Running toward a dream

There is no doubt that the city of Iten is the capital of Kenyan distance running. It produces high-quality long-distance runners, including UTRGV’s Mercy Chelangat. 

Iten attracts athletes from all over the world. When visiting Iten, people are in the pursuit of training with champions. It is believed that Kenya produces such high-quality distance runners because of the Kalenjin tribe.

The Kalenjin tribe is found in the Kenyan Rift Valley and produces some of the world’s best runners, but there is no scientific explanation as to why the tribe is so successful in long-distance running around the world. 

For many distance runners, it is a dream come true to even step foot and train in Iten, but Mercy Chelangat of the UTRGV Women’s Cross-Country Team is lucky enough to call Iten her home.

Chelangat is a freshman who describes herself as a simple girl who came to the United States to study and run. One of her goals is to pursue a degree in nursing.

She graduated in 2016 from Kedowa Girls Secondary School in Kericho, Kenya. After graduation, she decided to train for the remainder of the year through 2017 and signed to run at UTRGV in August 2018. 

For years, Chelangat dreamed of coming to America and realizing her dream of running at the collegiate level, but coming to America was not easy. Chelangat said she had to follow a long process of training and paperwork before she could set foot in America. 

“I started training in 2017 through the guidelines from my brother who was just telling me, ‘Do this, do this,’” Chelangat said. “When you go to a training camp, they set an amount of what you’re gonna pay and accommodations. You have to pay that amount. You start this process by doing an exam called the SAT exam.

“There are some clearances also and then you go for your passport. … After you get your passport, you start applying for the schools. You just apply for the schools while training, attending time trials and when you get to your best times in the events that you are running, that’s when you get a school.”

She also had to deal with injuries, financial hardships and academics.

Chelangat’s hard work and determination paid off when she received an offer to join the cross-country program at UTRGV. She did not hesitate and happily took the offer. Even after the hardships she faced, it never crossed her mind to not come to America.

When it came time to leave Kenya, Chelangat’s family was supportive of the idea of her leaving to live out her dream. Chelangat is beginning to make her dreams a reality, especially after the result of her first cross-country race.

On Aug. 31, Chelangat ran her first collegiate 4.1 K race at the Texas A&M University Aggie Opener in College Station. The highlight of the meet for Chelangat was obtaining a first-place victory with a time of 14:29.7. The last time UTRGV had a woman win a race was back in 2012, when Judith Chumba won the 5K at the Great West Conference Championships.

Chelangat said she never imagined winning a collegiate race.

“No! We were too many, so I was like, ‘I don’t know how they run, I don’t know how they’ve been performing,’” Chelangat said. “Some of them are not even freshmen, they are seniors.”

Winning first place was not the only award Chelangat received. A few days after the meet, she was named the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) runner of the week.

Chelangat hopes to continue pursuing her dreams as the season continues. She wants everyone who is facing hardships, while trying to make their dreams a reality, to know that anything is possible.

“You should never give up, that’s the first thing,” she said. “Just have faith and determination and all will be well.”

Chelangat will continue paving the road toward her dream on Sept. 21 at the Texas A&M University Corpus Christi South Texas Showdown.