first Marathon international de Tiout 
With "one two three viva L'Algérie", jubilation and Jujurufen accompany dozens of school children the runners in the final meters of the 1st International Marathon of Tiout let them live high. Yamina
teacher from Algiers snorts:
".. I have not driven long sports friends I have enrolled in this race ... Now I know that you can grow beyond themselves." At three days the 120 participants of 14 kilometers through the oasis of Tiout through mountainous desert scenery, including goats, sheep, donkeys.
Tiout is on the edge of the Sahara in the south-western Algeria, near the border with Morocco. Marathon races take place in Algeria in many places, up to a dozen month! Running is the new national pastime to be.
Hassiba Boulmerka brought Algeria at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 the first gold medal. That was the beginning of the so-called "bloody decade: in the 1990s civil war in Algeria is estimated that cost states up to 200 000 deaths. had to walk without fear through the countryside is still a special joy that
literature professor Saliha explained from Algiers:
"We lived a long time confined like. Now we discover our own country, the south. We are people from big cities do not know this authentic Algeria. As flies the stress, this is a great change of scene, everyone is happy. The people here are spontaneous and nice. " 
The best of the marathon runners are young athletes: men are after half an hour in the target and the slowest are the ladies, some take up to three hours.
The thermometer rises at noon.
organizer Mohamed Zerouki leaves the route in a jeep and collect participants who give up. "My goal is that people drive the sport does not matter when they arrive. " The marathon runners pay around 100 € for the whole weekend, is including food, accommodation and transport. The minimum wage at the equivalent of around 150 € a month. So it is not the poorest, can afford the weekend .
visit after the run in the morning to the afternoon rock paintings and a thermal spa in the near or the grave of the writer Isabelle Eberhardt in Ain Sefra.
The mayor of the 6,000-strong community Tiout, Abdelaziz Benois , hopes to develop thanks to the marathon of tourism: "We are a small community. Normal is not a man on the street, But on these days is full of people, journalists, athletes, this is quite an event! " This time a single European was there, a Frenchman from Toulouse. Then a Cuban and an athlete from Yemen. The Algerians dream that at least the marathon of Algiers, the beginning of June with 4,000 participants took place, it becomes known as the Paris or New York ☺
Once again Ingrid Aouanes article Algerian hospitality makes the point:
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environment-friendly, sustainable, equitable tourism - common terms in Algeria, but there's also a special phenomenon: the "mutual" Tourismus.Will read: Wherever our group - foreign and domestic journalists - appears, was warned not only the entire population and on the legs to greet us properly, but threw himself at the same time, equipped with camera phones and digital cameras on the new arrivals to record the memories of the exotic guests. Hospitable call all African countries without exception - shoot the Algerians, however, from the bird. The kindness and great respect towards strangers the Algerians seem to be innate. Information and helpful they are fully available to anyone of their Home visits to which they are so proud. You agree tirelessly have prepared brochures about their region that they push us into the hand.
These people have no ulterior intentions. They are not out to lure tourists from their money, for they are guests on their arrival one is very happy and you want to make their stay as pleasant as possible, keep them coming back sometime.
(Ingrid Aouane)
