LetsRun.com Makes Its First Trip to Ethiopia Tomorrow.... What Should We Know and What Do You Want to Hear!?!!

Will you be staying in the Kenenisa hotel? We all know Bekele is the greatest runner. I hope you get to meet him for coffee. I wish I was there and the 3 of us would have a great time in his hotel. We could sit in the hotel lobby all night drinking espresso martini's and during the day Bekele could give us a tour around Ethiopia and go for runs with us on his favorite trails. I wish I was going.

1. At what age do the children begin running competitively?

2. Do runners mostly run on dirt paths, asphalt, etc? How many run barefoot?

3. What are the individual phone numbers of the Dibaba sisters?

[quote]wejo wrote:

I'm heading to Ethiopia tomorrow. Great Ethiopian Run is flying me out as the government is trying to promote tourism.

A bit hard to believe but no one with LetsRun has ever been to Ethiopia. We've been to Kenya 3 different times, Uganda once, but never Ethiopia.

Just curious on things I definitely should do from those of you who have been there and what in particular you want to know about the Ethiopian running scene.

I'll be in Addis Ababa the whole time as it's a short trip (get their Friday-leave monday)

I want to know their general feeling about training for sub elites

Are there many Ethiopian athletes who transfer allegiance to Qatar, Bahrain or Turkey? Do these athletes generally stay in Ethiopia or do they move to their new country? What is the general feeling towards these athletes and what kind of factors motivate athletes to transfer allegiance?

Weldon if you can get epo or any ped there, I will pay you $100 you try it out. You can be the Morgan Spurlock of running (hopefully without any misconduct allegations).

i will pay $100 as well to you wejo if you buy EPO and tell everyone on LR who rek really is and if el K's ip address is actually from kenya

i'll bett my potato farm on that for sure! oh and see if you can get a $32 tea or coffee

Fuuuunnnnyyyyyyy wrote:

Find out where the EPO Lab is.

There is no hidden "lab." You can purchase it at the corner drugstore.

Have a nice trip, Wejo. I’m curious about the athletes’ diet in comparison to the Kenyan ugali-sweet tea-toast-sukuma regimen.

Ask them there thoughts on Born To Run, Christopher McDougall, foot striking and there thoughts on the current rise in populism in Italy.

wejo wrote:

I'm heading to Ethiopia tomorrow. Great Ethiopian Run is flying me out as the government is trying to promote tourism.

A bit hard to believe but no one with LetsRun has ever been to Ethiopia. We've been to Kenya 3 different times, Uganda once, but never Ethiopia.

Just curious on things I definitely should do from those of you who have been there and what in particular you want to know about the Ethiopian running scene.

I'll be in Addis Ababa the whole time as it's a short trip (get their Friday-leave monday)

Wejo I have heard from numerous sources that it's typical for Ethiopians to run 4+ hours on the trails for long runs several times a week, even if not in serious training for competition. Would be great if you could confirm

Go to the Bekele track and run an interval workout. Estimate if it is accurately measured.

You 're going to miss the NCAA XC!

LR's favorite son is picking a fight with the press. Thoughts?

Check out @MRPEvents on twitter.

Not sure it was the oromo civilization (it might be) but i believe there is evidence of one of the earliest forms of a "sanctioned running race" occuring in the modern day ethiopia. The egyptians had them too. I believe I am talking 2300 B.C to 1500 B.C.

Find it. Take some pictures. I'll post again if I remember exactly where I read it but I did read this somewhere deep in academic texts.

Yes! And buy some EPO, and then distribute it to as many runners as possible, with the hidden camera running.

Awesome that you are going. Running is such a huge part of Ethiopian culture...you'll see lots of people out for a jog at 5am...though perhaps not the morning of the race! GER is a great organization (they put on several different races per year and also have a charity) and the director, Ermias, is always generous with his time and does a great job to promote the sport. The GER 10k is the biggest race in Africa with 44,000 participants...it goes on for hours...hobbyjogging exists everywhere, even in Ethiopia!

The classic race course starts and ends at Meskel Square which is iconic and at 2400m altitude (you should check it out and do at least one lap on the Meskel track which I think winds back and forth for 5km (watch your step though...its rough)). The first 5 k of the race drops some 150 metres and then its a relentless hike back up the entire second half.

Some very decent road times for the elite race despite the altitude and drop-gain over the course. Check out past year results here:

http://www.ethiopianrun.org/index.php/international-10k/results

...lots of the winners go on to do well internationally (Berega in 2017, Tola in 2015 and make sure to see the 2001 top 3!) so try to get some face time with this year's winners as they might figure prominently on the track and road in the coming years. Haile will be at the start-finish so chat him up.

This year it seems the race course will be in the Northern part of the city (probably a couple hundred metres in altitude higher!). Its a hop and a skip up to the Entoto hills from there...you should check out the sites Former addis-ite mentions here:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8996874

To participate in the elite race (15 minutes before the crowd of 44000), runners must generally be part of a club. Would be interesting to know about the club structure and whether different clubs have different training methodologies.

Would be interesting to hear the new government's position on the state of Ethiopian athletics, including gender equity, doping, etc..

A few final points. Further to what other posters said, yes, do go to Kategna restaurant (there are a few in town) for good Ethiopian food. Good coffee can be had pretty much everywhere but I liked Tomoka (stroooong). And yes, stay away from raw meat...though you might have to try it to get your street cred (Ethiopian custom-hospitality might see you being hand fed so be ready)...good chance you'll get ill so time this well! If you have time, go see the Ethiopia National Museum. It's in a bit of a sad state but has some impressive artifacts...including Lucy's bones (replica). Learn some amharic...at least 'salam no.' Have fun!

Haile Selassie wrote:

Have been to Ethiopia 20 years ago. To this day probably the weirdest country I have been too (40+ in total in case you ask).

What's weird about it?