Day 6 - 26/06/2009

We leave Seta on the final day of the run with the final celebrations just 30km away.. As we approach the suburbs of Kampala we pass the impressive Mandela National Stadium, the home of the Ugandan Cranes (the national football team).... "If only we had time for a kick about"!!!

As we close in on Kampala, we will feel the warmth and humidity of the capital city. Kampala is built on 7 hills (and a few smaller ones....), so the route to the finish, may not be as easy as everyone had hoped for!! The people of Kampala and Uganda are known to be the friendliest people in Africa and their enthusiasm will spur us on to the finishing line.

The run is a team effort and by the end of the 6 days we hope to have supported the Red Cross to train over 6000 people in first aid advice and support the communities to be more resilient in times of crisis. As we finally arrive at the end of an amazing adventure, we would have made many new friends, had lots of smiles and helped raise awareness of the amazing work of the Uganda Red Cross.

News update:

Day six started a little later at 7am which allowed the runners to run through Kampala when the first aid sessions were being run and the community were ready to greet us. With Kampala in the distance the team chatted to each other and realised that we were so close to achieving something special. Some of the team had decided the night before that they were going to run the entire final day of 14-42km!!! (no one could decide the distance..). As we began the climb up the hills near the Mandela stadium we realised that running later was going to be hard due to the heat but it also felt very humid in Kampala!!!

The run was different to the other days as we couldn't get into a running stride due to the amount of stops we were having to support the first aid training team... or was it just that we had got better at running in the heat and had begun to run 15km in a row without a break!!!!

Kampala welcomed us with smiles and waves which we didn't expect (as it's a capital city) but the people were very friendly. The team of first aid trainers ran more events and educated market sellers, taxi's and buda buda riders as they tend to have more accidents. The children were again very excited to see us running and even more happy when we stoped at their market and began to chat to them..

Along the route we were again followed by the national press, radio and television. It is a pity that we are always on the move as it would have been very good to see our interviews on tv and radio!!! As we ran into the finish we were cheered on by the local community and the thought of "what shall we do tomorrow morning now" came in to our minds!!!!.

The final event was quite long and involved presentations, drama, speeches and many photo's but was fantastic. Everyone has been so amazing on the project and no one can believe what has been achieved.. not only on the run but what a difference we have made to communities!!!

"Even my friend Vanilla would be impressed with this one and the evaluation looks good... the logframe must have worked"!! said Martin.

There will be more to follow over the next few days so keep looking at the website.... and you never know we may even have the next crazy idea???

A video of the final run in....

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