SPORTS

Anyone who knows anything about running in the Cayman Islands knows that, when it comes to road running, Marius Acker is as close to invincible as they come. Since arriving in Cayman a year ago, he has dominated road running like no other athlete, with the Earth Week 5k on Sunday 23 April marking the one year anniversary of his first win on the Island.

However, last weekend, Acker finally met his match. Then again, he had to go to Boston to meet it.
After months of intensive training, Acker was hoping to run a new personal best time in the marathon. With a previous marathon best of 2h 43min, this was certainly going to be a tough ask.

Acker looked well on track to do it during the first half of the marathon, setting a time of 1:16:06 at the half marathon mark. The chase back to the line was not to be as easy, as the hills took their toll on Acker, and he was forced to admit that a personal best was no longer a reasonable target.

Cramps in his legs forced him to walk close to the end of the race, even forcing him to walk the last half-mile, when athletes usually find the strength to look as though they did not suffer.

In spite of the cramps, Acker still completed the marathon in 3:18:35, placing him in the top 20 per cent of the field, but missing out on automatic qualification for Boston 2007 by a mere 3 minutes 35 seconds.
“The crowd support was out of this world and the race was very well organised,” said Acker, who also said that he high-fived a lot of kids along the course.

Despite his preparation, Acker believes that his downfall was a lack of hill training, a factor that hampers all athletes from Cayman who decide to take on the challenge of international road events.
Still anxious to run Boston again in 2007, Acker is now turning his attention to the Cayman Islands Marathon, set to take place on 3 December.

Although Boston might give some of his competitors the idea that Acker is, after all, only human, the roads of Cayman will have the final say in that argument.

eugene@caymannetnews.com