Will Run for Wine drinks up victory

When you have the first and second place finishers from the Bermuda Half Marathon Derby on the same relay team, there’s little doubt who would take overall honours.

But while Rose-Anna Hoey, Ashley Estwanik and Laura Wright crossed the line first, the real winner today was fun.

The trio competed as The Will Run For Wine team, who finished ahead of the Speedy Snails (Krista Dyer, Stepanka Sprincova and Sharlene Sousa).

Hooey said: “This is just a lovely event where women can get together and support each other. It’s such a fun event. Everybody dresses up and has a bit of fun with it. There’s not very many races like that – a lot of time they’re more competitive. It’s just a nice day to enjoy ourselves and enjoy running.”

And while the emphasis was on fun, the runners still put out a good effort.

Estwanik said: “We tried to run hard and do our best – we weren’t jogging, but it wasn’t do or do.”

Hoey said her favourite costume was the lululemons (See She's no runaway bride for separate story).

Estwanik said there were a lot of good costumes “some I wouldn’t want to run in because it’s too hot, but they looked good in them”.

She enjoyed the hulu girl outfits.

Estwanik added the relay aspect of the race where the first person starts out and does a lap, then picks up a teammate and they do a lap before picking up the third runner for the final lap works for You Go Girl.

“I’ve never done a relay like this before and it’s fun to do something different like this.”

Sousa said the relay is great “because you get to run with your girlfriends. It was amazing.”

Dyer said she ‘forgave’ her teammates Sousa and Sprincova making her run all three laps.

“Going around the second time with Steph was really encouraging and it helped me keep my speed up. It was so much fun running with friends, but I’m so tired.”

Sprincova agreed with Dyer “that it was amazing running with my friends. It was really enjoyable. I had fun.”

Stephen Dunkley was the “One Lucky Guy” who got to run in the field with more than 100 women. Several men were nominated to run in the You Go Girl relay and people bid on them to raise money for the Women’s Resource Centre. All the names were put into a hat and his was pulled.

He was adorned in a green t-shirt with “One Lucky Guy” blazoned upon it and started the race after the first women runners had made the first turn.

Dunkley said: “It was a lot of fun. Everybody kept cheering the girls but forgot there was “One Lucky Guy” here.