The 2010 Marathon

I have no particular reason why I entered the thing in the first place. Oh I remember, I read that the winner would be rewarded with 1000 dollars. I calculated that At an investment of 90 dollars as the sign on fee I’d make a profit of 900 dollars. Yes, I’m that dumb.

This was Feb 2010 and I had just paid membership fees at the downtown Eau Claire YMCA gym at a subsidized fee for people with low incomes. All they required was a bank statement and a pay stub to show that one worked and that they earned below the average pay check in the province that is 21 dollars per hour.


So after paying for three months the question arose as to what would motivate me to come everyday to the gym, normally payment was enough motivation as the fee I had paid even after subsidizing is still disturbing in itself.
So I listed for the marathon such that I’d use the membership to the gym productively. The 1000 dollars prize therefore became secondary incentive for I knew to win the thing I needed to be without a job and concentrate exclusively on training.

I started training in Feb, running on average 25 km four times a week and by the start of May the body had got sick. The knees were hurting and I walked about with a rattle and a wobble. I irritated even myself a lot.
From Feb through to April I run in along the riverbanks of the Bow river in downtown Calgary starting at Eau Claire and running all the way to Canada Olympic park in the northwest and back to Eau Claire. This would take an average of three hours and 30 k. In the gym I stretched out, looked/ stared at the belles doing their work outs and chatted with Jesus Fikr a friend I met there who originally came from Eriteria.


He worked in the gym and occasionally gave me hints on developing strength in the hips and legs such that I could build endurance in the run. Fikr is also an ardent soccer fan and he supports Chelsea. We talked a lot about sport and women. Most times I looked forward going to the gym just to chat with Fikr.

But the marathon was too overwhelming. The thought of running 42.2km in two hours and a half-which was my initial target made my stomach cringe.

I used to be an athlete in Kako Secondary School from 1997 to 1998 and even qualified for the All Africa post-primary Championships in Abuja Nigeria 1997. I had also competed and won in the Buganda King’s birthday athletics meet held in MAsaka in 1997 in the 10000 metres slot as well as running in the Uganda national athletics championships held in Jinja in 1997.

Come marathon race day with the right knee in pain but generally feeling fit I went to bed at 1 am after drinking two beers, a late night walk and general procrastination involving mostly reading soccernet.com stories.

These are absolutely wrong things to do while preparing for the longest run of your life. First according to the greatest runner of all time Haile Gabre Selassie one needs to train for a maximum of three hours, run on average 30 k and then eat healthy foods. On race one need to get to bed early, say if you are running on Sunday, Saturday must be set aside for rest and if possible massage. And the meal prior to the race must be eaten two hours before the race starts.


I was up at 4am took a shower and Mike my housemate drove me to the starting line at Bridgeland and Memorial just next to the city train stop. For my breakfast I drank a bottle of powerade cake, banana and two sausages. It was bad as I had to endure four toilet stops during the race and it reduced my time almost 15 minutes.

At the start line I met Doug Driedger a fellow with whom I go Bethel Baptist Church. Driedger is 52 and a graphics designer in some big company in the city, we had not spoken with him before that meeting other than the usual after service chit chats. But He is a seasoned runner. He has already done three marathons on top of the mother of them all, the Boston marathon. I think he was diagnosed with some disease a few years back and as a result he decided to dedicate his body and free time in raising awareness to the disease.

Doug was to be indeed helpful.

He set the starting pace early in the race and gave me some insights on strategy, all I knew was that I was going to need to run 2hours non stop at a pace of four minutes per kilometer and after I’d need some divine intervention to complete the remaining time and distance to reach the finish line.

We started out with Doug and when he stopped for water a sped past and never run with him again. He over took me towards the end of the race when I had outrun my body, my wits and perseverance. I was at the time relying on divine power. Doug beat me by 6 minutes.

I had on my Nokia phone working as an mp3 player. The music paying on it was what I had used during training. A 2005 collection of reggae as well as a 1990s hip hop mixtape. Those two would lift me up for two hours and twenty minutes. After that I had some songs of Damien Marley, Israel Vibration, Rex Mundi, Tupac, Sizzla, Eagles, Cocoa T, Richie Spice, Wyclef Jean and Bob Marley.

I started powerfully and kept to the four minute pace up to the one and a half hours mark by which time I had run almost 26 kilometres.
But that is even going to far.