A tropical 10km

Yesterday I met some incredible athletes. I met some of South America and the Caribbean’s best distance runners. I met guys and girls who travel round the world competing in 1500m to half marathon races and funding a lifestyle off it. Sadly I also had to meet them as I had signed up to a 10km road race with them as my ‘competitors.’

I turned up at the National Park on time (2pm) as I always do in Guyana only to be caught out by Guyanese time. They organisers were still setting up so I sat around in the Sun trying to catch some shade under random bushes. I signed up to the event because the security guard of my building had mentioned it so when he turned up we had a good chat about running. The other runners also started turning up and after a few conversations, I found out that everyone is either there to win the prize money or a veteran who used to be there to win the prize money and now comes for fun.

I found myself slipping into the veteran category as the younger guys (and girls) were dropping finish times about 10 minutes faster than I have ever ran! At the start line I realised how serious this was. A few athletes had turned up from Suriname, Grenada, Trinidad and other islands along with the Guyanese athletes and a handful of veterans. Then there was me! Being white I often feel out of place in Guyana but here I just felt stupid. Anyway the start whistle went and we set off. There was about 70 runners in total. A lot of them went for a quick start and my start was fairly quick too but I was still swamped by most of the field. I got into a rhythm behind a modest looking runner and found myself running along the sea wall feeling pretty good. The wind was cooling me from the front and my legs were feeling fresh.

At the half way point we made to turn around and head back along roughly the same route. Then BAMM! I turned around and the wind was now behind me. No cooling breeze. Baking Sun on my back. My legs went tired, I felt dehydrated and my face (and strangely feet) felt like I was in an oven! This continued for the rest of the 10k and I crossed the line after almost an hour of running.

After thinking about it, I am pleased to have finished the race. It has given me the urge to get out doing some longer distances now instead of the short runs I normally do.

Thankfully I didn’t feel achey at school today. I had a set of good lessons. We had a practical in AS chemistry and the kids successfully did some calculations using their results so that was a big achievement. My form is supposed to go on a trip to Suriname next year so they were all talking about this today. They are planning different fundraising ideas to afford to go to French Guiana instead. I would love to go there as they have a big space station that you can visit.