Erin Poirier completes her long run around The Gambia

http://www.thegambiablog.co.uk/2011/08/erin-poirier-completes-her-long-run-around-the-gambia/

Erin Poirier

completes her long run around The Gambia

Posted on August 3rd, 2011 by Matt Smith at The Gambia Blog

We’ve been keeping close tabs on Erin Poirier as she ran her way across The Gambia (all 424km of it!). She was running for the Nova Scotia Gambia Association, a Canadian charity looking to raise awareness of issues surrounding HIV and AIDS, and she has kept a detailed diary on her blog and her and her team have taken some astounding photographs which you can see on her Facebook page. And the important bit – you can still donate to the project at love4gambia.com. Before she went, Erin kindly said that we could reprint any of her blog entries as she went, but in truth it’s all so evocative and so beautifully put down, it seems a shame to isolate any of it – so go to the site and read the lot!

That said, one of her final posts, on a (well earned) rest day at the Leybato Guest House, Fajara Beach is so wonderful and so moving, we thought we’d share some of it here. All images are taken from the Love4Gambia Facebook page

Erin and Team Gambia. Image from Love4Gambia Facebook Page.

“Sunday, August 1, 2011, 1030am

Leybato Guest House, Fajara Beach

On Tuesday, July 26, around 1030am, I ran into the Altantic Ocean after running 424km across The Gambia. I ran made it to the ocean because I always believed that I could. And because I had my team: Ashley Sharpe, Pa Modou Sarr, Kebba Suso and Spider (Dodou Bah), with me and behind me every step of the way.

WE DID IT!!!”

Ashley and I have been relaxing on the beach and we’ve been processing the incredible experience that we’ve just had together with Pa Modou Sarr, Kebba Suso and Spiderman Dodou Bah.

In “Running the Sahara,” Charlie insightfully states, ‘this experience was so big that I can’t fit it into my head.’ We relate to that.

Ashley and I have been keeping a list of what we’ve run through, what we’ve been through… for our own memory bank as we try to fit experience into our heads.

We are so lucky that we ran through pretty much everything that West Africa had to offer. You’ll see just how lucky we were, as follows.

Roadworks, Gambia style. Image taken from Love4Gambia Facebook page.

We ran through:

A wedding
A funeral
A naming ceremony (remember all Muslim events, we are in a Muslim country)
Refugee processing near the Casamance (Senegal) conflict
3 presidential convoys
1 presidential convoy causing a monster traffic jam in Serrekunda requiring us to run through heart and centre of said traffic jam
1 presidential convoy in Soma that caused a stampede exactly where we were standing in which a young girl got trampled. Our guys, Kebba and Pa Modou, turned into American football players instantly, bear hugging and protecting us in a huddle.
Dirt road
Paved road
Partially paved road
Side of road
Road with monkeys
Road with bushrats
Road with snakes at pee stops
No roads with nile monitor lizards, thank God
Rain
Never enough rain
Sun (34-35 degrees)
Hotter sun (37-38 degrees)
Hottest sun (42 degrees)
Humidity- worse than hottest sun
Humidity and sun so hot that on the last day in Banjul, as I stood motionless next to our truck as we waited to begin, I felt cold. It was 29 degrees. The weather was “cool” for The Gambia. In that moment, I knew that my brain’s temperature recognition was thoroughly messed up.
2 pairs of melted sneakers
We ran through more than these “things:” events, roads, animals and weather.

(Dad, you may not want to continue reading this list. Disclaimer- it’s just as safe here as anywhere else in the world. All cities have crime pockets. And we had a team of very protective men with us. Ashley once said that she was scared of a guy with a stick, thinking he might like to hit her with the stick. The man was mentally ill. If the man hit her with the stick, peaceful Kebba said very simply, “Well then I would tear him apart.”)

A bit of sightseeing... Image taken from Love4Gambia Facebook page.

We ran through rice fields, ground nut fields and couscous fields.

We ran and drove through long hours together where my team’s bond and friendship turned into family. If you want to really get to know an African country and 3 African men, there’s no better way to become close with the country and its people than to run across it with them. West African societies, especially tribal relationships, are incredibly complex. I now have a wealth of knowledge stored away from conversations that our feet carried us through.

We ran more kilometers as a team than I did alone. Days 8 through 14, I didn’t run a single step solo. On Day 15, I ran 9 km solo (7 by request) and those were my last solo kms.

We enjoyed hours of laughing together.

Ashley and I sometimes giggled late at night until we cried.

We enjoyed hours of a dramatic production where Pa Modou was president and we were the people, engaged in an election campaign. When there’s no television, internet, stereo… you entertain yourself in other ways.

We entertained ourselves with a rotating “boss:” the team member who (besides me) ran the most kilometers that day. We laughed hysterically as the boss tried to wield their power until it expired at midnight.

We enjoyed hours of Serere vs Fula jokes until I had one hour too many and started running between Pa Modou and Spider hoping they would finally stop. They stopped while running, continued the rest of the hours of the day.

We ran through the brief illnesses of 3 of our team members and learned that when one team member is down, we are all down.

We ran with 3 amazing groups who joined us: children, mamas in rice fields and soldiers on convoy. We loved them all equally. While the soldiers in the Gambia National Army and the National Guard didn’t run any steps with us, they began to recognize us and would salute me from their convoy (sometimes up to 6 trucks and over 100 soldiers). I would salute them back.

Erin and Ashley on Day 3. Image taken from Love4Gambia Facebook page.

We ran so long on the same road that the bush taxi drivers began to recognize us and would give us a happy beep and wave instead of an irritated “get the heck outta my way” beep and wave.

We went through a few mornings where I didn’t want to get out of the truck and run. On these mornings Kebba always felt my fatigue and would say, “Oh, Erin. I hate to let you out of the truck.” Ashley would push me out and Pa would drag me onto the road. Once pink sneakers are on the road, fatigue would be replaced with happiness. My team just had to get the pink sneakers onto the road.

We rested for 2 hours under 15 different trees along the South Bank Road and led way more than 15 curious youth through yoga practice.

We ran through the mysterious disappearance of Akon for 3 days.

We stayed in places where our dinner was killed before us. Although in Ndemban, the 10 year-old boy entrusted with killing the rooster with a dull butter knife only managed to mortally wound the rooster and Spider had to step in to relieve the boy of this duties and finish the job.

Ashley and I peed and changed clothes in many hidden spots in the forest together. Sometimes we were only hidden from the truck and that was perfectly acceptable. Sometimes we just changed next to the truck “hidden” by my camping towel.

We ran through forests renowned for armed robbery, although the last incidence was more than one year ago. Though such is the reputation that locals remain weary and police checks are more numerous.

We celebrated each overhead shower and each room with more than one electrical outlet.

We endured a robbery at our lodge in Janjanbureh where the thief knocked off the screen on our window and possibly entered our room. We’re not sure; the runner was dead asleep and Ashley just rolled over in bed without noticing. We heard that he was a very unskilled thief who only made away with one wallet from a guy in another bank of rooms. We did get a lot of mileage out of this thief as he was named as a suspect in the disappearance of Akon.

'Homework'. Image taken from Love4Gambia Facebook page.

We knew that we had been running and living “in the bush” a long time when we were in Ndemban, staying at a local compound next to the road leading to Senegal and site of the Casamance civil conflict. Kebba told us: “We are 3km from Casamance so if you hear gunfire overnight, don’t worry, it’s just coming from the rebels across the border.” And we easily replied, “Yea, whatever. Is there an electrical outlet here so we can charge the Garmin?” Then Ashley and I didn’t even think to talk about this conversation for another 4 days.

We ran so long that Stephen Harper was starting to look good.

I ran so long and got called “toubab” (Mandinka word for white person) so many times that I started following Pa Modou’s lead and began calling “morfing” (Mandinka word for black person) back.

We ran so long together that I felt like we could run to the end of the world together.

When Kebba drove us back to Leybato Guest House after our victorious swim in the Atlantic Ocean, we sat in the driveway next to each other in the front seat. We were both silent for about a full minute. I finally looked at him and said, “Kebba, I don’t want to get out of the truck because when I get out, it feels like it’ll be over.” Kebba nodded his head slowly. After a few moments, he looked at me and said, “Our team will never end.” Then we were brave enough to get out the truck.

My team’s goal was accomplished but after what we’ve travelled, experienced, endured, been through, supported each other through, run through together… being a team will never end.

Congratulations Erin & Team! Love4Gambia Run Accomplished!!

"The Atlantic Ocean in Banjul, The Gambia, after training for this moment for 7 months and running towards it for 424km with my team by my side. This is pure joy. Love you team."

Spider, Ashley Maria Sharpe, Pa Modou, Erin Poirier, Kebba Suso
www.love4gambia.com

Please Watch, Share, Donate - Erin Poirier is about to take on Gambia

Erin is about to take on Gambia



http://love4gambia.com/

Poirier has sights set on Gambia

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1239864.html

Poirier has sights set on Gambia Nurse plans gruelling run across West African nation to raise money for education and health programs By LAURA FRASER Staff Reporter Sat, Apr 23 - 4:54 AM Erin Poirier runs in Point Pleasant Park, Halifax. Poirier plans a 17- day run across The Gambia, a total of 430 kilometres, to raise money for the Nova Scotia Gambia Association which provides health and educational support for the African nation. (Ted Pritchard / Staff) ERIN POIRIER remembers running down a Gambian beach four years ago, her back salted from the ocean and the blistering heat of the African sun. Right now, Poirier is in the middle of her longest-ever training cycle, for the longest race she has ever run. She plans to cross Gambia in 17 days, covering more than a half-marathon each morning as the humidity starts its climb to more than 40 C. "My goal is to be ready to start running the second the sun’s in the sky," says the nurse and long-distance runner. "I’m telling myself that hot yoga is going to get me ready for the heat of the Gambia." The global recession and the size of the western African nation combined to give birth to Poirier’s idea. The Gambia River bisects the country, with a road running along either side for more than 400 kilometres. Poirier decided the distance between the Gambian border town of Basse Santa Su and the coastal city of Banjul could be manageable to run. She hopes to raise at least $20,000. "It kind of came out of the Nova Scotia Gambia Association’s desperate financial picture," said Poirier, a board member for the group. "(Over) the last two years, like lots of Canadian charities, our donations and fundraising has been down." Poirier, 30, got hooked on running in high school when her basketball coach forced the team to include it in their workouts. Then, they had to run about 10 kilometres each week. But to prepare for the Boston and Scotiabank Blue Nose marathons, and Gambia, Poirier has been running more than 85 kilometres about every six days. Poirier caught bronchitis during Week 19 of training and still logged 52 kilometres — eight more than the week she got hit by a car and nine less than the week she recovered from the crash. Poirier visits a chiropractor once a week to fix any damage she has inflicted on her body. And she has enlisted a sports nutritionist to make sure she fills herself with the right fuel. She is built like a whippet, more skinny than strong, and can burn a significant number of calories during a long run. "Eating has been an important part of this training cycle. I’ve been piling food into my body like I’m never going to eat again," she says, laughing. Poirier will arrive in Gambia during the rainy season, when the humidity will be at its peak and tropical storms are a threat. She will start running at dawn to stay cooler. She says she would begin earlier, but streetlights are a rarity along the unpaved road. The heat will likely lengthen Poirier’s running time to three hours instead of her usual two. For the rest of her day, she and her support team plan to visit some of the schools she worked with during the summer of 2007. Poirier spent that summer teaching small groups of children about how to reduce their risk of getting HIV-AIDS and malaria. Local actors hired by the Nova Scotia Gambia Association then taught the students how to best deliver the information to their peers. "Theatre is very important to Gambian culture (and) it’s an oral culture, so history is passed down through theatre and storytelling," Poirier said. When she returned from Africa, Poirier decided she wanted to continue her work in Nova Scotia. She became a board member with the association and took a job at Prince Andrew High School in Dartmouth, where she runs a youth health centre. In the spring and fall, she also coaches the cross-country and track teams. Some of Poirier’s student runners will join her Love4Gambia charity team in the Blue Nose marathon. She has raised about 75 members and $6,000, but is still recruiting. After the Blue Nose marathon, all her focus will be on Gambia, she says. Once she gets there, Poirier says her job is to focus solely on the run. Her friend Ashley Sharpe, an emergency nurse, will deal with any obstacles, especially those with scales or a forked tongue. Hippopotamuses, snakes, lizards or crocodiles could conceivably get in Poirier’s way during the more rural part of the journey, she says. It is one of the only things she doesn’t like to picture. Instead, she will think about the beach in Banjul, knowing that she will be running closer to the ocean’s balm with every step. Poirier’s blog, www.love4gambia.com, has more information about the run, her Blue Nose charity team and how to donate. ( lfraser@herald.ca)

Love4Gambia - Erin on Island Morning

Erin Poirier was on CBC Radio's Island Morning this morning
talking to Matt Rainnieabout her Love4Gambia Run.
Here's that interview....

Love4Gambia - OptiMYz Magazine

http://www.optimyz.com/health/851

Love4Gambia

Two feet, one heartbeat = Change.

By Erin Poirier

---

On my third day in The Gambia I looked down at my key chain thermometer, yanked it from the hook on my gym bag, and threw it in the trash.

It read a blazing 38 degrees and I was realizing the hard way that temperature is irrelevant on the shores of West Africa – there was only hot or hotter.

“Hot” means you’re squirming in a small pool of wetness under your clothes and your coffee-colored hair feels hot to the touch. “Hotter” means your bra and underwear are saturated in sweat and your hair just won’t seem to dry after your shower.

I was there during a scorching summer in 2007 when I worked as a nurse with the NSGA’s Gender Equity and Youth Leadership through Health and Human Rights Education project. Big project name, big ambition: to keep kids alive through HIV and malaria education.

This July, I’ll once again brave the heat of The Gambia to lace up my sneakers in an attempt to run all the way across the country in support of the same cause. Over my 430km route, I’ll be raising money for the Nova Scotia-Gambia Association (NSGA).

In 2007, I went through a life-changing experience when I taught youth to be peer health educators. These kids returned to their schools to share HIV prevention messages with youth in their communities.

In a country that does not offer sexual health in school, the role these kids play in preventing HIV is vital. It’s not something we often think about in a country where health care is readily available and going to school is a right, not a privilege.

But when I returned to Halifax, I couldn’t get The Gambia out of my mind. I thought about how my teenage students, some as old as 19 years, would sit three to a two-person desk, often with their arms around each other in affection. I thought about how they valued education in a way that you can only understand if 50 per cent of your peers can’t afford school fees.

I thought about the answer I got when I once asked my class: “How do you help somebody with HIV stay healthy?”

“They need love and caring and understanding,” they said, “They need hope for the future, and a positive attitude.”

I joined the NSGA board of directors and this year, after 25 years of operation, NSGA began to run into financial problems.

We had endured two years of financial loss and were looking at a third. Like many other charities, our donor base was down and some board members felt that we may have reached the end of the organization.

I thought about my Gambian youth and couldn’t reconcile their thoughts. I wanted to do something.

Then I thought about running. I’ve had lots of success racing. The Gambia is a small country. It would be possible to run all the way across The Gambia.

So this is what I’m doing. I’ve called my campaign Love4Gambia. I’ll begin my mission on July 4, and over 17 days, I will run 430km (that’s a half marathon each day) from Basse, near the Senegalese border, to Banjul on the Atlantic coast.

Four support people will join me. My friend and fellow NSGA volunteer nurse, Ashley Sharpe, will be my medical support. My massage therapist, Katherine Tidman from Total Kneads, has volunteered to come. Two members of our NSGA staff in The Gambia will also accompany us.

Sure it’s going to be tough. The heat will present my biggest challenge because I know that no matter what length of time I spend in Africa, I’ll never acclimate to it.

So I am trying to prepare my body for the heat by going to hot yoga practice. Sometimes in the studio, I feel like I’ve become one with the melting air. Other times, I think: “Gentle Lord! It’s 37 degrees in here!” I look like I just got out of a swimming pool and this is average temperature I’ll be running in.

On these days, the preparation isn’t so productive.

Right now, my marathon training with coach Cliff Matthews is geared toward my third Boston Marathon. I’m running 85 km-plus per week, fitness that will carry well onto my plane to Africa.

Running is the easy part. Cliff dictates my training plan and I do exactly what he says. It’s hard work, but it’s something I love.

The really brutal part is doing the extra things I need to do to stay healthy in this long training cycle. I’m piling food into my body like I’ll never eat again. I’m forcing myself to strength training.

I have chiropractor Dr. Jason Gray working with me for free — his contribution to Love4Gambia. Weekly treatment keeps me healthy and he sets my strength-training program. I’m lucky for this.

The sidewalks have been in poor condition during this wicked winter we’ve endured on the East Coast. The wind freezes my cheeks and sometimes my contact lenses, blurring my vision.

The “nicest” place to run outdoors in the entire city has become the MacDonald Bridge sidewalk deck where plowing and salting are thorough. The Halifax Ocean Terminal at Marginal Road, with its bright lighting and quality snow removal service for transport trucks and trains, has also been kind to winter runners.

An average training week for me is 6 days and looks like this:

• Monday – easy 6-8km + hot yoga
• Tuesday – track workout with Cliff- often short and fast intervals, such as 10 x 800m, total 14-17km with warm-up and cool-down
• Wednesday – recovery 12km + strength training
• Thursday – track workout with Cliff- often long intervals close to marathon pace, such as 3 x 15 minutes, total 14-17km
• Friday – recovery or easy 12 km
• Saturday – long run 2-2.5 hours including quality speed segment every 2nd week.
• Sunday – rest + strength training

So yes, it’s going to be tough. I knew that when I said I’d do this. But it’s worth it.

While volunteering in The Gambia, I saw how the NSGA’s programs directly impacted the youth. When the NSGA ran into trouble, I knew I needed to do something to help these programs continue. And that’s what I’m going to do.

To support my Love4Gambia campaign and to follow my progress as I prepare for and run across The Gambia in July, visit me at www.love4gambia.com

Erin Poirier Tells BT about her upcoming Love4Gambia Run

More on Erin and her Love4Gambia Run

A Running Desire - Erin Poirier's Love4Gambia Run

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Local/2011-03-17/article-2339127/A-running-desire/1

Nova Scotia nurse Erin Poirier, who is the daughter of Edwin and Theresa Callaghan of Charlottetown, is in full training mode
for her 17-day run across Gambia in Africa to raise funds for the Nova Scotia Gambia Association.

For many people, running the Boston Marathon would be a major life accomplishment.

But for accomplished runner Erin Poirier, this year’s upcoming marathon and the Blue Nose Marathon in Nova Scotia are just part of the training schedule for her really big run that starts on July 4. That’s when this Charlottetown native, who is a nurse in Nova Scotia, will take her first stride on a 17-day run that will span the whole of the West African country of Gambia.

“I’m running towards the ocean,” Poirier says of her 430-kilometre Love4Gambia fundraising campaign for the Nova Scotia Gambia Association (NSGA), which has been providing education and health promotion initiatives to help youth and communities in Gambia for more than 25 years.

Poirier, who is the daughter of Edwin and Theresa Callaghan of Charlottetown, started running when she was a student at Colonel Gray Senior High.

“I played basketball for my three years at Colonel Gray and our coach was really serious about us starting the season in shape, so we always ran during the off season to maintain our fitness. Looking back I excelled at running more than I did at basketball. . . ,” she laughs.

Poirier continued to run through her nursing school years at UPEI and in Boston, Mass., where she first worked.

“I watched the Boston Marathon a couple of times and I thought ‘those people are crazy. I don’t know why they’re doing this,’” she laughs.

But the joke was on her when she moved back to Halifax, discovered the Blue Nose Marathon and was immediately hooked on long distance running.

“I absolutely loved it and here I am six years later, still running,” she says.

When Poirier was still a first-year nursing student, she volunteered in Zimbabwe with the World University Service of Canada.

In 2007, she discovered the Nova Scotia Gambia Association (NSGA) and volunteered to work as a nurse on a NSGA project in Gambia for six weeks.

“I love the work they do in the field. They’ve been working in the Gambia for (to this date) 26 years and I think they’ve done a lot of things right in terms of development in a developing nation . . . ,” says Poirier, who is now an NSGA board member.

This dedicated runner came up with the Love4Gambia fundraising campaign as a way to support the association and its longstanding work in Gambia.

Starting on July 4, she and a support team of two from Canada — her massage therapist and a friend who is an emergency room nurse — as well as two NSGA staff in Gambia will make their way from Basse on the eastern border of the Gambia and west to Banjul, which is a distance of 430 kilometres.

“(Gambia is) the smallest country in the continent of Africa. It’s about 100 kilometres longer than P.E.I. but whenever I’m talking about it to people I always say it’s quite similar to P.E.I. It’s long and skinny,” Poirier says.

In addition to running the Boston Marathon on April 18, she is part of a Love4Gambia fundraising team in the Blue Nose Marathon in Nova Scotia on May 22.

She trains six days a week and runs about 90 kilometres, the majority of it outside in the Maritime weather elements. This doesn’t do much to prepare her for the heat, super high humidity, disease carrying bugs and large wild animals to come.

“(Here) there are cars that hate runners, but no wild animals,” she says with a wry laugh.

It helps that Poirier has some experience running in Gambia from her time there in 2007.

“I didn’t run 25 kilometres a day. I ran more like half an hour a day,” she says.

“Where a white girl from Canada runs, other people usually follow, so I imagine I’ll have some kids running along with me and I’ve already heard from some Gambian runners about them being interested in running portions of it with me. So I will be relying in some parts on the support of others.”

Government representatives in Gambia are preparing for her arrival by spreading the word about her Love4Gambia campaign. They have also arranged for media coverage and a kick-off concert in Basse when she starts her run.

Poirier has already solidly set her sights on the end of the running line.

“I think that after 17 hot days that the sight of the Atlantic Ocean is going to be pretty amazing at the other end of it,” she says.

“And, yes, I plan on jumping in.”

Are you running the Bluenose Marathon in Halifax this year?

If so, click on the poster below and consider joining the Love4Gambia Charity Team

It was a pleasure to meet Erin at the Freeze Your Gizzard in Montague last month. Erin's shoes caught many eyes.


Erin, we wish you all the very best on your Gambian Run.
We hope you can conjure up some memories of freezing your gizzard to help cool you down when you're out there under the 37 degree Zambian sun. Have a happy, healthy & safe adventure.

We'll be following Erin and you can too....

• Erin's Love4Gambia Blog
• Erin's Love4Gambia Facebook Page
• Erin's on Twitter at @Love4GambiaErin
• Erin's Flickr Photos are Here

Please consider donating to Erin's Love4Gambia Run
and support the Nova Scotia-Gambia Association's excellent work
through CanadaHelps HERE