Beyond the Stats: Wesley Korir

Published by NYRR on October 11, 2013

Frequently, studies of well-trained endurance athletes will show a slightly larger-than-average heart, due to the adaptation of the organ as it regulates the larger blood volume associated with intense exercise.

There’s another way to measure the heart, though. This measurement focuses on love, and helping others, and putting the needs of your neighbors first. In this sense, Kenyan marathon runner Wesley Korir has a huge heart.

In 2003, Korir left his home near Eldoret, Kenya, to enroll at Murray State University in Kentucky. After Murray State’s track program shut down, Korir transferred to the University of Louisville, where he immediately made a connection with the school’s new coach, Ron Mann. Korir loved living in the United States, and he told himself he would never permanently move back to Kenya.

But his feelings began to change in December 2007, when, on a visit home for the holidays, Korir was caught up in terrible violence that followed the country’s presidential elections. Korir escaped only by slipping across the border into Uganda, where he remained as a refugee for two weeks before returning to Louisville. It was that experience that prompted Korir to begin thinking about ways of sowing peace and love among his people.

As Korir finished his studies that spring, he began to make a name for himself in the marathon. A pair of wins in Los Angeles and several top-five performances in Chicago paved the way for his Boston Marathon debut in 2012, when he outlasted all comers on one of the hottest days in race history to capture the title.