The 2003 Safaricom Marathon

This year's Safaricom Marathon, the fourth in the series, proved to be very different and despite a number of hitches was the most successful ever.

Firstly we had to cope with the departure from Lewa of Sarah Watson. Sarah left with her husband in late 2002 and we wondered how we would cope. She has developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the occasion and potentially it would not happen at all. Thankfully Sarah started to work for Tusk Trust in UK and Charlie Mayhew, her boss, kindly allowed Sarah to devote much of her time to the planning and execution of the event. (Phew! - said David Parkinson on whose shoulders the event fell).

Secondly we had the changing global environment and other world events which combined to leave us with no BA flights (or travel insurance for our all important overseas runners), the partial, then complete and then back to partial withdrawal of the British Army - so important to the event in the past. Thankfully many overseas runners did ignore the advice and still come providing a significant amount of the revenue (thank you everyone) and the British Army provided a large amount of the needed equipment.

Safaricom remained a stalwart party in their support and sponsorship. In addition to increasing their upfront sponsorship Michael Joseph and his team cajoled 50 runners from the company to complete the event and in the process raise a staggering ksh3.6m (over $50,000) - thank you again.

On then day the run went superbly. Over 450 official runners (and some who weren't) ran the full and half marathons and there was a well supported children's race as well as a VIP "race" that is becoming a regular feature. Most of the wildlife behaved (only the odd close call with rhino) however Sarah, the hand reared giraffe stole the show by completing most of the course without submitting her entry fee - a drawback that did not prevent her from stopping for oranges at at least two water stops (she did not get a goodie bag). There were many good times (see the web site for details) and much good fun had by all. The carnival atmosphere at the finish a joy to behold and is developing year on year.

This year by running the event on Saturday we managed to persuade many runners and spectators to stay for the "party in the park". Hootenanny can up from Nairobi and set the place alight (thankfully not literally) and the Kenya Regimental Association ran a very busy bar. I do not think many runners complained about the noise although it did go on til late.

My thanks go to all who helped to make it the best ever. From Safaricom, to all other sponsors, to all the helpers (virtually all of Lewa's staff put in time quite willingly) and outside volunteers (particularly the absolutely invaluable water stops personnel who spent a long day in the sun). A special mention goes to Simon Dugdale, Joffy Bastard and Crackers who between them handled all logistic details.

We believe we will raise more money this year for the charities: Il Ngwesi and Namunyak communities, the Bill Woodley Trust, Lewa's schools and the Nanyuki Cottage Hospital. We are hoping for over $100,000 profit. If you have not sent in your sponsorship yet, it is not too late.

David Parkinson