The Kigali Peace Marathon took place recently and a number of VSO volunteers took part in it. Unfortunately, the best I could do for peace was walk the 5km ‘Fun Run’ circuit. Better than nothing I suppose. The Kofi Annan contribution if you will…
Alice who was running 10km in the VSO relay team stayed at my house the night before and made sure I got up at 6 a.m. to get to Amahoro Stadium in time for the 7a.m. kick-off. Otherwise, helping with peace may have had to wait awhile.
We stumbled up to the stadium and pinned our numbers onto our T-shirts. Whilst trying to dispel the feelings of foolishness in just walking, we set off all together; the marathon runners, half marathon, 10km relay and the 5km ‘Fun Run’ and me & Katharine…
It was fascinating to be walking about the closed off streets of Kigali and to see the reaction of people on the pavement who I doubt had planned on watching a marathon and seemed more intrigued than anything else. My walking partner and I were laughed at a fair few times and encouraged to actually run. Oh the shame.
It was great to see a good number of women running and doing really well. Away from the leaders (also known as ‘Kenyans’) there were a fair few girls running with no shoes (on tarmac) and no bra. This was somewhat incongruous with the big stadium setting and I hope that in time this will change.
That said, other than the more professional runners and the white contingent, footwear in general was quite random. I heard the man in football boots coming from behind me a long time before he arrived! It was really inspiring to see so many people taking part and doing well in spite of their limited kit. When Katharine and I were overtaken by a chap with one leg and on crutches (he was doing the half marathon to great applause) we felt we should probably step up the pace and get on with it!
beckybadluck's flights of fancy 
Definitely doing this one someday! 🙂
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