Hope Runs by Claire Diaz-Ortiz

Author:Claire Diaz-Ortiz [Diaz-Ortiz, Claire and Samuel Ikua Gachagua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO018000, BIO026000
ISBN: 9781441245311
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Malawi (the room) is not good to me and Lara that night, and when we wake up at five the next morning, we have barely slept. Although getting up is miserable, staying any longer on the dirty bed we share seems even more unappealing. Pulling on our running gear (I am wearing Lara’s old biker shorts and an oversized Hope Runs T-shirt) and then piling warm clothes on top of that, we attempt to look like energetic coaches. After requisite door pounding, the teens, emerging in pairs from their particular abodes of Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Chad, vacillate between rowdy excitement and mute anxiety. Lara and I share their feelings. We are all nervous and afraid of what’s ahead.

After twenty minutes of milling around, we load into the two vans to head toward the race, and the struggling heaters do little to diminish the cold of the central highlands. I am reminded again of how distrustful I had been of the Kenyans when they told me it would get cold in June. Cold? In Africa? This obvious impossibility had left me laughing in the heat of March. Now, sitting in the front seat of the first van, passing out bananas and biscuits, I feel it.

The vans soon turn out of the main town of Nanyuki, and we drive on empty roads for an hour before turning into the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, where the race is taking place. The Lewa Marathon is famous the world over for being the only marathon of its kind held on a game reserve. It’s also considered a challenge at an altitude of nearly a mile. Dirt roads are surrounded by wild, waist-high brown brush that stretches to the horizon. Occasional acacia trees dot the landscape. The teens stare out the windows, trying to spot animals, as we all listen to Kenyan radio’s Sunday morning evangelical programming.

As we come closer to the race grounds, we begin to see throngs of Africans, entire families who had been walking since the dark middle of the night to reach the race site expo in time for the start. It is a huge business day for these sellers of small goods, crafts, food, and water, and these entrepreneurs will not be missing it. The occasional African runner, decked out entirely in a Dri-Fit sports suit, jogs along the road, warming up.

“That one is very smart,” Mwaniki says, admiring an outfit. And then, “Is there more biscuit?”

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