Two week-ends ago I had the opportunity to run in the annual “Off the beaten track” run.
This is definitely an “odd ball” run. It is a 50km (+31 miles) run. The race, as it is called, definitely goes off the beaten path and into parts unknown of Cayman. The whole concept is based on a race in the Sahara (“Marathon des Sables”) which the organizers attempt to replicate with a local flavor. Part of the race is ran on the beach I guess because of the link to the Sahara.
Ok, so the 50km race can be ran solo or in teams of 6. I chose to run in a team ; 50km is way to much for me. The race starts at 6am Sunday and I was lucky to get the 1st leg where the sun had not yet risen so its still not too hot.
Oh … I have not mentioned it yet. Each leg (there are 6 @ +-8.3km per runner) is only somewhat marked and the runner needs to know where s/he is going. It is quite easy to get lost. (I know of someone who ran a whole extra mile for nothing. haha) On my leg, there were 2 barbed wire fences to climb over, a field with cows (and cow pats …) as well as some muddy areas. That being said, I went the day before and did my leg on a mountain bike so to be sure I was not one of those who would get lost.
Here are some pics I took the day before. As you will see, it is definitely not on a beaten path.
There was a small lake to go around at one point!
We then had to run +-1km along this fence. There were numerous thorny bushes and cow pats which were almost strategically placed for the runners.
I saw this cute fellow when I went to check out the path. No sign of the cow at 6am though!
So here was my run on the GPS watch. It started at the bottom part near the ocean on Beach Bay Drive (that is close to Bodden Town)
Then it headed north and from where you see the “4” to just after the “6” that was all in the fields, dirt paths and barbed wire fences. Just after 8 is the hand-off to the next runner in my team.
After the race (the finish was at Tiki Beach on Seven Mile beach) we were all treated to a lovely breakfast for our efforts. Great place for a snack don’t you think?
Here is the medal we all got. Quite original ; kind of like a military dog tag.
And finally my team (one is missing in action) Sorry Ruan!
How did we do? We came in a very respectable 21st out of 58 teams. Good job team.
Definitely will do this race again next year. Lots of fun.