Kampala marathon has grown, now it must be run better

Participants set off for the 10km during the MTN Marathon that started and ended at Kololo Air Strip last year. Photo by Ismail Kezaala

Tomorrow morning just under 18000 people from all walks of life will hit Kololo Airstrip in the wee hours to race for humanity in the MTN Kampala marathon.
The run, from its humble beginnings in the early 2000s, has mushroomed into the city’s biggest social event and continues to grow in other forms and ways.
It is the success of the Kampala marathon that has convinced organisers of most humanitarian causes to theme their campaigns around noble runs in the city and beyond. Think the cancer run, Kabaka Mutebi birthday run and others.
However, none owns the heritage of the MTN marathon nor the numbers and budget. It is what sets the Kampala marathon apart. That position as the pioneers is safely cast in stone.
Of all the thousands who will be running tomorrow, only a handful will be doing it to win the improved prize money at stake. Most will be keen on the fanfare that comes with the race while others will be keen not to miss because a friend and a friend of a friend have been training and want to test their fitness levels.
By and large, it will be fun - as it has always been. But for the Kampala marathon to retain its place as the best of the lot, somethings have got to be done differently.
For instance last year and the year before, you had a good number of people who took part despite having not registered to run. All they did was to put on a yellow vest and get through the security system in time to join the rest.
A few of these of course clogged the starting point and then joined the congestion usually experienced in the opening kilometre before unfitness lessened the bothersome clustering.
A marathon worth its name should not be run by flukers. The Kampala marathon is not a free-for-all event; the very reason why their is a nominal participation fee that caters for logistics and planning.
The habitual over congestion at the starting point doesn’t quite make it the ideal start for all.
As the flag bearers of all runs, it is just natural that their is more scrutiny on the organisational detail of the MTN Kampala Marathon. It explains why it is unlikely why any one will complain about the preparation of the Kulambiro marathon or HIV/AIDS Charity run.
Then as usual, the longer distance routes - the actual marathon - have far less traffic control. You could argue that the group is smaller and scattered to explain the limited control but athletes won’t see it that way with valid reason.
In the true sense of the word marathon, tomorrow’s event is not one. Marathons have the bulk of runners competing in the gruelling 42km distance. Here it is the reverse. That perhaps is down to the run being a social one mostly and competitive event nominally.

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The Azam Uganda Premier League this season has been a thrilling spectacle not so much for its unpredictability like the volume of special goals all over. The goal scored by Jackson Nunda for KCCA against Onduparaka remains on its own for sheer grace and elegance.
But there have been a couple more. Caeser Okhuti’s stoppage time scissors kick to beat Express at Wankulukuku was a goal worthy of winning a World Cup final.
This week Nelson Ssenkatuka’s opener for Bright Stars in the 2-1 home win over Onduparaka owed a lot to his awareness, speed of thought and instictive finishing. On the face it, it is a fine goal but probably not deserving of many superlatives.
But when you watch the replay you will appreciate the combination of things he had to pull off to put the ball in the back of the net.
Which begs the question; where would football be without television?

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