So I was in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia for a month (not for running specifically to be clear) and got to run at Yeka Terrara (mountain), where professional runners train daily. There was a team from China, that came in a bus twice daily and a few dozen Ethiopian professionals running there morning and afternoon. I also saw a runners training solo from Bahrain but I suspect it was an Ethiopian runner who had switched citizenship; a whole other topic. It was neat getting to see the Ethiopian professionals train, most looked to be poor hopefuls that might never make it, but some there were at least making ends meet through running. Definitely fast, a great place to run, trails were really rocky and I was amazed at how fast the runners would run down the hill/mountain as a misplaced foot at the speeds they were running could easily end up in a serious injury. I didn't see anyone famous, but one of the girls my wife talked to said she sometimes runs with 2 Dibaba sisters (not Tirunesh and not Genzebe). She said the famous athletes show up there to train too, sometimes during the hotter part of the afternoon but she thought they were currently training in Sebeta a SW suburb of the city with a large mountain.
The girl also said that she doesn't run up the mountain alone because of the Hyenas, that there are "a lot of them." So sure enough, I ran there in the morning around 8:00 am, I ran up the mountain, completely winded, saw some Ethiopian runners who waved to me at the top and smiled, I waved back panting and ran away half embarrassed at my recreational pace and ran down. The next day I ran up again, ran around a small farmhouse compound at the very top of Yeka mountain and saw a small head with round ears look up at me. It looked like a dog at first but on second take I knew it wasn't a dog. It was a Hyena. It didn't seem to give a care in the world that I was there and I turned and ran away, slightly faster than before, it never even rose from a sitting position, and was about 20 yards or so uphill from me. It wasn't very large or didn't seem so. I told a farmer who asked where I was going that I saw a "jib" (Amharic word for Hyena) and he said the same thing "Yes there are Jib!" laughing, saying it's ok.
The next time I ran up Yeka mountain again on the south facing road, this time I saw about 30 yards in front of me a very large Hyena crossed the trail up hill from me. It bounded across the trail, and almost seemed surreal. I was pretty freaked out by how big it was, as I'm 5'9'' and I estimate it would come up to the top of my chest easily. I was also shocked at how thick and muscular it was, it's neck was long an unbelievably thick. I estimated to people that I thought it to be 150 lbs. There were 3 Ethiopian professionals running down the hill about equal distance uphill from it as I was down hill from it. The also stopped dead in their tracks. I turned around and ran down the hill, again heart racing more than just from the running and in broken Amharic told a group of 5 guys walking down the trail I saw a "telek jib!" or large hyena. They said it was no problem if it was 1, 2 or even 3 or 4 hyenas, but if it was 5 or more that you could be in trouble.
I did go back to run at Yeka a few more times, and didn't hurry to get there, as the hyenas go sleep during the day and the ones in the daylight are said to be the last to get to bed; the stragglers. I'd show up at 9 am, when most the elites were wrapping up their training. I didn't see another Hyena while running but was always a little creeped out and didn't like and tried to avoid the trails through the eucalyptus trees which would have otherwise been a really fun place to run and good smelling too.
By the way running at altitude is much more difficult. The air was very thin there. In my neighborhood running the Garmin said it was about 7600 ft altitude, and at Yeka mountain Garmin said it was 8200 ft to nearly 8900 ft. Entoto mountain which I didn't go to but drove up with the wife and kids is where Kennenisa runs and where Haile ran. That was over 10,000 ft. After 2 weeks it didn't seem that much more difficult and upon returning to the US, after 4 weeks at altitude I definitely feel an improvement in my fitness and an ease in both pace and power I didn't seem to have in my workouts previously. I ran an easy 8.5 mile run at 8:45 pace where I'd say usually I'd be at 9:15 pace and the next week I ran 11.25 miles at 9:15 pace which felt like 9:45 pace. I also ran some 400 meter hill repeats that usually kill me that didn't seem so difficult this time round.