Commando Training Centre RM

Ex Ronde Van Aruba 25

Capt L McGrath RM

For the last four years, the Royal Marines Sports Association and The Royal Marines Charity have sent a team of four to compete in the ‘Round of Aruba’ race, alongside our Korps Mariniers counterparts. Usually we give a pretty good account for ourselves (having won the military category every year…) but this year the stakes were higher, with Dutch Gauntlet 2 looming on the horizon. So we sent not one, but two teams this year, including a joint British and Dutch team to celebrate our successive 360th birthdays.

Pre-race nerves and Gucci phots

In the oggin celebrating our wins

Fast forward to the trip itself between Sgt Michael Gommers, CTC’s Dutch exchange SNCO and I, all predeployment admin was squared and six fighting fit Bootnecks turned up at Heathrow on Sunday 29 June good to go, and boarded the flight for the Caribbean. Upon landing and arriving at the Korps Mariniers’ base on the island, our first thoughts were ‘it’s too hot’. And our second thought was ‘why do the Dutch get a buckshee Caribbean draft and we don’t?!’

Once we got over our drips, an ‘acclimatisation’ package ensued, involving lots of beach running, but of course a decent amount of horizontal recovery time soaking in the vitamin D. Sgt Gommers ran a tight ship, insisting that all MEL timings must be adhered to, including a 10km run about 20 minutes after the flight landed. I was quick to remind him that JSP 375 Ch 41 states that there must be no PT for at least 24 hours after landing.

Five days of taping up and big eats later, we found ourselves at the start line cheering the first teams on and anxiously waiting for our step off time.