MTN Marathon

A sea of yellow MTN shirts and hats, moving to the unison beat of treading feet on pot-hole infested roads. We looked like a river of banana peels, making our way through the city like a flash flood; receiving cheers and clapping from the people along the river banks. Running together like a herd of antelope, each person working tirelessly to keep up with the next; having no choice but to keep moving, no chance of even considering giving up. If you stop in this mass flow of people, it’s as if you become like cholesterol in an artery; frustrating the constant flow of the system, people dodging around you, elbows hitting your side, legs becoming cluttered. Best bet is to stick to the edges of the crowd, moving up along the sidelines, able to escape the messiness of 6,000+ people trotting along to the same beat.

The energy was refreshing, was unifying, a feeling of connectivity and oneness in purpose; to accomplish the race, to cross the finish line and know in your heart that you had reached the goal that so many others were also striving towards. It was nice to feel everyone on the same page in that moment. Jobs were left behind, social classes and structure were broken down, all sense of hierarchy and division that exists in our daily lives was left behind at the starting line. We were one; we existed in a realm where we sought to motivate each other to continue to push through. Running past people walking, reaching out to grab their hand, saying “my sister/my brother, we continue”, only to see a reinvigorating sense of drive in their energy, instantly continuing to get back to running, edging our way just a little bit closer to the finish line.

I can remember running up a rather long portion of the marathon on a hill, reaching the top, and feeling extremely faint, woozy and at the point of collapsing. I stumbled to a walking pace, swaggering left and right as I tried to maintain balance. I thought I was going to wake up in an ambulance. I continued to be in that moment, breathing into the state of existence I had driven my body to be in, when just then, a man grabbed my arm and said “Let us run together. Come Mzungu, we must finish”. Instantly I was refreshed. It was if he had touched me with a healing energy, a reminder of what I had come to do, to accomplish my goal, to finish what I had started.

We all continued to run, women cheering out their traditional chants, “ai yai yai yai yai” in a high pitched tone, water splashing everywhere as unfinished bottles were thrown in the air, wet sponges ubiquitously cluttering the road.

I saw the last 200 meters approaching as I breached around the final bend of the course. Instantly I gained a fresh, full tank of energy. I was off like roadrunner, escaping Wiley coyote; imagining a trail of dust being left in my tracks. Running through 50 meters of onlookers sprawled behind barrier gates, I felt both awkward and accomplished in that moment. People clapping and cheering, screaming “welcome back”, a phrase many Ugandans love to use in daily conversation. I zoomed across the finish line, looking up to catch a glimpse of my time; 59.30.

I walked into the rest area, downed 2 bottles of water, stretched my aching muscles and passed out for a half hour in a mountain of empty water bottle boxes. Continued over to the supermarket, and sat in happiness, with a half liter of yoghurt, a packet of glucose cookies and a bushel of bananas. I ate in glee and remembered the joy of the open road, the feeling of being one with all, the joy of accomplishing something I did not think I would finish. In that instant I forgot all else, and sat in contempt, fully in the moment, existing in the now, just being……. And it was beautiful!!!

I now understand my Aunt Mary's constant dedication to training and her unending thirst to run marathons. Thanks for the inspiration AM!!!