African leg of Continental Marathon in Cairo
Ingy Deif, Wednesday 21 Jan 2015
Cairo will host part of a challenge initiated by six runners who plan to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days


On the 19 January, a team of six men from England and Australia initiated 'The Continental Marathon', a challenging project that aims to run 42 km each day for seven days on seven different continents, starting in Antarctica, and ending on 25 January.

The marathon, which is intended to benefit many entities serving disabled children, chose Egypt to be the country representative of the Africa.

On their official page, the team extended an invitation for people in the countries they visit to join them on the run, by registering through links posted on the page.

Zamalek Runners, a running community, decided to take matters into their own hands, and will be responsible for organising the Cairo leg.

The small running community, established in September 2013, and who take regular runs in the early brisk hours of Fridays, stated that their aim is to show Egypt at its best, calling for running communities and individuals to show solidarity with the cause and join the marathon.

Mohamed Magdi, founder of Zamalek Runners, talked to Ahram Online about the initiative and how they came in contact with the organisers.

"When we heard about a team of six British and Australian friends deciding to embark on this challenge in order to raise funds and awareness of many institutions that deal with disabled children, we saw this as an opportunity to show Egypt at its best, especially after we knew that for Africa, the choice lingered between either Morocco or Egypt, before the team settled for the latter choice.

"We collaborated with two other running communities, Cairo University Runners and Giza Runners, to organise with the visiting runners the route intended to be covered early next Friday, so that it shows the beauty of many places in Cairo, way before the traffic jams, and we decided that the intended 42 km run can be divided into three phases, to enable all to take part, each according to his capability."

As for the three stages of the marathon, Magdi said that that thefirst will be starting at El-Maadi, in front of the second main entrance of the neighborhood at 6:30am, and will end at the Abbas Bridge.

There, the second running phase will start at 8am, ending later on at Galaa Bridge at 9:15, marking the beginning of the third and last leg, which ends at the finish line, in front of Gezira Sporting Club, in Zamalek district.

For registration click here



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