*****PRESS RELEASE*****

THE SAFARICOM MARATHON
Saturday 26TH June 2004

‘Running Wild’

Records smashed at Safaricom Marathon

Peter Ndegwa, a relative unknown local runner, smashed the Safaricom Marathon record today by 6 minutes in a time of 2hrs 19.01. Ndegwa was invited to run his third marathon at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy following his strong showing two years ago when he led the race. Second place went to David Kuino, who finished over a minute behind Ndegwa in a time of 2hr20.09. It was Kuino’s debut in the Safaricom sponsored event, which is now regarded as one of the toughest marathons in the world.

The women’s full marathon was won for the third consecutive year by Callen Areba in a time of 3hrs 02.09 However, local community runner, Lucia Mwinaki, from Matunda nearly produced a shock result by leading for much of the race, but was finally overtaken in the last kilometre by Areba.

Now in its fifth year, the Safaricom Marathon attracted a record 530 runners from 19 different countries including USA, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland. Established as a fundraising event, the Marathon has now raised over US$500,000 for the benefit a number of causes; the main beneficiaries being programmes focusing on education, community development, healthcare and wildlife conservation.

In the half marathon races, World Champion Catherine Ndereba was beaten into second place in the women’s event by Joyce Chepchumba. The former winner of London and New York Marathons broke the course record by three and half minutes to finish in 1hr 19.35. Meanwhile the men’s event was won by Robert Gachuiri in a record time of 1hr 07.38. Henry Wanyoike, the renowned blind runner followed up his fine performance in Boston to finish 37th in a time of 1hr 17.33.

The race, which remains the only marathon in the world run within a wildlife game reserve, was flagged off by the Hon. Mukhisa Kituyi Minister of Trade and Industry.
However the larger species found within Lewa, such as elephant, buffalo, and rhino were kept at a safe distance by a large team of armed rangers, a helicopter and two light aircraft. Nevertheless many runners reported close encounters with zebra, impala and giraffe. Indeed one eeland decided to join in the fun and ran alongside runners for some considerable distance before stopping at a water stop and helping itself to water.