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Runners (from left) Kellyn Taylor, Matthew Llano, Elkanah Kibet, Bobby Curtis, Fernando Cabada, Nick Ariniaga, Bobby Curtis and Annie Bersagel pose during a press conference prior to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon at the J.W. Marriott.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kibet had to enlist as a regular soldier. They issued him boots, not running shoes, and his legs’ need to run got complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He trained in Iraq when he was deployed as a member of the Army’s 82nd Financial Management Support Unit. He trained in Kuwait, too, until he was told the area was considered high-risk, no matter how much his legs demanded to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On four-days weekends, Kibet said, he regularly told his perplexed commander that he was staying on the base so he could train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “She thought it was weird,” Kibet said of his Army commander. “She thought I’d run too much.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n His journey became a marathon, and eventually so did his preferred race. He ran his 26.2-mile race in October at the Chicago Marathon, where he finished seventh and in 2:11:31, an eye-popping time for a marathoner’s debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he promptly reported for Warrior Leader Course, a four-week Army immersion course\u00a0that required soldiers start the day 5 a.m. Kibet was up at 3:45 a.m., so he could get in his daily run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late December, he was at last accepted into WCAP, a military unit whose primary mission is to support nationally and internationally ranked soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “One of the things that struck me very quickly is he very much had the mentality that nothing was going to stop him from accomplishing his goals,” said Maj. Daniel Browne, coach of the WCAP track-and-field unit. “That commitment is something that falls right in line with all the Army values that we hold dear.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Appropriately enough\u00a0on Thursday,\u00a0Kibet, who became a U.S. citizen in 2013,\u00a0arrived at a media event wearing an Army cap and a camouflage-green and black vest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reporting to duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’m \u00a0soldier who lives to run,” said Kibet, who takes orders from his superiors and those demanding legs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twenty-four hours pass without running, and Elkanah Kibet said he feels an ache in his hamstrings and calves. Forty-eight hours pass without running, and the pain intensifies. Seventy-two hours pass and, well, Kibet\u2019s legs would not tolerate such neglect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":85034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[76,13],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1983],"class_list":["post-46027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-sports","category-off-duty"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XOIYVXMAZRHQLOTU5S5EXUP75U","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/2016\/02\/12\/soldier-elkanah-kibet-follows-unique-path-to-olympic-marathon-trials\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n