Raymond Otieno was late for work. It was 2019, and like many Kenyans, he was glued to Eliud Kipchoge’s INEOS 1:59 attempt. But for Raymond, a salesman of books and Bibles, the moment did more than inspire him—it sparked a practical idea. He had already been running with local clubs, but he wanted to go further. His solution wasn’t just to increase his own mileage; it was to bring others along for the ride.

What began as solo runs linking towns has grown into Inter Town Run, an informal community of nearly 400 runners who now routinely take on marathons and ultras across counties. Raymond’s story isn’t just about endurance; it’s a lesson in how a single individual can build a network from scratch.

Raymond’s earliest runs were quiet experiments. He would tell his colleagues he was “off but still at work,” then map out tea and lunch breaks at strategic points along his routes—places like Naivasha, Tigoni, or Suswa. These were the prototypes, long before they became a calendar item for hundreds.

The turning point came when he started sharing his runs more openly. He began posting his routes in WhatsApp groups and on Strava. The response was immediate. Runners were already looking for something different—routes that weren’t loops inside the city, but point-to-point challenges with an actual, physical finish line in another town.

Raymond is quick to credit the group rather than himself.

“The routes come from these people… I can’t know all the routes, but they come up with them.”

He positions himself less as the creator and more as the facilitator—the one who consolidates the ideas and turns them into something that others can actually show up for.

The appeal of the Inter Town Run is wildly practical: the routes are clear, the finish lines don’t move, and the distances demand commitment. Whether it’s GPO to Thika for a marathon or GPO to Naivasha for an ultra, runners know they’re signing up for a challenge that forces them to see it through.

Raymond tells the story often:

“When you are going to Naivasha, you must finish. I remember a guy took a video saying, ‘Whether I'm walking or crawling, there is no turning back.’”

This mindset is something Raymond has built slowly—and deliberately.
Apart from the physical training, he draws a lot of his internal motivation from reading. Selling books for a living means he’s constantly surrounded by new material, and he reads many of the titles himself. The discipline, faith themes, and personal stories he encounters in books have shaped how he tackles long distances. For Raymond, reading is a quiet form of mental training: each story becomes a lesson in resilience, and each lesson ultimately makes the next kilometre easier to face.

It’s this combination of structure, reflection, and freedom—serious routes with no strict cutoff times—that draws people in. Raymond’s role is to coordinate the logistics, confirm the plan, and communicate everything clearly. Through this, he has linked runners from different clubs, counties, and even countries, with regulars now joining from Eldoret, Dubai, and Uganda.

The impact of the network is something you can point to. Many runners have completed their first marathon—or their first ultra—through these self-supported, no-pressure events. The community has also become a bridge for opportunities that would never have happened otherwise.

A connection made through the group led to someone offering to sponsor Raymond’s flight for South Africa’s Comrades Marathon. Partnerships have formed with other running clubs. The group has organized charity runs supporting widows, individuals with medical bills, and other causes that matter to members.

For Raymond, each of these outcomes reinforces the same idea: when people are connected, things move.

Raymond’s vision for the future is an extension of what he’s already doing. He wants to see Inter Town Run evolve into a larger, more structured initiative—something with sponsorship, prize money, and routes that attract elite and international runners. In his mind, GPO Runs could easily become major East African ultra events, drawing the same kind of global interest that surrounds Uganda’s growing Rwenzori Marathon.

But even as he thinks big, he keeps his attention on the practical: maintaining the calendar, integrating new route ideas, nurturing partnerships, and keeping the network open to anyone who wants to join.

Raymond began this journey in tears during Kipchoge’s historic run. Today, he stands as a man “not afraid of any distance,” and as a connector who has opened the door for hundreds of runners to discover their own limits—and then run past them.

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