Roof of Africa - more

Andrew King was our photographer and videographer during the Roof of Africa run. While he's been busy with other projects, he's also been working on a video from the run. Here's a link to the preview -

http://vimeo.com/57847880#at=0.

 

For me it's amazing to watch the video as it brings back so many feelings and thoughts from the run. I've really looking forward to seeing the full thing, which premieres in South Africa at the end of March.

 

Go Trail magazine, which is a South African running magazine, is doing a special edition for the Roof of Africa run as well. Here's a link to what that will look like - http://www.gotrailmag.com/go-interactive/projects. The full page spread with the blue sky dotted with puffy clouds in a fish-eye lens - that's me!

 

Enjoy!

 

The Roof of Africa

After three and a half hours we stopped at a stream crossing to fill our water bottles. Most of us were either out of, or nearly out of, water. Our regard for each other as a team would begin here as we helped fill each other’s bottle with a Steripen and portable filter. At this point we had covered just 14 kilometers and had climbed and descended almost 3000 feet. We were less than half way through the first day of the 1st Annual Stage Run Around The Roof of Africa … and we began to wonder what we were in for!

The run around Mount Kilimanjaro was conceived of by Simon Mtuy, owner and senior guide of Summit Expeditions & Nomadic Experience (SENE), a Tanzania adventure travel company. The Mbahe Village on the southeastern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro is where he grew up and grew to love the mountain. Mtuy has summited Kilimanjaro several hundred times, has finished the Western States Endurance Run nine times, and holds the record for fastest unsupported run up and down Kilimanjaro (he held the record for fastest supported ascent-descent until it was broken in 2010 by Kilian Jornet, whom Simon helped train and guide on his record run).

Simon's dream of the Stage Run  was fueled by several desires. The mountain has been an important part of his life – first, as the provider of life-sustaining water and fertile soil for his family’s farm growing up, then as a boundless source of beautiful and challenging trails for running, the sport he loves, and finally as a livelihood with his climb business.  Simon has been on the mountain hundreds of times and it holds a spiritual aspect for him.  This run would be a chance for him to bring those all together and share them with fellow trail runners from around the world. 

After several years of scouting the lower slopes, he had established a route that completely encircled the lower slopes on trails and paths that – we would soon discover – were diverse in the environments through which they passed, with beautiful sights at every turn, and quite challenging. Simon assembled his crew of cooks, drivers, navigators, and guides to launch the Stage Run in October of 2012 as eight days of running over 170 miles.  But beyond the numbers, an important element of all trips that Simon leads is to offer guests a chance to encounter Tanzania and meet its people in a more personal and natural way.  We realized this more as we runners immersed ourselves in the experience.

The Runners
Five runners signed up for this first year.

Steve, a good friend of Mtuys, from Hawaii and an ultrarunner having completed the HURT 100 in Hawaii several times. For Steve the world is his playground who often expressed his Hawaiian enthusiasm with words like 'awesome' and 'rad' along with a generous helping of the “hang loose” sign.

Tim who works for SENE in the United States and helped Simon scout the route. He's a solid midwestern road runner who would resemble one of the characters from Lake Wobegon.

Jerry, the elder statesman of the group at 57, from St. Louis who had completed his 13th 100-miler just a month earlier. He's a quiet, thoughtful, spiritual man  enlivened by his first trip outside the US.

Krissy, one of the top women ultrarunners in the world. She loves to engage each new experience, person, and culture wholeheartedly.

And myself, a lifelong athlete and lover of big, unusual adventures.

Simon was our guide and leader, full of energy, good humor, and kind words for everyone.

Andrew King of South Africa was with us the entire trip filming and taking pictures of this grand adventure. And Kate from Hawaii was here with Steve and became our cheerleader for the week, meeting us every day. It was always a delight to see Kate's bright shirts and cheery words of support and encouragement in the middle of the day..

All-in-all we were a well matched group with a fairly similar strength, endurance, and pace. Most importantly, we were all thrilled to be here and had ear-to-ear grins the whole way. As Kate said often, her cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

The Crew

Simon's team consisted of Kiplet and Robinson, camp cooks extraordinaire; Manase and (another) Simon, who departed each morning before daybreak to mark the route; Iddy and Sigfrid as additional guides; and Willie, William, and Joseph as navigators, drivers, and daily spirited support.  Throughout the week the unflappable and always upbeat team took care of us in every way imaginable.

The Run

On October 20 we began our adventure from Mtuy's family farm in Mbahe Village, about 45 minutes outside of Moshi, Tanzania. Each of  the next eight days provided a new and different running and cultural experience, and allowed us, the runners, to discover new things about ourselves, our new friends, the people of the Kilimanjaro, and the mountain environment..

We began the first day with a tree planting ceremony around a natural spring in Mbahe Village to give back  to  the local community and to help preserve the all important water source that supports the Mbahe Village and many communities miles downstream. Kilimanjaro is an ecological system unto itself and provides the tribes living on its flanks water for drinking and irrigation, rich soil for planting, and wood for fuel and building. But that system has seen recent upheaval with climate change. In the past century 80% of the glacial ice cap has disappeared, and thousands of acres of virgin forest has been cut for fuel and cropland. Preserving the environment and giving back to the community have always been pillars of Simon’s work in the community and around the mountain.  After the tree-planting we had an official start of the run at the Marangu entrance gate to Kilimanjaro National Park. 

The running itself was fantastic! We ran through pine forests on beds of pine needles. We ran along farm fields. We ran through numerous Chagga and Maasai villages. At times we enjoyed the company of local kids as they ran with us. At other times we ran in solitude.  We saw dozens of bare-footed grandmothers walking the paths with enormous bundles of grass, sticks and what-have-you balanced on their heads (at one point Simon offered to carry the bundle for one particularly old woman and then gave us the opportunity to lift it onto our heads – and were amazed by the weight of the load!).  We descended many incredibly beautiful and remote valleys on trails no wider than a shoe, ran on trails alongside hand-dug irrigation furrows, on “Indiana Jones”  trails requiring hand-holds on roots and rocks as we climbed radically steep slopes. Sometimes we ran on single-track, sometimes on jeep roads.  It wasn’t unusual for us to run where there was no trail.

We saw waterfalls, baboons, and colobus monkeys. We passed herds of sheep and cattle being led to pasture or to market. We saw Mt. Kilimanjaro every day, from all sides  and in many ways – in brilliant sunshine, shrouded in clouds, underneath a bright  blue sky or in silhouette against star-filled blackness. We took pictures everywhere and even witnessed the juxtaposition of a Maasai in his traditional clothing taking a picture with his cell phone of us in our traditional running gear (a most remarkable sight to him, no doubt).

We laughed and talked with each other. We thrilled at jumping from rock to rock across streams and the chance to douse our heads with the cool mountain water. We did a double-take when hearing Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” coming from a radio in the middle of nowhere. As we ran through the pines forests, we heard the wind and the sound of the trees talking. We were grateful witness to school children lining up for their morning exercises and daily singing of the Tanzanian national anthem.

We camped on school grounds, in luscious grass fields, near a beautiful river, and at the top of a ridge overlooking the lights of Moshi. The fourth night was spent at Simba Farm where we enjoyed more amazing food, beds, and a hot shower. We were constantly  with smiles and waves and the traditional Swahili greeting of Jambo (‘hello’) or Pole Pole (‘go easy’).  We found it ironic that nobody ever encouraged us to "go faster" or "speed up." As they say, no hurry in Africa.  And besides, why go faster when we are enjoying every minute of this fantastic adventure?

Every mile, every day was a thrilling surprise. By greeting the unexpected with a smile and child-like wonder, we developed bonds with each other and allowed us to experience Tanzania and Kilimanjaro in a way few ever have. After eight days we arrived back at the Marangu gate to celebrate with each other!

The Food

Being a runner, I knew Simon would have enough food to feed hungry runners every day. I had somewhat expected the food to be fairly basic and so before leaving I had my favorite meals - a Ted's Montana Grill burger, a beautiful full salad, and my favorite burrito. How wrong I was!

Like everything else on this trip, the food that we ate was absolutely amazing. Simon and his chefs were very conscious of preparing nutritious, balanced meals to fuel us for each day’s challenge. His farm provided plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables from broccoli to greens to avocado to bananas to strawberries. Every morning we'd start with eggs, bacon, toast, porridge or oatmeal, coffee and tea, and several varieties of fruit. We even had crepes and french toast! On the table was fresh passion fruit honey from Simon's farm, peanut butter and jam. It seemed like nothing was missing. Surely the best kind of food to keep us going for each day of running.

When we finished running, the table was already ready with snacks - roasted cashews, crackers, tea and coffee. The best part was popcorn!

Every evening was another incredible spread of food. We'd start with a soup - tomato with ginger, lentil, pumpkin, zucchini, or carrot. Then we'd get a main meal with potatoes or rice, some kind of meat, more vegetables.  We'd finish off with some kind of dessert.

I know how good even something basic like ramen or a cup-of-noodles can be in the middle of a long run. It's like heaven sometimes. This was not that feeling - this was simply incredibly made, local, fresh food prepared with great care.

Being Prepared

There is no doubt this is a challenging run, even a very challenging run.  Total elevation gain was more than 35,000 feet  and the entire route was run at an altitude between 4,500 and 7,000 feet. By comparison, I would consider the TransRockies 6-day run in Colorado relatively mild. You have to be prepared for long days - five of the eight days were we out for more than six hours. While the elevation and cloud cover mitigated the tropical heat, we did experience direct sun (Kilimanjaro is 3 degrees south of the equator) in open stretches with temperatures reaching  85 to 90 degrees.

The combination of elevation, temperature, vertical gain and descent, and distance meant it was common to take 6-8 hours to cover 20 miles. With few markers of distance, we learned to be mentally prepared for long days and imprecise mileage, providing for us first-timers to Kilimanjaro a sense of exploring the unknown..

Celebrating

After finishing at the Marangu Gate, we walked back to the small stream on Mtuy's farm.  Awaiting us was a picturesque waterfall and 10 foot cliff offering a celebratory plunge into the refreshingly cool mountain pool.  It was a perfect ending to our incredible adventure.  Back at the farm we were greeted with another feast and our first afternoon to rest. In the evening we celebrated with a traditional Chagga dinner of ugali (cornmeal) and a beef stew with potatoes, carrots, and cooked bananas, washed down with oversize bottles of local beer (appropriately named “Kilimanjaro”). Simon and his crew sang to us; Krissy was moved enough to write a song about the trip which she and Kate sang. The chorus:

                Running like crazy till the day’s gonna end

                                Running like crazy cuz Simon’s our friend

                                                Hey, runnin’ round Kili

               Running like crazy through the sun and the heat

                                Running like crazy even if it’s killin' our feet

                                                Hey, runnin’ round Kili

Finally Simon spoke offering his heartfelt gratitude for all of us being here and sharing in his dream of a stage run around the “Roof of Africa.”  For all it was an enjoyable and emotional celebratory dinner together.

In the End

While I can write about the run, the food, and who was there, the experience itself was absolutely incredible! I'm sure we exceeded all hopes Simon had for this first run. We all have new friends, stories to remember for a lifetime, an appreciation of Kilimanjaro, and a piece of Africa in our soul. There are few experiences that can match the Roof of Africa run!

Lime Green

A recent trend in the past couple years with running shoes has been more colors – hot pink, bright red, baby blue, neon orange. The other day I opened by closet and realized that more than half my shoes have lime green on them. I say half because I have various shoes – some for road, some for trail – and I like wearing different shoes to keep my feet flexible and adaptable to different shoes. Here’s the list with Lime Green …

-          Brooks PureGrit

-          Brooks PureFlow

-          Saucony Kinvara Trail (my latest pair)

-          Pearl Izumi Streak II

Maybe this is my new favorite color!

It's a Boulder Experience

Here in Boulder, we love our sports, the outdoors, food, our meditation and Christmas is the perfect opportunity to celebrate something of ourselves and Boulder. For many, a short run on the fresh snow from Christmas Eve would be a perfect way to greet the day. Indeed, in many cases that would be my primary choice as well, but as I’m settled into 30 days of yoga, a yoga practice would be the more perfect choice for me on Christmas day.

The Little Yoga Studio in central Boulder seemed to be the only yoga studio in town offering a group practice, so that was where I went. More than thirty of us showed up for this donation based class with funds going towards Western Resource Advocates. This class was to be led by Valerie D’Ambrosio, the founder of the Hanuman Festival here in Boulder, so somewhat of a yoga celebrity in Boulder. As we’re all getting ready, I see someone who looks like Scott Jurek, one of the top ultrarunners in the world, walk in and set up his mat. While I didn’t know many others my name, I seemed to recognize other well known Boulderites as well.

The class itself was amazing with Valerie inviting us to celebrate ourselves and our commitment on this day of offering gifts, either to ourselves or others. In the middle of the class, Valerie put on a couple Christmas classic songs and sent us off dancing. Another great way to celebrate movement and joy together!

I suppose this whole experience would seem odd to many, but

this is Boulder – yoga on Christmas, seeing amazing people, dancing.

Who knows what will happen next!

ps. After class I introduced myself – and sure enough, it was Scott Jurek.

Humbled

At the end of the running in Africa, I had badly strained my right Achilles, and my left one wasn’t too happy either. Since returning more than 6 weeks ago, I hadn’t run until a few short runs last week. It’s felt good to rest my body and listen to the necessary rhythms after having a rather phenomenal year of running and adventure.

Sunday’s are when the Mindful Runners meet. Where we go and how far we run vary depending on the weather and time of year. It’s often a pace where everyone stays together, we enjoy each other’s company, and relish in the experience of where we are. I hadn’t run with this group for more than 2 months, since before leaving for Africa and missed running with them. Today I decided to stretch a little bit, run a little farther to see how my legs were doing, and catch up.

The run for today was a trail running up to the Flagstaff amphitheater from the backside off Boulder Canyon. It’s up all the way there and then a pleasant return downhill. I started off slow letting my body, my legs and Achilles warm up. About halfway up I suddenly that the realization of how slow I was actually moving and how humbling this experience was. Over the summer I’d run this hill several times and felt strong. The experience today was quite different – it was one of knowing the deep reservoirs held inside, but ones that hadn’t been used in weeks. It was one of feeling my experience more deeply, sinking into the feeling of just being out and just running. And it was one of humility. While I certainly would have loved to have run faster, I enjoyed the humility and the slowness to take in the Boulder mountains deeply.

As I start running again, I imagine this feeling of humility will arise again so I run my favorite trails, but with a different idea in mind. For that, I’ll just enjoy the run!

Roof of Africa Run - Stage 4

Stage 4 - The Farms

To Simba Farm

38km / 23mi – 3500 feet vertical, 6:45

This morning as we awoke we could already hear kids coming to school – it was before 7. Soon enough they were all assembled, doing warm up exercises – including head, shoulders, knees, and toes in Swahili and English. And then they were off in groups for a morning run chanting and smiling. Another of the amazing experiences we witnessed this trip.

For us, the first few miles we warmed up on a gravel road continuing around the northern part of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Simon seemed to believe today would be a shorter day and so we took our time for the early part of the day. After those early miles on the gravel road, we began an ascent into and through farm fields. That’s what we would see the rest of the day – farm fields. Today we would run through and along four very large (multi-thousand acre) farms. The warmth we experienced early on seemed to dissipate both as we climbed in elevation and light clouds covered the sky. After yesterday’s heat, I found today’s coolness refreshing and really woke me up.

For the most part of this trip we were pretty isolated from what was happening in the rest of the world. There were no TVs that we passed anywhere, or newspapers of any kind of scan. The Tanzanians had cell phones, but nothing like the smartphones commonly seen in the US. A few of us had phones, but mostly they were used to send short text messages since air time was relatively expensive. Andrew, though, had his phone going almost continuously as he communicated with his camera crews who were preparing for other assignments. It was at one of our water stops today that we received just a few bits of news. We heard two headlines – Armstrong stripped of his titles by the UCI, and Obama pummels Romney in the second presidential debate. On the second bit of news, we were a small cheer thousands of miles away from the action. Both made for a few bits of conversation as we headed down the trail.

After the slow morning, Simon realized this day was going to be a bit longer than he had thought, so we began picking up the pace a little bit and keeping stops shorter. We still had plenty of daylight left – in fact I don’t think any of us were worried. By now we had come to accept that the day could be long or short – all we had to do was keep moving and enjoy ourselves.

One of my favorites trails of the whole run was on this day. After we had peaked at around 7000 feet we began a slow descent along tractor trails along the fields. Soon enough we were on the acreage of Simba Farm. At this point we began what I think was a 15-20 minute descent on the smoothest, windiest, downhill of the whole route. If you like mountain biking this would be awesome. On foot, I felt just as awesome flying downhill, planting my feet in the corner berms, and riding the wave of fun all the way down. It was steep enough to be effortless, but not so steep that using the quads to brake was needed. What a blast!

Today was also the day my body decided to wake up! Having done many multi-day events before, I know it usually takes my body 3 days to warm up. And it was warmed up now. Halfway through this day my body changed gears and suddenly I had new energy and a smoother gait. I just motored along the second half of the day.

After our 23 miles of farm land and rolling terrains we arrived at Simba Farm where we would be treated to beds and hot showers, not to mention the beautiful grounds and amazing views of Mt. Meru across the valley. The dining table was outside under a canopied roof looking over the same green grass, plentiful flowers, and grace of Mt. Meru.

We ended the day with another amazing dinner family style, this time with some other guests at the Farm, including a couple from Vancouver who would be heading to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro the next day. At this point we were halfway done and it seemed we were all feeling pretty good!

Roof of Africa Run - Stage 3

Day 3 – The Easy Day

32km/20mi, 1200 feet of climbing (2400 feet descending), 4:45

This was another day of complete contrast the first two. Today we would run around the northern part of the flanks of Kilimanjaro. In the morning we ran through some pines forests. Pine is not a native tree, but they grow it here and harvest it. It felt completely odd to be running on a bed of pine needles in Africa!

For most of the day we would run on dirt roads. We passed through many Masai villages, we saw many farms and the people working their farms. Today would be the day we would run past and through many small herds of cows or sheep being herded down the road – either to market, or back home, or to another feeding area. Today we would see the most evidence of the water situation here, especially at lower elevation (I think we ended at about 4500 feet). All day we would see people, mostly women, walking to town with their plastic buckets to get water. In the towns we would see the well and all the people there waiting to fill their buckets to head home again.

Today would be the hottest day, and I really felt it, especially with no shade for most of the day. After about three and a half hours of running, we stopped for our snack/lunch break. I could feel the heat and knew I needed to keep moving – so I went on ahead with Sigfrid. After two long days I hadn’t fully recovered yet and so my pace was slow, but I could keep moving. I figured we had anywhere from an hour to two hours left of running before reaching camp, so for me this was a case of mind over matter. I just kept moving – when I stopped I would start to get light-headed. I knew I wasn’t dehydrated or slow to heat stroke, but I was definitely overheating. I’m still amazed as what the human body can go – with or without willpower.

After I finished, I drank a ton of water and kept taking in electrolytes. I pulled out my watch from my bag which showed a temperature of 90 degrees – thank goodness we were finished. As I lay in the tent for the next 3 or 4 hours I tried to keep myself cool and positioned in the breeze that was blowing. By the peak of the afternoon heat my watched showed 99 degrees in the shade. So much for all the wool clothes I had brought!

This night would be spent on the grounds of a school. We had arrived in the early afternoon and we were treated to watching the kids line up after school. They would sing the national anthem and do some exercises before heading home. It was truly an honor to be witness to this experience.

From the school we could see a long ways – towards the northern plains and Mount Meru, and of course an amazing view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. This was one of the best places to see where electrical was and wasn’t. Once it turned dark, there were very, very few lights anywhere within our view.

Despite how rough I felt during the latter part of the run, and how long it took me to recover, I still feel completely amazed to be here. I felt a lot of gratitude for the run, the people, and all the experiences that have brought me here. I realize I’m probably repeating myself already – but this truly is an amazing place and an amazing run.