Backwoods Kenyan Just Watches Marathons For The Crashes

January 26, 2006 | | Onion Sports

LODWAR VALLEY, KENYA—Kenyan Cletus Jerop-Ogechi, a currently unemployed welder and self-described "old school" marathon fan, confessed openly Tuesday to enjoying long-distance cross-country running solely for the crashes. "Kenyans is the best in the world at endurance runnin'—ask anyone—but distance runnin' ain't nothing without the occasional old-fashioned low-blood-sugar elbow-to-the-ribs wreck," Ogechi told Runner's World through a translator Tuesday. "You get six, eight, twelve guys in a pack peelin' off five-minute miles and rubbin' shoulders, somethin's got to give. Might as well enjoy it, am I right?" Ogechi's all-time favorite crash occurred during the 2002 Greater Hartford Marathon, in which winner Joseph Nderitu twice spun out Ethiopian entrant Kassahun Kabiso, causing him to limp home a distant second with badly damaged bodywork.