![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/kondo4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cYou\u2019ve lost some weight. Last time, you looked much bulkier and more built\u2026\u201d a visibly concerned Patrick Kondo tells me when we meet for the second time at Nairobi\u2019s Parklands Sports Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my father three weeks ago. I haven\u2019t been quite myself,\u201d I answer.<\/p>\n
It has been exactly a month since our paths first crossed. We met during a gruelling outdoor workout session where a group of fitness enthusiasts had made it a tradition to invite strangers for a Saturday morning endurance challenge at the club.<\/p>\n
On that day, 62-year-old Kondo was the oldest participant in the group. The youngest was 25.<\/p>\n
At 62, the gas and oil consultant is in the shape of his life. With just eight percent body fat, visible abs form a neat cube pattern beneath his blue training bib.<\/p>\n
Veins crisscross his lean arms and legs in tight, web-like patterns, the kind of definition that tells the story of a man whose fitness would put many people, even those half his age, to shame. Kondo looks every bit the seasoned athlete you know.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you get when you stay disciplined and consistent,\u201d he chuckles when I point out how rare it is these days for men to keep a flat stomach, let alone visible abs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Patrick Kondo performs a toes-to-bar exercise.<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu\u00a0| Nation Media Group<\/p>\n
You would be forgiven for assuming Kondo has spent most of his life in the gym. The reality is quite the opposite.\u00a0Unlike many people who embrace fitness after a health scare, he was not battling high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity. In fact, he had always been naturally slim.<\/p>\n
What eventually pushed him into exercise was something far less dramatic: a bruised ego.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t retired yet, and there was this lady friend who was a fitness freak. Every minute she was doing something active,\u201d Kondo recalls, smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never liked my physique at all. She didn\u2019t think I looked attractive in that physique.\u00a0She\u2019d tell me bluntly that she didn\u2019t like how I looked, that I was too thin for a man, and that every suit I wore looked oversized, like I was a hanger walking around in it. She would bluntly tell me that. That got to me. As a man, you know how it stings when a woman says something that bruises your ego like that. That uncomfortable truth stayed with me.\u201c Kondo chuckles again.<\/p>\n
For a while, Kondo brushed it off or tried to. But life kept reminding him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy boss was a few years older than me, and every time we travelled overseas for work, the first thing he\u2019d do after checking into the hotel was go for a run. Didn\u2019t matter how packed our schedule was, he always found time. And that got me thinking. First, someone tells me my physique isn\u2019t attractive to look at, then my boss, someone older than me, is always out running while I do nothing. That was enough push to start.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/kondo2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Patrick Kondo performs a breakdance move during a workout session.<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu\u00a0| Nation Media Group<\/p>\n
Twelve years later, that bruised ego and a decision made during a work trip to Burundi have evolved into a way of life, measured in weights lifted, kilometres logged and half-marathon personal bests.<\/p>\n
\nExercise in retirement <\/p>\n
Kondo, who now spends his retirement years consulting for companies, sitting on corporate boards, and overseeing family business interests in hospitality and construction, still remembers those humbling moments that pushed him to take the first step.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started, I could barely manage a kilometre on the treadmill. Now I run 21 kilometres in under two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having taken part in nine half marathons, his personal best of one hour 44 minutes at the Nairobi City Marathon two years ago still makes him smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d never imagined I could do that kind of time. I wasn\u2019t even trying to break a record. I just joined the pacemakers, felt good, and kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he first began, he weighed 69 kilos.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy highest weight was about 69 kilogrammes. I wasn\u2019t overweight. I was just unfit. I had no muscle. If I climbed a few office stairs, I would get exhausted and sometimes struggle for breath.\u201d<\/p>\n
He first started by taking the stairs to his office on the 11th floor every morning. Then one kilometre on the treadmill became two. Two became three. Three became four.<\/p>\n
\n50km\u00a0every week <\/p>\n
By 2015, he was running about 50 kilometres a week.\u00a0The mileage transformed his fitness but steadily stripped away his weight, reducing him from 69kg to 62 kilos.<\/p>\n
There was one problem: he was getting thinner rather than stronger, and his knees were beginning to complain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you run a lot, you become very lean, with little muscle. I started looking thin, almost frail. And as you age, you need muscle, not less of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And just as he was trying to figure out what to do, another woman showed up again.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/kondo3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Patrick Kondo performs forward lunges with\u00a0dumbbells during a workout session.<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu\u00a0| Nation Media Group<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a young trainer named Andy, who had just joined our gym, who was the first to suggest that I should consider lifting. Then I met a friend who finally pulled him into a structured strength training routine, and with time, the nagging knee pain that had plagued me for months began to ease because I was now building muscles. I started running more comfortably than I had in years.\u201d<\/p>\n
His week now runs like clockwork. Monday is chest day, Tuesday legs, Wednesday rest, Thursday chest again, Friday full body, and Saturday the notorious outdoor endurance \u2018Konki\u2019 session, the same gruelling group workout where we first met.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Konki, which is always an hour and a half, I always head straight to the treadmill for an hour-long run,\u00a0 on an incline,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
Sundays are sacred. He does nothing but recharge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take a sedentary life that day, rest, drink lots of water, and eat protein. The body doesn\u2019t need much food when it\u2019s recovering.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nNot prove anything <\/p>\n
Now he trains alongside men and women in their 20s and 30s, lifting the same weights they do.<\/p>\n
At an age when many of his peers are complaining about aching joints and dwindling energy, Kondo is matching men and women enough to be his children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are even a few exercises I can do better than some of them. Strength builds over time, and there are things I can do better than they can,\u201d\u00a0 he says with a grin.<\/p>\n
Kondo is also realistic about ageing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe body will slow down, I\u2019ve made peace with that,\u201d but insists that consistent effort is what keeps the slowdown gradual rather than sudden. Even when pain shows up, he doesn\u2019t stop entirely. \u201cThat pain is trying to ground you. If you let it, you\u2019ll be grounded forever. You still seek treatment, but you keep moving however little.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s advice he extends well beyond the gym. To his peers, who wave off exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are those of my peers who think I have lost it with my workout obsession at this age. Some think going to the gym at my age means I\u2019m trying to prove something. But really, it\u2019s like anything worthwhile in life. I always say to them, the easy path is walking into a bar, ordering a beer, then another, and drowning it with nyama choma. It is always a feel-good moment that you will end up paying for dearly. Many have.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Kondo, fitness has now become about much more than muscles, but rather life lessons. The greatest lesson has been discovering just how much the human mind and body are capable of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat fitness taught me is that we can achieve much more than we think. Most people give up before they even try. They say, \u2018I can\u2019t do that.\u2019 But if you put in the effort, stay consistent, and believe in yourself, you will be surprised by what is possible. I was never a runner. I had never lifted weights. I started that at 50, and now look at what I can do at 62.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019ve lost some weight. Last time, you looked much bulkier and more built\u2026\u201d a visibly concerned Patrick Kondo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1167,6647,214964,9621,214875,102,34721,37561,214966,214963,214965,8764,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-636230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-fitness-after-50","tag-gym","tag-half-marathon","tag-health","tag-healthy-ageing","tag-muscle-building","tag-parklands-sports-club","tag-patrick-kondo","tag-retirement-fitness","tag-strength-training","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}