Running in Ethiopia – ‘Jamming’ with Knox Robinson (Day 3)
Saturday morning. We spent a couple hours down at the track, observing multiple groups completing a variety of sessions. Distance groups pumping out 1000m reps, groups of sprinters doing drills. There were also some groups running on the dirt road which circles around the field adjacent to the track, one kilometre per lap. These athletes run here because they don’t have to pay to do so; use of the track costs 100 birr (~US$3.80) for local athletes and 300 birr for foreigners.
Nutty had decided to change his session today, instead of running 10 x 1000m he paced a friend who was trying to run times set by schools in the US in order to apply for scholarships there. He would follow this with an easy run with me. I met Papio, one of Nutty’s friends who is a bit older.
As we watched the pair running and 800m followed by 400m, I got chatting to Papio about life here. He is an amateur runner who has to work to get by, working as a handyman at a large office building in Addis. He has struggled financially and has only recently moved into a permanent structure as his house, previously residing in a temporary dwelling. Papio had run some decent times for the half marathon, but said he wanted to train to compete in marathons. However, he wouldn’t be able to step up his training until he resolved his lack of finances: he couldn’t currently afford to eat the requisite amount for training for the full marathon.
Discussing this with Papio reinforced how tough life can be here, and what an amazing vehicle running is for breaking the cycle of poverty into which so many people are born. The fact that the cost of feeding oneself could be a limiting factor that determines which event one can train for came as a bit of a shock to me.
Nutty finished his pacing, he came over and joined Papio and I. We left the track and went for an easy run through the forest, taking what seemed like the most circuitous route possible; zig zagging, hurdling fallen branches, running figure eights around trees. Finally coming to a trail only to go straight across it and into more uncharted forest. It was frustrating as I could never open up and get into a good stride, constantly changing direction. For a while I thought Papio might be taking the piss with this run. One hour of this scrambling between trees, barely breaking 6:00/km had me wondering why I had agreed to join.
Hadgu dispelled my suspicions when we saw him in the afternoon, he said this was the archetypal easy forest run for runners in this area. Ethiopian great Gebrselassie was known to go off for such runs for many hours at a time. It makes sense, it’s a perfect way to get used to spending long hours on the legs and elevate the heart rate, activating many stabilising muscles in the legs without the immense impact of a comparable road run.
We had been put in contact with Hadgu by Knox Robinson, coach of the Black Roses NYC running crew. Knox had been a guest on the Sweat Elite podcast a few months prior. As luck would have it he was coming to town for a few weeks which coincide with our stay. We hung out with Hadgu in the garden awaiting his arrival.
Knox arrived with his friend Jeggie and we got straight into a run, Hadgu guiding us down to a valley which is below the fields where the athletes do their speed work. The landscape was amazing, with the valley floor stretching into the distance before us. Knox was fresh off the plane the day before. The miles and the conversation flowed at a comfortable pace. For anyone who has listened to the podcast episode (highly recommended), they will be able to picture the cadence of the conversation, drifting between topics as eclectic as the Mexican dominance of the roads in the mid 1990s (Knox had just come from Mexico) to the merits of simplicity in training. ‘Jamming’ as Knox likes to say.
With the conversation staying interesting, the terrain constantly becoming more and more beautiful, and a very helpful tailwind hitting our backs, we got a little carried away. Before we knew it, we had run quite a significant distance out into the valley. We began to make our way back. A headwind, a light climb back up to town, and accumulating miles and fatigue from travel culminating in a markedly slower pace. Passing through small hamlets and weaving through small herds of cattle with friendly shepherds greeting us, we made our way back to Sululta. A 25km run leaving us craving a sugar hit and keen to put the legs up. Good running, good people, new experiences, what a day!
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