100BEFORE40

56 Philadelphia Marathon, Philadelphia, PA, USA, 18 November 2018. The American Dream I first watched the movie Coming to America in 1997. I remember it very well as if it happened yesterday. I watched the movie at my school teacher’s house. This was not because there was a lesson to be learned from the movie. He had a video cassette recorder;  we did not have one at home. In fact, "we did not have a video cassette recorder at home" is putting it mildly. We could not afford a video cassette recorder at home. The movie left a mark in my childhood life. I was fascinated by America and dreamed of  my own "Coming to America” story.  Agatha’s debut marathon deferred   I was pleased with myself when I managed to convince Agatha to register for her first and last marathon as she said. The Istanbul Marathon. We were going to run from Asia to Europe together. However, a month or so after registering and getting excited about the Istanbul Marathon, I had to put my spi

49 - Kigali International Peace Marathon, Kigali, Rwanda, 20 May 2018 Every second year or so, my family embarks on a great trek to the east. East Africa. Uganda. They say, “wise men from the east”; I say, “beautiful women from the east”. This may be a bit of a stretch, but I know of a "beautiful woman from the East", my wife. We were set to travel to Uganda sometime in 2017, but the Athens Marathon, The Authentic got in the way. Kisoro, the village (even though Agatha will argue that it’s a town) that Agatha comes from, had to give way to the Athens Marathon, The Authentic. We had to delay the trip to Uganda until sometime in 2018. When 2018 arrived, the 100BEFORE40 Asia leg got in the way and we pushed the trip to Uganda to mid-2018. Postponing the trip to mid-2018 proved to be a brilliant idea in the end. It coincided with the running of the Kigali International Peace Marathon in May. I had read and heard a lot about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I had always wante

The AtLeast18MarathonsFor2018 leg of the 100BEFORE40 has been going well so far. I am glad I chose to call it AtLeast18MarathonsFor2018, instead of the more definite 17MarathonsFor2017 that I had last year. I haven’t looked back since my first marathon for 2018. Several friends and family have suggested that the 2018 leg be changed to 20, 25 or 30 marathons for 2018. My answer has been a consistent one; we will see how it goes. My aim was to get into the second half of the year having done more than ten marathons. I easily achieved this. By the end of March, I had already crossed the half way line. I was tempted to take it easy and slow down a bit. I was also tempted to start exploring and pushing the limits to see how it goes. After successfully completing the Deloittes KwaZulu-Natal Challenge Marathon and the Goldi Standerton Marathon three days apart, I set sights on completing two marathons two days apart at the end of April and beginning of May. This trend would culminate wi

40 - Marakele Marathon - Marakele National Park, South Africa, 3 March 2018 I would be lying if I said I am over the disappointment of missing the 2017 Big Five Marathon. I had looked forward to it for a very long time. Missing it after traveling and dressing up for it was a bitter pill to swallow. As a result, any race that’s run in a game park or reserve gets me excited. I see it as a way to get my revenge on that false start to the 2017 Big Five Marathon. That was the feeling I got when I stumbled upon the Marakele Marathon. Finally, had a chance to run in the wilderness amid game, so I thought! Having registered for the race in December 2017, the wait until March 2018 was a very long one. Luckily, the races in between managed to keep me sane a bit. As is usually the case, race day arrived when there were many other things going on. I had planned to get to Thabazimbi during the afternoon on the eve of the race. However, I only got there late at night. My departure w