PHILIPSBURG--Twenty seven teams took part in Saturday’s 30th anniversary edition of the Around the Island Relay Race organized by St. Maarten Road Runners, marking a big drop in the usual numbers but given the post-Hurricane Irma circumstances it was still a tremendous effort from both runners, organisers, volunteers and sponsors CCI, Presidente, Dasanai and Powerade to keep the spirit of the event going.
With the usual mingling of teams, photo opportunities and breakfast after the race, the fact that it was a much smaller event was hardly noticeable. In a twist on the usual route, this year’s edition had an extra 11th leg, taking the runners over the Causeway Bridge and back before continuing to Marigot and beyond.
The French side’s Intergeneration Runners was the fastest team of the day to get around the island, Muriel Lancien-Paul bringing the baton home under the finishing banner in the Raoul Illidge Sports Complex for a time of 2:21:53, a relatively slow time compared to the blistering pace set by the Insel Air Curaçao team when they clocked 1:53:14 to win in 2016. That year also attracted 46 teams.
Second to finish was SXM Extreme Runners (2:30:20) followed by the Dutch Korps Mariniers Team (2:33:19), SXM Tri Academie finished fourth (2:33:06), Dream of Trails A Team (2:38:08) in fifth and the MPC ICE MACHINES student team in sixth place (2:41:08) and first school team to finish.
The first Junior team out of three to finish was the Dynamics Club in 11th place in 2:51:36. By contrast the Over 60s team not only stood out once again with their display of physical stamina but by their combined age of 742 years – the oldest runner being Paul Steeman at 81 and the youngest Craig Spann at 60.
The team comprised four female runners; Grace Spencer, Liz Maidwell (77), Mary Wrigley and Rosemarie Wilfred. The remainder were Bienvenido Montas, José Clarke, David Dowling, Mike Ferrier, John Hodge, Steeman and Spann.
The Dutch Marines Team showed off some impressive fitness to secure its third place finish for their first participation.
“Since 2013 we are a group of 26 that is stationed here and rotating. The eight that were running was the group that came after the hurricane to relieve the group that was here before Irma,” explained Major Raymon Witteveen. “Most of us have been living here two or three years now. We had two female volunteer runners join us as we don’t have female marines.”
One of the two was Director of the Heineken Regatta Michelle van der Wurff who ran leg 10. It was her third time running the race.
“It was pretty tough for me as I hadn’t done any running since last year,” she said. “It feels good to be running again especially after everything that happened. And we came third, and I’ve never finished third before.”
Multi sportsman Frits Bus was presented with the Incredible Feet (feat) Award. He has run in all 30 editions of the race and organized 20 of them. The Love Hotel Team from Grand Case received the Best Dressed Team award.
Trophies were made by Stuart Knaggs from the wood of a fallen Flamboyant tree.
