Another year, another Great Ethiopian Run. We had quite a few from Bingham running this year. Last year, my preparation consisted of one lap around Bingham Academy (about 1km). This year I septupled that (7km over a few days), but that was over a month ago. To compound that, I contracted some sort of virus a couple of days before. Thankfully, it didn't get too bad, and lots of water and an early night's sleep seemed to do the trick - I woke up on race day feeling fine. But still under prepared.
Since my last epistle, Brian Hall and I have been joined by two others: Dan Lambert and Bobby Long. Dan is from Canada and works as SIM's 'Sudanese Refugee Ministries Manager'. Bobby arrived about a month ago from Virginia to serve as Maintenance Manager here at Bingham. And Brian (I think I neglected to mention what he was doing here last time) teaches Art and Bible, and is about to start as Athletics Director here at Bingham.
Bobby wanted to run, but arrived to late to register, but Dan, Brian, and I were all set to go. Brian actually trained, so he arranged to run with some other people, but Dan and I agreed to stick together on the condition that neither of us drop to a walk (that was my goal for last year also). This year, I also wanted to get under 1 hour - my time last November was 1:00:10.
So, we work up early, drank a lot of water, slapped on some sunscreen, and drove with the others down towards Meskel Square, where the race would begin. We couldn't drive to the start line, so we hopped off about a kilometre away and walked in. The weather was clear, but the temperature brisk, so a little walk was a good warm up. About half-way there, Brad Adams and I decided we had drunk a little too much water and ducked across the road to a gym to correct the problem. When we got back out, the racers had been pushed back to the footpaths, and the police were stopping us from leaving our little alleyway. A couple of minutes later, three police cars, two motorbikes and five black limousines zoomed past (one of which was apparently containing the Prime Minister). After they had passed, we were finally allowed back on our way.
Dan, Brad and I worked our way to the front, a line that progressed further down the road as time went on. The crowd finally arrived at the start, and then about 500 people took off to begin their race. Unfortunately, it wasn't due to start for another 5 minutes, so the one and only Haile Gabriel Selasi (Ethiopia's most famous distance runner, and one of the race organisers) called everyone back and urged them to move back behind the start line. Amazingly, they did, and I don't think anyone died in the process. Not bad, considering there were 19,500 other people still behind the start line who were trying to move in the opposite direction. Dan and I did manage to get separated from Brad, however, but since he was going to run much faster than us anyway (his brother Luke was a race walker in the Olympics!), that wasn't a big problem.
Five minutes of speeches later (including one from the Prime Minister who had delayed us earlier), the horn blew and we were off. As happened last year, by the time Dan and I had crossed the start line, the street ahead of us was completely filled with red shirts. Dodging people darting in front of you, or suddenly stopping to tie their shoe is all part of the challenge. The other part is the course itself.
The Great Ethiopian Run takes place in down town Addis Ababa (which, at 8,500ft elevation is one of the highest capital cities in the world), and consists has two big loops. The first is about 4km, and the second is 6km. Both loops feature two main hills - the first of which is the smaller, and occurs about 300 metres from the start. The second is about 3/4 of the way around both loops and goes for about 500 metres at a decent elevation. Nothing like what you get in Brisbane, but I've never run 10km in Brisbane.
With so many people together at the beginning, the race started slowly. Which was ok with Dan and I. By the top of the first hill we were doing pretty well. By the top of the second hill, I was still ok, but Dan was slowing, and had developed some nasty blisters. As we went downhill again, and through the start/finish line for the second time (at about the 4km mark) we picked up some speed and were on schedule for getting around in an hour. At the top of the second ascent of the first hill, Dan had to adjust his shoes to ease the pain, so I ran around in circles for a minute (mustn't drop to a walk!). Apparently it didn't help much, but he soldiered on anyway. This time there was an extra kilometre added before we hit the second hill, but we were now past the half-way mark, and only 1 minute behind schedule. Surprisingly, I was still doing pretty well. At this point of the race last year, I was dead on my feet, running purely on stubbornness. This year, I still had plenty in the tank. Dan was struggling, however. We finally arrived at the base of the second (and larger) hill for the second time. Dan slowed a bit, but did pretty well, and we then came to the second change in the course - another smallish hill before adding an extra 2 km to the loop. And we only had 11 minutes left to get under the hour!
I decided to make a last push to try and get under the hour, so I left Dan behind and picked up the pace. After all the hills we'd been going up, there was finally a good downhill stretch, so I keep speeding up, clocking probably the fastest 1km I've ever done. Unfortunately, the first half of the second kilometre went back uphill. With only a couple of minutes left in which to cover about 800m, I resigned myself to failing once again to make the 10km/h average. I finally crossed the line at 1:03:47. Dan came in about 3 minutes later, and we went claimed our medallions. Another race complete!
In other news, we have just completed our first school term. All that is left now is the mountain of grading I have to do and the reports I need to write, before we have another three weeks of school, and then two more weeks off for Christmas. Strange? Yes, but that's how it works here...
In the week off, 5 of my friends here and I are heading off to Egypt for a rushed tour. We leave on Monday the 29th in the evening (at midnight) and return on Sunday the 5th. In between, we'll be squeezing in pyramids, tombs, museums, the Nile, dawn on Mt Sinai, Luxor and Western Fast Food, travelling via camel, bicycle, train, bus, taxi, ferry, horse-drawn cart and aeroplane. Should be exhausting. But fun. I'll try to write another newsletter a little sooner this time with some pictures.
In the meantime, please keep praying for Bingham. As always, we need more teachers for all subjects next year (and if you teach art, PE, maths or science, we could use you now). In the next two weeks, David Hicks will be doing another whirlwind tour of the US and the UK on a recruiting drive, so pray for those he will be speaking with and for his safety in travel.
Well, I've got grading to do. Until next time...
Monday, November 29, 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
