Belle Toren is no stranger to conflict zones.
The former police officer, legal counsel and corporate director for petroleum companies around the world has, at times in her life, lived and worked in places considered dangerous, such as Israel in the 1970s and Bogota, Colombia when Pablo Escobar was at the height of his power.
So when she saw an opportunity to run the Marathon of Afghanistan in 2017, she didn’t hesitate for a second in deciding it was exactly what she wanted to do to motivate her to keep running.
A goal-oriented outdoor runner and recreationalist who moved to Canmore in 2009 from the U.S., Toren was looking for a worthwhile opportunity to travel and keep her training focused on a goal. Having run two marathons in the past – New York, where she grew up, and Alaska – she felt ready to take on another 42-kilometre race when she happened upon the right opportunity.
“The marathon is not my distance, so if it is going to be a marathon it has to be unique,” she said while sitting in a quiet teashop in Canmore on a cold January morning before she went for a run. “It was a place in the back of my mind that I thought I would never see, but is fascinating to me.”
The opportunity came through the travel group Untamed Borders, which organizes unique travel experiences to inaccessible parts of the world, with 15 other international marathoners. The group was heading to the conflict zone in Afghanistan for the third annual Marathon of Afghanistan in November and for Toren it was a unique experience she couldn’t resist.
“I have to have a goal – it causes me to train and work and run,” said the 65-year-old. “While I was on their website and saw the Marathon of Afghanistan, it didn’t take me a minute to know I would do it.
“I right away signed up and there was no hesitation.”
While they flew into Kabul, the marathon was held in the Bamiyan Valley, which is at an elevation of 2,500 metres near the ancient cities of Shah-e-Zohak and Sharh-e-Gholghola, as well as the national park site of Band-E-Amir.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan are part of the area that was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2003 for its cultural value and archaeological remains. Two Buddha statues were set into niches that were 55 metres and 34 metres tall, and in 2001 the Taliban destroyed them before they abandoned the area. The pair of Buddhas were constructed in 507 and 554 AD, and were part of the caves that formed numerous Buddhist sites in the mountains of the Hindu Kush.
While she was in the mountain valley, Toren visited a classroom for girls that was inside a cave and took part in a tea ceremony with local village officials. The experiences were beyond her expectations.
Toren also met one of the local men whose life was threatened if he did not participate in placing dynamite on the Buddhas to destroy them at the time.
“What I didn’t realize was yes, the Buddhas were blown up, but before they left they blew up the whole town,” she said. “That was the main town in Bamiyan until 2001 … and the new town where more modern buildings are, has been built since then.”
Afghanistan based non-profit organization Free to Run, which helps local women and girls recreate safely in the conflict zone, also participated in the marathon, which meant Toren had the opportunity to spend time with them before the race.
Free to Run was one of the sponsored organizations that took part in the run, which was organized by Ring O’ Fire, a U.K.-based group that organizes ultra-marathon races.
“The first day, we hiked into the mountains to get socialized with each other culturally and do those workshop games you play for team building,” Toren said. “It is a networking group, like Fast and Female for young women, and they get them into running and other activities.”
Other activities the women participated in included biking, kayaking and swimming.
“You realize these people are living in such tension and that the sad part is you can leave and they can’t,” she said. “What Free to Run does is deal with their present and try to make it great. The part none of them can control is the future. They are living in a volatile place that has not seen peace since the ’60s.”
Free to Run was started by Canadian human rights lawyer Stephanie Case, who was stationed in Kabul for two years. In addition to operating in Afghanistan, the non-profit has an office in Hong Kong that supports women who are displaced, or refugees in that city, and supported the first female Afghani to run a marathon.
“Now that we’ve completed our third year of programming, we’re gaining more and more acceptance by the community and that’s translating into higher numbers of participants,” Case wrote in a blog post this past January. “We’re now reaching over 100 young women in three provinces across the country (Afghanistan). While the security situation continues to deteriorate, we’ve been able to stay safe and operational, delivering over 550 sports training sessions, 50 educational sessions, 10 volunteer activities, running four mixed-gender races, and organizing two outdoor sports weeks.”
With support from the Canadian embassy, Free to Run also established the country’s first outdoor ice skating rink and program.
For the third annual Marathon of Afghanistan, the program saw its highest number of women race – 150 women and girls in the 15-km distance and 11 in the marathon.
The program’s Iranian ambassador, Mahsa Torabi, who in 2016 became the only woman to run in the first international marathon in her country, made a big impression on Toren during her time in Afghanistan.
The two women were partnered to run the race together, even though Toren thought she might hold her new Iranian friend back.
“Mahsa has extreme resilience and endurance,” she said, noting Torabi had just recently finished an ultra in 50 C heat. “She is not necessarily a quick runner, but she will pull through anything.”
She also met Afghani cyclist Shekeb Noori during the race, who was chosen to run the marathon by his employer Etisalat, one of the race’s main sponsors.
The cultural experiences, learning about Free to Run and bonding with other runners made the entire experience one Toren said she will cherish. She soaked in the scenery and connections she was making knowing she would never do anything like it again.
“Those two people, they are both part of my marathon,” she said. “That is my marathon story; not only running it, but running with these people and talking to farmers … I did things you don’t do on a marathon.
“I didn’t have any pain because I was relaxed and we enjoyed ourselves.”
Toren is determined to bring both Noori and Toorabi to the Bow Valley to participate in an event, hopefully for 2019. They have identified the Rocky Mountain Soap women’s run in May as the race for Toorabi, and she is looking for a road cycling race for Noori to compete in as well.
Training for the distance race was difficult, as she had issues and had to scale back her training for a while under the direction of her trainer here in the Bow Valley.
“I started off really training aggressively,” she said. “We had to stop, restart and re-figure out everything.”
But she went into the race determined to have an experience, instead of reaching time goals and that mindset paid off. In the end, she not only finished the marathon, but also went on to run a desert half marathon in Israel a few weeks later, as well as touring parts of Turkey during her trip.
“I have it on any trek; as much as I plan and think I know what I would do or see, there is always an element of surprise. But I knew this would be special,” she said.
