{"id":49056,"date":"2018-03-29T03:05:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T07:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=49056"},"modified":"2018-03-27T14:24:29","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T18:24:29","slug":"in-her-quest-to-find-home-ut-graduate-student-wins-sahara-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/03_29_2018\/in-her-quest-to-find-home-ut-graduate-student-wins-sahara-marathon","title":{"rendered":"In her quest to find ‘home,’ UT graduate student wins Sahara marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

As her feet pounded the dirt road \u2014 mile after mile \u2014 through the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, the wind whipped sand through Inma Zanoguera\u2019s hair and up her nose. <\/p>\n

Camels lifted their heads, their long-lashed eyes following her as she ran by. Up and down the rocky dunes under the cloudy sky, The University of Toledo graduate student and former basketball player ran.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Based on last year\u2019s winning time, Inma Zanoguera knew she had a shot at winning the Sahara Marathon \u2014 and she did, becoming the first Sahrawi to win the 26-mile race. (Photo by Damien Patard)<\/p><\/div>What was she chasing? <\/p>\n

To while away the hours, Zanoguera filmed herself talking to her family on the GoPro she carried. She recited poetry. And she returned to her favorite running song, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cDNA\u201d:<\/p>\n

I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA\u2026
\nGot war and peace inside my DNA
\nI got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA
\nI got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA
\nI was born like this\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

This song meant a lot to Zanoguera on so many levels. It was her DNA that brought her to the desert, the birthplace of her biological mother. She was on a quest of sorts, a search for her roots. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Inma Zanoguera\u2019s journey to Africa was about much more than the marathon. In her search for her roots, Zanoguera said she found more questions than answers. She said she relishes the connections she made with people in the camps, who were gracious and hospitable. (Photo by Michelle-Andrea Girouard)<\/p><\/div>As she crossed the finish line, completing her first marathon, Zanoguera fell to her knees. A race representative scanned her bar code. It was official: She had won the race with a time of 3:48:11 \u2014 the first Sahrawi woman to win the 18-year-old event.<\/p>\n

The 2018 marathon was historic. For the first time, Sahrawis won both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s marathons. <\/p>\n

A search for \u2018home\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adopted when she was a toddler by a family in Mallorca, Spain, Zanoguera discovered last year that her birth mother was a Sahrawi. <\/p>\n

In 1975-76, Sahrawis fled their home in Western Sahara as Moroccan soldiers invaded during the Western Sahara War. Zanoguera\u2019s mom was fortunate to land in Spain. But many others ended up in refugee camps in Algeria. They are still there, four decades later.<\/p>\n

The marathon route traveled through three of the five refugee camps.<\/p>\n

Zanoguera said she tried not to have any expectations of her trip to Africa. She wanted to remain open to whatever she saw and felt. A few weeks later, back in Toledo, she is still processing the experience. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Inma Zanoguera looked at her award for winning the 2018 Sahara Marathon; the awards were made by artist Mohamed Sulaiman Labat, who lives in Smara, the refugee camp where Zanoguera stayed while in Algeria. (Photo by Michelle-Andrea Girouard)<\/p><\/div>After the race, she stayed in Smara, one of the camps, for a few days. The people there knew who she was by then \u2014 the girl who won the marathon. Some of them knew her story, that her mother was a Sahrawi. They peppered her with questions: \u201cHow do you feel being back home?\u201d \u201cDo you feel Sahrawi?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were big questions,\u201d Zanoguera said. <\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t have ready answers. <\/p>\n

The question of \u201chome\u201d has always been one that troubles her, she said. She never felt quite at home in Spain, where the only people who looked like her were her brother and sister. <\/p>\n

She decided to come to America in part because it had black and brown people. But when she got here, she said she was still seen as \u201cother,\u201d as a foreigner. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never feel at home anywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of me unconsciously wanted to find a home [on this trip to Africa].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

At the award ceremony the day after the race, Inma Zanoguera raised the Sahrawi flag, the flag of her birth mother\u2019s homeland. (Photo by Michelle-Andrea Girouard)<\/p><\/div>After she won the marathon, the Sahrawi minister of sports held a reception for the 2015 UT alumna. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe welcomed me home,\u201d she said. He told her he was happy to have her back, even though this was her first trip to her mother\u2019s homeland. She was offered dual citizenship.<\/p>\n

As she wandered the camps, she knew she stood out. Once again, nobody looked like her. She wasn\u2019t wearing a melhfa, the traditional full body cloth that Sahrawi women wear. But at the same time, she said, it was like holding up a mirror to herself when she looked at them.<\/p>\n

She said she was touched by their hospitality, their willingness to answer her questions. She had so many. \u201cWhat do you think about someone like me coming to the camp and calling herself Sahrawi? How do you find meaning in the camps?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Inma Zanoguera befriended 18-year-old Mohamed Moulud on the day of the race\u2019s award ceremony. He convinced Zanoguera that she should raise the Sahrawi flag when she claimed her prize.<\/p><\/div>Zanoguera found the answer to that last question when she met an artist, Mohamed Sulaiman Labat. He showcases his art in Germany and England and had every opportunity to leave the camps. But he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has enough art,\u201d he told Zanoguera. \u201cThey need me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He built a studio in the camp and creates art out of whatever he can find \u2014 wood, cloth, clay, metal. He made the colorful, creative awards that Zanoguera and the other runners received.<\/p>\n

Zanoguera said she thought she might have some kind of mystical revelation as she ran. She didn\u2019t. But one evening at sunset, her guide took her and Canadian filmmaker Michelle-Andrea Girouard, who is making a documentary about Zanoguera\u2019s search for her roots, to the dunes near the camps.<\/p>\n

As she gazed out over the endless horizon, Zanoguera said she had a moment of sadness. There isn\u2019t much beauty in the camps, she said, but here, there was indescribable beauty. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Inma Zanoguera took this photo of the endless Saharan dunes near the refugee camp.<\/p><\/div>\u201cI realized that the beauty, the oil, the [natural resources] were so out of reach for those who belong to the land. They didn\u2019t get to enjoy this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Finding her place<\/strong><\/p>\n

The marathon and the connections she made to her mother\u2019s people were healing for her, Zanoguera said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trip was part of the learning process and acceptance,\u201d she said. \u201cI am Spanish, and I am Sahrawi, and I feel like a part of me also is American because I came here at such a young age. I am all these things, not just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she has more questions now than when she started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know yet what it means for me and how it will affect my daily life,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Zanoguera and Girouard raised $1,200 for the refugees. Zanoguera said the two want to be smart and use it to create a sustainable program for the refugees. They\u2019re considering starting a sports program for children, a way to distract the kids from life in the camps and share the many lessons that Zanoguera learned from athletics.<\/p>\n

Her new friends in the camps asked if she was going to come back to visit. Zanoguera said she\u2019s not sure. She said she would love to come back when their film is finished and present it at FiSahra, the film festival the camps hold each year. <\/p>\n

Celebrating her victory<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the award ceremony the day after the marathon, Zanoguera leaned against a fence as she waited to receive her prize. She was torn. She\u2019d never really felt a strong allegiance to any flag. When she played basketball for the Spanish national team, she said it never felt right to her to raise the Spanish flag.<\/p>\n

But here, among the Sahrawi people, it felt right to raise the Sahrawi flag. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut how do you dare raise a flag that signifies so much persistence and honor after only three days of being in this camp?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As she waited, she struck up a conversation with Mohamed Moulud, an 18-year-old refugee, who stood on the other side of the fence. She asked him what he thought. Would he be offended if she raised the Sahrawi flag?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou absolutely must,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n

She turned to the crowd and asked to borrow someone\u2019s Sahrawi flag. As she walked to the stage \u2014 the first Sahrawi woman to win the Sahara Marathon \u2014 she carried the flag of her mother\u2019s country and raised it high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UT graduate student and former basketball star Inma Zanoguera is the first Sahrawi woman to win the Sahara Marathon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":837,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,56,6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49056"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49128,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49056\/revisions\/49128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}