Carnival Mile and Adult's Parade
The week of Carnival ends with two parades - Friday is the Children's Parade and Saturday is the Adult's Parade. Why two parades? Well, Friday is the parade of the kids, and it lasts about four hours. The adult parade, on the other hand, lasts about ten hours. So, first off, nobody would want to sit and watch a parade that lasted fifteen hours. Also, I'm not sure but I think some of the adult's parade can get more PG-13, with audience members stealing kisses from the troupes and the like. So maybe Friday's parade not only lets the kids be the stars of the parade, but the content of the parade is more suitable for an audience of children. Since I was exhausted from J'ouvert, and Dave had to work, we skipped the Children's Parade entirely.
Saturday morning we got up early (again) to participate in the Carnival Mile Race - a one mile road race along the majority of the parade route. I had jogged the route earlier in the week with two other people so we could see what it was like, and Dave and I had walked it once too. Silly Kendra though, I did what everyone always says not to do - I sprinted out at the beginning with
all the fast people at a pace I couldn't keep up for the whole distance. So, rather than building my speed during the race, I just got slower and slower... and slower... Lucky for me, I'm in a slow age group where not many women show up! The overall female winner was in my age group actually, with a time of 5:32, but they bump out overall winners from age groups. So, first place went to my coclerk's wife with a time of 8:59, and I easily won the second place trophy with 9:31 (third place was something like 14 or 15 minutes). The men's 19-29 group was quite a bit faster though, including the overall winner who came in at 4:46. (This is a guy from St. John who wins 8 Tuff Miles every year -- running those hills with less than six minute miles!). Dave did fabulous at 6:50 but came in fourth place. Not bad for someone who runs maybe once a month. It was a fun race, though in future races I plan to restrain myself better so I can run a better race and finish without feeling like I'm about to die. There's a two mile race at Magen's Bay on Mother's Day that I may try. After the Carnival Mile, we headed home for a few hours before venturing back to town for the parade.
A local law firm invited us law clerks to watch the parade from their second story office overlooking Main Street - a prime spot - and they even supplied food and drinks. (Although one
of the lawyers teased me for losing the race to my coclerk's wife!) It was set to start at 10 a.m. and began around 11 or so. We showed up around 1 p.m. and some troupes were already coming by (about a mile from the start). But even after sitting there for an hour we hadn't seen a whole lot of floats or troupes. Troupes are just groups of people who walk or dance along the parade route in costume. Floupes are troupes with a float. This isn't the type of parade where the organizer makes sure each group moves along and stays within a certain distance of the previous group. Sometimes they come one after another, and sometimes you wait a little while before another group comes by. So we decided to walk down Main Street to see what else was coming. Dave and I aren't really parade people, so it seemed like the best way to see more of the parade without having to just wait for it to come our way.
The theme for Carnival this year was Glamour and Glitz - Carnival 2006. Most of the costumes were quite elaborate and sparkly! The troupes' costumes were very impressive. One of the first troupes we saw was the Birds of a Feather troupe. We also saw mocko jumbies (elevated spirits) - I don't know how those people walk on stilts for so long! We had fun taking lots of pictures. More are uploaded on our Shutterfly site. The spectators seemed to all enjoy the parade very much. Some of them would get up and dance with the troupes as they went past. A lot of the troupes and floats have sponsors, so sometimes the people in the parade will throw freebies to the crowd. I caught a keychain whistle and Dave caught a sweat towel - very handy here! [Incidentally, I came across two of my friends from soccer - both had made the national team and then quit because it was too disorganized and un-fun for their tastes. It's too bad because the team probably could have used them - they've been playing the first round of the Gold Cup in the Dominican Republic this week.] After another hour of wandering along the parade route and taking photos, we were worn out from the hot sun so we headed home. We went to Dave's friends Mark and Thea's house for dinner that night and on our way home around 10 p.m. we discovered the parade was just ending! A few days ago someone told me the trick to watching the parade is to watch it on tv at home until around 3 or 4, and then go to town. That way you can still see it all, but you won't get too tired from being in the sun all day. I'm still not sure Dave and I could put up with six hours of parade watching, but we'll keep it in mind for next year. A month ago I said I'd watch the parade this year and then join a troupe for next year. Not anymore - I have so much respect for the troupes. They must have so much energy to be in the parade. I think I'll just remain a spectator! We have more pictures from Carnival uploaded here.
Saturday morning we got up early (again) to participate in the Carnival Mile Race - a one mile road race along the majority of the parade route. I had jogged the route earlier in the week with two other people so we could see what it was like, and Dave and I had walked it once too. Silly Kendra though, I did what everyone always says not to do - I sprinted out at the beginning with
all the fast people at a pace I couldn't keep up for the whole distance. So, rather than building my speed during the race, I just got slower and slower... and slower... Lucky for me, I'm in a slow age group where not many women show up! The overall female winner was in my age group actually, with a time of 5:32, but they bump out overall winners from age groups. So, first place went to my coclerk's wife with a time of 8:59, and I easily won the second place trophy with 9:31 (third place was something like 14 or 15 minutes). The men's 19-29 group was quite a bit faster though, including the overall winner who came in at 4:46. (This is a guy from St. John who wins 8 Tuff Miles every year -- running those hills with less than six minute miles!). Dave did fabulous at 6:50 but came in fourth place. Not bad for someone who runs maybe once a month. It was a fun race, though in future races I plan to restrain myself better so I can run a better race and finish without feeling like I'm about to die. There's a two mile race at Magen's Bay on Mother's Day that I may try. After the Carnival Mile, we headed home for a few hours before venturing back to town for the parade.A local law firm invited us law clerks to watch the parade from their second story office overlooking Main Street - a prime spot - and they even supplied food and drinks. (Although one
of the lawyers teased me for losing the race to my coclerk's wife!) It was set to start at 10 a.m. and began around 11 or so. We showed up around 1 p.m. and some troupes were already coming by (about a mile from the start). But even after sitting there for an hour we hadn't seen a whole lot of floats or troupes. Troupes are just groups of people who walk or dance along the parade route in costume. Floupes are troupes with a float. This isn't the type of parade where the organizer makes sure each group moves along and stays within a certain distance of the previous group. Sometimes they come one after another, and sometimes you wait a little while before another group comes by. So we decided to walk down Main Street to see what else was coming. Dave and I aren't really parade people, so it seemed like the best way to see more of the parade without having to just wait for it to come our way.The theme for Carnival this year was Glamour and Glitz - Carnival 2006. Most of the costumes were quite elaborate and sparkly! The troupes' costumes were very impressive. One of the first troupes we saw was the Birds of a Feather troupe. We also saw mocko jumbies (elevated spirits) - I don't know how those people walk on stilts for so long! We had fun taking lots of pictures. More are uploaded on our Shutterfly site. The spectators seemed to all enjoy the parade very much. Some of them would get up and dance with the troupes as they went past. A lot of the troupes and floats have sponsors, so sometimes the people in the parade will throw freebies to the crowd. I caught a keychain whistle and Dave caught a sweat towel - very handy here! [Incidentally, I came across two of my friends from soccer - both had made the national team and then quit because it was too disorganized and un-fun for their tastes. It's too bad because the team probably could have used them - they've been playing the first round of the Gold Cup in the Dominican Republic this week.] After another hour of wandering along the parade route and taking photos, we were worn out from the hot sun so we headed home. We went to Dave's friends Mark and Thea's house for dinner that night and on our way home around 10 p.m. we discovered the parade was just ending! A few days ago someone told me the trick to watching the parade is to watch it on tv at home until around 3 or 4, and then go to town. That way you can still see it all, but you won't get too tired from being in the sun all day. I'm still not sure Dave and I could put up with six hours of parade watching, but we'll keep it in mind for next year. A month ago I said I'd watch the parade this year and then join a troupe for next year. Not anymore - I have so much respect for the troupes. They must have so much energy to be in the parade. I think I'll just remain a spectator! We have more pictures from Carnival uploaded here.
posted by Kendra at 2:55 PM
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