Tsegaye with Edna his daughter and Kristian
Excerpt from an unpublished book written by Kristian Morgan. During 2014 Kristian lived with the world’s fastest runners, the Ethiopians. He spent 6 months sharing a single room with 2 couples and a young child. Three of the people he shared a room with were professional endurance runners.
We got to the top of the road and Tsegaye said: “Kristian we are here”, in a thick Ethiopian accent. I looked up to my left and saw there was still some to go until the peak, I turned to Tsegaye and said “Lets go right to the top”, he smiled and said “you are strong lets go”, there was no road up the the peak and Tsegaye was just ahead of me he turned and said today “you are a champion”. I felt so good but was still very tired, making my way up I used the zig zagging technique.
In my mind I imagined Tsegaye was sir Edmund Hillary and I was his sherpa and together we were about to summit the mountain. Finally we were standing on the top, I looked around and soaked it all up. I had done it, I had conquered the mountain and at the same time conquered myself. From our viewpoint we could see far far away, I looked at my watch and we were at an altitude of over 11k feet, it felt strange to think we were at an altitude almost three times higher than that of Ben Nevis in Scotland the UK's tallest mountain.
We started our descent, when on the dirt road the pace quickened and Tsegaye said to be careful of my step, I felt strong and I knew now my lungs were to have a rest and my body would be carried down by my legs. We were side by side and the pace was vicious down and down we ran, one slip worst case scenario death if one of our heads was to hit a rock, there were plenty of them on the other hand if we slipped and did not die I am sure some bone would have been broken.
I ran ahead by a few meters my legs feeling powerful letting gravity pull me down. Stangely enough I felt fatiuge around my shoulders and so gave then a massage with my hands, Tsegaye was back at my side again I was amazed I was able to run so fast what had happed? I felt invincable. We passed more Oromo tribes on the way down, I was running to fast to look up at them, I did not want to be eating rocks and dirt for breakfast, we came to a large group who were blocking the way we slowed and they made some room for us too pass, as we went by I said “ci grillo” (no problem in Amharic) as we ran ahead I could hear them repeating what I had said and laughing. Leaving the road we took a left turn into the forest, we were flying at this point something amazing happened to me.
I was no longer concentrating on where to place my feet, even though there were rocks, protruding roots and fallen branches. I was running with natural instinct going too fast to think about the ground in front of me, I felt like a wild animal running through the forest taking large strides my vision was slightly blurred. I did not feel tired but instead had tapped into limitless source of energy. This carried on for some time, I started up a conversation with Tsegaye as we had been quite until now.
I remember talking to him about a trail run I did in Australia and comparing it to where we were running now telling him about seeing kangaroos, Tsegaye told me about a documentary he had seen in which a pack of wolves had made a kill but a bear had come along and attacked them stealing there catch, we talked of polar bears too and how big they are. I started to become tired and my mouth was as dry as the road we were running on, I was becoming dehydrated and knew I could not keep this up for much longer, my energy was leaving me.
I did not tell Tsegaye I wanted to keep this pace, we got back onto a road and Tsegaye said "Kristian I feel so strong", it was ironic that I just started to feel weak. On the way down we passed Oromo tribes people we had passed on the way up, the road was wider now and I could see houses in the distance I knew we were close.
Turning right off the road was bad news for me as the terrain suddenly became tuff and unmanageable but I persevered on pushed on, Tsegaye pointed ahead to some houses and said "We finish there" He left me for dust over the last 300 meters, I saw him stop, and after not too long after I was walking next to him I could feel my breathing slowly returning to normal. I had done it without water just like the Ethiopians, the gamble of leaving the water this morning had paid off.
