By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
The top five men and women in the 19th Deloitte-Ogier BVI Sunrise Half Marathon
After measuring his steps over the first half, David Lim overhauled early leaders Jermaine “JJ” Ricketts and Julius Farley, while Katrina “Kat” Lindsay finished fourth overall, in the 19th Deloitte-Ogier BVI Sunrise Half Marathon, for her sixth successive title on Saturday.
“Julius is a good runner who I respect a lot, and it was basically a repeat of last year. I went out hard around the track, Julius stayed with me and then tried to maintain that pace, but it was just too fast,” Lim, who covered the 13.1 mile course from the A. O. Shirley Grounds westward via Steel Point to Smugglers covered, in 1 hour 26 minutes and 26 seconds said. “This isn’t a 5K, it’s not a 10K, it’s a Half Marathon. You don’t’ fight for position every step up to 10K. You just stay steady and bring it home. The first person that crosses the line at 13.1 miles wins, not 12 miles. I think if Julius stayed patient, he could have stayed with me for longer or beat me to the bottom of the hill at Steel Point and won.”
Farley, who was second in 1:28.13, said it was a good race that “JJ” took out hard as usual and Lim too. He was able to catch “JJ” then a little over nine miles, Lim overtook him, and the rest is history. “Once again, I blew it. I blew the chance of coming in first, because of the position I was in a little over nine miles,” Julius said. “At one point, when I looked back, I wasn’t seeing “JJ” or Lim and the pace I was running was consistent, but somehow, he was the better man than me today, so I must give him his props.”
After taking the lead, Lim said he had concerns about them coming back and one never knows how fit people are. “For instance, I’ve been injured for the past few months with an Achilles injury, I’ve trained but not as much as I’d want to, so I didn’t know, maybe Julius and “JJ” was fitter on the day and they were going to stay (in the race) and on a different day, they could have won,” Lim noted. “On the last incline, my thoughts were to keep pushing hard and it’s always really, really hard. It’s the end of the race, your heart rate is already through the roof, and it just crushes you going up that hill. So, it was a matter of staying steady, because steady is faster than pushing too hard then crawling, so I stayed steady to get home.”
“JJ”, third in 1:32.30, said he did his best in the beginning and kept a steady pace for a while then slowed it down to adjust himself towards the end. “Then Julius and Lim came up and I was trying to hold on for a good bit,” he said. “Then Julius passed, and Lim passed, then I kept a steady race running my own race.”
Lim said he felt pressure to repeat. “It’s a local race, small but, because you only have one Half Marathon a year and a handful of races, I think it’s important,” he said. “I wanted to win again—it’s always nice to win—so I felt pressure and it’s a relief.”
Lindsay, fourth overall in 1:37.39, ahead of Sarah Latham’s 2:04.12 and Dianeth Lepel’s 2:08.13, extended her dominance to six successive victories and said she’s lucky and privileged. “I don’t take it for granted because it’s a nice race to win,” she said. “I do put in the work as well and today, I was actually pushing for it, so I really wanted to get my fastest time for this course, but every time I hit that hill (in Steel Point) it just reverses my mind, and my mind won today.”
