(Not) Running the Lewa Marathon

Nairobi is a great city to live in, but if you live here long enough, you realize that sometimes the best part of Nairobi is leaving it. This past Saturday morning, CJ, Devon and I headed up to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to support our friends who were running the Safaricom Half-Marathon. Despite having left Nairobi around 6:30 am, we of course missed the entire half-marathon, but were able to enjoy 24 hours of safari by car (we drove along most of the marathon route), safari by horseback, hanging around a bonfire, and tent camping.

Weekend highlights included:

Playing with an 8-month old baby cheetah (somehow adopted by a Kenya Wildlife Service ranger):

Horseback riding with Nina, Quetzalli, Francis and CJ alongside giraffes:

Spotting Gravy zebras and elephants:

Having lunch at the Mount Kenya Safari Club on the way back to Nairobi:

Having driven along the race route, I decided that it looked a bit too intense for me (rough terrain, hilly, dusty, etc.); however, I was inspired to train for the Standard Chartered Nairobi Half-Marathon coming up this October. I've only run one other half-marathon in my life, the Nike Women's Half in San Francisco, back in business school along with many other Haas ladies. I'm pretty sure I could barely walk for 3 days and vowed that I would never run 13.1 miles again. Funny how the body and mind eventually forgets. =)

Transition from Xanga

I just attempted posting on the Xanga blog I started 8 years ago, and discovered it to have become even more un-user friendly than the last time I blogged (10 months ago), so I'm transitioning to Blogger.com. For all previous posts, please visit: http://chartouche.xanga.com.