A Half-____ Attempt?
19 November 2013 | St. Georges, Grenada
Lynn
One can’t hang around a bunch of runners without being aware of some of the non-Hashing athletic options available in Grenada. As of two years ago, I was made aware of the Grenada ½ Marathon, and it sort of tweaked my curiousity. As much as I haven’t been a “serious” runner for much of our cruising life, I did complete a ½ marathon 15 years ago, and this intrigued me to a certain extent.
This year, when it became clear that we would indeed be in Grenada at the time of the Half, I decided to throw my hat into the ring. I was up to 8 mile or so runs, and I knew that I could push it out for 13.1 miles if I wanted to – and there is no shame in a little walking if necessary. Besides, lots of people can say they have done the New York and Boston marathons, but how many can really say they have done the Grenada Half?
The route goes from one side of the island to the other, so transport is necessary. Bus service was provided from downtown, and pickups could be made along the route. I walked to the pickup point, where two busses were supposed to depart, but only one arrived for the purpose. It didn’t matter to the two of us waiting there, but we hoped that anyone standing en route wouldn’t be stranded.
The start point was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. A couple of houses, a rum shop, and a large bus shelter. The bus shelter was where the registration occurred, and the organizers congregated. Grenada General Insurance was the sponsor, in conjunction with the Grenada Athletics Association, and despite the lack of entry fee, we were all given race shirts. The “TriHashletes”, the Hashers who also do other things like Triathlons and races, hung out together.
It wasn’t a big surprise, but the start was delayed by almost 30 minutes. The good news for us was that it would be a 3:00 start, not 2:30, which meant it might be an iota cooler at some point on the course. The 142 competitors lined up at the start, and the more experienced runners stayed to the back – there were a lot of quite young runners. We had a mixed group that saw a number of young Grenadians who were members of local track or running clubs, some university students, the TriHashletes, and a few others thrown in for good measure. There was a very noticeable number of young Grenadians who were running barefoot or in socks.
Finally, the gun went off. The inexperienced distance runners took off like they were doing a 5 km race. Those of us who really are distance runners got into our grooves and went from there. Within a mile, we were passing young people who had already slowed to a walk. They got into a pattern of run fast for a bit, then walk. With my slow but steady pace, I left them behind. It was not an easy course, as even though this may have been a “flat” course for Grenada, it was still quite hilly, and it was a solid 30 C (thankfully we had some cloud cover for much of it). They had enough water stations to keep us going, which was a good thing.
I saw one Rasta guy who ended up tossing his shoes to a buddy in a truck so that they could sort out his laces. In the meantime, he ran barefoot. On the other hand, a friend wore shoes that he had never trained in, and ended up giving him problems before we were even a ¼ way along. His wife dropped off his other shoes to him; he did not run barefoot.
One of the other TriHashletes had observed a “competitor” had jumped on a bus and rode for about 5 km to get a little ahead. That is not something one is normally likely to see on most races.
We slogged along. Up hill, down hill, water station, small flat section… and on like that for 13.1 miles (2 hours and 20 minutes for me). Ken greeted me at the finish with a bottle of cold chocolate milk – the perfect recovery drink! A beer washed that down. He also ended up cooking dinner.
It ends up I was the third oldest female finisher in the race, which earned me a medal! I also finished 14th out of about 35 female finishers (I don’t know how many started and didn’t finish, or didn’t finish in time). I am content with that, as I didn’t actually train specifically for this; the one I did 15 years ago I had a specific training plan for.
It certainly is interesting to note the differences between a Toronto (or London, Ontario) road race, and a Grenadian event. The Canadian ones I participated in had lanes and/or roads closed off for the competition; in Grenada we stopped traffic for a brief time for the start, but then we had to watch for the traffic. Thousands of competitors can participate in Canada; they were very happy to be up to 142 yesterday from 70+ last year, and are hoping to break 200 participants next year. Nobody runs barefoot in Canada, unless they are a Kenyan champion transported in for the race; it’s not uncommon here. There are huge amounts of sponsorship in the big road races; this race had one very good sponsor in the insurance company, but no banners from Nike or Powerbar were to be seen. Here, there was no restriction on using headphones and listening to your music as you ran, something that is not allowed in the North American races.
I must confess, I wonder how I would do if I trained for next year’s… could I break the 2 hour mark? I just wish they would have 10 km races…
Photo credit Neil Batcheler