The Running Capital of the World — more world marathon records have been broken by runners from Eldoret's Rift Valley altitude than anywhere else on Earth, the Nandi Hills tea estates produce Kenya's finest tea, and the city is the commercial heart of Kenya's breadbasket
Eldoret is the largest city in Kenya's Rift Valley and the effective capital of the Uasin Gishu plateau — a high-altitude agricultural city at 2,100 metres that has produced a disproportionate share of the world's greatest long-distance runners. The Nandi Hills and Elgeyo Marakwet hills surrounding Eldoret are the primary training ground for the world's best marathon runners: Eliud Kipchoge (the only person to run a sub-2-hour marathon, 1:59:40 in Vienna 2019), Wilson Kipsang, Geoffrey Mutai, and hundreds of other world record holders train on the red dirt roads and forest trails above Eldore…
The Uasin Gishu plateau was historically part of the Nandi people's territory — one of the Nilotic Kalenjin-speaking peoples who resisted British colonial encroachment the longest of any Kenyan group (the Nandi Resistance led by Koitalel Arap Samoei lasted 1895–1905). The Uganda Railway reached the plateau in 1902, and the British designated the Uasin Gishu plateau as a White Highlands settlement area for Boer settlers from South Africa and British farmers (1908–1930s). Eldoret was originally called '64' after the survey peg at mile 64 of the Uganda Railway spur. Kenya's post-independence pol…