Day One – Travel To Addis Ababa
It has been 9 long years since I last visited Addis Ababa for the amazing Great Ethiopian Run. The delay in getting back out to this fantastic country has not been for the want of trying. We should have been participating in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. These trips were all cancelled or deferred for various reasons including the pandemic.
We last undertook the event in 2015 with a large charity group (around 50 participants). My view back then was that it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It felt particularly exciting and poignant to be travelling back again after such a long hiatus.
It was with a sense of real excitement that the team met at Gatwick. After a comfortable and uneventful 7 hour flight we landed at Bole.
The most notable moment came at immigration when the officer issuing our visas seemed to think I was an athlete arriving for an official training camp. He requested a letter of invitation from an appropriate authority. Those that know me (stop sniggering) will know that this assumption is quite a reach. The more I kept repeating “Great Ethiopian Run” the more the misunderstanding seemed to widen, culminating in the official requesting a conversation with Richard Nerurkar who had organised the trip for us.
Fortunately Lisa, a fellow traveller, used the words “Runing? Holiday?” and the stern Immigration Official was all smiles “Ahh yes no problem” We were relieved to be allowed into the country and I enjoyed my 30 seconds amongst the elite runners!
Our transfer to the Hyatt Regency hotel was seamless, our smiling driver Yafet was on hand to greet us and whisk us to our destination. Our accommodation certainly had the wow factor as we entered a large marbled reception area and were shown up to our lovely, well appointed clean rooms.
We convened in the bar for some drinks and a bite to eat after checking out the pool and other restaurants. It had been a long day so we all headed off for some much needed kip. We had exciting days ahead so rest was much needed.
Day Two Press Conference / Lucy! / Unity Park / Tour Of Addis Ababa
We were pleasantly surprised and delighted that Richard had invited us to the official race press conference. This was to be a new experience for all of us, a great opportunity to spend an hour or so with running royalty and a fantastic opportunity to see how things worked behind the scenes.
We adopted our best professional facial expressions as the world’s press photographed us on the way in and at our seats. I’m not sure who the photographers thought we were, but no doubt they will be disappointed when they find out. It was great fun and gave us a great 15 minutes of fame.
We watched some fantastic videos showing detailed history of the run and enjoyed Q&A sessions with Ruth Chepng’etich (current female marathon record holder) and Haille Gebrsellasie together with a presentation by the Minister for Tourism Selamwit Kassa.
As soon as the press conference finished we were met outside by our super guide Danni. This was quite an emotional moment for me as it had been 9 years since we had last been together. Sadly Danni no longer has the ancient Lada he had in years gone by, however I was relieved that his new car was capable of climbing up steep hills something the Lada struggled to achieve back in the day.
Danni is the perfect guide. Patient and calm, he knows Addis inside out and we were soon on our way through the busy streets to the National Museum where I could reacquaint myself with Lucy the bones of a 3.2 million-year old fossil of a human ancestor.
Lucy’s full story can be found here
We arrived at the National Museum which appeared even more dilapidated than when I visited back in the day. The beautiful gardens were now a building site and the building was shrouded in scaffolding and plastic. Danni went and had a chat with the guard to see if the attraction was open and soon beckoned us into the building. Inside a major spruce up was in progress and it was clear that pretty soon the museum will be a much more inspiring place to visit.
It has always amazed me that although Lucy is the main attraction of this museum, drawing an audience from around the world, she is somewhat incongruously placed in a corridor very close to the main entrance. No real build up to the big reveal. We felt a little sorry for her. You simply enter the museum, turn right and there she is. We marvelled for a few moments at the remains before moving on to view the other artefacts and artwork within the museum. Interesting enough but in reality you won’t need more than an hour here.
We jumped back into Danni’s car and headed to Unity Park which is in the compound of the National Palace. Security was tight in view of this location and overseas visitors have to pay $20 to enter. It was worth every dime as we wound our way through a number of interactive displays and into the zoo area where we witnessed leopards, meerkats, giraffes and baby baboons playing. Lunch was a fantastic smorgasbord of local Ethiopian delights. We spent a number of hours here immersed in Ethiopian history before Danni took us back to the Hyatt for food and much needed rest.
Day Three. Training With Running Legends. Supermoon Drive to Entoto Hill
We awoke extremely early as we had to meet in reception at 5.30am for an early morning training session at Entoto Hill with a variety of record breaking running legends. The early start paid dividends as we had the extraordinary pleasure of being driven to Entoto Hill as a beautiful November “Super Moon” shone down on us, before slowly giving way to a glorious sunrise.
We started to really feel the altitude here as our bus eventually pulled up at a height of 10,100ft. We were guided into some pretty thick woodland which was criss-crossed with dozens of running trails. It’s a pretty special place and we were filled in on the special running history of this place. All the great champions train here and have done for many years. The local church holds a number of gold medals and we all felt privileged to be in such a special place.
Sadly the location didn’t seem to inspire me to great athletic heights as the warm up left me knackered. I then ambitiously joined the middle ability runners and puffed my way through the woods hoping that the slower group (walkers mainly) didn’t catch me up.
Notwithstanding the altitude and my lack of fitness I enjoyed every moment as the record holders and champions ran back towards me smiling as the sun worked its way through the trees burning off the mist and early morning chill.
After what felt like an eternity but in reality was about 40 minutes we took an opportunity to warm down, take a few group pics and head back into the crowded streets of Addis and the sanctuary of our hotel. What a way to spend a morning!
Day 4 The Great Ethiopian Run!!
I awoke early and put on my pristine bright yellow race t-shirt. Everyone who has entered the Great Ethiopian Run must wear this which makes for quite a spectacle on the route.
After meeting Jon and Lisa for a light breakfast we headed off just before 7am to catch the carnival atmosphere as it unfolded. We were not disappointed! The direct route to the start line was blocked off so we walked around the block on the designated route, through a couple of army checkpoints and found a spot to savour the atmosphere. It was just as spectacular as I remembered. Large groups of Ethiopians and tourists singing, “warming up” and dancing together. Truly spectacular.
We enjoyed this carnival atmosphere for around an hour, the crowd sang the National Anthem Of Ethiopia and before we knew it we were swept along towards the start line as 50,000 people sang “EEE THIOPIAAAA!” and we were on our way.
The next 10k passed in a blur as we ran and walked around the course. Every bar was packed with locals and from higher vantage points you could see what appeared to be a sea of yellow shirts ahead of you. In many instances we had to slow down to walking pace due to the sheer number of joyous people surrounding us at every angle.
The amusingly named “shower stations” haven’t improved. It’s still just a local spraying everyone with a hose. Tremendous fun but we did our very best to avoid the deluge!
After plenty of stops to dance, sing and savour the atmosphere we eventually found our way to the finish line after the best part of two hours. A medal was placed around our shoulders and we were congratulated on our achievement.
We walked happily back to the hotel where a few beers were downed to rehydrate as we happily relived the highlights of the previous few hours.
The run and indeed the whole weekend was just as magical as I remembered and I can’t wait to return for the 2025 edition which will also be the event’s 25th Birthday celebration!
