EXCITEMENT and SWEAT !
To start the new school year at St. Louis, we gently introduced our new intake of Form 4 students to Athletics by giving them, at the end of Week 1, a Fun Run on the beach. It coincided with the whole school (500+) doing some sporting activities for the morning, and so it seemed sensible to take a group off the main site.
Thus it was that more than 130 boys and girls, mostly changed out of school uniform and labelled with numbers and pins for easy recognition by checkers, started out on the lagoon side (of the main road). They ran, jogged, or walked on the rough beach (sand and coral) for about 2km. to a check point, crossed the road at the beginning of a causeway, then ran back to the campus on the reef and beach on the ocean side.
SLIGHT MISCALCULATION !
While most of the arrangements worked OK, we made a slight miscalculation about the tide ! As you will see from the photos, the lagoon side had a low tide and fairly dry beach. However, the ocean side reef was covered about ankle deep. This caused many of the participants to take the long way round at the end, as you will just about see on the attached photo. Appropriately they finished at the Marist Brothers' house on the point of the land, just about coinciding with the end of the other activities.
The total distance, covered by the vast majority, was approx. 4km. The winner's time was just over 16 minutes. We have found a few more potential stars. There were 57 boys and 69 girls who finished - and no-one died !
Several had actually brought their school bags to the beach - with numerous books inside ! Now that's REAL running ! (I put a few bags in my car ! - Of course I had a car !)
Last Modified on 28/04/2008 20:45