Hakuna matata!

There will be quite a few posts about Camp Marafiki in the coming days.

But I think this one will be a good nutshell to sum up the most basic thing I learned.

It's a scene from the highway. I was looking for the change to pay the toll yesterday in Kansas and the guy asks me about my shirt. What is that? Where is it?

I explain that Camp Marafiki is a marathon training camp in Santa Fe with elite Kenyan runners.

I tell him that the word marafiki means friends. Like in the Lion King, remember the character Rafiki? His name meant friend. And Marafiki is the plural.

I said that a lot faster than I typed it. And so this dude, who had Hebrew letters tattooed on his forearm (we could have had an interesting conversation about that if I wasn't tired from a long drive) said, "Cool. Hakuna matata!"

Hakuna matata is also an actual Swahili phrase. It means, basically, no worries.

See, this is the lesson. I can't be worried that I'll run out of steam in a short race such as a 5K or a 10K. No worries. No fear. Just run harder.

Take for example, this quote from John Ngugi : "If I feel good then I fun faster no matter what the session. Don't waste good training time - if you feel good then run hard!"