I didn't find an interest in the 4x4 team that ran 3:24 and felt the hurdle girl got in for no real reason when there were better videos. Never went on commenting about them, why you feel the need to go after this is ridiculous. Good call on the coked up columbians, might not be a vast amount of relatives and friends helping get him to beijing. That would never happen.
Congrats Francis, have a great time in beijing. Bring back some great footage and all that good stuff. Safe trip.
Congrats on the win, that still doesn't mean I like you video at all.
Also, the Dyestat community felt the same according to one thread I was viewing. So don't think I am the only one.
Also my Colombian family do not appreciate your comment. I think you've gone a bit too far with that one and you said you wouldn't make it personal but by saying that it is.
I didn't ask for your opinion on my opinion.
To say "this is just plain crap" is interesting when you look at how many points he has. Do you think it is POSSIBLE that other people enjoyed seeing what it's like for a Kenyan? How they walk to and from school? How they work together on their long runs? Etc.
The reality is that Francis showed us what he saw on his trip. Don't get mad at him for not creating something he didn't see...
Francis,
Keep working hard and take all the positive feedback and use it to make your next project better.
Michael
Ps. I'm going to need your help in the next few weeks!
Go Francis! Less than 11 hours remain!
-Josh Neyhart
this footage could have been brought together a little better, but it is excellent footage and something I am happy to have watched. which is far more than what I can say for the other videos.
Hope you aren't cheating, honestly, it seems fishy that you are beating such clearly superior videos by such a margin.
And stop acting so koy, this video is crap you know you did nothing and barely deserve that trip.
-Josh Neyhart
Johnsdad: "be thankful God doesn't find you to be a terrible waste of hard disk space and loves you anyway!" Malone, is that you again? (it's a joke)
blackjays: "how embarrassed i would be if i were from america and had eugenegold as a spokesperson for my country." We would be emarrassed too if you were from America and thought any one person is a spokesperson for our country."
EUGENE GOLD: "what terrible waste of hard disk space on flotracks server... Whats even worse is that guy squatting down, who this crap out is going to beijing. god hates kenyans almost as much as fags. godbless the the usa!!!!!" Obviously this person does not speak English as a first language so the comment is meant to put Americans in a bad light and raise sympathy for the others.
FLOTRACK: Next website update, do us all a favor, add a feature so video owners can delete comments.
Good luck Francis to you and your friend.
Sit down and put on your dunce cap! This site and this blog were created to be a celebration of our beloved sport, not a posterboard for prejudices.
Gracias
Some things to improve would be to watch out for jump cuts (cuts that don't switch angle enough to feel natural). Also, don't cut too many times without something new happening. During the sequence where the kid is walking, there were a ton of cuts, but nothing changed. I know you were trying to portray the monotony of his trek, but visually and story-wise, it just doesn't work. Also, no film, documentaries included, should require a side explanation for people to be able to understand what your film is about. I'm sure if you went back, you could find some creative ways to convey your written explanation within the film itself.
That said, it was certainly a nice job and an interesting piece. You should be excited about how many people get to share what you experienced. Good luck!
(haha, sorry that was kinda long)
He adelantado el proceso de votación como lo indicaron, espero te sirvan.
lida Victoria cortes soto - Neiva - Huila
¡ Pa lante amigo vamos con toda ! cuando las cosas se hacen con berraquera tienen que salir un cariño grande de David, Wilson, Genith
seguimos votando gracias a los amigos de hi5 a mis amigos a mi familia chao
You sooo deserve to go to Beijing!!
I can make more videos, but editing is tough for me right now and I also work full time. I will get around to it soon.
Yes, Kenyans always train with a lot of clothing, tights/ track pants. They believe it keeps them fit and dislike feeling cold, that's why they wear them. Even though they prefer to train when it's cooler. When it's too hot they don't like to train at all. During speedwork however they wear shorts and a singlet, for speed.
Anyways, nice Work.
Can you make the rest of your footage into other videos?
Is the cool thing in Iten to train in tights and a large jacket?
Desde Cali, Colombia estamos muy pendientes de ti, aun que estamos al otro lado del charco, por asi decirlo, el corazon nos salta de alegria de ver el gran esfuerzo que haz hecho para llegar hasta aqui, compitiendo por el primer puesto, y con la ayuda de todos los que te amamos se que lo puedes lograr. No sabes el orgullo que sentimos por que tu quieres demostrarle al mundo que CON POCO TAMBIEN SE PUEDE SER FELIZ.
HOLA FRANCIS!!
Muchos EXITOS, por que la SUERTE es para los mediocres.
TE QUEREMOS MONTONES
Ten en cuenta que nunca será tarde para buscar un mundo mejor y más nuevo, si en el empeño ponemos coraje y esperanza.
By the way, how the heck does anyone run a 14:08 after 2 years of training? Did he run a lot before these 2 years?
Great video, I feel like I learned something about Kenya's running culture in this short video.
muxos guevos campeon....
solo queria decirte que tengas fe que todo va a salir bien te enviamos los mas mas grandes deseos de triunfo y gracias por dejar el nombre de PASTO tan alto
Wilson, David, Genith
All the worst to the naked hungover guy.
Oh and Kiprop is the MAN!!!