A Tale of Two Sides of the River
On Wednesday night we arrived late in Cairo with the hope of finding somewhere to complete our 26 miles, whether it would be around a track, on a treadmill or on the streets! Unfortunately after asking several guides and searching the streets of Cairo for help, not to mention the endless emails that were sent out from home to any contact that was found on the internet that looked as though it might be helpful, we were unable to find a measured route for the marathon. We visited a couple of athletics tracks but were denied entry regardless of how much money we offered as the owners insisted that we had to be members. Eventually we decided that the best place to try and complete our 26.2 miles would be alongside the river Nile. We planned to run 13 miles away from our hotel and then turn back and complete the second half of the race!
At 6am on Saturday morning we set off from the hotel and began our second marathon. The first 15 minutes were fine, a nice steady pace and then I unfortunately started to feel unwell (not sure whether it was something I ate or the bottled water that I bought). However, we continued on. The further we ran the dirtier the streets became. There were more people shouting at us in Arabic (it didn’t sound very friendly), excrement on the streets, fallen and unfinished buildings, wild dogs becoming more aggressive and the whole atmosphere became a great deal more intimidating. At six miles in I began to feel really quite ill and we turned to run back to where we started and picked up the pace a little to get out of there!
We got back to the hotel, covering roughly half the marathon distance and Chris and I both used this opportunity to avail ourselves of the facilities. At this stage I was throwing up and also suffering from diarrhoea and the question of whether to carry on or not crossed my mind. After battling with my thoughts I picked myself up to continue and myself and Chris, both now very dehydrated, continued the run.
This time we crossed the bridge over the river and made our way down the other side. This immediately seemed a lot safer and cleaner compared to right hand side. We managed to dodge our way through busy traffic and ran for roughly another 45 minutes before turning around and heading back again. On this last bit back, dehydration was really making me feel dizzy but I was fortunate to have Chris encouraging me through.
Looking back at the whole Egyptian experience, it was pretty tough, gruelling and definitely challenging and far from the picturesque setting of Patagonia
Well I’m back home now for one day, before heading onto the plane for a 27 hour flight to New Zealand via Singapore. I have to say the flight to New Zealand seems a bit daunting but can’t wait to start the next race and adventure!
Speak to you soon.
Cheers Tim
On Wednesday night we arrived late in Cairo with the hope of finding somewhere to complete our 26 miles, whether it would be around a track, on a treadmill or on the streets! Unfortunately after asking several guides and searching the streets of Cairo for help, not to mention the endless emails that were sent out from home to any contact that was found on the internet that looked as though it might be helpful, we were unable to find a measured route for the marathon. We visited a couple of athletics tracks but were denied entry regardless of how much money we offered as the owners insisted that we had to be members. Eventually we decided that the best place to try and complete our 26.2 miles would be alongside the river Nile. We planned to run 13 miles away from our hotel and then turn back and complete the second half of the race!
At 6am on Saturday morning we set off from the hotel and began our second marathon. The first 15 minutes were fine, a nice steady pace and then I unfortunately started to feel unwell (not sure whether it was something I ate or the bottled water that I bought). However, we continued on. The further we ran the dirtier the streets became. There were more people shouting at us in Arabic (it didn’t sound very friendly), excrement on the streets, fallen and unfinished buildings, wild dogs becoming more aggressive and the whole atmosphere became a great deal more intimidating. At six miles in I began to feel really quite ill and we turned to run back to where we started and picked up the pace a little to get out of there!
We got back to the hotel, covering roughly half the marathon distance and Chris and I both used this opportunity to avail ourselves of the facilities. At this stage I was throwing up and also suffering from diarrhoea and the question of whether to carry on or not crossed my mind. After battling with my thoughts I picked myself up to continue and myself and Chris, both now very dehydrated, continued the run.
This time we crossed the bridge over the river and made our way down the other side. This immediately seemed a lot safer and cleaner compared to right hand side. We managed to dodge our way through busy traffic and ran for roughly another 45 minutes before turning around and heading back again. On this last bit back, dehydration was really making me feel dizzy but I was fortunate to have Chris encouraging me through.
Looking back at the whole Egyptian experience, it was pretty tough, gruelling and definitely challenging and far from the picturesque setting of Patagonia
Well I’m back home now for one day, before heading onto the plane for a 27 hour flight to New Zealand via Singapore. I have to say the flight to New Zealand seems a bit daunting but can’t wait to start the next race and adventure!
Speak to you soon.
Cheers Tim
3 Comments:
Good luck in New Zeland,Honey. You've shown enormious guts (and spilt yours aswell )! We're all behind you for the next leg of your challange.
Lotsaluv , Manda.
Have a good one in new zealand. Hope you recover after Egypt as you looked pretty rough. Well done keep on running. great pictures - your both doing great
God Bless
Peter Ferenczy
Sorry to hear about ur sickness, cant imagine me running anywhere feeling like that, i also think its a little rude of them not letting you use the running track!!! DId u tell them you were famous?!?!!?
gd luck in New Zealand hun you'll be gr8
lucy and bex
xx
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