Daniel started running in 2016 to get fit. A decade later, the recreational runner has graduated from half marathons to the full marathon, with each run teaching him lessons about discipline and knowing when to slow down.
Dr Daniel Kinyua has created his own yardstick for running. The Madison group CFO has built his running discipline around the willingness to push himself beyond what has become comfortable.
He started running in 2016 while working at NCBA after deciding he needed a sport that would help him get into shape. Eventually, it became a decade-long habit.
“Basically then I was just looking for fitness. At that time I had done everything, I’d gone to the gym, I was doing all that what we normally do today, but I thought then, what about running?,” he says.
Running soon became something Daniel could use to test himself. He began setting goals at the start of each year and tracking his progress, breaking larger targets into smaller daily commitments.
His walking target for 2026 was 2,000 kilometres, and by May 2026, he was already approaching 1,000 kilometres. The numbers are a dashboard for his progress and a reason to keep moving when motivation fades.
On days when he would rather stay in bed, Daniel falls back on this discipline. He recalls running on a rainy Labour Day despite having woken up late, because the habit had become stronger than the temptation to skip a session.
“There are those days when you don’t feel like going to run. But I’m telling you, because of how passionate you are about it, it doesn’t matter how it is, whether you woke up late, you had insomnia, all those things. I still wake up and run,” he says.
For years, Daniel was comfortable running half marathons. His times improved and he considered himself good at the distance, but he eventually decided that staying within that familiar range was no longer enough.
This year, he began increasing the distance in stages. He ran 30 kilometres, then 34 kilometres and then 36 kilometres before eventually attempting his first full marathon. His next ambition is to explore distances beyond 42 kilometres.
The progression has reinforced Kinyua’s belief in compounding small improvements. He sees the same principle in learning and in running, where small, consistent gains can eventually make a difficult distance feel achievable.
“If I gradually push myself a 1 percent, maybe I do a 50, maybe do a 60, it’s doable. Everything is doable,” he says.
Yet one of his most memorable runs taught him the danger of pushing too hard too soon. During the Standard Chartered Marathon, Daniel took advantage of the downhill opening section, running alongside elite athletes in brand new shoes and breaking his own record over the first 10 kilometres.
The next 10 kilometres were uphill. The pace caught up with him and he struggled, finishing with a slower time than he believed he could have achieved had he conserved his energy.
“I learned to never ever run with such great pace from the start for downhill, but rather to move then to do at my own good pace and be able to finish within record time,” he says.
He sees the same lesson in leadership, as he believes progress requires people to accept difficult stretches without losing sight of the finish.
“There will always be hills. There’ll always be challenges. The hills are the challenges, you can’t avoid them. As a leader, you can’t avoid those hills,” he says.
Running has also turned Daniel into somewhat of a coach. He describes the role of a coach as helping someone find their stride rather than removing the difficult parts of the journey.
“My role when I go running with you is not to smooth down the hills. It is to break the distance down into manageable segments,” he says.
Daniel now describes himself as 'a leader who runs and learns'. For him, the road continues to offer lessons about pacing and resilience.
“My story is still being written. It’s one consistent step at a time. For me, it’s that 1 percent,” he says.
