October 9, 2009

It had been a long journey for Samuel Wanjiru.

He left his home in Nyahururu, Kenya, on Wednesday evening, drove two hours to the airport in Nairobi, flew eight hours to Amsterdam, waited five hours, flew 8 1/2 hours to Chicago and met me Thursday afternoon with a smile on his face.

Wanjiru was sure the trip would be worth his time because the organizers of Sunday's Bank of America Chicago Marathon are paying him well -- an estimated $250,000 appearance fee, plus another $175,000 if he wins in course-record time.

It was another journey, one even longer and completely uncertain, that started Wanjiru on the road to the 2008 Olympic marathon title and such riches.

Seven years ago, when he was 15 and the elder of two sons whose single mother scratched out a living as a farmer, Wanjiru came to the attention of Shunichi Kobayashi, a Japanese writer who has been scouting young Kenyan talent for two decades.

Kobayashi offered Wanjiru the chance to run and study on a scholarship at a high school in Sendai, Japan, a path that had led several other Kenyans to lucrative careers.

"My mom was very happy because she had no money to send me to high school," he said. "My mom was taking a good chance. It changed my life."

When he got to the Tokyo airport, Wanjiru would travel on the first train he ever had seen. There would be three other Kenyans at the high school, but even their presence could not lessen the culture shock for this Kikuyu teenager.

"After one year, I was good," Wanjiru said.

He would learn Japanese, learn to love sushi, learn to handle the...