Kampala Marathon 2012

So, I completed the Kampala Marathon last Sunday and it turned out to be even tougher than expected. MTN, the mobile phone company sponsoring and organizing the event (and my former employer by the way), again this year had decided to focus their attention on the 10K run. Me and the other amateur runners on the full marathon distance faced ridiculous conditions:

 

1) There was no map in my starting kit nor was there any information about when the races would start (resulting in me starting 30 minutes late)

 

2) There were no marshals on the last 5-6 kilometers so on one occasion I ran the wrong way

 

3) Big parts of the route after the first 10km had no separate lanes for the runners, so getting hit by a boda boda or a vehicle was a real risk

 

4) There was no water or sucrose at the last two supply stations, just what you need after 3½ hours of running in 30+ degrees sunny weather

 

5) There was no water or sucrose of any kind at the finishing line

 

I did quite well up until around 38 kilometers and then the dehydration forced me to slow down to a walk. I was feeling really dizzy and uncomfortable, and at the same time I could not believe how the organizers had just let the runners down completely - an almost true copy of what happened two years ago at the same event. If my friend OT had not come to my rescue 1½ kilometer before the finishing line and given me some juice I could have gotten really sick. Unreal. Shocking. Stronger words comes to mind by I'll try and keep this blog family friendly.

 

In my honest opinion, MTN should never, ever be allowed to organize another Kampala Marathon. Let them do their 10K run where they get lots of people to come and wear their merchandise and let some other organization with a real interest in organizing a proper marathon come in and do the necessary. It really is not that hard. MTN has proven beyond any doubt that they have zero interest in organizing a proper marathon - which is incredible considering that it is their single biggest and most costly marketing event of the year!?

 

Enough is enough. I'm done with running the Kampala Marathon for as long MTN organizes it. The only good thing I can say about that day was that our BBQ afterwards was much better organized and  at no point did we run out of beverages or beers ;-)

 

Time to focus on the Comrades training. More about that in the next blog.

 

Marathon Madsen

Lemming Day

There's a week to go till the Kampala Marathon. The last couple of weeks haven't gone exactly as planned and I've had to cut a 32 km and a 26 km run down to half marathon distances. So preparation hasn't been ideal, but I reckon I'm in pretty good shape anyway. The key thing on Nov. 25th will be to avoid getting dehydrated and to avoid getting run down in the traffic.

 

Speaking of traffic, I've seen some horrible traffic accidents on my running route lately. Kampala traffic is getting increasingly hectic and insanity seems to rule. In Uganda, patience is culturally a very important value and you don't get far around here if you don't chill. But for some reason, as soon as these incredibly patient people get into a vehicle or onto a motorcycle, all that changes as they enter an unreal race, with no winners and a lot of injured and dead losers.





Lemming

A friend pointed out to me that most of the chaos in the traffic stems from the fact that getting a driving is not a problem as long as you can pay the fee. There are absolutely no controls in place to ensure that the receiver of a permit has even the faintest idea about traffic law and rules. My friend is right of course, and I agree that the lack of controls is a big part of the problem. But the complete disregard of everybody's safety inclduing their own, is still a mystery to me. I mean, do you really need training to realize that you're probably going to kill yourself or somebody else if you pull out onto a busy road without looking left and right first?

Friday is by far the worst day to be in the Kampala traffic. I guess that 'the-end-of-the-week-bad-traffic-phenomenon' is a very common thing in most busy cities. However, Friday in Kampala doesn't just mean more jams and more waiting time, it also means lots of accidents. I think of Friday as 'Lemming Day' as people on this day seem even more willing to kill themselves than on any other day of the week. 

 

I think I'll make Lemming Day one of my weekly resting days from now on.

I'm back!

I'm back, and this time I will not fail.

 

I signed up and paid for a slot in the Comrades 2013 yesterday. Kampala Marathon is a month away and my training towards it has so far been relatively smooth and easy. The 29km training run I completed on Sunday morning went incredibly well and I felt strong and full of energy at the end of it, despite having run 28kms during the week. All in all, things are looking really positive right now.

 

There has been plenty of time to reflect on what I did wrong last time. I'll never know for sure, but it seems obvious that I pushed the training too hard, hoping to get fit enough to runt he Comrades in less than 9 hours. Lesson learned. After the Kampala Marathon I'll follow a so-called Bronze Medal training program which aims at getting one fit enough to run the 89km in less than 11 hours. This training program is significantly different from the one I followed 2 years ago and it looks a lot more forgiving.

 

For the time being though, I have to focus on Kampala Marathon on November 25th and I think I have a good chance of finishing around the 4 hour mark. On one hand, the finishing time is not important to me as this run is merely a part of my build up to the Comrades. On the other, this run is also my only planned qualifying run for the Comrades. The finishing time in Kampala determines the starting position at the Comrades which apparently is quite important as you risk getting stuck behind some very slow runners if your starting position is right at the back.

 

It is great to be back in shape and to be writing about this.

 

Ad finem.

 

 

Marathon Madsen