It’s 7am on Sunday 23^rd November and I am about to embark on another unique Ethiopian experience. Quick pocket check for emergency supplies – door key, tissue, money, plasters (just in case). We travel in a minibus together - twelve of us about to take part in the Great Ethiopian Run. It will be 10km following a kind of circular route around the streets of Addis.

The race is for around 40,000 runners according to the TV correspondent, giving a commentary towards a cameraman inconveniently placed in the middle of the road. We are making our way the 1km or so from our parking place towards the start. You can’t miss the route as several thousand runners are moving with us, all in good spirits. There is a while to go so we watch the medal presentation on the big screen for the wheelchair race, interspersed with really loud Ethiopian music which gets many people dancing.

Behind me there are two participants on stilts; one of whom is wearing a miniature pool table on his head. (Note to self: I must finish quicker than those two.) Only two or three minutes late and the tightly packed crowd surges forward. Everyone is jogging downhill. It's a spectacular sight - watching a sea of green and red snaking both ahead and behind.

We reach the half way drinks station. Bottles of water are being tossed out of a van to a crowd of eager runners with arms lifted ready to catch. The Ethiopian next to me passes me the one he has just caught. “Here, have this”, he says kindly. I wonder if the seal is intact? It’s difficult to tell, but at this point thirst takes over.

All along the route there are people watching the spectacle. Some are outside their tin shacks. Little children are collecting the discarded plastic bottles. Just to remind me this really is still Addis we pass some very temporary shelters of fabric and wood where some residents presumably spent last night.

Music is playing loudly at points along the route and groups of runners pause to dance together. There is a sign that says ‘shower’. It turns out to be three hose pipes squirting water covering all the runners over the whole road. I have to say it is rather welcome under the blazing sun.

There is a police presence along the route. Thwack! (very close to us) – a policeman is using his baton none too lightly on a man trying to cross the route. That's our cue to speed up and get past this incident.

We jog the final stretch to pass beneath the finish line into an open space thronging with runners. After collecting our medals (everyone's a winner) we ask a few people the way out. Spirits are high and two men are messing around pushing each other. They knock into me and I fall backwards over the prosthetic leg that one runner has laid out on the grass next to him. No damage done thankfully to me or the leg!

Jogging or walking fast anywhere at 8,000 feet above sea level is a bit of a challenge and very different from the 5 km runs I used to take part in at home around Stanborough Lakes which I was remembering fondly as I jogged along. However it has certainly been a fun experience and one I shall remember for some time. Oh and I was caught on camera on Ethiopian Television, so a teaching assistant tells me. Fame at last.