Running in Ethiopia – Savage XC Race in Addis Ababa (Day 11)
In the afternoon following the session with the Dibabas we headed over to Addis to spend time with the Greek athletes training with Bekele’s coach – Mersha. They had entered a cross country race for the following day, a meet that apparently serves as a warm-up for the Jan Meda International Cross Country race, which also doubles as the Ethiopian National Championships and a trial for the IAAF World Championships. The race takes place in Jan Meda park in Addis Ababa and will be held in roughly one month. With previous winners including Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and Derartu Tulu, this is a fiercely competitive race with exceptional prestige endowed upon the winner.
We walked the short distance from their apartment to Jan Meda. The entrance to the park is a small gate, outside is a crowd of women selling peanuts, coke and chunks of sugar cane (a popular snack here). Roughly 1.5km by 500m, the dusty expanse of Jan Meda is one of very few open public spaces amidst the chaotic streets of Addis. It serves many purposes, and offers some respite from the anarchy of the surrounding traffic.
Giorgos and Mateusz did some strides and drills in their racing shoes, testing them out on the uneven surface of the course they were set to suffer on the following morning. Constantly adjusting their lines according to the movement of the five different soccer matches going on around us, the guys finished up as the sun was setting. With families out walking and enjoying the sunset, equestrian being practiced next to the stables at one end of the park, and boys walking around touting samosas, it’s hard to picture the spectacle set to unfold the following morning.
Mersha arrived at 8am (2am Ethiopian time) and we all made our way to Jan Meda. A good portion of Mersha’s athletes were toeing the line today, but he looked at ease as usual. The athletes all have a clear reverence for the man, who has decades of experience behind him. He explained that competition today would be fierce, as most of the top athletes in the area were trying to prove themselves prior to the championship. We entered the park, squinting through the bright rays of sun (which is quite aggressive at this altitude) we were welcomed by the sight of a sea of tracksuit clad Ethiopians completing drills and strides.
Mersha’s athletes were all competing in the open men’s 10km race, which was the final race of the day. We asked many people and struggled to make sense of the program for the day. Eventually we deciphered that the order of events was a 6km U20 women’s race, 8km U20 men’s, 8km open women’s combined with male master’s, and finally the open men’s race to finish. The course was undulating, zig-zagging across the dusty and uneven ground of the park to form a circuit that was slightly shorter than 2km. Each race started when the final athlete of the previous race exited to the finishing chute following their final lap.
The pace of the early races was hot. We were situated towards the end of the circuit, close to a tight corner that the packs of runners had to navigate whilst simultaneously dropping down a 2ft ledge. In each race there would be several runners who would set out at a blazing pace – seemingly only to see how long they could run at the pace of the eventual winner – before dropping out prior to covering even half the distance of the race.
As the open women’s race was being run a veritable horde of men were crisscrossing the warm-up zone, there was a nervous tension among their ranks. The men congregated along the bunting that demarcated the course, anxiously waiting for the final masters athletes to pass. These athletes, as well as the women who were straggling at the back of their race, were well behind the winner who had crossed the line a good ten to fifteen minutes beforehand. The crowd of locals gathered to watch the races gave them a standing ovation as they were finishing.
The fervour of the men was palpable, and they started streaming under the bunting as soon as the final masters athlete passed. They were so eager that they almost collided with the poor old man as he was passing the final 10-20m of gathered athletes. The crowd of roughly two hundred toed the line. Some gave a cry as they stamped their feet on the start line, jostling for prime position as the race marshals traversed before the athletes and corrected the positioning of those that were too eager and were in front of the line.
As the final marshal finished pushing the athletes back behind the line, the referee dropped his flag. The men flew past, desperately battling for position as the pack formed. The racing was quite rough and plenty of limbs entangled as they began to thin out over the course of the first lap. A lead group of eight was well established by the time they were finishing the third lap and passing the 6km mark. As they circled past again I thought the finish was imminent as the lead two athletes picked up the pace even more, however I soon realised they were ramping up for a blazing final two kilometres.
By the time the leaders had circled around again one athlete had opened a twenty metre gap that he clearly considered very safe, as he high fived mates and began to raise his hands with over 400m remaining. He peeled off into the finishing chute – passing by some of the athletes that had already begun to be overlapped – and sprinted through to the finish, hands and eyes raised to the heavens as he passed through the tape. Within ten seconds the first ten athletes were all over the line. Some began vomiting off to the side, but most finishers began walking along with their hands on their hips, looking remarkably comfortable considering the effort they had just expended.
The experience watching these cross country races at Jan Meda was exceptionally impressive. The pace of the leaders in each race was really stunning, considering the altitude (2400m) and the difficulty of the terrain. What was equally great to watch was the level of engagement at the race. Taking place on a Sunday morning, the venue was packed with locals coming to cheer on the athletes. Despite the elite level of the leaders of each race, there was also a significant range in the ability of the athletes, showing how popular the sport is in the local community. A real raw encounter with Ethiopian athletics culture!
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