The Kilimanjaro Stage Run
Created on Monday, 18 February 2013 06:50
In 2012, a small group of ultra runners, including top American female ultra-runner Krissy Moehl, pioneered the way for trail running in the central East-African country of Tanzania. Accompanying local ultra-running legend Simon Mtuy, the runners covered a distance of 160 miles over the period of 8 days, venturing through deep tropical valleys, high mountain ridge lines and across open plains.
The five international and five local Tanzanian endurance athletes became the first people to circumnavigate the tallest free standing mountain in the world on foot and in doing so helped Simon realize his long standing dream of running around the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Having been given the opportunity of identifying the best possible coverage for the inaugural event, Go Trail Media was tasked with creating a well rounded, high impact digital media campaign that would best assist organisers Summit Expeditions Nomadic Experience (SENE) achieve continued interest from the trail and ultra-trail running community world wide.
"As the foremost [digital] trail running magazine on the African continent, we knew that Go Trail was the best partner for spreading news of the Kilimanjaro Stage Run" said Tim Leinbach, Communications & U.S. Operations manager of SENE. "Go Trail's editor, James Hallett, shares our commitment to growing the sport in Africa beyond the geographic and cultural confines of South Africa. He recognizes the potential of an energizing, healthful, inexpensive sport that is a perfect fit for a continent with literally millions of footpaths, trails, and dirt roads through pristine environments."
In conjunction with the 32 page Kilimanjaro Stage Run Special Edition digital magazine, a collaboration with top South African adventure film company, D4 Productions, has produced a 24 minute web-based film documentary called Mountain of Greatness, providing an emotive and in depth view of what it was like to circumnavigate the mountain from the runners perspective, and what it's like to experience the multitude of culture and diversity of all the communities that are situated along the way.
"The vision of Simon Mtuy, Tanzania's internationally-known trail runner and organizer of the event, is to grow the sport in Tanzania both to encourage locals to experience the joy and freedom of exploring their country on foot, as well as for visitors seeking a physical challenge and cross-cultural experience far from Tanzania's well-know tourist routes" continued Leinbach. "With this special issue of Go Trail [and film] we have taken the proverbial initial step in that great shared journey."
The trailer below is a little taste of what's to come from the full length Mountain of Greatness.
The World Premier of Mountain of Greatness is set to take place at the Trails In Motion Film Festival in Cape Town, South Africa and at the Rainshadow Running Film Festival in Oregon, USA on the 29th of March, with follow up screenings scheduled for Boulder, Colorado and Mbahe, Tanzania.
The world "online premier" will take place a few days later on the 5th of April, with the full length film being made available for viewing/download from the SENE website.
For more information on The Kilimanjaro Stage Run visit www.nomadicexperience.com