Running round the Pyramids

We visited Cairo this weekend to take part in the 2nd annual Race for the Cure in aid of the Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt. 

Saturday started at a time of day that I haven’t seen since my last weekend rowing training back in June.   Our hotel offered to get us a one-way taxi to the pyramids site for 90LE.  We declined and took the metro part of the way (1LE each) and then a minibus the rest of the way (2.5LE each).  Much more fun!

The race was the craziest event I have ever been privileged to take part in.  The pyramids were open as normal, i.e. Giza Plateau was full of tourists, tourist buses, private vehicles, camels, horses, souvenir stands, etc.  Add to this 9,000 runners and intermittent organisation and you’ll have some idea.  

The race began at the panorama point overlooking the three pyramids.  Here I am, waiting for the race to start:

The route followed the road down past each of the pyramids to finish at the biggest, after which everyone walked the remainder of the road down to the Sphinx where there was food and entertainment.

The start of the race (over the tannoy) went something like this:

9:30: “OK, we have EXACTLY five minutes to go…”

9:45: “Five minutes left, everyone.  We’re just fixing some problems.

9:55: “OK, just five more minutes while we clear the tourist buses from the road.”

[absolutely no sign of the stream of buses abating]

10:05: “This is it!  Countdown!  Thirty!  Twenty-nine! Twenty-eight! Twenty-sev…WAIT, NO, NOT YET, NOT YET!!!!”

And a bunch of people set off, followed by the other 8,000 and something.

Here is the start of the race:

We walked, trotted, dodged and occasionally ran our way down the road from the smallest pyramid to the largest.  The road was full of buses driving up the other way.  There were also a few people on camel back joining in the fun.  Neither of us could stop laughing all the way down.  It was well worth the effort of coming to Cairo!