Marrakech Marathon

A couple of weeks ago my roommate ran a 1/2 marathon in Marrakech. I hadn't gotten a chance to visit that famous city yet (it tops the tourist list for Morocco) and check out the snake charmers and storytellers of Jmaa El Fnaa (the town square), the souks, the medina and the Koutoubia. S0 I went along as one of the faithful cheering spectators.

The night before the race, the runners wanted pasta, so I sweet talked our way into a nice Italian restaurant (they were booked a day in advanced - it helps to speak French, throw out some complements and know how to S-M-I-L-E!). We had a fabulous meal, thanked the owner profusely and went off in search of safety pins. During dinner we discovered that none of the three runners in our group had thought to bring safety pins to pin on their numbers. This is Africa we're talking about here - they don't supply the pins! So we walked through the narrow streets looking for a tailor. It was about 9pm, but the shops were all open. We found a seamstress shop and tried to describe what we were looking for - Karen in Arabic & me in French. I never have learned the French word for safety pin. I still don't know what it is. No one in our group had ever seen safety pins for sale in Morocco, and we were imagining what to do to keep real pins from sticking the runners during the race - we could bend the pins and then put some chewed gum on the poke-y end of the pin... Eventually, the lady sent her son out with some instructions in Arabic. He came back with 2 safety pins, and we were excited & asked if it were possible to purchase 12. She took us next door to the hanout (tiny shop that is stuffed with every possible necessity, plus the kitchen sink, and a few cockroaches!). We got the 12 pins and were told, don't even worry about paying for them, it isn't worth the trouble. These people here are so kind!

After locating the pins, the runners decided they needed to get to bed early, but Mary & I were in an exploratory mood, so we found a taxi and headed down to the famous Jmaa El Fnaa - home of the snake charmers and fortune tellers. We weaved our way through the crowds, peered at the big kettles full of snails, and assured all manner of cooks and bakers that we were well fed, thank you very much. We debated getting an up close look at the snake charmers, but thought better of the idea when we noticed the crowds circling the entertainment were composed soley of men and the square wasn't well lit. As obvious tourists, we'd be prime targets for any pickpockets. So we made our way to a cafe with a 2nd floor terrace. We ordered a plate of Moroccan delights (no, these have no relation to Turkish delights) and mugs of steaming hot mochas. We surveyed the crowds below, took a few pictures and handed the tiny delights back and forth sampling each and rating them 1 to 8.

Jmaa El Fnaa


On the day of the runners got up at an ungodly hour (for a weekend) and Mary, Kattie and I rolled out of bed in time to throw some clothes on and rush over to the start of the race to take pictures and wish our friends lots of luck. There was lots of commotion, the video crews were there and a guy paraded around the front of the start with a humongo Moroccan flag draped around him like a blanket. After the gunshot and rush of the runners Mary, Kattie & I headed back to make some breakfast in our little apartment hotel room and order incredible coffee from the cafe below. We headed back with deliciously full tummies to find our friends and take the "after" pictures. Congrats to Karen, David & Susanna!

Spectators



We congratulated our friends and held sweatshirts and cameras, bought them delightful sesame something-or-others from vendors standing nearby, and I tried not to get grossed out at the number of bananas that seemed to surround me - YUCK! Then we admired their medals which was when we noticed - David's medal was not the same as the others. Weird, it was bronze instead of gold. We tried to figure out if it was maybe because he finished a few minutes after the 2 hour mark, whereas Karen & Susanna finished a few minutes before. Then we figured it out - on one side it said "Marrakech Marathon 2005". He got last year's medal!!! Only in Africa!!! He was debating going back to the authorities and trying to claim a current year medal (if there were any left, which was doubtful), when Mary convinced him that getting last years medal was a much more authentic relic for a Moroccan race. Just think of the story you'll have! So we headed home with two 2006 and one 2005 medal. Maybe next year...

Runners