On Saturday, July 24th 2010 10 brave souls ventured into a relay race around the island of Efate in Vanuatu-- The Wilco Relay Race aka Round Island Race. We had 7 female Peace Corps Volunteers, 1 JICA Volunteer (Japanese International Cooperation Agencey = Japan's version of PC), 1 Ni-Van (my Counterpart from Onesua College) & 1 son of a current PCV. We set off at 7am and came in 5th place out of 12 teams. That may not seen like a big deal to most but considering most of us did not train nor did we know exactly what to expect in terms of the terrain we were absolutely thrilled when we found out what we ranked.
A special thanks to our drivers/supporters Brenda Dalzell, her husband Bill, Solo, Coach Peter Albert, my friend and collegua from Onesua, and all the locals that came out to cheer us on.
A special thanks to our drivers/supporters Brenda Dalzell, her husband Bill, Solo, Coach Peter Albert, my friend and collegua from Onesua, and all the locals that came out to cheer us on.
When the race began we were pumped, during the race the heat was brutal not to mention some of us (Laura & Alvetta) had hills from hell that I swore were going to kill us, in the end we were exhausted, but thrilled that we finished.....and not in last place!!! This experience was a perfect example of how folks (Americans, Japanese, Canadians, and Ni-Vans) can come together despite cultural differences work as a team and be successful.
Peter Albert was a last miniute addition to the team as an Official (he made sure we didn't cheat or collapse and die for that matter) and it turned out to be the best decision ever. He ran a big chunk of the race right along side each runner with enthusiam and motivated us like no other coach i've known. He had actually run the same race back in 1987 as a high school student and was making his debut with us as an Official. He was awesome!
Than we had Hunter Haggia who was on board 2-3 weeks prior to the race and was just as supportive. His team spirit was inspiring.
And than there's Yuki Jimbo....what can I say about Yuki. He and the rest of our team communicated in Bislama "nomo" because he doesn't speak English and i loved his energy. I have never met such a bubbly Japanese young man. He broke his own record by running 14.1k (8.7m) in exactly 1 hour. Go Yuki!
Next year we're aiming for 1st place! Go Team PIS Runners!
Below is are our distances and times:
Laura Dodd ran Leg 1 (13k; 8.07m) in 1hr 7m
Alvetta Embry ran Leg 2 (11.6k; 7.21m) in 1hr 28m
Yuki Jimbo ran Leg 3 (14.1k; 8.76m) in 1hr
Amy Orr ran Leg 4 (12.7k; 7.89m) in 1hr 26m
Hali Thomas ran Leg 5 (14.8k; 9.2m) in 1hr 36m
Hunter Haggi ran Leg 6 (13.3k; 8.26m) in 1hr 22m
Milly Bigay ran Leg 7 (16k; 9.94m) in 1hr 42m
Terri Gureno ran Leg 8 (14.9k; 9.25m) in 1hr 53m
Neely Dahl ran Leg 9 (13k; 8.07m) in 1hr 31m
Josh Romberg ran Leg 10 (12.6k; 7.82m) in 1hr 8m
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