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Lapathon
2012
A
Race with a Purpose
Running
to promote and support Sports in Puerto Jimenez
As part of our annual commitment, and in its fourth
edition, on May 6th we held our Lapathon 2012. As a follow up to the blog we posted earlier this week, we would like to take the opportunity to express
our sincere gratitude to the participants, sponsors and visitors of this unique
event in the Osa Peninsula.
The main goal of this year´s event was to
restore and equip the Recreations Field in Puerto Jimenez, a place to practice
sports and recreation for the residents and visitors.
To bring
the excitement of this big event to you, we would like to
start with a quick overview of the work, activities, feelings and emotions that
we enjoyed in preparation of this half-a-marathon.
At 8am on May 6th, part of the LapaRios volunteers’ team and members of the community started getting ready at the
Recreations Field in Puerto Jimenez, which was also the Finish line for the Runners.
Little by little all things started to get done,
the organization of transportation, the installation of the awnings,
decoration, the runner’s list, the inscription desk, the departure line.
By 10:00 am, the Sansa Regional and Solid Car
Rental team joined us to help with more work.
By 1:00 pm more of the Lapa Rios volunteers started
with the Departure preparations for the race. Like previous years, the Lapathon
was set to depart from the Carbonera School, 18 kilometers away from Puerto
Jimenez. It was a pleasant view to see a large crowd of runners and even some cyclists.
As our partners were busy handing out the t-shirts and numbers to each runner,
another team went over to set up the water stations distributed along the way. The
children from the local Boy Scout Troop and a group of Lapa Rios staff helped
distribute water to the runners; refreshing and cheering them as they came
along.
At 2:00 pm, the sound of the bugle announced that
the time of departure was near. The cheerful atmosphere reflected on the participants
faces, some chatting, others flexing and stretching, all feelings ready for a
jungle run.
At 2:30 pm,
the bugle finally called all runners to departure, all of them in friendliness
and good sportsmanship encouraging each other on those 18 km ahead, each one
putting finally in practice those long hours of training, in preparation for this
day.
By 3:30 pm the volunteers started organizing
the departure of the Kids Lapathon. Kids Lapathon is a mini-marathon, where
children participate and run it´s 3km. There is no inscription fee for the
kids to motivate as many as possible to participate.
At 4:00 pm the Kids Lapathon started. For this
year we had 2 categories, the A (children from 7 to 9 years old, male and
female) and the B (children from 10 to 12 years old). It was amazing to see so many
children running for the love of sports in the Osa Peninsula.
It was at 4:10 pm when we saw the first two
participants approach the finish line, Adonay Quintero (member of the Lapa Rios
housekeeping staff) and Lisanías Matarrita, both had taken the lead a long way
back in the marathon. On an exciting tight
race, just a few meters off the finish line, both sportsmen made their last
effort and sprinted for the right to claim the first place, trilling the
audience that cheer them to no end.
Adonay Quintero proved to be the fastest man with
a time of 1:09:00, with Lisanías Matarrita right behind at 1:09:30. The third
place was won by Noel Calderón at 01:17:00.
The first place of the female category was won
by Merida Barbee at a time of 1:24:00, second place was claimed by Ana Catalina
Martin at 1:27:00 and the third placed Ursula Jensen with a time of 1:33:00.
All of them were received with much applause, cheering, and excitement from
everyone in the crowd.
At 05:30 with the participation of Hans Pfister
(co-owner of Cayuga, Lapa Rios' Management COmpany) and the representatives of Lapa Rios Eco Lodge, El Remanso
Lodge y Bosque Del Cabo Lodge we acknowledged the winners of each category. But
all together, all participants who made it that day to the finish line are true
winners in their own right.
The assistance and participation of the
visitors made the event a true party with people from all walks of life, as
well as the craftmen/women, organizations like the Osa Conservation, Yaguara,
the Police station and Sansa Regional. Also we had the participation of our sister
hotels, Arenas del Mar Beach Front and Rainforest and Harmony Hotel whom
participated and shared in this spectacular marathon.
The activity came to a close but not without
music and smiles with the participation of all runners and audiences alike.
You could´ve said, Wow! So much work! But if you were behind the scenes of this
marathon you could see that there was a lot of support and collaboration from people
and companies that made this activity a successful event.
We must give thanks to the 95 runners, the volunteers,
and the people from the community and the sponsors that made this Lapathon happen
and are responsible for the first steps towards restoring and equipping the
Recreational Field in Puerto Jimenez. This year we collected the total of $3,840
to start the first stage of this project.
We would like to thank to all the sponsors for
their support to this Lapathon 2012:
Sansa Regional, Solid Car Rental,
Hoteles Cayuga, El Remanso Lodge, Bosque del Cabo Lodge, Aventuras Tropicales,
Cerro Oro (La Palma), La Bomba de Osa, Farmacia Hidalgo, Tienda Estilos,
Diego Mora, Ferretería Materiales de La Costa, Corcovado BM, Banco de Costa
Rica, Marisquería Corcovado, Cancha Sintetica Arzaca, Almacen La Palma, Canopy
Bosque Mar, Pura Vida Charters, Almentour Sport Fishing, Colosal Estero, ASO
Gestión de Riesgos, Agencia de Viajes Travel Excellence y Travel Agency Costa
Rican Trails
