Week 25 at School

Well the Safari Marathon is run and won....not by me, I thought I'd give others a chance at glory.  I did my 5km in under 30min then turned round and ran back to get the bus which was about another 1.5-2km.

For those reading the online blog, there is more if you click on the Read more>> button below.

 Ready to go

 The elite wheelchair athletes

 Race time

Denise and Stephanie at the end.

I had offered to drive one of the school buses to the start of the Marathon as it was initially advertised as a 6am start.  The idea was to park at the start and when I finished, go back get the bus and park it near the finish.  I couldn't believe that bit worked so well.  We parked 20mtrs from the start and when I brought the bus to the finish I got to park inside the stadium.

The race itself didn't start until around 7.40.  No surprises there.  Organisation was a little lacking, but nobody seemed to worried.  I was amazed at the wheelchair athletes, no high-tech chairs here, just whatever they could get.

PIC

The race itself was on semi closed roads and not only did you had to dodge the runners, walkers and those stopped in the middle of the road to do up shoe laces, there were potholes and cars as well.  At one point, the organisers were directing runners two separate ways in Swahili.  When I arrived and shouted which way it was 5ks left, 10ks right.  The wheelchairs gave me a fright on a downhill section when one raced passed me with only a few cms to spare.  I'm glad I didn't dodge to avoid something as he wasn't going slowly.

There was a busload of Smith Campus students who also turned up to run.  We clapped and cheered the St Jude's volunteers and students across the line when we saw them.  A few snuck in while we weren't watching.

I read during the week that the women's 21km race leaders went the wrong way as there were no marshals to direct them and as a result missed out on placing.

After everybody finished it was back on the bus and home for a BBQ and lazy Sunday afternoon that turned into evening as you do.

This week I received a request to buy 20 white mice, 20 frogs and 20 cockroaches.  The mice were OK as they told me where to get them and how much., but the frogs and cockroaches came with no such instructions.  I emailed the requestor to find out where to get them and at what price and got told to pay somebody to get them.  I ended up getting frogs from one of the bus drivers who took advantage of the situation, and a few hours later one of the other drivers turned up with about 12 small cockroaches.  I evened the score on that one.

The next day I received an email saying most of the frogs were too small and some were dead, while the cockroaches were too small and not enough.  My response was to take the students out and collect your own.  No response received.

Basketball referee education continues at Smith Campus, but as I only get 1.5 hrs, the 8 hr course is taking time to complete.

This week, the papers reported that all the officials from one of the big football/soccer matches had been suspended for 12 months for incompetence.  The officials had been reported by an official watching the match and without video evidence or it appears, the right of reply.  This referee who was suspended was last year awarded the best referee in the league.  Something doesn't sound right...

That's all for another week in Arusha.

Until next time.