If you can't climb it, run it

My running buddy Dan Jones has already beaten me and blogged about our marathon day here, so as you can read a blow by blow account of our marathon on Dan's blog, I will be far briefer; after all brevity is the soul of wit.

Dan, VSO Country Director Jean,
fellow VSO Ishwar and me; all smiles at the start

It had been 6 years since I last attempted the marathon (Paris, 2006) so clearly there were some things that I had forgotten and need to remember about marathon running:

I'd forgotten how much excitement there is at the start, anticipation from the runners and the crowd, really getting the adrenaline pumping.

I remembered how much fun it is to interact with the crowd, and although it was a little work to get a largely passive Tanzanian crowd to clap and cheer but so much fun when you got them going. Getting high-fives from the crowd gave me a 10-yard burst every time.

I'd forgotten the pain that inevitably comes in the final quarter of the race, the 'wall' was so much harder because we were attempting to run up the foothills of the tallest free standing mountain in the world.

I'd remembered how nice it is to chat with other runners, giving each other encouragement, sharing jokes, egging each other other on. We met Beth Sanden competing in a specially designed wheel-chair giving everyone so much encouragement.

The finish, a welcome sight

Overall we raised 30,000 ksh for KAIH, Dan raised 60,000 and the VSO Tanzania team raised almost $9,000 for education projects in Tanzania. As we mentioned before, the money we have raised for KAIH will be going to support the vocational training centre in Nairobi, helping young people with learning disabilities (like Joy, below) to develop employable skills and new confidence. Please get in touch if you would like to donate to help KAIH's work


We finished in 5 hours so won't be troubling the Olympics this time out and even though Dan crossed the line with me his official time was over one minute quicker; I was clearly too busy getting my complimentary can of Kilimanjaro lager! Our Tanzanian colleagues, Ishwar and Jean, beat us in the marathon by around 20 minutes.

I've clearly already forgotten the pain because I want to run another one.