Okay, now that I've covered the boring running aspects of the race, here's a bit about the overall experience.

First of all, sleep was horrible - our "standalone" hotel room ended up sharing the same physical structure as the public toilet used by the campgrounds next door. So all night we heard people (including one sick person) using the toilet; I think all told I had 1 hour's sleep - not a great way to start the day.

But once the race began, the overall experience was incredible. Families line the streets yelling "Jambo" (hello), "polle, polle" (slowly, slowly), extending hands for high-fives, running with you for a few seconds to many minutes. I was having so much fun, I think that's what made the first half go by so quickly and feel so easy. And the views of Kilimanjaro in the morning more than outdo the diesel you're inhaling along the way!

Then on the uphill grind, kids in flip flops follow you all the way up - I had one kid go with me for 6K then wait for me on the downhill. Another kid stepped out of his house with a toothbrush in hand and ran with me for about 5 minutes. All along, they are offering words of encouragement in Swahili (or at least I assumed they were words of encouragement!), stopping when I did, picking up the pace when I did. When I fell, I had about 8 concerned kids gathered around trying to help me out. Here I am, with my technical running gear, my GPS, Gatorade mixture, Clif bars, Asics shoes - and they're running with me for many kilometres in their flip-flops, not breaking a sweat. Really amazing, they take their running and their support for outsiders very seriously.

Another big plus was that this race had markers every kilometre which was beyond what I had expected, and they matched my Garmin GPS to within a few metres. There were water points every 4-5 kilometres, sponge stations and even a shower station you passed going up and down the mountain. Definitely many more amenities and better organized than I had expected.

One of my strongest memories actually happened early on. I'm running along at a pretty good clip, passing through the 5 K mark just slightly ahead of my scheduled pace, feeling good and relaxed, passing the early sprinters, and I look up to see a pack of about 30-40 African runners just booting along the opposite side of the road. THEY HAD JUST PASSED 8 KM. Truly awe-inspiring, and I had to slow down just to watch them approach, pass and fade into the distance.

And the final highlight has to be the kids. The night before the race is registration time, and Elizabeth and I "sponsored" a few kids who hung out the night before pleading for $1 USD to run the 5K fun run, which Elizabeth decided to run. The next morning, they found her on the starting line, and a couple of them ran along with her (in loafers and flip flops, which is all they have), then hung around with her for the rest of the day. Colman and Cornell were great kids to meet, and we really enjoyed their company. At the end of the afternoon, I ended up giving Cornell my shoes and Colman my water belt.

03/05/07 by bryan
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