Today was the annual dashing thru the sand run on Grand
Cayman. I say that like I knew it as a world famous event but I only actually
heard of it 3 days ago.
I arrived in Grand Cayman on 22nd December ready
for a sunny Christmas ahead of a friend’s wedding on the 29th.
Picking up the hire czar I was perusing the usual racks of tourist brochures
and came across a “what’s on” guide and
gave that a flick. Two things stood out to me:
1) A recipe for Egg Nog
2) An advert for the dashing thru the sand run
In my head I agreed to both. First things first. it was time
to make some Egg Nog. I have never made it from scratch before but can tell you
now that every festive season from now on it will be as traditional as mince
pies, Christmas tunes and Starbucks Eggnog lattes.
I then signed up for the dashing thru the sand event. Only a
few hours later I got a personal email
from the organiser to welcome me to the island and to let me know all the
final arrangements for the day. I think
he was excited that I had travelled from London….a detail I would realise why
later on after the race.
On Christmas morning I had a swim in the sea at sunrise
accompanied by some Prosecco on the beach. I then decided to have a short run
along the beach in order to prepare for the race the next day. It. Was. Hard.
The heat was quite something to contend with (I am certain the lobster we had
later on for Christmas dinner could have BBQ’d itself) but the sand was pretty
deep and every step was a challenge. It reminded me of when I first started
getting into running back in 2010 when I took a trip to Carbis Bay in Cornwall
and would run on the beach before breakfast. Again a beautiful beach but harder
to train on than the roads of London.
So getting up this morning we made our way down to the start
where we met Jerry (the race organiser) to say hello and to pick up our
t-shirts. It was a very friendly atmosphere and everyone was still in the
Christmas spirit. Some wore Santa hats. Some wore reindeer antlers (moi
included.) Some wore halos. Some simply looked like seasoned beach runners with
no tops on. They looked good. Those would be the people I needed to chase. I
also followed their lead and removed my trainers to run barefoot (also slightly
aided by the fact I had just been caught by a rogue wave and was soaking.)
We started at 07:30 so the heat was not so strong. We ran
along the beautiful 7 mile beach (not all of it….just 1.5 miles) and the
stretch that we took was on less of a camber than my run the day before and on
much harder sand. It was really fun. Running barefoot was a real treat and I would
say something I would adopt forever but I know that it will only be whenever I
have the chance to run on sand. Occasionally the waves came right up onto the
beach which was a welcome cool down as well as making me feel like David
Hasselhof or was it Pamela Anderson? You decide.
I finished in a healthy 7th place out of around
200 people I think. Coconut water was in abundance at the end (this is the
Caribbean after all) as well as a breakfast buffet at a beach bar. They
announced the prizes for the top 4 men and women finishers as well as giving a
prize for the person that had travelled the furthest to get to the race. We
lost out to some people from France but were then given a special present for
making our way from London. A lovely gesture.
A lovely race in a lovely country. I will run on the beach
every day until I leave…..
The start area....a lot warmer than waiting for the start of races in winter in the UK:
Headgear at the ready:
Along 7 mile beach we go:
Baywatch envy, Can you spot me?
Finished!
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