One motivation to run is the Hash House Harriers, a running/social group with chapters in 1,251 cities in 183 countries. We started participating this spring in Kigali and have participated in the Dar es Salaam "hash" every Monday night since we arrived. There is typically a 35-55 minute run with the group (~50 people) meeting up along the way for "beer stops" and concluding at someone's house for supper and additional socializing. Over the past few weeks we have made a few friends and Lucy even has two of her parents who regularly participate.
So far the first three weeks have all been on the Msasani Peninsula (where we and many expats live...see map on the right side of the blog of relevant spots in Tanzania), which is quite flat, but hypothetically the runs could take place anywhere someone wanted to plan a trail. Most of the running has been east-west on dirt roads with connections on north-south paved roads, though it is quite circuitous in reality and would be quite easy to get lost given how every spot looks pretty much the same. The Dar hash is quite a contrast to Kigali where many of the participants were Rwandan and we were running up and down swampy valleys around mud brick houses and through people's fields and cow pastures.
There are a few major runs each year spread around Tanzania (where fetching t-shirts are given out) and also regional (some recently returned from one in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and international hashes (last year people from Rwanda went to Malaysia). In two weeks is the 1,400 Dar hash so there is a weekend excursion involved where the group will travel to a house on south beach. We may attend if our schedule permits.
On a related note, a couple of interesting articles on running that Rawson found on NPR:
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