Jungle Marathon 2007 Eco & Environment Information
Community Overview
At Jungle marathon Ltd one of our top priorities has been to include our host country, Brazil in our plans and success with the race.To this end we have worked closely with the people of Para who have become a fundamental part of the whole project.
Paratur
From inception, we met with Paratur where we were warmly received by Adenauer Goes, President of Paratur and his team in Belem.
They gave us an abundance of assistance and advice and in return we brought an international media team to the region who visited, filmed, wrote, about it and took copious photos and will assist us in showcasing this delightful region as a tourist destination.
Governo Do Mutirao
Emanuel Julio Leite ( who is the tourism co-ordinator and a respected writer in the region) and his team introduced us to many people who assisted us with the project. Their help was invaluable and we will look forward to working them in future years. They also kindly arranged a wonderful welcome for the runners and co-ordinated hosting our media team in conjunction with mayor.
IBAMA
Without Ibama’s permission there would have been no race! They control the forests and handle all permissions for anything that happens under its jurisdiction . In addition to this they generously donated 53cubic metres of wood for the building of our Eco Tourism base camp- a project which would have been prohibitive cost-wise without this. Angelo da Silva, and his team, including Marcelo and Alan paved the way for us and gave us their support right from day one.
Corpo de Bombeiros Militareos
We were thrilled to have the assistance of 17 members of the Santarem Bombeiros ( Fire service) to be responsible for our evacuations during the race. They tirelessly worked at checkpoints and swept the trails, and even gave us their advice on race security when we were preparing the course. Captain Andrade and his team were outstanding.
8th BECNST Military
Colonel Mansur, who is in charge of the 8th BECNST military (engineering division), provided us with the manpower and expertise to run a faultless communications operation throughout the race. We were privileged to have 22 of his men with us throughout the event.
Merchandising
All our merchandising was produced locally.
Varig
All air travel was made using Varig the national carrier. Our special thanks go to Varig UK manager Paolo Rodrigues for his kind assistance and contribution of media seats
Itapuama
The community of Itapuama were our hosts for the base camp and welcomed our runners for the two days prior to the race and looked after our support team, media and medical staff during the event itself. It was also here, on the shores of the Tapajos River some 120km south of Santarem that we built our base camp. This comprise three long huts which each house 50 hammocks, 10 showers, 10 flush lavatories, a kitchen and restaurant, a medical centre and a media centre. Each roof was woven in palm-leaves by the villagers and add an rustic flavour to it . This is our gift to the local people of Itapuama, who will be able to use it as an Eco Tourism project during the months of the year that Jungle marathon are not using it.
During the months proceeding the race, Itapauma was used as a base by us when we were trail cutting and preparing the course. We worked closely with Snr Dico, the president of Itapuama, and he and many of the villagers worked with us as jungle guides, cooks, builders etc coming up to and during the race.
It was a pleasure to work with them all and they entered our hearts during the time we were there. We ensured every villager had a jungle marathon t shirt, including the children and provided employment and revenue for them all, Indeed during the race we invited the women of the village to cook for us ( they cooked for up to 130 people) as their first venture into a catering enterprise which we hope will continue to grow.
Other communities
We provided employment for all the communities passed through by our trail.
Jungle guides, trail cutters, campsite builders, provision of hot water etc. In each community we ensured that every child in every village had a Jungle Marathon t shirt as a souvenir. These villages included Tauri, Paraiso, Pini, Aramanahi, Picatuba.
Kiddies Marathon
Race report:
In a tiny village deep in the Amazon jungle on the 10th of September 2004 another reason for the Jungle Marathon became apparent to the residents of Tauri, especially the children. Having taken over the race Shirley is determined that it will be a hearts and mind project aimed at the various communities the race will obviously have a profound effect on, (as well as having a profound effect on the feet of the athletes taking part, of course).
In her own words, “the children are so cute you will want to take them home with you”. When you looked down and saw two great big brown eyes pointing back up at you from beneath a mop of jet black hair and supported by a cheeky smile, you knew she had it right.
One of the support staff was a British Athletics Coach, Rod Dowling, so it was decided to set up an athletics meeting for the children of Tauri and those of the next village. Having discussed it with the village Proffesora, (teacher), who could not believe her luck, the wheels started turning and she paddled off upriver to that village which was no mean feet because it was quite a distance away. At this point it should be noted that none of this would have gone as smoothly as it did had it not been for the expertise of our translator, a young lad called Wellington, who immediately became affectionately known as Boots.
On the morning of the 10th the children from the next village arrived with their teachers as well as our one. Believe it or not they had started at 0600 and walked to us by 0800. Two hours walking and they had not started the race yet!!! (Can’t quite see the kids over here doing that could you?).
The race was to be an orienteering sprint relay with 12 check points, designed for children, which accommodates for up to eight teams with six members per team. It was decided to hold two races, one Juniors and one Seniors. Needless to say it was hectic. Brown bodies were shooting everywhere with chases developing as, after the first leg, various teams are sent to the same check point.
It was wonderful chaos and everyone had a great time. Despite the mayhem winning teams were established as well as spot prize winners. Winning teams received a policeman type notebook with a ballpoint and a pencil per member, spot prizes were the same and everyone received a ballpoint and pencil. The two schools had two large packets of coloured pencils each and divided up the remainder of the pens and pencils between them. Schools also had a British Athletics book on how to prepare children to become anything from shot putters to distance runners given to them. Hopefully that will be translated and distributed throughout the whole of the Amazon Jungle eventually.
All in all we got through 150 ballpoints, 100 pencils, 4 packs of coloured pencils and 18 notebooks.
Yes you’ve guessed it the next village has a two hour walk!!!
Next year there will be an official kiddies marathon the day prior to the start of the main race.
Eco Tourism Project
Our base camp at Itapuama will be used as an eco tourism project to generate income for the people f the villages in the region.
The project will be headed by the local university led by Anderson Olivera, one of the students who worked closely with us during the race.
It will also give these tourism students an opportunity to develop the project from the ground up and be involved in marketing, web design, promotion, advertising, media and eventually welcoming the groups who will stay at the site. We `are already actively promoting this to schools, universities and other groups throughout the UK and Europe as a possible destination for a jungle visit.
Gifts for the kids
All our athletes and support staff brought gifts to be distributed to the local kids. This includes toys, confectionery, notebooks, pencils and colouring pens.
Childrens charities
We are proud to be associated with Beanfeast Charity for Children. Beanfeast is run on an entirely voluntary basis by a group of Scottish businessmen and all funds raised go straight to charity, none is used in admin fees. Beanfeast will reimburse up to 100% of a runners entry fee providing they raise a certain amount for the charity. This money in turn will be given to local charities in Brazil, predominately Para. At the moment we are looking at a couple of children’s projects in area to receive a sizeable donation from this years race.
Local Runners
We understand that the entry fees for such a race are above the means of many of the local villagers, so to this end we invited runners from Para to take part in the adventure at our expense. We had over 30 runners from local communities, the military and the bombeiros and offered a cash prize for the top three Brazilians.
To our amazement, several of these runners competed barefoot!
