Race Day: Running the Maasai Marathon

The Kiwis ready to run

I had a good sleep, waking at about 5.30am. There was time for a small breakfast and a million toilet trips due to nerves! The race time wasn't determined so left for the race around 8.30am.
We drove out to the start line. A huge amount of people were already there, and there was no toilet apart from a hole in the ground with some garden netting around it. Most runners were Kenyans but there were a few serious runners from Europe with support crew, a few Brits doing a similar fundraiser to us - except they were running in a chicken suit!

Nina, Hayley and me ready to run the Maasai (half) Marathon

We waited and at about 9.30 we were ushered to one side of the flags. A hype man had a microphone and conducted a Kenyan style 'warm up' under an already hot sun. This involved enough jumping to tire us Mzugus out. The Kenyan athletes looked incredible and many of them ran without shoes or in sneakers like vans. One guy came up to me and Hayley for a photo - for the first time the tables were turned. He told us that he placed in previous years with a 5km time of 16 minutes, unbelievable for us! He also said he'd had a bad motorbike accident and it was the first time he'd raced in 3 years.

A video of the Maasai Marathon start line

After many '5 more minutes' announcements over the microphone, the race began unceremoniously with an unannounced bang at roughly 10.06am.  There was no countdown so I awkwardly stuffed Nina's phone into her pack while jogging. Most of the Kenyan runners were already out of sight.

Because everyone was running so fast, I was pacing myself a little ahead of Nina. I could feel her dropping behind when we reached the spot we'd seen the lioness. I reassured myself I'd run while feeling good and meet her at the 3km drink station. The track stretched upward and around, no station in sight. I walked up the first hill, looking back for her but I couldn't see her. I ran to the first station that finally appeared, it was a long 3km, but there was still no sign of her. For the next stretch I walked and ran, hoping she'd catch up. Little did I know, she'd rolled her ankle and was being picked up.

Around 8km I caught up to two Australian girls, Mica and Emily. I ducked behind a lone Acacia tree to use the toilet as a family of giraffe ran across the track. When I reached the bush line a ranger took a photo of me!

There wasn't many toilet stop options

The grass was radiating heat and the scrubby bush offered no shade, but could potentially have sleeping wild animals trying to escape the heat of the day. The organisers had flown a helicopter over the track several times to clear animals, but I was acutely aware of the only protection I had was two rangers holding sticks every 5km. The adrenaline of the whole situation kept me moving through the bush as quick as I could.

What else could be lurking in the shade? 

Eventually I was back with Emily and Mica, who now had reached Hayley. It was around 13km and really hot. There was no shade and we were still heading north on the loop. Despite this I felt happy and love being on foot in the game park now I was with people. Wildebeest and zebras framed the course.

Running amongst these animals was an amazing experience! 

At 15km we pledged to run the last 4km of the course, as we were now walking. By the time we had hit 17km, we were back in the bush with no rangers nearby. We had seen elephants crashing around here the previous day. Out of that area we saw the tent, still 5m away in a straight line, but the course now swerved south. Disheartened, I tried running again but got an intense pain in my gut and couldn't do more than 3 minutes at a time. As slow as it was, walking was far better. Hayley promised to stay with me as the other two ran off.

The elephant bush

We kept worrying about Nina, hoping she'd catch up and looking back. We saw the two girls stop, Emily had fallen over, bruising her ribs and cutting her hand. A Kenyan lady running further back joined us to see if she was okay. She offered the motivation, "let's go ladies" because there was nothing else we could do. Another bush area passed before we tuned north-west again. A land cruiser appeared - with Raewyn, Nina and Ben cheering us on! We ran for appearance sake but couldn't maintain it.

We agreed to run the last 500m as we saw the finish finally appear. You had to loop the clearing first for another km! A Westerner yelled at us "Don't bother, it's actually 23km!" They were packing down the finish line as we approached. A man pointed us in the right direction, with 50 odd Kenyans blocking the line, we squeezed past, ran through and no one blinked an eye. I laughed so hard I hurt my stomach.

Which one is the finish line? 

Emily was at the certification tent, looking for a medic. The woman sitting behind the desk asked us, "What's your time?" Hayley timed it roughly 3 hours but the woman didn't accept that - "no, it started at 10.30am so it's 2.40." We let her write that while marvelling at the difference of sporting events back home.

Desperate for shade and with no idea how we were ever going to find the others in the hundreds of people, we sat on the tiny strip of shade behind the tent. A Kenyan guy sat down. At first I couldn't understand his accent, but after a couple of attempts we conversed. He was Jeffrey from the Samboru tribe and placed with a time of 1.13 for 21km! He laughed at our time - and that was the improved 'official' version too!

We tried his best lines on us 'are you twins', '24 is the best age to marry in Kenya and I'm 24', 'you're worth more than 100 cows, 200 cows!' before asking me to marry him several times. I was polite but told him I couldn't.

Jeffrey proposing to me while we sat in the shade

Eventually, once Hayley had almost peeled her toenails off taking off her socks we tried finding the others. We were stopped by a TV crew and someone who wanted to interview us. I have never felt so dirty and sweaty in my life but we agreed to do it. They said they had footage of a lion on the course -- something that didn't surprise at all.

Looking thrilled to be interviewed by TVC Kenya. Sylvester's impromptu market was behind us

We found the van but had to wait because Simon was missing, while the other truck left. We decided Simon had gone home another way after searching for an hour. Then our driver Sylvester disappeared. I was getting worse cramps and becomingly seriously alarmed about the lack of a toilet at the event. Ben was lying outside under the truck, faint from all the sun. There was no shade and it was 2.30pm. Sylvester's wife was in the car with a crying baby, not sure where he had gone.

Someone found him selling stuff at an impromptu market amongst everything, and he got angry at us. We were angry too and demanded to leave. I think he purposely drove fast over the uneven 4 wheel drive track home, to the point where the roof flag ripped off and we all screamed.

I was so unbearably hot I had a cold shower, was sick, then got into the unheated pool just to lower my body temperature. I lay alone in the shade. A family of Indian and Japanese kids appeared at the same time another family of monkeys. The kids were terrified of the monkeys, which kept getting into the pool on the same steps as them. A very sensible Japanese grandmother shooed them away.

Lunch was chicken curry and Tuska beer. Not exactly the best stomach settlers. Someone suggested a game drive at 4.30pm which I couldn't say no to.

Tom driving the open Jeep over the savannah at sunset, with a cold Tuska in hand is something I'll remember for a long time. It felt perfect. We saw nothing apart from buffalo, a testament to the security measures.

The Buffalo

Dinner was ready when we got back. The day caught up with me and I went back to my room before I lost all conversation skills. I packed and was in bed by 9.30pm.




Times

Ben was first back from our group at 2.13 and managed to run the whole thing.

Heidi has done 25 half marathons, with a record of 1.30. Her time was 2.25, which makes me feel much better about my time.

The rest of us were between 2.45-3.15

First prize for the overall competition was US$2000 and there was a jumping competition afterwards for a cow.