Barbados Half Marathon

Way back in August myself and Cherry had a brilliant idea for a race , something a little bit adventurous, something out of the ordinary, somewhere mouthwatering so after about 10 seconds of thinking time we both decided on entering a half marathon in Barbados. Enter we did and with out further ado got down to some training and racing. Cherry was doing great, myself not to good, it was at the Cross Morecambe bay half marathon race that I became a cropper .No problem I thought I have until 7th Dec to get my busted ankle fixed. Sept came, Oct and nov passed and I knew my ankle was not going to be up to any racing at all, not even for Barbados.
Cherry was getting fitter I was getting down in the dumps . I so desperately wanted to race this big one as traveling over 8ooomiles round trip and not running was not what we planned .
We arrived in Barbados, Cherry still training, myself feeing rather naffed off. I had a few days to come to a decision should I do a race, all be it a short one or just drink loads of rum punch ,we both entered a midnight mile run in St Lawrence Gap ,so no rum punch , well I had just a little .Cherry did well in the mile race and came in ahead of me in under 7 mins and she said she was only jogging ,saving herself for the half marathon in two days .My ankle stood up to a mile however it was not up to a half mara. Half marathon day was upon us, a 3am get up ,a half hour car journey to the start in Bridgetown and at 5am Cherry was off in her race. Runner from all over took part ,from Canada ,USA ,Italy and lots of other Caribbean Islands along with the Brits one of them from Lostock ac .
It was dark and warm as the race began .
People with dreadlocks flowing ran , runners without shoes ran ,and Cherry ran and what a run she had , not only had she ran in heat in the last half of the race she got a PB SMASHING 3 mins off in a time of 42 mins and then won her age catagory and got a trophy ,came in 4th lady overall and won an amazing 750 barbados dollars ( about £270 ) ,check out photo on run barbados 2008 face book of her getting her prize .
I was so proud of her efforts that I let her buy me a few drinks and an evening meal with part of her winnings , a big thanks for that .
As I could`nt run the race and all being well I am going to enter next year so if anyone would like a trip of a life time let me know and join me for a run in the sun and stay for some fun .
Well done again Cherry you deserved what you got

Dave Pearson .............................................