E87. For Rangers Ultra Special | Running for Ranger Welfare in Kenya

Will and the team at BTU have recently returned from Kenya where the For Rangers Ultra was taking place. This is an absolutely unique event that offers runners the opportunity to run in East Africa’s beautiful scenery in open wildlife conservancies teaming with iconic wildlife. If the race itself weren’t awesome enough, all profits go to projects that support the welfare of wildlife rangers and so far almost £600k has been raised.

 

The 5-day, 220km race puts runners face-to-face with Kenya’s beautiful wildlife, an immense privilege and something almost never done on foot. Beyond that, it is an opportunity for the rangers to meet and interact with the runners who are pushing themselves through this ordeal to raise funds for them, and to hear directly what the life of a ranger is like.

 

In this episode we chat to Edward Ndiritu, the head of Lewa Conservancy's Anti-Poaching Unit about what the funds are used for, then with Race Director Kris King for an insight into what juggling 70 runners and uptown 200 rangers at a time is like. We then spend some time with our winners Lou Cole and James Hassan before, finally, we talk to seasoned race medic and ultra-runner Chris Hewitt who gives his unique view of the race as a medic and as a finisher.

Time Stamps as follows:

Edward Ndiritu - 0:12:05

Kris King - 0:16:55

Lou Cole - 0:53:10

James Hassan - 01:34:10

Chris Hewitt - 02:06:16

You can find Chris’ excellent race blog here: https://www.beyondtheultimate.co.uk/for-rangers-ultra-we-arrive-as-strangers

Learn more and enter For Rangers Ultra 2024: bit.ly/ForRangersUltra