28th
The Great Ethiopian Run, Addis Ababa, Nov 22nd 2009
I wasn’t registered to run (no free green t-shirt for me) but Martha was. I did want to run though. Unfortunately, our less than urgent attempts to get to the start of the race meant that we joined the race late. We taxi’d it to where we could see a torrent of green shirts passing by, quick-footed the armed police, and snuck under a barrier to join the masses. After 10 minutes of excited jogging we realised we’d joined the race only 500m from the finish. Martha was ecstatic. I wasn’t. Now that I was there I wished I’d been earlier - the atmosphere was great and the skies were a perfect blue. Public gatherings don’t happen that often in Addis but through our own tardiness we had missed the main event. Martha still collected her ‘medal’ though (every competitor who pays the fee gets one - nothing to do with achievement) and within minutes the streets were cleared and we were sitting cake-in-hand in a cafe, armpits still fresh from the morning’s shower. Damn. It doesn’t always pay to cheat.
ps - I’m now applying to run (properly) at another Great Run in Awassa on the 1st May.
