When Andy Bumuntu took to social media to document and share his journey to the half marathon at the recently concluded Kigali International Peace Marathon as an athlete, he received inquisitive messages about why he was pushing himself so hard after posting videos in the wee hours of the night after running several kilometers.

In a recent interview with The New Times, the singer-songwriter turned radio presenter reiterated his journey to the marathon, a pursuit that was born a year ago on May 4, when he made a pact with his dear friend, the late Yvan Buravan to start a physical challenge/habit that could improve the quality of their lives.

"I had gone to visit my brother the late Yvan Buravan and we wanted to start a difficult physical challenge. I challenged him to go to the gym and I told him I would take a difficult physical challenge to support him and that’s how the idea for the marathon began. He had started going to the gym shortly before he got sick.”

Despite tragically losing his companion a few months into the journey, Bumuntu found that staying true to their promise and keeping up with the fitness lifestyle they had started was important not only to honor the promise he made to his friend, but also to honor the promises he has made to himself, and ultimately develop his character as a person.

Venturing into what preparing for the marathon entailed, the 28-year-old shared how difficult it had been for him to schedule time for training sessions and exercise, given that his role as a radio presenter occupies his mornings, and music production as well as his various entrepreneurial endeavors take up his day, making the only available slot in his schedule the late evenings that quite a number of people were quick to criticize him for.

"I had to make the time. I didn’t have the time to train for that. Professional athletes go through intense trainings and prepare for the marathon for months. With my morning job as a radio presenter, being a full time artiste and adding to the business I run and practicing for the marathon, the only time I could get was in the night. I would sleep four hours and use the other two to train,” he said

According to Bumuntu, one of his biggest takeaways from consistent exercise and training for the marathon is that having a physical activity you look forward to doing daily, exclusive from occupation is healthy, and very beneficial to the cardiovascular system, but doesn’t beat the mental health benefits that come with staying fit.

"Being healthy requires being intentional. Training makes you go over a challenge, because when you say I will lift this much weight, walk this amount of time on the treadmill, or run this far, you’re putting a challenge in front of yourself and watching yourself go through the journey of actually making that challenge a possibility, it’s not just sports. Your mind understands that you can actually go through a challenging thing and make it happen.”

Taping into his training regimen for the marathon, Bumuntu shared that his experiences in the gym had to be unlearnt for him to properly practice, because running nonstop for two hours wasn’t the only new addition to his roaster.

"I had to learn what to eat, what to wear and how to rest. It was a new world I was experiencing and it was good for my mental health. Training at 2am, everybody was telling ‘you’ to go back to sleep and nevertheless you do it, there’s a part of yourself you meet that you can never meet at any other time. There’s a version of you in that time and that includes facing your fears and your weaknesses and challenging them.”

One of his noteworthy rookie mistakes during training happened when he came across a YouTube hashtag dubbed ‘Train like a Kenyan,’ that turned out to be disastrous for an amateur runner to try, but that helped him find his footing and gradually grow it.

Rather than win the marathon, Bumuntu’s goal had been to run 21km in less than two hours which he was able to achieve.

"The first time I ran the full 21 km it took me 2 hours and 32 minutes and my goal for the marathon was to make it in under 2 hours. I ran for 1 hour and 59 minutes, which was a close call but an achievement nonetheless.”

When asked about what his workout playlist was, the last thing I expected to hear was that Andy Bumuntu was not listening to any music at all. Contrary to the consistent energy boost often drawn from playlists curated for different occasions, the 28-year-old musician prefers the voices in his head to music when he works out. Surprisingly, listening to his mind complain about how hard and painful exercise is and fading the voices the more he continues was the ultimate boost, because nothing says success like sound of weakness leaving the body.

"I don’t usually listen to music when I work out. I like to hear my brain cry, I just want to hear the weakness getting out of myself. I have a friend who listens to music when they work out and when we ran together the batteries ran out at 16km. Question is are you ready to listen to the voices in your head when the music stops? That’s why I let myself speak. Let your mind speak and tell you about your fears and weaknesses. I just want to have a conversation with my mind when I work out.”

Pleasure and Pain album

To continue his Pleasure and Pain album that features the songs Déjà vu, Nzagukumbura, Igitego, and Free, Bumuntu intends to release the remaining tracks of the album throughout the summer, with a complete rollout to be expected in August.