Kilimanjaro Marathon

Friday and Saturday

I landed at Kilimanjaro Airport at 9:30 after less than 4 hours in the air and 5 hours at airports. I booked a taxi and went straight to my hotel, where I checked in and unpacked. The two days before the marathon was all about rest and drink water, so I went to the supermarket and bought a case (12 bottles) containing 18 litre of water. I strolled the town and got convinced to buy some souvenir for 8000 schilling when he wanted 30 000 to start with (I didn’t have more than 8000!).

I used Friday and Saturday well, very well. Everything went perfect. The first night I got about 12 hours sleep, which was the most important night (two nights before the race). I also met some Norwegian sport volunteers here in Moshi. It was really cool to talk to them. And on Saturday when I registered I met some Germans, we started chatting and the guy had done several marathons before, he was fit and had even the same Suunto Ambit watch as me. When I told him I was aiming for 3h30min he doubted and said he couldn’t run that fast in New York in November, and in this heat and in the hills here it would be “impossible” for a first-timer. He had planned to run the full marathon, but after he noticed how warm it was here, he changed it to half-marathon.

The night before the marathon I got very little sleep, but I wasn’t worried. I got up at 3:40 to eat breakfast (oats, milk, raisins and banana) before eating a banana at 4:40. The next hour I did some mental training. I’ve read a book called “Face your fear and do it anyway” which explains a lot about positive self-talk, and I used that in the morning (and during the race). At 5:45 I jogged/walked to Moshi Stadium. Warmed up for about 20-30 minutes and stood on the starting line.

The Kilimanjaro Marathon, 42.195 km
At 6:30 AM the gun went off and everyone sprinted out the stadium, hundreds of people ran past me, and I looked at my heart rate monitor and saw we ran at a pace of 3:30-3:45 min pr km. Way too fast. So I chilled and let them pass. After 2 km I started outrun one after another. I kept a brilliant pace and didn’t worry about people sprinting past me, because I caught up with them sooner or later.

There were a lot of local people on the side of the roads, and they cheered for me, I smiled and applauded them back, which made them cheer even more. I smiled a lot on the first 20 km and that was much because of the awesome crowd. I had also written my name on my front and back of my shirt, so people were saying “Come on Ruben”, “Well done Ruben”, “Keep it going Ruben” which encouraged me a lot. Brilliant tip from some of my former PT-clients in the UK. At the turning point (almost 11km) I noticed that I didn't have any white people in front of me, and that gave me more motivation as well! I saw Norwegians running behind me and we encouraged each other (“Heia Norge!”)

At 10 km I looked at my watch and I had ran for 39 minutes (in May I ran a 10 km in just under 40 min, and now I had a faster pace and still had 32.2 km to go! I must have done a lot of things right the past month!). At the 20 km mark it had been 1 hour and 20 minutes since we started! I was flying and felt good! But then  the hills came, and I hit "the wall". It was tough, but I was prepared for it, and just had to slow my pace for a while. So I slowed down, to about 5:30-6 min per km. It was still an OK pace. At about 24-25 km a white guy ran past me, I tried to keep up, but I just couldn’t do it, my goal before the run was to be the best non-African runner, but there he ran away. The people on the roads disappeared and it was tough, but according to the route description it would start to be flat at the 28-29 km mark, so I kept going. At the water station on the top there was a guy drinking beer while holding out a cup of water, and I went for the beer. He laughed but didn’t give me his can. Instead I kept going, and downhill I increased the pace to about 4 min 30sec per km. I was catching up with a lot of people who ran the half marathon and they were shouting: “Well done Ruben!” I loved it. The last 10 km I looked at my watch and saw that I could do this really well, but I almost hyper ventilated when I thought about running in less than 3 hours 30 min. I kept going, and at 1 km left I ran and passed more people from the full marathon.

At all the water stations I poured one cup of water over my neck, and drank one, but about 25km into the run I noticed I had gotten a lot of blisters around my waist, after the rubbing of my underwear/basketball shorts, so it sting like hell when I poured water on myself, but before every station I tend to forget those things. What was funny as well was that I always increased speed through the water stations. I don’t know why, maybe I was concerned about losing time, or maybe it was the music/cheering/people? I don’t know.

At the stadium, which was packed with people we came in and ran the last 100-150m there, I gave everything, I ran absolute the fastest I’ve run for a long time. My watch says 25km/h and I have to tell you, the roar and excitement from the crowd was priceless. They were ecstatic when I past 3 half-marathon runners and one full-marathon runner on the last 100 meters. It was an incredible feeling, but, wow, I was tired when I went to the grass on the field. I looked at my watch, and my unofficial time is 3 hours 8 minutes and 29 seconds, other details are: 42.5 km, average speed: 13.5km (fastest: 25.7km), average of 4 min 26 sec per km, decent: 480m (ascent: the same), heart rate: average: 143, max 156, kcal burned: 2236, recovery time: 71 hours.

I was ruined, my legs didn’t work, and after sitting on the grass for a bit I got up like an old man. I could barely walk. I spent some time drinking water and reflect on the run. My first marathon ever and I did it very well. My medal will be around my neck for a few days now J

I’m back at the hotel, waiting for a towel so I can shower and rest, rest, rest and rest!

Thanks for reading!

Pictures will hopefully come