He is racing will benefit The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, which helps preserve the Maasai tribal lands of East Africa (Kenya mostly). You can follow his training on twitter here. For those runners out there, it's actually a really interesting read.
The Maasai have a long tradition of distance running. Norton said one of the runners, safari guide Parashi Ntanin, is so fast he could probably leave the rest of the group behind and run the race in less than 2½ hours. He has run as much as 15 miles twice during his training for the 26.2-mile marathon and that despite some leg and knee pains, he's confident he'll finish the endurance race.
"I'm really enjoying it," he said after a workout Wednesday in New York. "I'm enjoying having a goal."
I studied the Maasai in my anthropology class last semester. We read "The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior" by Tepilit Ole Saitoti, which is a fascinating book. I can lend it if anyone would like. Trust, it was a great book. The Maasai need a lot of land because they are a nomadic people, who work mostly with cows- they believe that they are the sacred keepers of cows, and all the cows in the world belong to them, and are only lost from the herd. So if you've got a cow, stay away from Maasai.
Also the only way to become a true Maasai warrior is by killing a lion with a spear. How insanely B.A. is that? Technically it's illegal for them to do that now, but still. I don't think they really follow that rule too much.
Anyways, love Edward Norton, he is the ish.
-CE
Photos courtesy of Just Jared.
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