Josphat Menjo: Mystery Man

If you had to make a tree falls in a forest track analogy, it probably wouldn't get any better than this:

If a man runs a solo 26:56 10,000 meters in an empty stadium in a race against nobody, does he make an imprint in a loaded weekend of track?

The answer is a resounding yes, especially when the mark is a world leader and the effort is the man's third stellar one in a row. In an 11 day span, the previously unheralded Josphat Menjo has run a 12:55.95 5000 meters, a 3:53.62 mile, and a 26:56.74 10,000 meters. That alone would be impressive enough, but Menjo has run all of these marks in dinky little European meets with the complete absence of pacing(excepting the mile), competition and fanfare. Simply put, these types of performances in this context are equally head-scratching as they are sensational.

The questions that come to mind are: Why would any runner willfully forgo the more competitive Diamond League meets or IAAF meetings for meets that as well be high school dual meets? Who is this guy and what is his story? What are these efforts worth with competition and/or pacing?

The second question is the easiest to answer as the IAAF has done a write-up on the man in the past: http://www.iaaf.org/news/athletes/newsid=46167.html . To summarize, Menjo, who is now 31, got into track very late at the age of 23 as a member of the Armed Forces. He had no interest in track before joining the Armed Forces, and in fact his ambition was to be a teacher.(As a sidenote, I love the Kenyans like this including Heiron Keitany, who before becoming a 3:31 1500 guy in his second or third year of running focused his athletic pursuits on ping pong.) His talent was prodiguous to begin with, as he finished 12'th in the Armed Forces Cross Country Championships 4KM senior race with less than a year's training under his belt. He's represented Kenya at championships before including the 2007 Worlds. This year, before this remarkable run of obscure competitions, Menjo in fact ran at the Heusden Night of Athletics and ran 13:00 for the 5,000 to get second. He also ran a 27:04 10KM race on the roads earlier this year to run a few seconds off the world record in an effort that was (you guessed it) another solo one. These performances bring me no closer to answering the first question as Menjo's 13:00 surely could secure him a spot in at least one Diamond League/major European meet. It might just be that Menjo is a curious guy. Check out this excerpt from an article after a cross country race Menjo won in 2008:

"But the big surprise of the day came when it was made known that Menjo had competed the day before (26) at the Kenya Armed Forces XC Championships in Nairobi, a race won by Barnabas Kosgei over 12km.
As a member of the Armed Forces, the 28-year-old Menjo was committed to taking part at that race where he finished a long way off the podium. Once the event was over he flew from Nairobi to Paris where he stayed overnight before travelling to San Sebastián on the same day as the race. Menjo cut it so tight that he only got just enough time to put on his spikes a few seconds before the gun under the astonished looks of all assembled."

Clearly, this guy is not lacking in either talent or chutzpah. I've also read that Menjo is self-coached and the coach of his wife, 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist and 2007 World Championships Bronze Medalist Eunice Jepkorir.

Moving onto how impressive a solo versus paced and competitive effort is, as a fellow runner I can't help but be taken aback by an athlete able to run this high quality effort on his lonesome. Still, there are many athletes who excel at this sort of thing. An easy example is German Fernandez who ran 3:55 for the indoor mile unpaced and without competition. Still, Menjo's splits in the 10,000 indicate some pacing might have helped as his 1600 splits were the following:

1600: 4:12.55 !!!(WR pace) 3200: 8:29.16 (4:16.61) 4800: 12:49.16 (4:20) 6400: 17:09.63 (4:20.44) 8000: 21:33.46 (4:23.83) 9600: 25:54.76 (4:21.3) Finish: 26:56.74 (61.98)

As you can tell, Menjo positive split as athletes are wont to do when running on their own, but his sheer determination carried him to a comfortable world leading time that displaced Chris Solinsky. His only "competitor" was the guy in green in the video who ran a 31:57 with some of the shortest legs I have seen. If I had to assess how many seconds I'd give him with rabbits and competition I'd probably conservatively award him 5 in the 5,000 and 10 in the 10,000. That would make it a 12:50 and a 26:46, respectively. Too excellent performances, but not earth-shattering. As far as I can tell, Menjo is a supremely talented frontrunner with extraordinary focus. Would I have him book my wedding or my next party? Probably not.

Others may question Menjo's unproven tactics in a real competitive race or the applicability of solo runs to the championship stage. While these questions are valid, we must take into account that Menjo does in fact have experience racing with competitors (including wins in cross country and a narrow loss on the track in the All Africa Games) and that at the basest level a guy like Menjo or Zersenay Tadesse (who has done similar things) is more than capable of frontrunning a championship race and eschewing the pack of a world-class field. Were Menjo to decide after a dawdling 3000 meters into a championship 10,000 race that he wanted to run an honest all-out race, there would be little opposition to the move from his wary (of leading) competitors. Against equal talents like Bekele or Tadesse, the move might be futile, but on the positive side Menjo could eliminate some kickers who could not contend with a relentless pace. Menjo's sky-high confidence in his ability to hold onto a world-class pace without any assistance will thus surely be an asset if he ever wants to control a championship race.

So there you have it, a look at track's breakout star competing in the wilderness of obscure meets in Europe. One can only imagine him showing up to an all-comers meet at Newton North one day, and running 3:51 for the mile to win by a minute over a helpless field of weekly warriors. If/When it happens, the world will take notice.