I travelled to Fort Portal to run 21 kilometres at the Fort Portal City Marathon. I finished with a medal, a personal best, slightly unhappy knees, and a completely different understanding of the place. Why? Because at some point, I realised that Fort Portal is just the name on the map. What you are actually experiencing is Toro.
The race itself was a joy. Cool weather, excellent organisation, volunteers who were genuinely happy you had turned up, school children playing in a brass band, traditional dancers cheering runners on, a DJ whose speakers could probably be heard halfway to Bundibugyo. It felt like an entire community deciding that if you were going to suffer up those hills, they were going to cheer every step of the way.
The organisers got something else right too. It wasn't one of those events where people disappear behind VIP tents and security ropes. Conversations happened easily. The race coordinator was there talking to runners, the Toro Minister of Tourism was welcoming participants personally. Even the Prime Minister of the Toro Kingdom was there, chatting with participants. It all felt remarkably... Toro.
I finished the 21 kilometres feeling quite pleased with myself.
Most runners probably start regretting their decision somewhere around kilometer fifteen. I had a different problem.
My regret started after I crossed the finish line, when I decided to drive the 42km route to check it out. Within a few minutes, I was jealous. Jealous not because of the extra 21 kilometres. I was jealous of the scenery.
The route wandered through gentle valleys, climbed rolling hills, passed farms, beautiful churches, schools, tidy farms and homesteads and unfolded beneath the foothills of the Rwenzori as though someone had designed it to convince you never to leave.
Between those hills and those views, I became convinced I had accidentally wandered into Uganda's best tourism advert. The place was not trying to be anything it already wasn't. The landscape was just there being itself, the same way it is, day in day out.
It was at that point that it struck me. Fort Portal is Uganda's Tourism City for good reason. Beyond the marathon are the chimpanzees of Kibale National Park, more than fifty crater lakes, tea estates, waterfalls, caves, the history of the Toro Kingdom, and traditions like the Empaako naming ceremony.
We didn't experience all of those during the race, but we knew they were there. If anything, I found myself wishing the marathon had sold that story a little more boldly, because together they are what make Toro such a unique destination. The marathon is only the introduction.
Which is why I wonder whether calling it the Fort Portal City Marathon accidentally sells Toro short. Fort Portal is where you arrive. Toro, tourism and the Rwenzori mountains is what you experience.
After seeing that 42-kilometre route, I suspect I'll be back, not because I have unfinished business with the race, but because I have unfinished business with Toro.
“The route wandered through gentle valleys, climbed rolling hills, passed farms, beautiful churches, schools, tidy farms and homesteads and unfolded beneath the foothills of the Rwenzori as though someone had designed it to convince you never to leave.“
ReplyDeleteSounds like they literally saved the best (views) for last.
Congratulations on your 21K!
I completed the 42 km, it's an experience that's impossible to put into words, as you have described
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