Haile before getting on the treadmill

Haile running at 20kph on the treadmill

Haile having a massage whilst checking his phone

Discussing results with Haile

Back on the treadmill

Back for more

It had only been two weeks since my last visit to Addis. Unfortunately then, I could not finish all the testing and I had to return. I flew on Thursday, via Nairobi to Addis Ababa and arrived in Addis on Friday. On Friday afternoon and Saturday we performed some tests and Saturday evening I was back in a plane that brought me home on Sunday morning. Just in time to do a decent bike ride in the afternoon.

Haile picked me up from the airport and on the way to the car park hundreds of people wanyted to shake his hand, have a photo taken with them or their babies touched by their National hero. Without any hesitation Haile greeted them all, smiled at them all and had a nice word for most of them. Unbelievable! Haile also insisted of carrying my suit case which was loaded with books I brought for people I had met last time and thus was very heavy. It would have been much easier for me to carry it but he seemed offended even by the idea that I would carry my onw suitcase. "No, no, professor just walk" he said...

I stayed in a hotel very close to Haile's office building and gym. Just before the test I walked over to the gym to meet the guys there who seemed pleased that I was back. I brought them some books and information about sports nutrition and training and they were delighted. Apart from the internet, this kind of information is difficult to get hold off in Ethiopia.

When Haile came into the gym, the gym became very lively. He greeted everyone in there and then we sat down and I explained to him step by steop what we were going to do. A few moments later we were off and Haile was running 20kph on the treadmill.. I still could not get my head around someone running that fast, that comforable on a treadmill. The comfort was only relative as that morning Haile had done a wickedly hard session. Even his coach, who showed interest in the testing, said it was a tough morning. We performed the testing and then I jumped on the treadmil myself.

The next morning I woke up early, did some work and then met up with Debebe Legesse. I gave him some reading material including a book by Jack Daniels (the running formula) and the Lore of running (Tim Noakes), two of the best running books ever written in my opinion. He was esctatic! We drank coffee and talked about marathon running, the World Championships Athletics, whihc were a disaster from the Ethiopian perspective and other things. Then Haile picked me up for lunch at his house. Alem, his wife was there and greated me, and so where his children. Nati his little 4 year old sun recognised me from just a couple of weeks ago and came charging down the stair to greet me. We had enjera and for the first time in my life I ate raw meat, an Ethiopian specialty. It was surpisingly nice and tender! Extremely hot chilli sauce is used with it and I had to drink quite a bit of water with it. No effort was spared, we had chicken, lamb, and enjera wat (wat is what you put in the enjara flat bread). Since enjera is such an important component of the diet, they even fill enjera with enjera in Ethiopia. I love their food and wish there were more Ethiopian restaurants in Europe.

In the afternoon we were back in the gym for more testing. I sat down with Haile for quite a long time and he seemed a lot more relaxed than the day before. We discussed the results and the meaning of it and we discussed the approach to his next race in Berlin. We performed the testing and had another long chat whilst he was having a massage. Then a quick coffee, a bite to eat and I was taken to the airport for a flight back home via Sudan, carrying a lot of valuable data in my suitcase.