safaricom wild run

SAFARICOM WILD RUN


Many take this marathon for various reason, some do it for personal achievements and experience as it is rated one of those things one must do in this life.Some do it for wild fun and others do it to complete and win one of the toughest marathon in the world.whatever angle you choose to tackle the marathon from the assurance is your participation leaves a smile on a needy community as the great key for the marathon is to raise funds for conservation and community development.
As part of Amarula team we set out on the day before the race.we shortned the long journey with interesting stoppages with different missions.A wonderful stop was at Kiganjo to pick tents.Wachira one of Amarula member had generously offered his camping gears to us which we were to pick at his place 7km away from the main road.The rough road stopped us at a Grace land-a girls boarding school located in a 75 acres brilliantly landscaped land with a campsite,and all sort of sports activites(a place I must make arrangement to explore soon)
Arrival at the venue was pretty exciting.The drive away from the main gate to the camp which was to house us for the marathon was long, dusty and rough but was well compensated with an exciting wonderful no-charge view of different wild games.One of the requirements was to report at the registration camp for entry confirmation and collect the pack containing; running t-shirts, registration number a torch and a hand tag which allowed us enrty to the selfcatering camps.
Choosing a nice quite camping site was easy and fast but setting the tents was so challeging that it stole better part of our evening,finally we mananged to pitch all the tents and switched our energy to preparing a quick light meal.We opted to sleep early eagerly anticipting the actual event the following day.
The long awaited day finally rose up.with no much preparation we made a quick light breakfast and in no time we were in our running gears.One look at our team and a wonderful taste of Amarula crossed the mind as we all stood tall in Amarula branded t-shirts !
At the starting point it was a mix of colors,race and participants ranging from professionals to the amateurs young and old, with thrills and spills of the wild run.The flag off filled the rough dusty route with runners. An irritating pushing followed as each tried to scramble for space to overdo the other and keep a good pace.This continued up to the 6th km mark.The hills become tougher sending most runners to a walking option . A great opportunity for the fit runners,being one of them I run up and down the hills with out any likeness of obeying my body which was really arging me to have a rest at 20km mark.The last 1km was comfortably flat but proved to be the toughest and longest.with self motivation I pushed to the end.I was received with cheers and jubilation from the spectitactors and our amarula team members who had out run me.At the finishing line I received a medal which made me trully proud-I true winner Iwas!.Massage is all I needed at this point and at the recovery tent my crave was meet.
Back at the camping site,I needed rest more than anything which proved impossible without taking a shower.The campsite was full of bee activities, people going here and there doing this and that.In the evening we lit a bon fire where we all converged smartly dressed in amarula shirts and caps. we had enough beef for brii which went down very well with amarula and viceroy.Having finished and enjoyed one of the most famous run in the world I was on the second course enjoying yet one of the most famous drink in the world-The amarula cream! We drunk and chatted noisily around the bon fire till late. one by one we retired to our tents completely exhausted.We woke up late abit hesistant to pull down our tents. the place was hot but the `away from husstle town life' experience was great but we had too leave, after a heavy healthy breakfast we started off our journey back to Nairobi already anticipating for next years marathon with hearty thanks to amarula for genouroulsy sponsoring us! Your kindness gave me my first opportunity to participate in LEWA marathon-a life time experience.