Storming the Castle: May 2012

Sammi Travis, a fellow PCV and good friend, and I decided last year that we would enter the Treasure Beach Triathlon this year. Treasure Beach is a windswept tourism town on the southcoast which can tend to be a little lonesome if you don't bring your friends. Luckily we had ours - a whole house full of them. As my friends and family know, I am not a sports person. I quit the T-ball team when they took away the T. I got cut from the volleyball team in 8th grade. I always chose table tennis over basketball in gym class in high school. Needless to say, this was my first race. I might as well make my first race a triathlon! Training would be an excuse get fit, and a great way to celebrate two years of service in Jamaica. As it turns out, neither of us really trained, but we both won the purple monkey award, a special award for those who come in last place!

Receiving the purple monkey award. Yes, it looks red to me too.

The triathlon consisted of a little bit of open-water ocean swimming, a lot of biking on dirt trails and backroads, and to top it all off a healthy dose of running. We all lined up on the beach, and then charged into the sea at the whistle. My bathing suits had been destroyed by the salt, sun, and handwashing, but my shorts and tank top worked fine for me. I backstroked my way towards shore, where Sammi, being a faster swimmer, was waiting for me. Being slightly unorganized, as things tend to be in developing nations, there was no water at the end of the swimming of the race. A little parched, we donned our clothes and helmets, hopped on our bicycles and started riding.

Within the first 5 miles of riding I passed a racer sitting at the side of the trail with his out-of-commision bicycle. Being the good Jamaican that I am I stopped to see if he needed any help. Roadside assistance in Jamaica is wonderful. If you are stopped on the road for any reason most cars will stop and ask if you need help. And most of those drivers know some mechanic work to help you too. Sammi road up a little later and the two of us helped him patch his bicycle tire, another skill we had learned in Jamaica. Unfortunately, while we were helping him every last racer passed us! Sammi and I are slow people in general (late because I stopped to smell the roses individuals) so this didn’t really bother us too much.

In fact, soon after we started riding again we passed some large mango trees with people eating mangoes below them. Still feeling thirsty from the swim, Sammi suggested we stop and join them. Hey, we’re already in last place and I made us stop to fix the tire, why not? We stopped and ate and chatted, and ate some more. We tried three varieties of mangoes, and got invited back to load our bags before we left the next day. Bellies full we got back on our bicycles again. Well, apparently word got out that there were “two white ladies climbing mango trees!” because every water station we passed people asked us how the mangoes tasted!

We did it!!

We parked our bicycles at the finish line, and began the run. By now, the sun was hot, and we were both tired but happy. As we were coming in for the home stretch, we realized that we were going to run past the house that we were staying in. We had brought two red stripes with us for a celebratory toast, and the opportunity was too fortuitous to pass up. I popped into the house, popped the bottle caps, and popped back onto the road. We left the bottle caps on the beers, which is a Jamaican style of serving beer, which made them convenient travel mugs. We crossed the finish line, beers in hand, to the cheering of our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, and cries of “we’re going to put you in our newsletter!” from the Treasure Beach women’s society. The triathlon was an allegory for the way we live our lives, its not about the destination, it’s about the journey. The purple monkey will sit proudly on my shelf as a reminder to stop and eat the mangoes!