The Great Ethiopian Run - 10,000m in Addis Ababa

Over the past month I've been traveling around Ethiopia seeing some incredible natural scenery and places I never knew existed. But we're gonna get to that. I want to kick off this series with a great Ethiopian run in the capital Addis Ababa. 45,000 people running 10k through the city at an elevation of 2,500 meters above sea level. It wasn't easy but it was also the most fun I've ever had running. I'm going to show you right now. Good morning. Welcome back to Addis Ababa. It's three days until the great Ethiopian run. I'm running 10k through the city and right now I'm up at 3,000 meters just outside the city about to get some last minute running in. I'm heading to a meadow just now. Don't need to catch up with the guys. Okay so what I didn't know at the time is that's Helen Abiri, the current 5,000 meter world champion. But look at Helen Abiri, the world cross-country champion. Defends her 5,000 meter crown in style. Good luck keeping up George. All right see. Wow wow. They've all left me in their wake and I'm dying. This is 3,000 meters by the way and this is where the Ethiopian athletes come to train. Back this way. That was killer. If anyone sees any lungs back there, if you ever come back here then let me know. This is actually where the Ethiopian athletes do all their training and they just said it's higher than where the Kenyans train so that means they'll get faster times apparently. The guy that was leading that run is Richard Neurikor, I think I'm saying that right, and he's won the Hamburg marathon. I think he's the fourth fastest time for a British person in the London marathon and he helped set up the great Ethiopian run with Haile Kebreselassie. So he was setting the pace and obviously I couldn't keep up. But yeah good to get a run in before the run in of three days time anyway. That being said I think I need a bit of advice from someone who's also done a bit of running. Can you give us some advice on how to run at altitude? Can you just run instead of me and I'll get more time? Altitude I believe okay 2,500 meters. What do you think you know there's 3,000 meters in total? Just start slowly and check yourself. It's normal it depends on you know how fast you run. You know the repetition of breathing is like in and out faster from the others. Of course you know the Ethiopians also will struggle when they run. Many of them are beginners. Okay most of them. You know this great Ethiopian run they're special about this run. A different ideology or different believers and different political background. When they come to great Ethiopia completely different. They have nothing. Just everybody they come and enjoy. That's the very special about it. It's 45,000. It's going to close in the world you see. That was genuinely an incredible experience getting to meet Haile Gebreselesi before doing the great Ethiopian run and he's a he's a national hero. He's an international legend, a running legend. Some people call him the greatest runner of all time. So I got to ask some running questions as well. I said that I've been doing some runs leading up to this and he now said that he's expecting me to do well. No pressure but genuinely that was great. What a great start to this and now I just need to do the actual run. We're in Unity Park right now and for the next couple of days I'm going to be seeing some of the sights of Addis Ababa before attempting the run on Sunday. So I just need to get in the rhythm of it now. Anyway we're at the children's races right now and we're just checking this out because the real race is tomorrow. It's very loud. I don't know if you can hear me but there's loads of kids racing right now before the big race tomorrow morning. There's a real community aspect to this. Some families are out and the whole city kind of gets involved. There's a special need to race here this morning for children with learning difficulties. We went yesterday to visit Orsad which is a women's refuge here and that's partly one of the beneficiaries of the money that's raised from the great Ethiopian run as well and there's like a real sort of charity aspect to this whole event. This all girls deserve to be equally seen and heard. That's part of the message of this race too. It's very very cool. Good morning. So today is the day of the great Ethiopian run. I'm walking towards it now and in about 30 minutes 45,000 people including me are going to be running 10k through the city. I don't know if you can hear but I'm quite blocked. I'm quite ill right now but I'm going to run it. I'm going to enjoy it. We're going to see what happens. We're on 17 minute miles right now. I like this festival. It's like a street party. You just stop off every kilometre and then some sort of band or something happens. Right now there's Chinese Minions. As you can see a lot of people start walking it but we're still going to try and jog for most of it because yeah why not and then stop at the stations in between but a lot of people just do it for fun and just enjoy it. It's a bit of a street party. That's hilarious. There are guys that are just drinking and watching the race and then everyone chants which means alcohol. That one looks interesting. Five kilometres done. Yeah it's cool. So halfway there's a water station and if I'm honest I haven't even really broken a sweat yet. It's more fun. Like the elite runners were right at the front and they shut off and that's the race. The rest of it, that's probably 700 people. The rest of it is just a party. So 45,000 people get soaked in water laughing and dancing. Okay. So cool. Just singing the whole way. That's St George's Vans. I think they're football fans. St George's is the big club here. They're just chanting constantly so it makes a great atmosphere. End of the 10k and running to coming into the end. Neck and neck finish. That is it. 10k in Addis. Done. Great Ethiopian run. Done. And from something I'd actually hadn't heard about until coming here I think I was awesome. Like you don't have to be a proper athlete. You don't have to be really fit. A lot of people were walking it but it's more like a street party, more like a festival, and everyone was just dancing and having fun. 40,000 people on the streets enjoying it is a cool way to see Addis Ababa. What a perfect end to Ethiopia. But actually it's going to be the first video I put up from here because I wanted to get it up since I've only just done it a few days ago when you're watching this. And anyway the next videos from Ethiopia will follow if that makes sense. But honestly Ethiopia's been great. I can't wait to show you what I've been getting up to for the last few weeks. It's been an incredible trip. I've been here for almost a month and I've loved all of it. So I hope you enjoy the next videos. For now thank you for watching and see you then.