rachael.king@guardian.co.tt
T&T's Sjaelan Evans shocked herself in placing second in the women's category of the Cave Shepherd marathon of Run Barbados on December 9.
She clocked three hours, 19 minutes and 52 seconds to complete the course, to follow winner Frenchwoman Fanja Felix (3:06:43.5) to the line. In third place was Sarah Williams of Great Britain in 3:35:24.1.
"I am really satisfied with my performance. I wasn't expecting to do anything major," said Evans following her unexpected successful run. "I was like let me go out there for a little fun run and get in the long run and then I realise I was coming in as the second female and I was like, this is cool, let me pick up the pace a little and yes so I am actually very pleasantly surprised with my performance and I am very happy with it."
Evans finished 13th overall in a race which was won by Germany's Paul Schmidt in a time of 2:30:59. In second place was Craig Pilsbury of Great Britain in 2:40:10.5 and third was German Helmuth Noesner in 2:52:35.7.
Runners started on the Esplanade, Bay Street and proceeded north through Bridgetown and along the scenic west coast of the island. The AIMS-IAAF certified course looped at the usual place in St James and proceeded back to the finish on the Esplanade which completed the Half Marathon. Marathon runners completed two laps of the Half Marathon course.
"The Run Barbados marathon was simply wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed every mile I did. It was on time and it was organised. There were supporters along the course. It was really, really nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it," said Evans, who indicated her season was unpredictable.
"I had ups and downs. When it comes to running, there are so many things to factor in. I have had this love-hate relationship with it this year.
"My PR (personal record) was in the worse weather conditions ever which was Boston (marathon), which was freezing and awful. It's weird right you don't expect a PR in the worse weather conditions and then I got a 3:06 and today (Sunday), was really, really hot and I managed to pull off a 3:19 so you just never know on race day what's going to happen but all in all, it has been a good year and I'm excited for 2019 and what it has in store."
