As the Cadet Corps Marathon quickly approaches, many teams are training in earnest for the 4-person relay portion of the race, and this is especially true of Team Davies, a family team who are on a mission to improve their personal times from last year’s race, improve the team performance overall and finish as one of the top three teams.

The name Davies is synonymous with running in Cayman as father (Roger), son (Martin) and daughter (Emily) are all serious athletes who compete regularly in races locally and do very well. Monique Melis, Martin’s girlfriend and the fourth member of the team, is new to the sport but has developed a passion for it much like her teammates, and is slowly making a name for herself.

The training schedule for Team Davies is very rigorous and naturally involves a lot of running, up to six days a week, but also time in the gym. “I normally do three runs a week with Martin and Monique including a long run, a sprint and the hash run,” says Emily. “Then on the other days I try and run around 4-5 miles on my own.”

Having run the race last year, the team has specific goals for this year’s long run. “My personal goal is to beat my time from last year,” says Monique. “I actually expect to be the slowest leg on our team so I hope I won’t let the others down.” Roger and Martin hope to finish their 6.5 miles each in 47:30 and 45:30 respectively and Roger, the patriarch of the family, has set a race completion time of 3 hours and 10 minutes for the team.

The foursome cite a positive mental attitude, a genuine love for the sport, dedication, enthusiasm and rivalry within the ranks as the strength of their team while Martin and Monique reveal that ice cream will be their downfall!

The public can come and cheer Team Davies on to gold on Sunday, 7 December at the Cadet Corps Marathon. Registration is still open. For more information contact event organiser Kelly Holding Limited on 946 8822, by email on info@caymanislandsmarathon.com or visit the website at www.caymanislandsmarathon.com.