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TEAM TRAVELERS Enter 5K Race
Dee Patel, Travellers Volunteer
Captain’s log, Stardate Saturday 13th May 2006
The TEAM [staff and volunteers] boldly goes to uncharted frontiers, to
face another challenge. For a few it’s a new experience.
The TEAM set of early, for the long drive to Louis Trichaard, some 100k to
the north west of Giyani. The race was for charity and was open to the
public to compete. The chosen mode of transport, coach, with the Khanyisa
staff and student runners. The school was well represented and the
competitive element soon became the topic of conversation. It was a
comfortable drive, although our driver did worry us slightly with some
erratic manoeuvering.
We arrived at our destination town at 11:45. Everyone unboarded the coach
to wonder around the town centre, a light lunch before the race start at
14:00. It was soon time to re-board the coach for the 15 minute drive to
the show grounds where the race H.Q was located.
It was a late start – 14:15, in the heat of the South African winter,
temperature showing 77+ and no breeze. The course was undulating and the
TEAM had been led to believe by the opposing team captains that the course
was flat and had one tiny hill at the start and should be an easy 5K race.
This was far from the truth and it seemed more like an ascent up Everest
at times.
TEAM TRAVELERS were labelled as “3 Brits & 1 Dutch Portuguese” which
brought much humour and banter. The TEAM performed exceptionally well,
taking into account the TEAM consisted of one senile O.A.P, The Team
Captain (who was there by right of been just that – the Captain) and 2
Shakespearean/drama actors. The other teams competing were made up of
junior school teachers and the other were the senior school teachers.
Led by the “old man”, our Captain “Richie-Rich” and the fledglings “Flick”
our head chef and “Gee-Man” – the TEAM finished in 1st place in the
Khanyisa School Challenge.
The “Old-Man” went AWOL at the start (organizers had announced a 5 minute
break and so “Old-Man” went to jog around a-bit instead of hanging around
at the start line, thus missing the start gun and then doing a cameo
impersonation of a headless chicken to get to the start line). Early signs
of senility showing and missing the start probably cost the “Old-Man” 1st
place, but nevertheless finishing 2nd was a good effort, considering
starting from last place.
TEAM TRAVELERS set the pace in the early stages.
“Richie-Rich” ran a consistent race and finished shortly after the Old
Man. The solid performance puts TEAM TRAVELERS in pole position so far.
The surprise package of TEAM TRAVELERS, our head chef “Flick”, has an
outstanding run, especially since her running career only began 1 week
before the race and thus was awarded the MVR (Most Valuable Runner) by the
TEAM.
There’s a runner in Flick and hopefully this will lead to further glory in
the years to come.
TEAM TRAVELERS seal 1st place thanks to “Gee-Man”, looking fresh as a
daisy at the finish, not a bead of sweat and looking so relaxed, rumours
were heard that there was a failed drug test specimen provided. The
Captain stepped in to lodge an immediate appeal and squash any undoing
from the opposing teams.
TEAM TRAVELERS race results
Overall the Travellers Volunteers performed very well out of around 100
competitors in the race. Dee Patel came in 2nd in a time of 21.05, Richard
Cowley (Travellers Liaison Officer) came in 3rd with a time of 23.02,
Felicity Hunt–Taylor came in 7th with a time of 29.05 mins and Geert
Sillevis came in 33rd in a time of 34.32 mins.
The team will be performing again next week in the name of charity and
for future volunteers the opportunity is there for them to become part of
the team and run in the name of charity in South Africa. |
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+44 01903 502595
