No we’re not done with the translation, nor even with Amharic language school, but we did finish all ten kilometers of The Great Ethiopian Run! And as we were told beforehand, it was a very good experience. Dressed in our bright green race shirts, we left our house at about 8:00am and hitched a ride with an Ethiopian friend from our church. All throughout the city there were people in the same obnoxiously green race shirts were streaming toward the city center (Meskel Square) where the Great Ethiopian Run would begin at 9:00. Arriving in plenty of time we made our way up toward the front of the 35,000+ people who were excitedly awaiting the start. It was us, our Ethiopian friend from church (named Ephraim, in picture below), and a short term German worker with our organization (named Andreas). Then after a few minutes of waiting, one of our friends came pushing through the crowd (Travis’ height and white skin acted like a beacon I guess). This teenager is a shoeshine boy on the corner that we pass by all the time. Although it is not his name, he goes by Boaz. Anyway, a few weeks earlier, Boaz had said that he wanted to run the race but that he didn’t have the $5 to pay for the entry fee/shirt. We then replied that if there were extra shirts when the registration people came to our school we would get him one. So that was what we did, and there he was, happy to be fitting in with the thousands of others dressed in their green T-shirts.
The feeling at the start was much like the beginning of the Chicago Marathon, except for two things. First, in Chicago, race entry is not determined by wearing the official shirt, but rather by the fancy electronic chip that everybody has planted in their shoe laces. Second, the Great Ethiopian Run participants were definitely more rowdy. There was no need to conserve energy in some groups as they were jumping, dancing, singing and leading people-trains through the crowd. It was definitely a fun atmosphere. The race began only 10 minutes late (which we thought was amazing!) and, as with other big races, the decibel level rose significantly as each wave of people passed under the start gates.
The race itself was a bit hilly at times and so, since we didn’t train at all, we joined the majority of the runners in walking up the hills. But for the most part, we kept a steady pace and finished strong. Boaz stayed with us throughout the whole race, while we got separated from Andreas and Ephraim after two kilometers or so. As with other races, there are interesting people to watch. We saw several people wearing some pretty gruesome Halloween masks; some with big hats or flags draped over their shoulders; and one guy was wearing a motorcycle helmet (I hoped that he didn’t know something that we didn’t!). Part of the race goes by some high government buildings and we happened to be caught in the opposition party’s pack at this time. So they were singing political songs of protest as they ran by. Not exactly the place we wanted to be, knowing that riots can break out over heated political issues. At another point, there was a short cut that many runners took the liberty of using. So both at the place where they left and at the place where they rejoined the group, there was a deafening chorus of “leba, leba, leba…” (“leba” is the Amharic word for thief). No, for the record, we did not take the short cut but we did join the chanting in protest!
Probably the neatest thing to see was on the long straight stretches. If you look ahead (which Travis has the height to do) the whole 4-6 lane road is painted with green shirts (can you see it in the picture above?). When you look behind you, the picture is the same. And basically the whole 10 kilometers was solid people, as it never really thinned out much. Although 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) is not very far, we were happy to see the finishing banner. Just across the finish line, police were stationed to yank out anybody who was not wearing a green shirt. Then we received our finishing medals and finally small bags of water. What was our time, you ask? Well, it was not respectable enough to share. We were in it for the experience, since running a normal pace was not very possible AND we are no longer in marathon shape (especially at an altitude much higher than Denver!). All in all, it was a great experience, although tomorrow morning our bodies may disagree!
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