THE FIRST TIME Loreen Alutah Chari attempted the Victoria Falls Half Marathon, her first-ever 21.1 km race, she wore the wrong kind of running shoes and lost a toenail. 

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“It was, I would say, terrible. I wasn't fully prepared for it,” she said, “but I told myself I wouldn't drive 900 km to do anything less.”

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A year later, she had run a few more half marathons and was ready to run the race in Vic Falls, properly this time. 

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Growing up, Chari, a 39-year-old mother of two and a marketing professional, wasn’t very sporty, but, as an adult, she began running after discovering a "vibrant community.” So, she took up the sport and stayed when it became a sort of therapy.

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These days, she manages the Eastview Elites Running Club, which organises community runs and events like the Great Zimbabwe Marathon. Chari also now considers herself an athlete and a half marathon runner, and rightfully so. Over the last eight or nine years, she has run about 20 half marathons and 15 full marathons. Eight of those races have been the Vic Falls Half Marathon, which she has taken part in faithfully almost annually, except when she took a postpartum break.

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This year, she’s ready to tackle the Vic Falls Half Marathon yet again on 6 July, and she’ll be running alongside thousands of runners who take on the race each year. In 2024, the Vic Falls Marathon saw 5,100 entries across its five events, said Brent Williamson, a tourism operator and one of the founders of the race. 

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But participation wasn’t always this high.

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When Williamson and his co-founders, who include his ex-wife Vanessa Williamson and their collaborators John Addison and Debbie Addison, held the first race back in 2006, about 300 people took part. The second year, that number hadn’t increased by much, for a total of 420 or so entries. Today, the race has grown exponentially, hosting a full marathon, a half marathon, a half marathon relay, an 18km route for athletes with disabilities and a 7km fun run, with up to $1,500 each in prize money available for the first-place women's and men's winners.

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“We've got better at what we do, believe it or not,” Williamson said. “And our sponsors have really stepped in and come to the party on a lot of what we've needed and understood the concept of what we're trying to do.”

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Those sponsors include Econet, the main funding partner, as well as Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, Tinga Mira, and FastJet. Their support, Williamson said, has made way for more post-run programming. After crossing the finish line, runners can find several leisurely events and a headlined concert waiting for them. 

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But perhaps the most unique offering of the Vic Falls Marathon is its sprawling, world-renowned landscape. Near the start, full and half marathon runners make their way over the Vic Falls bridge, the thundering waters serving as a soundtrack, their sprays a refreshment point for the runners. The rest of the course passes through local institutions and bushland, with the potential for elephant and buffalo sightings, Williamson said. Rangers and the anti-poaching unit are on standby to keep runners and animals safe.

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“It’s just the wildness of it,” Williamson said of what makes the course special. “It’s untamed.”

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Behind the scenes, there’s also a hardworking team composed of marshals, national park authorities, police and administrators, all of whom collaborate to make the race what it is.

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Williamson said his goal is for participants “to leave here with a great feeling of achievement, firstly of having achieved running the Vic Falls Marathon, and also of our destination as an amazing [place] for people to come and visit.”

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Typically, runners aim to improve their pace or time during every race they run. But for Chari, the Vic Falls Marathon is not the place for that sort of pressure.

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“You want to enjoy the race,” she said, especially with the promise of post-run fun in mind. “So my goal for Victoria Falls is basically finishing and finishing strong, and after that, enjoy life. Enjoy Victoria Falls.”

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Running over the bridge is the highlight of the race for Chari, and the entire weekend’s events put the race “in its own league,” she said. Over the years, her children have also tagged along to join in on the festivities, making it a family affair. “It's more than just a run,” she added. 

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Still, Chari is putting in the work and training for the race. She said she typically runs three times a week — twice during the winter when it's too cold — and fits in aerobics and strength training. Her main objective at the moment is to get back to how she used to run before giving birth to her second child, when she could crack a sub-2-hour half marathon. But even when her pace slows, when she's catcalled during her practice runs or when she takes hits to her confidence, Chari always returns to running.

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“That's where my friendships, my relationships are. You do it for the next person. Most of the time, you don't do it for yourself,” she said. “You run because you're thinking, ‘If I don't run, what will happen to the next person who is also looking up to me as the captain, who's also looking up to me as their leader in running, and also someone who is also being inspired by what I'm doing as an athlete?”