Geoffrey Kipsang Kamwowor: “On a Level of His Own”
[article by Chelsea Ho of Sweat Elite]
After slipping at the start line of the Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships, and down on the ground for seven seconds, Geoffrey Kamworor demonstrated a superhuman effort to regain his spot amongst the leaders of the race. With a blistering 4 minute/mile, dodging the trailing crowd of runners, he finished in first place at 59:10 and demonstrated remarkable agility.
Geoffrey trains with Marathon World Record Eliud Kipchoge and Stephen Kiprotich, as part of an elite group based in Kaptagat, Kenya. The three worked together in cooperation to become a world class trio of endurance athletes. While we weren’t able to find the specifics of Geoffrey’s training program, it is anticipated to be similar to Kipchoge’s (see the other Sweat Elite articles on the training sessions of Kipchoge’s group).
A Master of All Trades
Geoffrey is renowned for mastering the art of running on all three surfaces – track, road and grass. While switching between different terrains at the elite level may seem like a formidable challenge, he regards mind over matter and believes that anything is possible with the right focus.
The key to his focus is to view them as totally separate disciplines – this compartmentalizing is a key to his versatility across Mondo grass, mud and asphalt.
“For me, I always focus. When my mind says this is right for me, I focus on that. I don’t have divided minds. If it is cross country, I fully focus on cross country. If it is time for the road, I focus on that. Whatever the coach says, I follow.”
But ultimately, Geoffrey’s joy and positivity towards the diversity of surfaces is evident – “I love them all the same and I get so much joy from the differences.”
Prior to marathon training, his long runs occurred twice a week at 3:30 pace. With his eyes are set on conquering more marathons in the future, Geoffrey acknowledges his need to develop his endurance. “Mostly the hardest part is the long runs, the endurance part because long runs — I had the speed and the endurance, so the real work was the long runs.” This is because he is known to have a more powerful build (i.e. greater muscle bulk). This has implications on the efficiency of fuel consumption over long distances and is a continual work in progress.
An Unstoppable Mindset
Despite their status as one of the most respected training groups in the world, Geoffrey’s team pushes away the material temptations of victory, in pursuit of a more ascetic love of the sport. Under Patrick Sang and Eliud Kipchoge’s leadership, there is huge emphasis place on a holistic culture of good work ethic.
Specifically in relation to Geoffrey, Sang claimed that he was “on a level of his own” when it comes to mentality and outlook; a pupil equal in talent to Kipchoge and Emmanuel Mutai. When Geoffrey was talking about his lightning split of 13:01 from 15k to 30k in the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships, he said “I knew I was going to run fast. 13:01 is fast. What’s so strange about that?”
Assistant coach Richard Meto notes that Kamworor is different from other pupils in that he does not look back. “When he’s focused ahead, he’s ahead. He doesn’t care who is there. He moves.”
In return, Kamworor is fully appreciative of his coach and the program that he sets. “He has always been my coach and mentor and because he himself was an athlete he understands everything about being an athlete.”
Geoffrey gives advice to his followers to bring discipline to life, but also have fun – “You can only be good, if you get joy from what you do.”
