SLEEPY HOLLOW - Now that he's safely back in the United States, training for marathons on the peaceful trails of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, Solomon Too can joke about what it took to get here.

The soft-spoken Kenyan distance runner can tell the story of how he went for an early morning run in his hometown of Eldoret during the turmoil of post-election violence, how he came upon a mob of men with arrows and machetes, how they chased after him and how he ran for his life.

"If it was a race, I could have won," he told his coach, Mike Barnow of the Westchester Track Club.

Kenyan runners are bringing first-hand stories about the nation's January nightmare as they return to the United States for a new road racing season. Westchester County, where a group of Kenyan runners have found a temporary home, seems about as far away from the turmoil as you can get. It's a choice location for competitive runners because they have access to races up and down the Northeast, and to prize money that goes a long way for their farming families back home. They also have access to the Rockefeller preserve, a runners' mecca.

The local club is trying to help four other runners come from Kenya to compete this year.

Coach Barnow has helped dozens of athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia take part in the club's team of 50 elite athletes and 400 recreational runners. The African contingent, now numbering 23, has become a kind of vocation for Barnow. He helps them apply for U.S. visas and tries to patch together accommodations - a constant challenge in high-priced New York. This year Barnow's work has taken on a new urgency. He is appealing to the club's other runners for donations and a place for runners to stay.

"I'm not doing this as a manager. I'm doing this as whatever. A friend, father, coach, you know. It's been an experience," he said.