“It comes from deep within, I have to run fast,” says Samwel Mailu.
Image: Aaron Leithäuser
Samwel Mailu was a pacesetter and now he wants to break the course record at the Frankfurt Marathon. It is the story of a man who fights his way out of the shadows.
vor a year ago, a man with a jersey that was sunny yellow around his waist and his pants like sunset ran across the finish line of the Frankfurt Marathon in second place. Underneath his starting number was the word: Pace. A few hours earlier, the runner had spoken to his coach at the hotel. He said: “I can’t finish the marathon.” The coach: “Yes, you can.” He again: “I can’t do that.” The coach: “Samwel, please, just run – and don’t disappoint me.”
A year later, three days before the marathon, Samwel Mailu, the runner, and the coach, Dickson Mutniani, are sitting in the lobby of this hotel. The delicate bodies sink into the red upholstered furniture. Their plane from Kenya landed at eleven o’clock, they went to the hotel and took a short rest in their rooms. They won’t see much of the city, they only have one goal: to break the course record of 2:03:42 hours.
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