Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The team brushes off 30 miles ...

Dear Friends,

Nigel's access to Internet for blog postings remains inconsistent, so while he's away, we'll bring you updates from the entire team by way of the RAE "Daily Updates." We'll also bring you bits from Nigel's Facebook postings.
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Tuesday January 11th, 2011     DAY THREE
RAE Daily Update; posted by Bill Palladino, Executive Director of On The Ground
 
While we've boasted that the team will average a marathon a day for 12 days, the truth of that is a bit more daunting than a catchy phrase.  Today, the group put in just over 30 miles. For many of them it was the longest single day run they'd ever accomplished.  Only 9 more to go!  This is a reminder that these people have set off to take on a real challenge.  This is not a stroll in the park for any of them.  Reports back suggest very high moral and a team ethic that is encouraging each member to take on some kind of leadership role each day.  We also here that many of the runners are dealing with the expected aches, pains, cramps, and blisters of any endurance athlete.  As of yet, there have been no cries of "uncle", or even hints that any runner won't complete the journey.

Dan and MaryWe are so grateful for the presence of Dan Zemper.  He showed up as the last team member, only knowing three of the others prior to getting on his 26 hour plane ride.  He's a hero in my eyes because I don't know what they would've done without his steady hand and experienced coaching.  This picture shows him tending to Mary's blisters, a simple but incredibly important skill.

I am also grateful for the second to last joiner on the team, journalist Anne Stanton.  Her blog posts have been the cornerstone of our reporting back home.  She has given us all a glimpse of what it's like to be a wide-eyed midwesterner dumped into an alien place.  Here are a couple short excerpts from Anne's posts this week.  The first is from Monday.


On this trip,  I often find myself looking around and seeing things I haven't seen before; each sight is new-- an adventure, a leap into hope. The school we visited has no running water, and the windows are cut out squares in the building. Two small rooms. The crayons are little stubs, and there is just a shelf full of books.

There are so many kids, about 7 of them, and they draw right on the concrete porch, which gives their art a bit of a serrated look. The bathroom is the kind they call a 'shit pit,' where you position your feet on either side of the hole, and, um, squat and pee. The door is corrugated metal. The kids are expected to learn three languages in their little lives--Amharic, the local language, and English. And I mean, they are REALLY expected to learn them because they can't funciton without the first two, and have to know English for secondary school. Seth and May were a huge hit with the kids. I talked to Chris Treter later about the less than wonderful physical aspects of the school, and he told me that it was better than what you'd see in coffee country further south. 'To me it's a human rights issue.'


This excerpt is from Tuesday.
Today, the team ran 28 miles (amazing), and I ran six (four, then one, then one), and it was hotter than hell. Poor Claire wasn't feeling well at all and STILL ran 28 miles. As we were running out of town, this little guy in a school uniform broke away from his friends and ran with us, smiling and laughing--he was running fast, and just as I was getting worried about him, he ran up the driveway to his school. It was like that the whole run, little guys joining us, some even barefoot.
 
A "runner's bus" follows the runners, and stops every 30 minutes with water, and every hour with some kind of sustenance. Even so, two of the runners "bonked" because they didn't eat enough food. Every day, there's a kind of recap meeting where we discuss what went right and wrong, and everyone unanimously agreed we need an earlier start because of the heat. I volunteered to help make pbj sandwiches in the morning (I start at 5:15 a.m.) Of course, time really doesn't have any great meaning in my book since I am totally screwed up anyway; just today I'm finally getting my bearings as far as the clock goes (we are 8 hours ahead of EDT in the US).

There were times today when I was the only white person on the bus with eight of the Ethiopians, who were rocking out with the Ethiopian music and chatting, chatting. The runners, of course, are rock hard. Two of the Ethiopian women went ahead of the group (probably frustrated with the pace), and ran all the way into town at which point another Ethiopian had to come and find them. They were kind of "timed-out" today on the bus but will run again tomorrow. Will close with this scene. We finished the run, and were walking to cool down, and we were at this beautiful farm where they harvest tef, and eight or so bulls were tethered together, minded by an 8 year old. A younger man with a pitchfork posed for pictures. (I'll be sure to post some when I get back.) Anyway, I look over and there's this man with a whip standing on the road, kind of whipping the air. Snap. WEIRD. I miss you all and will try to write again tomorrow.


Timothy, as team leader, has the unenviable job of getting the team up and rolling very early each morning.  Here's a quick update from him before Tuesday morning's run.

On quiet cool morning in Mojo our team gathered outside to share a meal PB&J, hard boiled eggs, pineapple and bananas. With only four mugs, coffee was chugged in or to give the next teammate a turn. At 5:30 in the morning it was a bit earlier than most of our bodies wanted to be up, but all were appreciative of the runners that arose and hour  earlier to get the meal ready for the road weary. The goal was to get on the road even earlier this time. Mission accomplished. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise over the Rift Valley as Coach Dan and Manush, our Ethiopian nurse, tended to some blisters before the team headed off on day three of this adventure.

And after the run Timothy sent a few more words. 
The runners rocked it out today. In order to know some miles off a 59 km day tomorrow, they all agreed to run 56 km today. They are really gutting it out and moral is high. I've gotta run to greet them and them to their rooms. We're hitting the part of the run where showers and electricity are not assured, but a soft bed we can provide.

Nigel Willerton is our team member based in Houston, Texas.  He seems to always have a bright disposition.  He's been writing a blog of his own during the trip but, like the rest of the crew, has run into technology issues.

Run Across Ethiopia - Run Day 3 - Today we ran 30 miles from Koken to Meki in 6 hours 23 minutes. This gives us a total mileage of 78 miles in 15 hours 36 mins. First time I have run 30 miles straight in my life so I am having a St George beer to celebrate :-)   
I am having to give up on my blog through terrible internet access so I will stick to Facebook for my updates on Run Across Ethiopia . We are three days and 127KM of the 400KM down. Just check out this young man with his engine on his donkey who came over to see us off at 7.00am this morning...
 
One of the team seemingly moved most by the experience in Ethiopia is filmmaker Jamaica Weston Lynne.  I've enjoyed her baring her heart for us. 

As we now have  been on Ethiopian time for 1 week, I think I'm starting to acclimate. The time is not only different in terms of numbers, but the reality of it as well. Starting with the sun, hour 1 is 6 am and when the sun goes down, 6 pm, it is 12. Makes sense because it is correlated naturally with the earth. There are also 2 new years, 13 months, and it is 2003, which I haven't figured out yet since I don't feel any younger. The reality of time is also very different from the U.S. Chris said it perfectly, "We called for 2 buses and got 3 buses an hour late." You never really know what you are in for or what will come or how long it will take, but then again, isn't that life. No matter how much our culture is always pushing forward the inevitability of life creeps in, an usually when we don't want it to. This culture is teaching me to go with the flow and just be, here, in this moment and the connections with people around you at that moment are what matters most. Everyone here is so beautiful and interested in close relationships and having a good time. I love to see the men on the street holding hands and talking with just love and friendship. This culture is really impacting how I view life and learn to take it easy, go with it and see what comes of it. We knew before we came that we couldn't specifically plan out the documentary, and that really was getting to me. Now, even if we had planned, it would probably wouldn't have mattered. It is now coming to life right before our eyes, and that is an experience I'm glad I didn't see coming, so I breathe in saying yes to life and, in this country, a short breath in also means yes.  

 
Lastly I'll toss in this piece about Seth & May. Why, you might ask, would we send two musicians on a running expedition designed to raise money for schools?  From the moment they arrived in Ethiopia, this incredibly gifted couple proved to everybody the power of music to connect people despite culture and language challenges.  Everywhere they've gone Seth and May have opened doors for the team and left people laughing, smiling, and dancing in their wake.  Seth, May, Ethiopian musicians
Over the past couple days Seth & May, along with the film crew, went back up to Addis Ababa to catch up with some world class Ethiopian musicians.  Henock Temesgen started a jazz school in Addis Ababa, and that's where our musicians settled in.  Henock is renown for being one of the first Ethiopian musicians to graduate from the prestigious Berklee School of Music.

We expect to have some video of their sessions soon.

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