ReggaeMarathon Blog

You don’t just join the Jamdammers Running Club, you BECOME a Jamdammer.  It is not a slow and subtle process, it happens suddenly long before you expect it, and it sticks!  There are some pre-conceived notions about the social status, lack of social life, lack of any life for that matter, and weight of a Jamdammer, but once you really check it out they are all false.  Runners of all walks of life, every shape, colour, and size, who surely do know how to party!  There are artists, bankers, builders, massage therapists (we especially like that one), physiotherapists (we especially need them), writers, doctors, housewives, and we even have a Rhodes Scholar who boosts our average IQ.

What makes a Jamdammer is a love of running.  We all love to complain about running, but the truth is we enjoy it. This enjoyment is very quickly tested as soon after you become a Jamdammer, perhaps without any previous intention, you find yourself registered for a marathon.  You learn that a marathon is 26.2 miles but you don’t really know how long 26.2 miles.  In a car it doesn’t seem that hard, you try to put a mental picture on it, but by the time you have a few long runs under you belt you are wiser, but hooked. 

But what also makes a Jamdammer is a commitment to developing road racing in Jamaica.  Part of that commitment is a pledge to volunteer in at least one road race per year and do everything you can possibly do to make the Reggae Marathon a TOTAL success.  Jamdammers are not really good at just “OK”. 

I admit to being a reluctant volunteer.  Volunteering usually entails placing medal over overly sweaty totally exhausted runners head, or handing out our user friendly water bags to runner after runner.  I always wonder why that needed to be me, couldn’t some cub scout do that.  It just didn’t seem noble enough, I’d volunteered with the physically handicapped, the destitute and sick.  Runners at a 10K didn’t quite give me the same warm and fuzzy feeling. Quite frankly I thought myself over qualified, I have a masters degree spending an afternoon handing out bags of water was just not tapping into my skill set.

There is an unwritten rule you must volunteer for at least on race, and because I am a Jamdammer I did do my one race a year.  One year in particular I stood alongside a number of dedicated and incredibly willing cadets at a water stop handing out said bags of water.  I grudgingly was thinking that during the races I have entered (mostly overseas) they don’t give us these bags, I have to slop along with a cup of water that splashes up my nose and down my shirt, very little of the contents actually serving the purpose of hydration! 

My thoughts were interrupted by a runner who was approaching. I recognized it immediately, I see runners almost every day at every level of ability and tiredness, she was swaggering. I walked towards her and as she got to me she collapsed to a seated position. She drank water, slowly.  Soon after she announced to the scouts who were assisting her that she was going to continue.  They began to help her to her feet.  As she rose I looked into her face, I knew that look, the running joke about me is that I will run until I puke, she like me was no quitter she would kill herself to finish.  I also knew there would be another race for her. I raised my hand to the fellow volunteer who was driving and he pulled over.  The runner’s legs still wobbled beneath her. The scout looked at me and said, “She wants to finish!”  I looked back at him and said, “I am pulling her off!” Her legs buckled. 

As they loaded her exhausted body into the car packing cool packs around her, I suddenly realized that I had it all wrong.  My Masters degree would have left me under qualified for this job, it was my experience as a runner that qualified me for it.  I got it.  When I hang a ribbon over the neck of a sweaty exhausted runner who has just completed 26.2miles I do it with the respect and care of someone who knows the kind of physical and emotional struggle it takes to make it across that line.  Now I understood why the organizing team of the road race series and the Reggae Marathon who were just a little obsessive compulsive about creating perfect races, were so hell bent on Jamdammers all over the course in every aspect of the race, they are qualified.

So when you pass the volunteers along the course at Reggae Marathon, you may take little comfort in the fact that they are lawyers, engineers, bankers but take some comfort in the fact they are runners who know you pain and can truly appreciate your incredible accomplishment!

Chances are you have heard of Jamaica by now.  A small Island Nation of about 3 million people, a GDP that is better left not talking about, and an average income most people in the developed world could not fathom existing on.  Yet our flags are all over the stands of the World Championships, and even on the backs of our runners who have won a few races.

Our unofficial motto is “No Problem” but ironically life in Jamaica can be quite stressful, but perhaps that is a little of what makes us soar.  Our athletes handle the stress, the famous trash talk and antics will not ruffle our athlete’s feathers, after all it isn’t real.  Jamaicans know a little of what real threats can be.  

But what these Jamaican athletes seem to have that the world could learn from, apart from running fast, very fast, is an ability to enjoy life’s precious great moments.  Officials have suggested that the appropriate way to celebrate the winning of an Olympic Gold medal is to walk calmly over to your competitors and shake their hands.  Our Jamaicans jumped shouted, danced, waved and laughed!  Perhaps we are not so refined and our responses are not so rehearsed, but they were free and they were honest.  Most of all they were fun. 

Each of these athletes has been able to lift the spirits of a Nation, a Nation that needed a lift.  They represent hope, in a time when hope is somewhat scarce. They give us reason to celebrate, when mostly we have been criticized.  Perhaps some people in their refined lives found these celebrations too early, or too loud or too “boasy” as we say in Jamaica, but here in Jamaica we hardly noticed them because we were all far to busy screaming, laughing, dancing and jumping around!

We like to dance in Jamaica, in the streets, in our homes, in our cars.  Music is a part of our lives, and we like it and it comes naturally. The Reggae Marathon begins to the beat of drums, and the sound systems that line the course create a beat that can carry you along, finishing to the unmistakable melody of Marley. 

So while some of our athletes may have inspired you to push a little harder in your next speed work, or go out and buy a pair of puma super duper shoes, let them also inspire you to turn the music up and sing on your way to work, spread your arms and run, it still feels good even when you are an adult. Enjoy your achievements because you deserve it, and if you feel like it, go ahead, DANCE!