Jerk Chicken and Cassava – Marathon J

Lunch was locally prepared jerk chicken (from a Jamaican chef) with cassava and salad. I’ve never heard of cassava before today, it was nice, a little like potato so I’ve done a little research. It is a perennial woody shrub that is grown for its enlarged starch-filled roots; they contain nearly the maximum theoretical concentration of starch on a dry weight basis among food crops! The fresh roots contain about 30% starch and very little protein. The jerk chicken provided the protein. Interestingly the roots are prepared much like potato, they can be peeled and boiled, baked, or fried, however, it is not recommended to eat cassava uncooked, because of potentially toxic concentrations of cyanogenic glucosides (whatever they are) that are reduced to innocuous levels through cooking! Anyway unlike the monster burrito the jerk chicken and cassava did not repeat on the run but rather fuelled my performance. So if you are planning to run in Trinidad eat chicken and cassava rather than monster burritos.

So meetings over it was time to run, we were late on the roundabout and my training plan today has a 60 minute run, so the idea was to run three times round. I also had the distance confirmed at 2.25 miles per circuit. Lenny and I set off with the objective that he would run round twice and I’d go for three times.

In the beginning we were fresh and running hard, two bottles of water in hand.



After the first lap the heat started to get to me and I slowed down, then darkness started to draw in, fortunately the new Grenada prime minister was on an official visit so at the top of the roundabout was full of heavily armed police or the military, I did not stare too hard at the uniforms just the guns! That said there were still plenty of people running or walking, in parts the mood was starting to become lively, there were people with loud music and what looked like market stalls going up, party time...

6.75 miles and 61 minutes later I’d finished, this is a slightly faster average speed than when I was fuelled on burritos despite putting in an extra lap, conclusive proof that jerk chicken is better for you than burritos. The other thing I realized on this run is the that roundabout is far from flat, strangely there is a short shallow downhill section at the beginning followed by a long steep uphill section on the opposite side, how does that work? Maybe that’s why there seemed to be more people running anticlockwise than clockwise.

At the end of the run Lenny was done, "No more" he says.



The insects were starting to come to visit but we were too sweaty to bite.



Finally, were staying in the Hilton, which is a steep climb up the hill, what a way to finish.