The 18th Egyptian Marathon

Each year, the route of the Egyptian Marathon becomes more of a run through history. No other country in the world can boast a backdrop compared to Luxor’s open museum of Pharaonic history but as the archaeologists continue their work, more discoveries are being made of the Temple of 18th Dynasty Amenhotep II and whose entrance was flanked by Colossi of Memnon, the two gigantic statues that guarded the entrance which last year were shrouded in scaffolding but are now fully renovated.
The route also threads its way past the mortuary Temple of Ramses III, the best preserved temple of the ancient capital of Thebes but the scenery is a patchwork of ancient and modern. The swathes of sugar cane field, alfalfa and date palms are punctuated by small villages with their alabaster factories and the network of canals.

The start and finish line is dominated by the magnificent mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, one of the most dramatically situated in the world which the queen called Djeser Djeseru, “Splendour of Splendours” and a growing number of tombs carved out of the rocky escapement which are now open to the public.
With the ever increasing number of entries, participants now stay at either at the Maritim Jolie Ville Luxor Island Resort or the Sheraton Luxor Resort both located on the east bank of the Nile. Breakfast was served from 5am on the morning of Friday, 28 January and there was convoy of buses to transport competitors, friends and family to the start from 6am.

The group of runners, walkers and inline skaters from all over the world were joined by the local competitors at Hapshepsut Temple on a bitterly cold morning long before the tourist coaches arrived. The participants did their limbering up exercises as the pale blue sky above became dotted with hot air balloons in every colour of the rainbow.
Those running simply for fun rubbed shoulders with determined athletes in the huge group of Egyptians, foreign residents and many different nationalities who had come especially for the event.

Gasser Riad, Chairman of Event group of companies and director of the Egyptian Marathon and Pharaonic 100 Kilometre Race and his general manager, Hisham Ibrahim, race guru Gert Engel and other officials started the race on the dot of 7 am with the inline
skaters the first group to start.
This year represented a record number of competitors with a large contingency from the Saudi Arabian National Team as well a big group of Japanese including some very small children taking part in the Kid’s Run.
The Egyptian Marathon for men was a victory for Mahmoud A. Awad in a time of 02:43:50.870. He was followed by Dave Olson from the USA in second place with a time of 03:05:58.761 and Ioannis Kossenas of Greece seconds behind in 03:06:45.876.
This year is was Wilma van Onna from the Netherlands who was victorious in the women’s marathon in a tremendous time of 02:56:01.235.
In the Men’s Half Marathon Saudi Arabian Abdullah Abd ElAziz was first in 01:03:20.560 closely followed by
fellow countryman Mokhlid Al-Otaibi in second place in 01:06:33.087.
In the Ramses Run for men, the Saudi Arabian National National Team, swept the board taking the first five places.
In the Ramses Run for women, 15-year-old Noha Ahmed Mohamed was again the star in a time of 00:45:18.710. A local girl from Luxor, she not only won the race but attracted a great deal of attention for being a born runner with a superb style and each she
improves her time. In 2009 it was 00:52:13 while last year her winning time was 00:51:54.
All the competitors enjoyed the event and for winners or losers in was the fun of taking part and those that were visiting Egypt for the first time vowed to return..
A further tradition is the Gala Dinner which is held at the Fallah’s Tent in the grounds of the Maritim Jolie Ville Luxor Island Resort.
The celebration attended by a number of Egyptian and Saudi officials began with the award of mementoes of thanks to major contributors to the success of the event such as the hotel’s General Manager, Urs Ullbritch.                                                     The F & B Director and the Chef and his team also excel themselves for the dinner with a rich choose of regional dishes which included a vast mezze, soup, whole roast lamb, sharwama, taagens, oriental sweets and fresh fruit. After dinner in was time for the entertainment, a local band, traditional stick, dancers, the popular snake charmer, belly dancers and tanoura dancing.

It was a great event.