The Africa the media never shows you

The hashtag #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou has been making waves on Twitter and Instagram during the last week. Started by some young Africans wishing to breakdown the stereotype - war, famine, poverty - often associated with their continent.  Beautiful pictures of African landscape, buildings and poeple are being shared via social media, and offer a wonderful alternative to the 'Poverty Porn' that we have come to associate with sub-Saharan Africa.

I've been to Africa ten times now and love the place. But if it wasn't for running and altitude training, I might never have made it to this most beautiful of continents. Each time I've visited, I've been bowled over by how green everywhere is, how friendly the people are, and, in some cases, how advanced things are.  Each country I've visited has sprung up new surprises, and I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of the people and their surroundings.  And I've just touched the surface. I can't wait to explore some more in the future.  

Here are some of my examples of #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou from Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco and South Africa.

And finally, my personal favourite.

Africa doesn't need our pity, but it definitely deserves our curiosity! Don't be afraid to explore it for yourself.

Altitude Training Options: Kenya

Kenya is our featured country for January.  This is a great time of year to visit the East African country, either to prepare for international success, or to achieve your own small running and fitness goals, and later this month numerous British Olympians and Olympic hopefuls will we heading out on one of their intensive winter training stints in the Rift Valley town of Iten.

As those who have read my book, or followed my blog, will well know, I have been to Kenya six times (and am well overdue a trip).  To say that I love the place would be an understatement.  It is probably the closest I have found to a home from home.  The Rift Valley is, in my view, second only to the Grand Canyon, in terms of awe inspiring natural beauty, and sitting on it's edge is one of the most relaxing activities one can engage in.  The people are the friendliest I've come across, and the laid-back atmosphere has yet to fail in rejuvenating me or recalibrate for me what is important in life. Even if I wasn't a runner, I think I would find Iten and the surrounding Rift Valley region a great place to visit.

But it is the opportunities that it offers runners, that is the real jewel in Kenya's tourism crown.  The altitude, above 2000m, is perfect for altitude training.  The climate too is almost perfect, and apart from a few weeks of heavy rain, training is possible here almost year round.  The locals may complain about the cold in the winter months, but daytime temperatures rarely drop below 20 degrees, and with low humidity (as a result of the altitude), the weather is rarely unpleasant for training.

Most roads are unsealed, undulating dirt roads that meander through the countryside, and even the surfaced main roads have dirt trails alongside them, so there is no shortage of forgiving surfaces on which to complete high volumes of training. Many of the tracks are dirt too, though Lornah Kiplagat has recently opened a Tartan track in Iten for guests of her world famous HATC.

Training facilities are improving all the time, and since it opened in 1999, Lornah Kiplagat's HATC has continued to develop to meet the needs of its foreign guests.  It does, however, maintain a distintively African feel, and guests have the opportunity to sample Kenyan food and way of life in relative comfort.  There is an outdoor swimming pool and a well equipped gym at the camp.

While Lornah's place is well established and well known, on the other side of Eldoret (next to Eldoret Airport) is the Rift Valley Resource Centre, a relative newcomer to Kenya's altitude training offer. This centre, located in Mosoriot, is open to students, athletes and community volunteers.  Lel, Cheryiout and Rotich are among the athletes who have trained on the nearby trails.  The centre has links with a number of local schools, health clinics and community projects, and visitors may have the opportunity to volunteer during their stay.

Further information on training in Kenya can be viewed on some of my previous posts, including the following summary post about Training in Kenya, and these reports from my visit in 2010: This is Kenya and Jambo Sana.

Iten, Kenya is just one of the venues featured in Notes from Higher Grounds: An Altitude Training Guide for Endurance Athletes. Other training sites in Kenya also receive a mention.

Training in Kenya: the low-down

I still remember the smell in Nairobi airport, and the excitement I felt when travelling to the centre of Nairobi, on my first visit to Kenya in 2005.  The next day I would be travelling by bus along the edge of the Rift Valley to Iten, the heart of the most successful distance running community in the world, and I could barely contain my excitement.  Back then I still had big dreams in athletics.  I had competed for Ireland at the World University Cross Country Championships the previous year, and now that I had my PhD out of the way, I wanted to reach the next level in the sport.

Things rarely work out as planned.  My athletics career never took off.  But unknown to me then, that trip to Kenya planted the seeds for a much greater adventure, and in ways I could never have dreamed of, led to successes away from the track.  Almost nine years later, I published a book on altitude training venues around the world, which was inspired by that first trip.  I developed a love-affair with Africa, and have been back numerous times, expanding my world view, and a developing a relaxed attitude to life that has since served me well.  This piece will look at why Kenya is such a great training venue, and why runners of all levels can be enchanted by the country’s simple beauty and friendly people.

Accessibility to athletes
If you want to train among the stars, Kenya is the place to go.  Though Ethiopia often challenges Kenya on the medals table at major championships, Kenya’s medals are generally distributed among a greater number of athletes.  When it comes to middle and long distance events, no country has more world medallists.  And in few countries are the athletes so accessible.

Over the years I have trained in the same gym as David Rudisha, been introduced to Saif Saaeed Shaheen, and met Sammy Korir, then the second fastest marathoner in history, without even being aware that he was a world class athlete.  That’s not to mention all the current and future stars that I’ve watched train on the dirt tracks at Kamariny and Chepkoilel, and been passed by on the trails around Iten.  And it’s not just the Kenyans that train here.  Double world and Olympic champion Mo Farah spends long stints training in Kenya, as do a number of Europe’s other top distance runners.  More recently, American distance runners have been sampling what Kenya has to offer.

Despite their success, there is no pretension among the majority of Kenya’s best runners.  They all know that they are only ever one bad race away from being a forgotten name, as the next talented teenager takes the spotlight.  They come across as humble, and are always encouraging of visiting athletes of all levels.  If you happen on a Kenyan athlete on a recover run, they are likely to run at your pace, but don’t expect them to show any mercy during a workout.  If you’re really lucky, you will get to know the athletes a bit better, and may even be invited to share ugali or chi in their homes.

Endless dirt roads

One of the highlights of training in Kenya is the seemingly endless choice of dirt roads to train on.  Most roads are not paved – a welcome respite to injury-prone legs – and even those that are, have a dirt trail running alongside them.  The terrain is mostly undulating, with long challenging drags and small hills, but not mountainous.  Many towns around Eldoret have dirt tracks, which are great for low impact workouts, and short recovery runs when you’re looking for relief from the hills.

Altitude

Most of the Rift Valley area north of Nairobi is situated at a moderate altitude (1,600 m to 2,400 m), the ideal elevation range for inducing an altitude training response.  You don’t have to be an elite athlete to benefit from altitude, and runners of all levels will find it easier to run when they return to sea level.  Visitors should aim to stay for at least 3-4 weeks, and reduce the volume of training for at least the first 10 days.  Training too hard is the most common reason for not responding to training at altitude.

Cultural experience

It’s not just the running culture that you’ll get to sample – Kenya is a great place to go to experience everyday African life.  From taking a trip in a matatu to visiting a local market, the simplest of daily tasks can provide a wonderful insight into the Kenyan way of life.  Try grinding corn and making your own ugaili, attempt to get your shoes as clean as the locals do, and marvel at the core stability required to cycle a bike stacked high with cases of coca-cola, a few chickens and large bunches of bananas.

Where to visit

Thanks to the successes of past students of the local St. Patrick’s High School, Iten is probably the most famous of all the Kenyan training bases.  Athletes from all over the Rift Valley flock to the town in the hope of becoming the next champion.  Lornah Kiplagat’s world renowned High Altitude Training Centre (HATC), has hosted athletes from right across the world, and has a well equipped gym, swimming pool, and the most recent addition, a 400m Tartan track.  Kerio View is also a good place for athletes to stay, and the 400m dirt track at Kamariny is where all the athletes train.

The nearby city of Eldoret is also home to hundreds of aspiring and accomplished distance runners.  It has a greater choice of shops, restaurants and services than Iten.  Athletes can usually be spotted around Kip Keino Stadium on the east of the city, where a lot of local competitions are held, and at Chepkoilel track on Chepkoilel University College Campus approximately 10 km east of the city.

Athletes also live and stay in other towns around Eldoret, including Kaptagat, Kapsabet and Mosoriot.  Mosoriot, located in the Nandi Hills, 30 km west of Eldoret, is a recently developed option for western athletes looking to train in Kenya while getting the authentic village experience.  The Rift Valley Running Center, run mainly by Run for Life volunteers, opened there in 2005.  Visitors stay in basic, but adequate, accommodation at the centre, eat traditional Kenyan food at the adjacent Cafe Milka, train on the dirt trails around the centre, do workouts at the nearby Mosoriot Teachers Training College, and do weights sessions in the centre’s gym.  The centre is located close to Eldoret Airport

College or university students can volunteer to be part of one of the many projects operated by Run for Life in the area.  Visitors can choose to run the Rift Valley Marathon, half marathon or team relay which takes place nearby every March. Runners of all levels are welcome at the centre, and, in association with Run for Life, we’re offering one lucky middle or long distance athlete the chance to stay at the Rift Valley Running Centre free of charge for 6 weeks during winter 2015.  The winner will be responsible for covering their own travel and food costs during the stay.

Competition entry is now closed.  Winners will be announced shortly. 

My top ten favourite books about Africa

As some of you, my readers, may have gathered, I have a little bit of an obsession with Africa.  I’m not sure where, how or why the obsession started – it was probably ignited by TV images of migrating wildebeest, and flocks of brilliantly pink flamingo – but I know that towards the end of my PhD studies, planning my first trip to the content started to fill most of my waking hours (or at least those that weren’t occupied by PhD thoughts).  I also have an obsession with books.  And I’ve read quite a few books about Africa.  Here are my top ten.

1. Africa: Altered States; Ordinary Miracles (Richard Dowden)

This book was so good, that it took me three years to finish it; I really didn’t want it to end.  Each chapter looks at a different African nation, and in a part-autobiographical account, part-historical report, Dowden details that country’s plight against imperialism, poverty and/or civil war.  Over the course of the book he tries to piece together what makes Africa the continent it is today.  What makes the book so good is that it doesn't take sides.  It doesn't place blame; it just details how things are.  The colourful culture of the African people is vividly portrayed, and the series of mishaps and misfortunes they have endured, and overcome, are put into context of how they have shaped the Africa of today.  If you have ever wanted to find out more about the Dark Continent, this is a highly recommended starting point.

2. Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Shaped a Nation (John Carlin)

This is the book that I’m most likely to buy to give to somebody.  The book is even more powerful than its excellent onscreen adaptation (Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon), and had me in tears towards the end.  Brilliantly informative, and perfectly emotionally poised, Playing the Enemy charts how Nelson Mandela utilised rugby, and specifically the 199? Rugby World Cup, to mobilise political sympathy and non-violent recognition of the plight of black South Africans.  In utilising sport as a means of giving White South Africa what they wanted, Mandela brilliantly wins over his biggest political rivals, and cleverly conjures up a unified national pride which overwrites centuries of racial hatred. Carlin eloquently captures the spirit of Mandela's greatest moments which cumulate in a South African World Cup victory that all South Africans, black, white, Indian or Coloured can jubilantly celebrate.  Even if you have no interest in rugby, African politics or Nelson Mandela, I'd find it difficult to believe that anybody would not be moved by this wonderfully told tale. 

3. Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town (Paul Theroux)

This is the first of Paul Theroux’s excellent travel books that I read, and his excellent observational writing has catapulted him to the top of my favourite travel writers list.  I found myself nodding in agreement, smiling or laughing out loud throughout, and, like Africa: Altered States; Ordinary Miracles, I remember a distinct disappointment when I’d finished it.  That was an easy ill to cure though; I just went out and bought the rest of his books.

4. Swahili for the broken-hearted (Peter Moore)

This was the first book I ever read about Africa, and the humorous account of a journey from Cape Town to Cairo shaped much of my preconceptions of Africa.  When I lent the book to someone years ago, and didn’t get it back, it felt like a small part of me went missing.  Thankfully, I located another copy in a second-hand bookstore, and it’s been added to my to-read pile, as I’m really interested to see how differently I view it, several visits to Africa later.

5. Long Way Down (Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman)

Another rather light-hearted account of a journey through Africa, as Ewean McGreggor and Charlie Boreman share accounts of their trip on motorbikes.

6. Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones (Greg Campbell)

This book investigates the illegal West African diamond trade, and, in essence, is the true story behind the film Blood Diamond.  I’ve never seen what the big attraction of diamonds were, and the book highlights the fact that they really shouldn’t cost as much as they do, either in terms of money, or of human life. 

7. The Greatest: The Haile Gebrselassie Story

In the past I’ve always chosen autobiographies over biographies.  However, after reading some pretty mundane sports autobiographies, The Greatest went a long way to changing my preference.  This book is a well-written story of arguably the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen, but has considerable insight from Gebrselassie himself.  The book helped me relive some of Gebs great victories, and learn a lot about the man behind the athlete.

8. More Fire: How to Run the Kenyan Way (Toby Tanser)

More a reference guide than a cover to cover read, More Fire is an updated version of the now out-of-print Train Hard, Win Easy the Kenyan Way.  The book, written by Toby Tanser, who I had the pleasure of meeting on a couple of my Kenyan visits, is packed fully of facts, observations and points of interest about the World's greatest running nation, and, if you haven't already been won over by my blogs about Kenya, More Fire is sure to inspire you to take a trip to Iten or other Rift Valley training venue. 

9. Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela)

This book is unique, in that it makes it onto the list though I’ve not yet finished reading it (it is a very long book).   The 370-plus pages that I have read though have given an incredible insight into the life of one of the greatest political figures of all time.  Mandela doesn’t make out to be a saint, and tells things as they were, from his support of fighting the struggle by peaceful means for purely political means, to the shift to violent methods of freedom fighting.  There are bits that Mandela could have omitted to make himself look better, but the inclusion of his mistakes as well as his greatest moments is commendable.  Mandela, wasn’t born a Nobel Peace Prize winner; he is human like the rest of us, and his story takes the reader on the journey he travelled to become the person we know and love.  The prison years, and the eventual liberation have yet to come, but if the second half of the book is even half as good as the first, Long Walk to Freedom is more than deserving of its place in my top ten. 

10. The Running Man (Gilbert Tuhabonye)

This is the best of the rest when it comes to African running-related books.  Though not a literary masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, the true-story of Gilbert Tahabonye’s escape from genocide-torn Burundi, and his use of running to rebuild his life, is both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.

          

Other books that I’ve read and enjoyed: A Long Way Gone (Ishmeal Beah), the horrific tale of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone; No Future without Forgiveness (Desmond Tutu), the memoirs of one Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of South Africa; The White Massi (Corinne Hofmann), the true story of a tourist who fell in love with a Massi warrior during a holiday to Kenya; and Running with the Kenyans (Adharanand Finn), a great story of running in Kenyan, which I would recommend to anyone who hasn’t yet visited the country.

Update Feb 2016: I've just finished reading King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Adam Hochschild), and enjoyed it so much that I had to add it here. It was an incredibly enthralling read, telling an important tale, but with lots of interesting anecdotes throughout. It made history interesting, and has again inspired me to expand my collection of Africa-related books.

This is Kenya

Yesterday, for the first time, I heard a Kenyan child cry. The reason for the toddler's tears were not that he had fallen and grazed his pride, not that he had no shoes on his feet, not that he had been denied a fist full of hyperactivity inducing sweets, nor that his parents had refused to buy for him the latest games console. The reason for his tears were that he just couldn't keep up with me running no matter how hard he tried to make his little legs run... and this in Kenya, even for the youngest of the Kalenjin tribe, is classed as failure. I have no doubt that soon this child will be keeping up with the mazungus visitors to Iten, and who knows, maybe one day he will join the long list of Olympic and World Champions that this tiny Rift Valley town produces; for running in Iten is everything.

Nowhere else in the world is your '42 kilometer' (marathon) PB so valuable, yet a sub 2:10 clocking potentially so insignificant. For each of the last 2 years more than 100 Kenyans have ran faster than 2:10 for the marathon. While Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie still holds the world record for the distance, Kenya dominate the IAAF World Lists, filling the top 4 spots in addition as well as many more further down the list.  15 of the top 25 ranked athletes are Kenyan. Last weekend a Kenyan won the Venice marathon, another the marathon, and just yesterday the Frankfurt, Athens and, not surprisingly, the Nairobi marathons were won by Kenyans. Figures of 2:05, which wouldn't even guarantee you a place in a Kenyan Championship team, would make you a running hero in Europe or America.

The question I feel is not 'why are the Kenyans so good?', but rather 'why is running success so important to them?' Why do young men from all over the country leave their homes and families to travel to Iten, and other similar training venues, to pursue running success? Why, with no guarantee of ever even getting a trip to Europe, do they put everything into training for those 26.2 miles of cardiovascular endeavour?

It seems that in Kenya, more than anywhere else in the athletics world, role models are a major player in the running success of the nation. In a town the size of Iten, Joe Jogger (by Kenyan standards), has the opportunity to train among world record holders. Everyone knows the ordinary guy next door who has reached international stardom. Athletes view those who are successful as being just like them, and rather than thinking of their more illustrious piers as been genetically gifted, they believe that if they too train hard enough, they can be the next Kenyan success story.

Just this morning I was training in the gym alongside recent world 800m record holder David Rudisha. Conscious of not distracting him from the work at hand, I failed to pluck up the courage to ask him to pose for a photo with me. Later I found that he was not only a celebrity among us wazungu, but a star attraction among the Kenyans who are very proud of their athletics star. Like everywhere in the world, football in Kenya is big business, but it is here that athletics comes closest to rivaling 'the beautiful game' for popularity.

Because I have been to Kenya 5 times before, and because I am not necessarily seeing things for the first time, I feel that I have been depriving you, my avid readers, of some of my observations and experiences of this beautiful country. That, I now intend to rectify!

Kenyans, like most Africans, are very laid back people. Hakuna Matata (no worries), is very much the order of the day. That is, of course, with two exceptions: driving and running. Then, almost like as if they have transformed into different people, Kenyans are suddenly in a hurry. Kenyan roads have no street lights, in fact most of them are not surfaced, and having arrived at Eldoret airport after dark on Tuesday 5th October, I was reminded of how crazy the roads are. As we drove from the airport, in some heavy drizzle, the headlights of the taxi showed locals cycling along the side of the road without any form of lighting that either reveled the road ahead or indicated to other road users their presence. And I'm not talking about one or two cyclists, I mean hundreds of them.

Matatus - crammed full Toyota Hiace vans - are the usual form of transport in Kenya. The drivers communicate with other road users, friends, and potential customers in a complicated series of horn beeps. Indistinguishable to the untrained ear, the relevant beeps can mean 'howaya', 'get the hell out of the way', or 'matatu approaching, climb on in with your chickens, sack of corn and empty buckets; we're full, but there is always room for more'. And these machines know nothing of road safety, common road courtesy, or patience on the roads. Totally mad! On the up side though, they are cheap, and you usually don't have to wait for very long to be picked up by one.

In Iten, the children are either very cute or very annoying, depending on what mood you're in, how fast you're trying to run, or how many days you've been there. 'Mazungu', (the Swahili word for foreigner or white person) 'how are you?' is the common cry of the local young (and sometimes not so young), as they attempt to high-5 you, or run alongside you, as they make their way to school. The special skills of the Kenyan child means that he can spot you from miles off, and often you can hear the distant cry 'how-are-you-mazungu' without actually being able to see anyone. One morning earlier this week, I was 'how are youed' by a small child squatting in his front garden - the Kenyan child is never too busy with the task at hand to greet a foreigner!

The spectacular views of the Kerio valley, which forms part of the Great Rift Valley, are breathtaking, and are part of what make Iten one of my favourite places in the world. I never tire of the views, and it was nice to reacquaint myself with Kerio Valley once again. The Rift Valley is a massive geographic trench running approximately 6,000 kilometres from Syria in Southwest Asia right down through East Africa to central Mozambique, but the views are at their most spectacular as it passes through this part of Kenya. Formed by tectonic activity, the Rift Valley is what causes much of Kenya to be at high altitude, without being mountainous.

As I said in one of my very first posts, Kenya is everything that I expected of Africa, and more. Even after 5 visits, I never tire of this very different way of life. It is a privilege to witness the best in the world training, but also to live for a short while among Kenya's very laid back and friendly people. Part of me is sad when, over the 5 years that I have been visiting the country, I see how little change and development is occurring; how far behind the west the country still is; and how poor so many of it's people still are. Part of me is happy that things are not changing; that the Kenyans remain true to their simple and happy existence. But the largest part of me is angry, when, just like the rest of the world, people think that money will give them a better life. In the past, I have been used to the children cheekily asking for money. This time the popular request was 'mazungu, give me my sweets'. They may root away their teeth, but maybe they won't root away their souls.

Jambo Sana

Jambo,

Greetings from beautiful Kenya.

I am staying at Lornah Kiplagat's High Altitude Training Camp in Iten, just as I have done on my previous 5 visits to here. The pool which was being built when I was here before is now finished, and the coffee shop which overlooks the pool is due to be finished in the next week or so, making it a very special place to stay. The food here is excellent, and I am really enjoying the chapitis and the ugaili. It's the first time that I haven' t craved food from home (though a bit of cake wouldn't go a miss), and soon there will be mangos to add to the mix. Heaven!

The pool at Lornah Kiplagat's HATC

with the new coffee shop in the background

The weather has been somewhat mixed, but at least the rain that we are having at night is keeping the dust down and is not affecting running, though I did stupidly get caught out in a hail shower on my first day here - 'drowned rat' doesn't even begin to describe what I must have looked like when I finally made it back to the camp. When it rains in Africa, it really does rain.

For the first week I was napping twice a day most days (one of the side affects of altitude), but now I'm acclimatising again, and actually getting some other things done in addition to just training, sleeping and eating (like updating my blog for example!).

On Tuesday we took a trip to the track at Moi University Campus where all the athletes from Iten are training at the moment (the track at Kamarini Stadium is being renovated, or rehabilitated as the locals put it). The Matatu trip there wasn't the most comfortable, especially when we had to stop because we had run out of fuel, but one particular moment almost made the trip worth it. Just as we approached our drop-off point, the silence onboard the packed vehicle was broken by one of those text message alerts that loose their humour after the second or third time you've heard them, but on this occasion had me in stitches. Out of nowhere, a very British accent stated 'excuse me please, you have a text message'. Obviously it was the situation, rather than the actual words, that tickled me most, and myself and Dave started into a fit of giggles that lasted for minutes. Everyone else was completely oblivious of the humour, and I'm pretty sure the Kenyan with the phone didn't appreciate our childish laughter.

A 'small' number of Kenyan athletes rising some dust directed by Robin Williams look-alike Italian coach.

The satellite TV stations disappeared the day that I arrived, and only came back yesterday, so unfortunately we have missed most of the Commonwealth Games. I have been hearing some of the results, and as the Kenyans have being doing well, they have at least being showing small clips of the distance races on the news headlines. Congratulations to everyone that I know that was competing, and a special well done to Louise and Jo on their gold medals - well deserved by both.

Training has being going well, though my hamstrings are now paying the price of being overenthusiastic, and doing the 'secret' Kenyan hills on Wednesday. The hill is so steep that running down was almost as difficult as running up, and yesterday when I got out of bed, there wasn't a single part of my body below my ribs that wasn't sore. But as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and if it works for the Kenyans...

That's all the updates from Iten at the moment, but before I sign off I'd like to give a special mention to my Mum and Dad who, on Monday, will celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary. Sorry that I couldn't be there to celebrate with you both. Congratulations!!!

Greetings from Dubai

Ok so it's been a few weeks since my last blog - that's because I've been at home for a few weeks catching up with family and friends, running a few races, and earning a bit of cash to keep the travels going.  Oh and there was a wedding reception to attend - more about that later.

And so, phase 3 of the travels has just commenced.  I'm sitting in Dubai International Airport waiting for a connecting flight to Nairobi and making use of the free internet access (probably the last reliable internet access I'll have until December).  I set off from Birmingham late last night, and managed about 3 hours disturbed sleep on the plane.  Despite the lack of sleep I feel surprisingly awake - maybe the 30 degree heat that hit me when I got off the plane woke me up, or the excitement of being on the road again is energising me.

This time I'm heading back to Kenya, and though I've been 5 times before, I felt that I had to come back as part of this trip, and put to rest the demons of my last visit.  Apart from home, the sleepy town of Iten, in the Rift Valley is probably my favourite place in the world.  However, when I last visited in Dec 07/Jan 08, our trip came to an abrupt end, when, following post-presidential-election violence, running there became unsafe.  And so, following a police escort from Iten to Eldoret airport, we left behind a country that was on the verge of self destruction.  During my previous 4 visits I couldn't have felt safer; in 2007 I was actually scared for my life.  And that's why I need to go back.

After Kenya, I'll be visiting Ethiopia for the first time, and plan to run the Great Ethiopian Run on 21st November, before returning home to get a new passport so I can travel some more.

As all I've seen so far is the inside of Dubai International Airport (which while for an airport is not completely unnoteworthy, it's still just an airport), today's pictures come from Patrick and Tatiana's wedding reception - nothing to do with altitude of course, but I thought I'd share the photos of this happy occasion none the less.

Even the rain wasn't going to dampen our spirits that day.

The boys doing a Russian dance as ransom for the kidnapped bride - a Russian wedding tradition.

Patrick going through his stretching routein before the First Dance.

Tatiana flexing her muscles before the First Dance.

The First Dance.  It looks like all the preparation paid off!

It's an Egan celebration; of course there is more than 1 cake!