The Kampala "Marathon"

This weekend, one of Uganda's largest mobile phone companies, MTN, sponsored a marathon to raise money for two worthy causes, as quoted on their website below:

1. To reduce exposure of school children to cancer caused by carcinogens in asbestos roofing of public schools.
2. To improve maternal health through providing better facilities in Kiswa and Komamboga health care centres.

A few of us from MAF Uganda joined together as a team to take part in the fun! There were options to run 21km, 42km- or 10km.

Most of us on the MAF team only opted for the 10km run... along with THOUSANDS of other participants!!!

To get an idea of how many people we were, there are some great photos on a local newspaper's website- follow this link:

https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1465961/pictures-thousands-grace-mtn-kampala-marathon

It was 6am when I set off with our night guard to walk the short but dark distance to a nearby garage to meet up with some of our fellow MAF-team runners.

As the sun came up, we climbed into a friend's minibus and set off to the race starting point in town:

We were dropped off by another friend and walked to the Kololo airstrip where an impressively organised venue had been set up for the race start and finish.

There was time for some group pictures as we congregated:

A few of us ladies also took time to make a quick visit to the less-than-desirable toilets! We took turns to hold the doors of the long-drop loos for one another whilst trying not to pass out from the stink that emanated from the general area!

Soon all the 10 km race runners were being called to order by booming voices bursting from loud- speakers on one of the giant stages.

We made our way into the throng of runners- and I mean throng!  It was not easy to stay together. We often had to grab each other's hands to stop ourselves being swallowed up in the thousands which made up our crowd of participants.

Suddenly...
... we were off!!! However, with so many thousands of runners it was a slow start, as we struggled to find space to move independently!!

We were immersed in a SEA of yellow and blue, as all runners had been kitted out in MTN yellow running tops and caps. 

However, we MAF-ers ditched the MTN caps and wore MAF hats!

Once we were able to get going, I tucked away my phone and therefore my camera and we set off for 10 km of running, up and down Kampala's hills. It was already getting hot by 7:30am! Thankfully, there were a couple of water stations en route where bottled water was handed out- WONDERFUL relief!!

It was around an hour later when some of us crossed the finish line. We found our speedier team-mates already relaxing on a grassy patch of  Kololo airstrip, enjoying the shade of a tree! 

We joined them for some victory photos, but those pictures really are so terribly unflattering (with our red, shiny, sweaty faces!!)  that I will not be posting them here- because of my own vanity and out of respect for my team-mates!!

However, just to prove that we were still smiling at the end of the race, here is a photo from our ride home!