Sally Gunnell's blog by Sally_Gunnell

When I arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, to take part in the Action Aid 10k run, I knew things would be a little different from my usual race experiences. There were the obvious factors like the heat and the thinner air (we were at altitude), meaning that a fast time wasn’t really on the agenda. In fact, it turned out to be the slowest 10k I’ve ever done! There were 36,000 people on the start line wearing red t-shirts. We were all milling around, waiting for the start, when suddenly, we were off…well, sort of. It seemed like I’d gone 100m when the runners ahead of me all stopped to have a boogie to the band playing at the side of the road. I thought “OK. Time to get dancing.”

And so it went on; we jogged round a few hundred potholes before stopping again to have a little dance to a band, or chat with people at the side of the road. I found myself running alongside a donkey on more than one occasion, which was a new experience for me. I’m not sure race organisers in the UK would make of the arrangements in Addis Ababa, but I have to say it was a fantastic experience – one I’ll never forget. Running in Ethiopia is massive, because if you make it to the top, you escape the grinding poverty that most people are stuck in. I went to the home of one of the sport’s greatest role models, Haile Gebrselassie. He and I both won our World Championship events back in 1993, but amazingly, he’s still going!

He’s treated like a king in his home country, yet he’s a kind, humble and warm man. He made me feel very at home and I must say I learned a lot about displaying trophies; he has a massive room full of his awards, cups and medals. It’s like a sort of mini-museum. Mine, on the other hand, all sit in a cupboard in the house! I got the chance to see what Action Aid have been doing out in the rural communities of Ethiopia. They’ve built schools and health centres, which have made a huge difference to people’s lives. I met one lady at a clinic who used to have to do a round trip on foot of nearly 6 hours to get help. Now, she’s there within an hour, thanks to Action Aid’s new centre. Great work!

I came home to the Sports Personality of the Year controversy; this year’s list of potential winners contains not one single woman. Pretty surprising, when you consider the great females out there, winning championships and medals. I wonder whether it’s time to look at the voting structure. By all means, give magazines like Nuts and Zoo a vote, but why not give votes to some female magazines too? We need strong, healthy female role models to inspire young girls to get into sport – or at least to aspire to be fit and healthy. All of the guys on the list are great performers, of course, so we mustn’t take anything away from them. But personally, I’d like to be able to consider a female candidate, rather than be asked to choose only from a list of men.