It's Kili Run Time

“So when Persia was dust, all cried,
‘To Acropolis.’
Run Pheidippides, one race more!
The meed is thy due”. . .   Robert Browning

The Mountain

The moment we heard about the Kilimanjaro Marathon I knew there was only one way to respond.  We had to go.

After all, madmen athletics aside, what better way to channel the angst of Harry, the failed writer in Ernest Hemingway’s short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro?  Harry died from an infected thorn wound while on safari, hallucinating like a Grateful Dead sound man and dreaming of The Snows.   As a Hemingway fan I just had to see The Mountain for myself.

Tessa, our neighbour and VSO colleague, had the wheels—a ten year old Toyota Hilux four by four with a two litre turbo diesel, suffering from a dodgy cooling system and wonky battery connection.  Would it make the trip over some of the roughest roads in east Africa?  Anybody’s guess.    

We piled our Africa bags into the box of the Hilux.  Six of us crammed into the cab - Mr. Aloyse (Tessa's Man Friday), Mindy and Michael (the young Peace Corps couple), Tessa, Debra and myself - and set off to Moshi and The Snows, across miles and miles of bloody Africa.

Michael in the Box with the Africa Bags

Mindy, Debbie and Mr. Aloyse.



A day and a half later, hours and hours of bloody Africa with its stunning scenery, we arrived in Moshi and to our digs at the Honey Badger Lodge at the very base of, and with a good view of, the fabled mountain.

There we met up with the other VSO volunteers including Ishwar, fellow Canadian and chief organizer of VSO Team Ishwar.  Little did we know that Ishwar had spent two months training secretly in Dubai while raising just short of $5,000 in donations for Tanzanian education.  We were shocked and awed to learn that he planned to run THE FULL MARATHON.

Ishwar was focused like a radar beam.  The very day before his FULL MARATHON he was pounding the keys of his I Book hard enough to wake Steve Jobs from the dead putting the bite on every contact in his address book to raise even more money for Tanzania.

Remembering what happened to the first marathon runner, Pheidippides, I decided on a regimen of light training around the pool.  If you will remember from your high school history, Pheidippides dropped dead from exhaustion at the end of his run from over training.  No way was I going to risk that fate and so I registered for the five kilometre Fun Run.  But I had every intention of doing the FULL FUN RUN.

Training with The VSO Babes

It was not to be.  It was a case of AWA (Africa Wins Again).  The VSO bus got mired in mud and we fun runners spent the morning hauling it out with the Hilux.  In between we cheered on VSO Team Ishwar while slaking our thirsts with cold Kilis.  For a very short time I led a pack of Kenyan runners, not for my own glory of course but to make VSO proud.

Run Kenyans Run

FULL MARATHON MAN, Ishwar and Jean, the VSO country director finished the grueling race in just over four hours.  Several others volunteers, Margaret, Fran and Liesbeth finished the half marathon.  Mindy and Michael also completed the half.  Post Marathon, it was our job, as failed fun runners, to pile on the compliments, ooh and ahh over their medals and free tee-shirts, listen to their blow by blow descriptions of every kilometre and to help them bask in their well- earned glory.

 Ishwar and Jean, Marathon Men 

We left the next day, bound for Kibaya.  Half way home we were halted by ten buses mired in mud and blocking the dirt road.  The Hilux got stuck, up to its axels in clingy clay and had to be pushed out by Tanzanian bus passengers waiting by the side of the road.

 Mired in the African Mud

They surrounded the bus demanding money, pointing and yelling.  For a moment I feared I would lose my Timex as Fran had lost her mobile phone earlier, snatched from her hand through the window of the Hilux, while she was texting.

We got home before dark after several stops to cool down the Hilux and to re-connect the battery cable. We were dusty, tired but in great spirits.

 Bush Repairs