Ghana half marathon run raises over £1200

At the finishing lineMark Roberts, the UK Kintampo Project lead competed in the Accra International Half Marathon on 25th September 2011.  Mark says .....  a very big thank you to all who supported mental health in Ghana by sponsoring me for the half marathon I crazily ran last week in Africa…. and thank you too to all who wished me luck and followed what I’ve been doing, your support meant a lot.

The race was about the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, I found it very very hard, really gruelling.

We started around 7am and by the time I finished it was so so hot. The course was very scenic, on roads and tracks along West African coastline with palm trees, beaches and waves crashing in on the sand.  At times we ran through small towns with much encouragement although in some cases just people showing bewilderment at the spectacle.  The race was well organised with small bottles of water every few kilometres, but the heat was intense and with very little shade our fluid loss was high.  Of course I don’t usually run in such heat so I suffered a lot (as I knew I would) and for the last couple of kilometres I was getting cramp in my calves which was dangerous as towards the end nearer the city (Accra) we were running on the edge of a road next to deep open gutters and traffic squeezing (quickly) past us (lots of diesel fumes !) and the cramp kept making me stumble – I think there would be nothing worse than to be an RTA victim when so very heat stressed. 

Anyway, I finished and I even got a decent time (for me) of 1hr 55 minutes 25 seconds, which I was very pleased with (half marathon is 21 kilometres … 13.1 miles).  I was 27^th male of around 80 for the half marathon, and I’d say I was probably nearly the oldest runner, if not the oldest one there. I’m not sure I’ll do it again as I don’t mind some degree of discomfort, pain and suffering but this was definitely near my limit.

 In total you raised a massive £1258.75 for The Kintampo Project.  This will be used to buy textbooks for small new libraries we are developing across Ghana’s 10 regions at key sites where our students are placed for practical experience of developing community mental health services.

 SO - meda w’ase paa (thank you in Twi).

 And lastly, as many of you know, the charity you / I supported – The Kintampo Trust, is a new charity set up by myself and colleagues who have been running The Kintampo Project (www.thekintampoproject.org ) since 2006. If you didn’t get chance to sponsor me or if you are wiling to help our African work further, you might like to see the attached project review and the various ways you can support us – for example you can donate any time you like, or you could set up a small standing order – see http://www.thekintampoproject.org/donate/ . 

 Thank you so much.

 With very best wishes