National colors of Ethiopia

Arlington Cooperation Foundation proudly presents Abebe Bikila Day International Peace Half Marathon on Monday, September 3, 2007, at Belle Haven Park & Marina on the Potomac River, one mile south of Alexandria on George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The event kicks off a week of celebration for the Ethiopian Millennium, culminating with a festival on the National Mall on Tuesday the following week, the 2,000th anniversary of the founding of Ethiopia.

The half-marathon (13.1-mile) race starts at 9:00 am, followed by a non-competitive one-mile walk at 9:05 am, and a post-race picnic for all participants featuring Ethiopian and other international food and music. All participants receive a commemorative t-shirt printed by Sport Science of Vienna VA. The half-marathon offers cash prizes of totaling $1,500 for M/F:

$250 for 1st place
$200 for 2nd
$150 for 3rd
$100 for 4th
$50 for 5th

Plus there will be gift certificates from Pacers Running Store for 1st place in each 10-year age-group, male and female. The field is limited to the first 300 who enter. Special prizes go to the members of the top five co-ed teams composed of citizens of any state or country, first 5 count. "With this race, we want to encourage competition on the playing field of peace," said Arlington Cooperation Foundation secretary Jay Jacob Wind. "Sport is one of the five international languages, along with Art, Math, Music, and Science. With open arms, welcome runners from all over the world to come and participate."

The course, mostly flat and fast but with two notable hills, through a National Park forest, offers scenic vistas of the Potomac River. Coming a few weeks before Chicago, Baltimore, Marine Corps, and New York City Marathons, the course is a perfect tune-up race.

His Excellency Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian ambassador to the US, has agreed to be official starter of the race.

Abebe Bikila
The race is in memory of a man who changed the world. Abebe Bikila was born in Mout, Ethiopia, on August 7, 1932, the day of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Marathon. Twenty-eight years later, he ran the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon barefooted.

He and his coach, Onni Niskanen, decided that he would make his move one kilometer from the finish line, where the course passed the Obelisk of Axum, a monument plundered from Ethiopia by Italian troops on October 15, 1935, and taken to Rome. When Bikila reached the obelisk, he pulled away from Rhadi Ben Abdesselem of Morocco and won by 200M in 2:15:16.2. His victory made him a national hero and inspired athletes throughout Africa and around the world.

Bikila returned to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Marathon, despite an appendectomy 40 days before the race, this time running in socks and shoes. He took the lead by the halfway mark and steadily pulled away to win by more than four minutes. His time, 2:12:11.2, was a world best for the marathon -- and the first time anyone won two Olympic marathons. Instead of a victory lap in the Olympic Stadium, he performed jumping jacks and other exercises immediately after his race while other runners crossed the finish line.

At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Marathon, Bikila tried for a third win, but affected by the heat and altitude, he dropped out after 17 kilometers, instead cheering on his countryman Mamo Wolde to victory.

In 1969, a car crash near Addis Ababa left Bikila paralyzed from the waist down. As a wheelchair athlete, he won gold medals in 1970 at 10K and 25K cross-country sledge competitions in Norway, but he never regained full health and died in Addis Ababa on October 25, 1973.

Conducting the event is Arlington Cooperation Foundation (ACF), a co-op of six charities whose mission is to work toward a sustainable future for our community by supporting, encouraging, educating, and disseminating information about good health, healthy nutritional choices, physical fitness, issues of public health, and the benefits of co-operative living. ACF assists international athletes visiting the Uinted States.

The race is a benefit for PlayPumps International, Arlington- based Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) and ACF's six Marathon Charity Partners:

AIMS for India
Asha for Education
Association for India's Development (AID)
Big Brothers Big Sisters of National Capital Area
Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse
Girls on the Run of Montgomery County

To register, see www.marathoncharitypartners.org/bikila. Registration is $25 by June 1, $30 by July 1, $40 by August 1, and $50 by Sunday, September 2, or at packet pick-up Sunday, September 2, 2:00-5:00 pm, at Pacers Running Store, 1301 King Street, Alexandria VA (703-836-1463).