Meeting Kiprun

Close your eyes and imagine… Imagine being at 2000m altitude on the high plateaus of Western Kenya… Imagine running with former nomads for whom running was their only means of locomotion and constituted the greater part of their lives and history. Well, it’s possible that the tribe you’re imagining yourself in, sneakers on your feet, is the one to which the children of the God Run belong… the Kiprun. That’s the beginning of the story as I wanted to tell it to you. But Kiprun is also the running brand of the Decathlon group, a company that does a lot to encourage sports for everyone.

Indeed, why are there so many names that start with Kip in Kenya? Because whatever the rest of the surname, if it starts with Kip, it means you are the son of. It could have been Kipkorir, as there are many in this African country. But Kiprun can also be a contraction of Keep on running – the expression dear to New Yorkers who encourage you on the side of the road when you run their marathon. In any case, Kiprun is not just a signature, it’s a dream and an experience accessible to all.

And personally, I like the idea of telling myself that I too would belong to this Kenyan tribe. This ethnic group for whom running was long a means of survival to escape rival tribes. Where children still run an average of 15 km a day. Where they cover kilometers to go to and from school. Where they have been running since their first steps without even realizing it.

Even if we are moving a little away from our core target in this subject and cycling remains our field of expertise, or at least our preferred domain, we must admit that running is somewhat a cousin of cycling, which is just as dear to us. Moreover, this easily accessible discipline has always thrived as the most innate discipline for humans. It is now considered the most accessible sport, and when we go back a bit in history, not so long ago, it represented an important stage in the lives of the children of the tribe. For these children, it was by catching an antelope that they achieved adult status.

Today, the approach to practice for this population is still as original. “Less training volume, more rest phases but more rhythm variations“. They run by feel, playing with the variations in the landscape. They impose fewer constraints on speed and heart rate. They rarely run on a track, but always in a group… And always with a smile.

Even before learning to pedal, running, like you and us, we have practiced it since our earliest childhood. With pleasure and complicity with our friends. You don’t learn to run! Running is instinctive. Yet, running is often perceived as an intense experience. Often violent. Both for the body and for the mind. But what I take away from this afternoon that was offered to me by the running branch of the Decathlon group, which invited me under my 3bikes.fr hat to this major event organized for the Paris Marathon 2023, is that this experience should not be suffering but a moment of pleasure. The important thing is to run at your own pace: the one dictated by your body and not by your will. In short, the rhythm with which you feel in symbiosis.

With Kiprun, the passionate running brand, more than a dishonest proposal made by Decathlon, it is this way of running that I discovered on this fabulous spring afternoon. This is what was communicated in the four workshops specially led for us by the product managers. And what I also took away from my various exchanges with the brand’s athletes, such as Yoann Kowal, former European 3000m steeplechase champion, or Blandine L’Hirondel, the trail world champion, whom we had the chance to meet, is this desire at Decathlon to always innovate better and more. This was confirmed by the engineers who presented all the new products for 2023. This is what the French’s favorite brand seeks to develop. This is also why Decathlon is the store where 1 out of every 3 euros is spent on running in France. It is this new approach to running that has been shared with us, and with 3bikes.fr, we will probably not be the only ones to be completely won over by the approach.

Whether we are pros or very experienced, occasional or seasonal runners, or even beginners or almost retired, the idea here is to make the pleasure of running accessible to everyone, and to awaken and develop the desire to practice this sport. Each runner has different constraints depending on their abilities, their stride type, and their type of practice. And what we discovered through this experience is that Kiprun products are designed to allow runners of all levels to practice free from all the inconveniences of running, to bring forth another way of practicing… Running with pleasure!

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