It is said that only the disciplined ones are free and for Augustine Atsari, that saying rings true every year as he prepares for the Lewa Safari Marathon.

Augustine is the coordinator of Lions of Lewa, a team of dedicated runners who work at Safaricom, who adopted the name because once a year, they join the thousands who participate in the marathon in the wild.

The Lewa Safari Marathon is considered special because while running a marathon is hard, it’s harder when it is located in rough terrain, a far cry from the roads where most marathons are run, and with wildlife in the vicinity.

To train for it, the Lions of Lewa start preparing six months before.

“We start our preparation quite early in the year, around February, coming up with a team, and then just running. We have teams that run in the morning, and then we have other teams that prefer running in the evening, but on Saturdays, we normally congregate in Karura just so that we can run as a team and do some simple exercises,” said Augustine.

Apart from running and community engagements, participating in the Lewa marathon also plays a role in building the participants’ grit.

“For the years that I have been able to run in Lewa, I can say I have built a lot of endurance, given that Lewa is very hard terrain, quite difficult for even someone who has been running that for some time,” said Augustine.

“The Lions of Lewa has contributed partly to my discipline, as it has been said, only the disciplined ones in life are free. I believe since I started running it has kept me disciplined,” Wilson Kipkoech, Software Integration Engineer, Safaricom.

With the Lewa Safari Marathon celebrating its milestone 25th anniversary on Saturday, June 28, 2025, the Lions of Lewa are set to roar.

Watch the video below to see how the Lions of Lewa are preparing.