2010 Kenya Maralal Camel Derby

August 2010 marked the 20^th annual Maralal Camel Derby in Northern Kenya. I was fortunate enough to participate alongside 40 friends from Nairobi and Western Kenya. The derby races were comprised of a 10k camel race, a tri-camel-thon (run, bike, camel) and the team tri-camel-thon.

My small invite to seven people quickly grew to 40 and later required a small caravan of four cars and a 25 passenger bus from Nairobi to haul our group seven hours north to the small town of Maralal. Little did we know what awaited us as we all boarded our vehicles at 11am in the morning from Westgate in Nairobi. Five hours into the drive, the tarmac ended and we bounded along rough dirt roads deep into the bush. The sun went down and we had not seen a sign of life for several hours. The bus passengers started to get uneasy. Northern Kenya is not a place you want to drive around at night due to the high probability of bandit attacks. I reassured everyone that we were still headed in the direction of Maralal and did my best to keep moral high. Around 8pm we halted in front of a sizable river with water reaching well above the wheel well of the bus. The group emptied out of the bus into the desolate night to lighten the load for the crossing. Fortunately, the bus powered through the river only to reach another treacherous stretch of deep mud which had already swallowed a small truck earlier. We somehow managed to find a better road and reached Maralal a little after 11pm under the escort of some local police who kept any bandits at bay.

The morning of the derby was just as chaotic as the night before. The derby ran out of camels for our group and needed to include several non-racing local camels. The camel selection process was critical to the success of the race. I was lucky to be placed with a scrawny white camel named Daha who looked like he would buckle under my weight. Each rider was also assigned a “handler” who was a young boy who ran behind the camel beating it with a stick.

About 30 racers in all lined up on the starting gates to begin the first 10k camel race of the day. With my vuvuzela strapped to my back, I raced forward and began an hour-long struggle of excruciating pain and battle to stay balanced on the camel. There is no skill involved in camel racing but just to hold on tightly and try to not let the saddle-pounding shake you apart. We raced through the streets and down the open plains of Maralal avoiding thorny bushes and trees while all along being spurred on by the little handlers with thier sticks. My crazy camel sprinted down hills out of control and I managed to get near the front of the pack. Nearly passing out from the pain and exhaustion I glimpsed the finish line but my camel decided to take a rest break almost 100m from the end. I blasted my vuvuzela but Daha just reared around to bite me. We quickly sorted out our differences and crossed the finish line to place 5^th in the race.

The afternoon races which featured the challenging tri-camel-thon which includes a 2.5K run, 5K bike and a final 5K camel. I had too many lacerations on my ankles from the camel stirrups but still entered the team event and selected the bike section. Our team placed 3^rd overall and brought in some nice prize money.

The journey back to Nairobi was not nearly as eventful but exhaustion took over and everyone slept most of the way home.

I look forward to training for 2011.