BRING ON THE WORLD.
Carlie Pipe will be taking her talents to Denmark to battle some of the world’s best as the country’s top female distance runner is set to compete at the World Half-Marathon Championships in Copenhagen on March 29.
It’s the first time Pipe, or any Barbadian athlete for that matter, will be contesting the now biennial competition, which started in 1992 and has featured several of the sport’s best, including former two-time Olympic gold medallist and former world champ Haile Gebrselassie and Moses Tanui.
“I eat, breathe and sleep running now to the point I wake up every day just thinking about this event,” said Pipe.
“I train six days a week because everything I do now is for this championships and nothing else. So I better be ready when I get to the start line, as I just want to run a personal best and do the very best for me and country. “Then next year if I get to go back then it gives me the opportunity to raise the bar for both Barbados and me,” she added.
Her participation alone is just the latest accomplishment in a recent string of successes for the soon-to-be 27-year-old, who is fresh off of a victory at last weekend’s Coverley 5K.
This follows a fourth-place finish at last year’s Run Barbados Half-Marathon and a victory in one of the events at the North American, Central American and Caribbean 5K series in 2012.
And Pipe just happened to stumble upon the opportunity while browsing the Internet in search of possible international assignments.
“I kind of bumped into it but now I think I have a good chance to run a personal best because the temperature is going to be a bit cold, the course is a flat one and the competition will be highly competitive,” she reasoned.
“I have further reason to give of my best because it’s the first time Barbados will be represented, so I want to go out there and set a great precedent.”
“I also ran 1:37 (one hour and 37 minutes) at the Run Barbados Half-Marathon and I felt that it wasn’t a good run at all, so I am really gunning for a great time in Denmark,” she added.
It’s not the only goal on Pipe’s mind for this season as the former Harrison College student has her sights set on breaking the national 5K record while acquiring the services of a coach for the first time in her short athletics career.
“As I start to get on to the regional and international circuit more I know I definitely will need a coach, so right now I have been talking to Leo Garnes, though we haven’t started working out yet,” said Pipe. “The motivation I get now is from the athletes I run and train with.”
Ethopian Meseret Hailu won the women’s event at the last World Half-Marathon Championships in Bulgaria with a time of 1:08.55 two years ago.
