Long-distance runner Sharon Lokedi is training differently; in fact, she is running more miles than she has run before.

Understandably so, she is due to make her marathon debut at one of the biggest platforms world, the New York City Marathon on November 6.

Starting on Staten Island, the challenging course undulates through New York’s five boroughs before finishing down Fifth Avenue and into Central Park and Lokedi is not bothered even as she does tailored training for the big occasion in under two months.

“This is a new territory for me so I can’t tell you if this is like any races I have done in the US before,” Lokedi told People Sport in an exclusive interview.

For some time now she has been training at Kaptagat in Uasin Gishu County, a region used by the majority of long-distance runners to train for professional competition.

“The volume definitely increased in this cycle and I’m enjoying it so far. I’m doing like three workouts a week if you include long run.

I have a very supportive crew here so I’m sure this is going to be a good one,” she added.Evocatively, she looks back to seven years ago when she moved to the state of Kansas, USA as her turning point moment in athletics.

“It was such a great time! They welcomed me so warmly and helped me grow both athletically and academically. So much to be grateful for,” Lokedi said nostalgically.

She had to endure a lot before travelling to the US. After the Kenyan presidential election results were released late in the night on Dec. 27, 2007, Lokedi and her family fled to the Burnt Forest because of the post-presidential election violence.

“I was only 14-year-old but I know what that meant. The value of peace should compel all Kenyan tribes to live in harmony. You leave everything. When you start fleeing, you can’t bring anything,” she recalled.

Cross country champion

A year after coming to Kansas (2016), Lokedi would become a Big 12 cross country champion and, in her sophomore season. She is one of the best runners Kansas had ever seen as explained by Kansas distance coach Michael Whittlesey, a lecturer at Kansas University, who found her in one of his recruiting trips to Kenya over a decade ago.

Lokedi had heard stories of running in America from the girls who had graduated before her and ran at Texas Tech after school. From the time she was in high school, she knew she wanted to go to America, but it didn’t seem realistic until her uncle Fred Yego told her about her neighbour’s son, Isaac Biwott, who ran cross country and track and Middle Tennessee State from 2007 to 2011.

“Back then I didn’t know how I would come to America,” Lokedi said. “It was my dream here, but at some point, I just thought maybe I should just go to school in Kenya and forget about the dream.”

After high school, sometimes she would work on her family’s farm in Eldoret and with no way to train, she prepared for college in Kenya and a life without running.

“I have seen first-hand athletics transforming lives in the village. There are athletes from very poor backgrounds who have made it and they encourage the upcoming ones to also work hard in training. Looking back, I made the right call to venture into the sport,” said the nursing and business graduate from Kansas University.

As a freshman at Kansas, two years after she had finished school at Kapkenda, Lokedi was an All-American, with a 10th-place finish in the six-kilometre race at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Then, in her sophomore season, she shaved 12 seconds off her time and finished fifth.

Lokedi admitted that it was not comfortable in America back then, the homesickness hit the most in the first weeks after she arrived for the track and field season in 2015. She had no phone to call home, no friends, and a weak grasp of the English language. She felt lost.

“You couldn’t communicate as well, so sometimes it was hard to get to understand each other, and sometimes you’ll feel lonely,” Lokedi said, looking back almost seven years, to her freshman season. “You miss your parents and you just wish you had your friends, people who can understand you and speak your language,” recalled the 2019 Falmouth Road Race champion.

There was her wistfulness for home, and then there was the pure cultural adjustment — both of which, she admitted, might have affected her performance early in her college career.

But, despite all the differences, America gave her a new dream and mission: an education — that’s always been her priority — and a place to run, but also a slow transition to comfort in a new culture.

Now she dreams of having a good go at the New York City Marathon.

And having finished first runners-up during the 50th edition of the Mastercard New York Mini 10-K in June, she feels she has speed aspect for her biggest leap yet.

“ I can’t say I’m going to target this time or this time — it’s my debut. “I can’t say maybe I want to do sub 2:20, 2:25 because I know the New York Marathon is a tough course, especially the second half,” said Lokedi.