It's a bustling town filled with small shops and farm produce stands. Just as you get to the far edge of town, you turn left down a red dirt road creased with ruts and strewn with boulders. The road is impassable during a normal rainy season and is suicide at more than 10 miles per hour in any season. On the left is a seemingly endless sea of 4-foot high shacks made of sticks, logs, mud and debris. Birds' nests have less complex construction patterns than these dwellings.
Ground hogs have better accommodations.
There are goats, chickens and children running everywhere. The rare sight of a passing vehicle causes the kids to gush forward in open-mouthed awe. Just past the slum, an alley turns to the left and leads to a white cinder-block apartment building surrounded by a high concrete wall. Korir lives on the top floor, in a back bedroom. Two other runners share the apartment.