AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY: St. Benedict’s runner Edward Cheserek holds a pair of national high school records after leaving his family (bottom) behind in Kenya, where he grew up living in a mud hut (inset) with no running water. (
)
One of the greatest young distance runners in US history isn’t an American, even though he desperately hopes to be and is the perfect embodiment of the American dream.
Edward Cheserek arrived from Kenya’s running-mad Rift Valley in 2010 with an empty backpack and no money. Tomorrow the St. Benedict’s Prep senior will run the Dream Mile at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island, closing out his stellar scholastic career with 11 national titles and a pair of national high school records.
Make that at least two records. Never bet against Cheserek, who has exceeded every possible expectation. He has gone from living in a mud hut with no running water to living his dream as a runner, one he hopes will someday take him to US citizenship and even representing his adopted country on the highest stage.
“You never know, but if I’m still OK and things go the way I want, maybe the Olympics,’’ said Cheserek, who is working with a lawyer for a green card and then potential citizenship. “Probably that’s my course, if everything goes the right way. I hope I get it.’’
Cheserek starred at Kapcherop High School — 300 miles west of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital — before a missionary group selected him and recommended him to St. Benedict’s in Newark.
“He came here without a penny in his pocket. All he had was an empty backpack. I picked him up at the airport and the rest is history,’’ St. Benedict’s track coach Marty Hannon said.
“He’d like to go to the Olympics. He’s met Bernard Lagat, looks up to him, sees Lagat running in the Olympics and being successful. He sees himself on a path like that.’’
After running 13:57.04 in the 5,000-meters at last year’s Millrose Games to break the indoor high school record, Cheserek ran against idol Lagat this year and broke not only the two-mile mark (8:39.15), but the 3,000 standard (8:05.46). Just don’t try to get the taciturn teen to talk about his records or his 11 national crowns.
“He’s an introverted type. It’s evident he doesn’t really say much off the track. I’ve seen him run, break a record then he disappears. He doesn’t want to say a thing,’’ said physics teacher/assistant coach Chelule Ngetich. “He likes hanging out with his friends. I have a wife and two kids, he enjoys being around them. My kids think he’s one of their brothers.’’
Ngetich, a fellow Kenyan, helped in Cheserek’s arrival. Back in 2009, the uncle of one of his students, Paul Mugo Maturi, asked for his help with a road race to fund Stadi za Maisha, a missionary group that helps orphans. In 2010, the group asked St. Benedict’s to take Cheserek from a remote sheep-herding village.
“Everybody in Kenya is a farmer. Whatever you reach, whatever you do, everybody. Even our president, he is a farmer,’’ Cheserek said, laughing.
“They lived in a grass hut out in the sticks,’’ Hannon said. “Their livelihood is subsistence farming: corn, sheep, goats. When they need something to eat, they pick the corn, kill a goat, whatever. There was no running water, no plumbing, no electricity.’’
The studious Cheserek immediately threw himself into what he knew, his running helping avoid culture shock and ease homesickness. His older brother Moses lives in Itan, Kenya, a running hotbed with Olympic-caliber athletes regularly training nearby. Having raced against Lagat at Millrose and training alongside world 800 record-holder David Rudisha in Itan has only made Cheserek better.
“[You see] they’re a human being. But when you train with somebody who is famous, you feel you are the same,’’ Cheserek said. “You feel I just trained with somebody who is famous, I feel like I can reach up there where they are.’’
Cheserek nearly gave up his American dream after less than a year, when his father Jacob died in the summer of 2011. He went home for the funeral and mulled staying to help his mother Tina.
“When my dad passed away I was like no one is staying with my mom, I have to be around,’’ Cheserek said. “But I decided to come back. I have to finish school and then see where it takes me the rest of my life.’’
In July it will take him to Hollywood, a finalist for Gatorade’s National Athlete of the Year for all sports at the ESPY Awards. After that, to track powerhouse Oregon. From there, who knows? It’s unwise to bet against Cheserek.
brian.lewis@
nypost.com