Charles Mutebi
23 November 2008
opinion
Kampala — IT was the MTN marathon. A race that was as grand as it was colourful.
One just had to look at the sea of yellow streaming onto Jinja road at the beginning of the race to understand this.
And even though the runners were briefly swallowed up in a yellow human-scape, their identities became pronounced as gaps gradually emerged between them.
The elite athletes who were in the marathon to win the respective categories soon broke off, leaving behind their not so elite counterparts to make the real stories of the day. And what stories they were!
From runners walking 2 minutes into the race to others collapsing not so long after, from the elderly outpacing their much younger rivals (with legs shaking and tongues out) to runners who had been walking three quarters of the way only to sprint faster than Usain Bolt to the finish line the race had it all.
It had the black and the white, the slim and those who would come to wish they were slim, those who decided against the fear of pulling out at the last minute and those who suddenly developed last-minute injuries and pulled out.
It had much more but, as the organisers had planned, it had fun.
So much fun that even though it was so big, it will only get bigger with every passing edition. Even those who were up early to attend to other engagements could not escape the reach of the marathon as their cars were stopped in honour of the runners every time they approached.
Speaking of which, a word of honour is deserving for all the runners who fell unconscious on the track yesterday.
Thanks to them, everyone was reminded that it doesn't "hurt" to prepare, even if it's merely to 'run for fun'.
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