Alarm :4.30am
Option A. Snooze 5 minutes
Option B. Dismiss alarm
Mental state : confused. location:unknown.day:unknown…where am i…dream…no…phone lit alarm ringing…hands reach out…dismiss…snooze…dismiss…snooze…wake up! 3rd March 2019 Kilimanjaro marathon race day! Person of female gender, 38yrs, 6’5, weight 64kgs, mission in moshi- unknown….brain function….sleep mode…restart….loading….refresh…mission in moshi- 2019 kilimanjaro marathon race day.
I jump out of bed like am alighting from a swing or a double decker bed, use of unnecessarily energy. This will mark the beginning of a rough day from the smooth white linened bed to the dusty, hot coveted finish line at the Moshi stadium. I almost hurt my heel as i jump out to the bathroom for a critical ritual back a few grams lighter, say a prayer (give thanks, my boys, the race, a pb, a medal, and…hee…heee a podium finish …i believe in miracles..Amen) Quick shower, sunscreen, vaseline in all friction prone zones, kit up, race up, garmin watch on wrist. Now this gadget is like a runner’s heart pace cant leave better go topless..can always borrow a shirt to run in. We gather at the lobby, a runner is pinning his bib on his tee, another takes a huge sweet potato bite and mashes it down their throat with a gulp of coffee, another is mixing up a concoction of some powder, coke and satchet contents, shakes the bottle, divides it into two bottles and adds a pinch of something..maybe some herbs from his grandma…a charm of some sort. I wonder how they take the corrct measure of all the ingredients… The fellow looks too serious he’s mastered this. He is the kind who tells you that a pinch of powder is equal to 1.35gramd. He’s too focused he better have a place at the final top rankings. God help him i doubt he will pass the anti-dope tests.
Last time i saw such concotions was at my grand parents and my brothers and i fell ill with malaria and grannie mixed some herbs, ash and lemon leaves forcing it down our throats while pinching our tiny noses, no wonder we have dented noses. She was a mau mau fighter that one, she lives on today at 97. I miss her pinching my nose but with her shaky hands and loss of memory that’s now a memory.
The wedding
We warm up to the start line. Determined faces intermittently giving way to nervousness, a quick bathroom rush, a selfie here, a dance there, but all focused to pound moshi roads the real kenyan style, catch me if you can. The sun is quickly rising, heating up the ground…almost conscious of the few minutes remaining for the start gun to go off. It’s gathered at the start run for the race. 5,4,3,2,1 gooo. Starts off an easy 10km the sun overhead. This will be a hot day, the ground is heating up so fast, the tarmac shining back on my face. My vision is blurred by the shining sun and my forehead is getting scorched. Small problems, i got smeared enough sunscreen so am good. The sun is leading on ahead and am beginning to feel the climb at the 16th km. We follo
I had it all or atleast most of it figured out. The marathon route. My pre-race brief was a flat 21km course in the first leg of the marathon, a 10km climb to get you to the 31km mark and voila you will love this, climaxing at the 10km downhill cruise to the finish line. The route sounding like a real beauty spiced up by a 10km climb to keep you desiring the finish line. I was ready. I had trained put in my best and enjoyed my training season. Even the pestering heel pain that has effortlessly being trying to find residence on my right foot during trainings was mum.
The start gun goes off. Start garmin watch. The swarm of brave runners swings out of the stadium with a mission to coonquer
42kms of Moshi tarmac. 700m from the start line we take a right turn. Two lean bald headed dudes in tight yellow luminous stripped shorts are yelling to each other that the route has changed. Am diagonally sandwiched between conscious i dont get too close lest we stumble on each other. Good place to eaves drop. They level up their position they’re now agead of me and i have to keep up to follow this conversation. Information critical. They drop the route discussion as the shorter one with a feminine looking derrier slows down to pull up his shorts for a comfortable fit. I enjoy my first 10km easy bliss just per the brief but wait this was supposed to be the case for the first 21km lap. No way. My legs demand for more effort at the 12th mark and to my shock we are looping back the same route we covered on the first 10km. Hold your toast, after every downhill there is an uphill. I steer on but i feel fatigue setting in quickly. The sun is scorching and every minute it gets hotter like it’s out to melt brains. I realise this route is definitely not what i had anticipated but am convinced that there are better times ahead. Steer on and at the 21st am face to face with a hill that looks like peaking to the skies. I know too well how this will go. The second and final 21km lap. I feel tears well my eyes. I see my friend Mush by the road side she looks worried but quickly braves up. Her imagination of my pain is clear on her face but she seems to say dare you give up. She looks like she can wip me if i drop off. I badly want to stop. Am halfway and my body is feeling pushed to its limit. I cant do this. Why should i. 21kms is good enough. This looks suicidal. I can’t push. This mark. This 21km mark is my hole. I was here yesterday to say a prayer for Charlie. Now i need a prayer. I hope Mush said a hail mary for me. Even then i cant go on. My mind is crowded. Am loosing hope. But why, I’ve trained i knew this wasnt going to be easy. But i didn’t know the route will change, who puts a 20km climb on a 42km marathon course on the hottest day on earth.Who does that. The runners jury awaits you. Yes. 3 March was the hottest day on earth but only recorded in Moshi. No wonder my friends running in Tokyo around the same time were drenching wet from the rain. Mr. sun you overstayed your visit you forgot to move over to Asia. You burnt my chocolate skin. You were joined by your siblings to spectate. Yes you shone on beautiful Kili. The beauty glowed, white capped, melting down slowly to a welcoming smile. You made me stop, because you wanted me to notice you. I noticed you the minute you shone but melting my will power, vaporing away my determination. Leaving me stripped of all my energy. That was the greatest force on my resolve. You forced me to stop. You forced me to walk. You burnt me. In all the interesting places. I have scars to show. The scars itch. I pray that they heal. As they heal i will forgive you. The scars shall be a constant reminder of the day i reached my limits. Or so i thought. That’s why it was painful. That’s why i teared. That’s why you melted me. To soften me and stretch me. You made me dig deeper into mental tunnels of will power i never knew exist. And that is the best thing that ever happened. The sweetness i feel, the release from the confinement of my ability happened on the earth’s hottest day 3 March 2019 at the finish line of 2019 Kili marathon after 4 hours 25 minutes.
This was the toughest run i have ever done. It tested my natural positive resolve to the maximum. I wanted to give up, not once not twice, a lot of times. As i pen this, am the happiest soul, it was my slowest of all the 3 marathons i have done, but it is my unlock to what i can do. My play field just became larger. I just graduated to tougher battles. Curse the “suns” in your life, you are only human. Run away from them, Sorry they burn from all angles and on all the “interesting places”. They will leave scars. Painful scars. But you need that tough skin melted away to a newness of you.
