The Cave Shepherd Marathon, which closed the curtains on this year’s Barbados Run Series, saw Paul Schmidt, a runner and doctor from Germany, finishing as champion at a time of 2 hours, 30 minutes and 59 seconds.
The series consisted of several races and involved some very interesting people. The races included the Colombian Emeralds International 10K Run, the Cave Shepherd Visa card 5K Run, the Cave Shepherd Visa Card 5K Run Wheelchair, the Signia Fun Mile, the Fortress Half Marathon, and the Cave Shepherd Marathon. There was also a 5K Charity Walk.
The races opened the on evening of Friday December 6, with under-12 boys and girls running a mile along with some of the elite runners and those participating in the Fun Mile. On Saturday December 7, there were 5K runs, a 10K run, and the Charity Walk. The Half Marathon and Marathon concluded the series on Sunday December 8.
Runners arrived from all six continents to be involved in the various races. Among them were Jamaican Fitness Coach Patrice White, retired Colombian dentist Cheryl Mestra and Fabrice Fonds and his entire family from Guadeloupe.
Fabrice participated in the Fun Mile, the 5K and the Half Marathon. The family of five took on the Fun Mile together, while Fabrice, his wife Mylene and their only son Reggie did the 5K. Fabrice then competed in the Half Marathon by himself. This was the first time the family ran together in race. Forty-five-year-old Fabrice has been running for 30 years. The Guadeloupean is a coach in his country. Running together as a family is not a new activity for the Fonds, they do it at least several times a week for an hour.
Since he took up running professionally, the French athlete has participated in almost 20 marathons and smaller races like the 5K. Five of his marathons were run this year alone. At the beginning of the year he participated in a marathon in Tokyo then several others in Texas, Berlin, Chicago and Boston. Earlier this year, Mylene was in the Miami Half Marathon.
The two have been married for 21 years. This was Fabrice’s second time in Barbados, the first being a trip he did in his late teens. Mylene said, with the help of her husband as an interpreter, that this year’s trip to the Flying Fish Island was a fun one for the family and important to their family unit. Some of their time in the Caribbean country was spent exploring Harrison’s Cave at 160ft underground, visiting the Mount Gay Distillery, enjoying the food, culture and going sight-seeing.
The Fonds’ children were most excited about getting away from school that was not yet out for the holidays at the time. They were thrilled about seeing as much of Barbados as they could, and the priority on their bucket list while they were in Barbados was to see Rihanna’s house.
Retired dentist and now professional runner for Nike, Cheryl Mestra, participated in 12 races including the Fun Mile and 10K in the Barbados Run Series.
As a Nike coach, Mestra is versed in running and training both children and adults. A coach for eight years, she first took up running at 14 years old and did her first marathon in Caracas, Venezuela when she was 17.
Cheryl shared that after several years of studying to be a dentist she only took up the career for three years. Choosing to leave this profession, she shared, was difficult for her to do especially after all the years of studies that she put in. “But I wanted to give my life to running and training people… At first, when I made this decision, my family was mad about me doing this, but they have gotten over that and they support me now. I will be running my first race for next year in February in Miami. I am enjoying the people here. They are like a family. I feel at home. The island offers everything. It’s amazing. If I have to say where is my favourite place to run around the world, I’d chose Barbados,” the Colombian said.
Patrice White, a mother of one, took up running professionally in 2014 and began representing Jamaica the following year.
“For me, preparing for Run Barbados was very easy because I do a marathon almost every three months and just came back from doing the New York City Marathon on the 3rd of November and I actually have the Dubai Marathon that I will be doing in January. After Dubai, I’m doing Tokyo which is the 1st of March,” she said. For 2018, Patrice visited ten countries to be a part of their races. In preparation for these races, the fitness instructor trains daily. She only took up running marathons three years ago, and to date she has participated in 18 of them along with half marathons. Because she was training for the Tokyo Marathon, which is a world major series, Patrice limited herself to the Fun Mile, the 10K and the half marathon. “My official training began on the 1st of December so I’m using Run Barbados as a speed training run for Tokyo.
I’m looking to enjoy the people and the culture and the beaches here, beautiful beaches,” Patrice enthused.
In the marathon Schmidt and fellow German Helmuth Noesner copped first and third places respectively. Noesner’s time stopped at 02:52:35.7 while Craig Pillsbury finished in second at a time of 02:40:10.5
Canadian Yves Sikubwabo won the Fortress Half Marathon at a time of 01:08:40.2 with Colombian Santiago Zerda falling short of a tie with 01:08:55.9; third place went to Michael Marantelli of Australia who finished with a time of 01:11:32.5
Sikubwabo secured the most wins in the Barbados Run Series as he also finished at the top for the Columbian Emeralds International 10K Run and the Signia Fun Mile.
