Pete’s travel stories - The Great Ethiopia Run

This month, our co-founder, Pete, looked back at some of his favourite runs he has raced in across the world. We can’t travel now, but we can look back and think about the runs we have done and what we loved about them. Over the next few months, we will share a memory Pete has from some of his favourite runs around the world with you. 

By Peter Cooper

For me running, is all about enjoyment. I have to admit that I am competitive and have some targets, but that’s my enjoyment. I also love just running and running with people who share my passion for running. That is why in this blog series, I am going to start with The Great Ethiopia Run (GER).

The GER is pure carnage! From getting off the plane and being told “you have gone back in time due to them believing there are 13 months in a year” to a race with a DJ at every km!

I have no idea what my finish time was for the race, and that apparently means I have done this race precisely correct! I guess who wants to be the first to leave a party?

The morning of the race, everyone comes together onto the streets, and you pretty much follow everyone wearing the same GER top in the colours of the Ethiopia flag. Addis Ababa truly loves its homegrown heroes, and Haile Gebrselassie is undoubtedly one of those! This race was his idea, and he started it after winning gold at the Sydney Olympics. Today, the race attracts over 40,000 runners!

I will never forget the start line; everyone looked like they were really going to go for it, PBs were going to be set, and for an hour or so, the party vibes would stop. The gun went, and within 200metres, I was walking. At this point, Dave turned to me and said, ‘looks like we are dancing for 10k’, and that is exactly what we did!

When I stopped and took everything in, I believe it was at this point that I realised big races are all about the enjoyment, the spectators and the atmosphere! Name me another sport where you can compete against the best in the sport, on the same field and have 100s of thousands of spectators turning up? And if that isn’t good enough, you get the same medal as the elite!

Talking about elites, it was shortly after the race when we both got invited to a dinner party that night with Haile, at his house! More to come on that at a later date, but here is a throwback photo!

I love running, I love Africa and I love people!

Maybe one day, we can all go to Addis Ababa as a community